Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/194

 GALLU CI& which oocnn in the eighth book of the Gallic War (▼iii. 24, 53), and in later writers, was given at some time after the coontiy was settled bj the Bomans, and it indicated the nnmerical superiority of the Togati or Romans over the Gallic popolation. The inhabitants north of the Po were sometimes called Transpadani (Gic. ad Fam* zvi. 12), a term which implies Cispadani, or the inhabitants south of the Po; bnt there does not appear to be any Latin authoritj for the word CispadanL Among the various names by which the Greek writers designate this country, some are simply de- scriptive of its geographical position, and others represent the Roman names. Plutarch (^Cae$, c. 20) calls it h x^pl ndioy raar/a; but there is no Latin authority forthe name Gircumpadana. Walcke- naer conjectures that the names Gallia Gircum- padana, Transpadana, and Gispadana are <dder than the term Gallia Cisalpina; and if he oould prove that all these terms were used, we might accept his hy- pothesis. Livy (zxL 35) calls the pUins about the Po ** Gireumpadanos campos." Polybius names this country both KcAruc^ and TaXaria (iii. 77, 87); bnt though he applies the Latin word Transalpini to the Galli north of the Alps, and explains it (iii. 15) as a term in use in his time, he does not use the word Gisalpini, or any equivalent Greek wocd. He compiehends this Gel- tioe or Galatia in the geographical term Italia, and describes it as a part of the Italian peninsula. We may conclude that the term Gallia Gisalpina was not used by the Romans befiare they were acquainted with Gallia Tnmsalpina; and that the oldest name of North Italy among the Romans was simpl]^ Gallia. The fiict that the Romans gave the name of Gallia to the chief part of the basin of the Po, and the name of Galli to the people, would be some evidence of the identity of the Galli north and south of the Alps. We have no historical evidence of the emi- gration of the GaUi into Italy before the time that Livy mentions; but there was a tradition, partially preserved, that this was not the first time that the nation appeared south of the Alps. Gomelius Boc- chus proved that the Umbri were of the stock of the Galli Veteres. (Solinus, Polyhist, c. 8.) Servius (ad Virg. Am. zii. 753), nsing neariy the same words as Solinus, refers to Muxus Aiitoninus as his authority, by which name is meant 11. Anto- nius Gnipho. It appears, then, that some of the Boman men of letters believed that the ancient nation of the Umbri were Galli Veteres; but we know nothing of the fibcts which led to this conclusion. Nor do we know who the Galli Veteres were; but we may suppose that these writers meant a nation of Galli who were in Italy before the Galli who crossed the Alps at a Uter period. There are no means of approximating to a solution of this ques- tion, except by a comparison of the old Italian lan- guages with the existing Gumri (Welsh), or with the Gaelic, and by an examination of the names of the mountains, rivers, and other natural features of the Italian peninsula, which we may assume to be the oldest historical records that exist of the inha^ bitants of Italy. There is no ancient language of Italy, except the Latin, of which we have any com- petent knowledge; and there is no ancient language now known, wiUi which we can compare the Latin and the names in the Italian peninsula, except the Basque, the Gumri, and the Gaelic dialects. This comparison has been made, to some extent, for the Cumri, by Archdeaooo Williams, who is well ac- GALLU CIS. 935 quaintod with the Welsh language. (Gn one source of the non-Uellenic portion of the Latin language, by the Rev. Ardideacon Williams, Transact of the Boyal Society of Edinburgh^ vol. xiii.) In this essay tiie author limits himself, as he states, *'to the subject of the original population of Central Italy," of which he affirais, " that it was of the Cum- rian or Cimbrian race, cognate with the Gumri of our island, and that their language formed some portion of the non-Hellenic elements q£ the Latin tongue." The question is one that requires great nicety in dealing with, for resembhmces of words are veiy deceptive; but it is a fedr conclusion that we cannot absolutely reject as a probable hypothesis, the eztstenoe of a people in the peninsula long before all historical periods commence, whose hmguage was nearly rdated to some one or aU of the languages which come under the general denomination of Gel- tic The great mountain-range which forms the back-bone of the peninsula has a pure Celtic name, A-penninus; for whether the A is a euphonic pre6x, or whether we prefer the form Ap-penninus, and' consider the Ap to be significant, we bare in either case the root Pen, ^ a summit," which appears in the Alpes Penninae, and in nxunerous mountain names in Gbreat Britain. The names of rivers in the basin of the Po, and as &r as the limits of Cen- tral Italy at least, the Duria, Stura, Tura, Turia, Athesis, Bedesis, Medoacus, Aesis, Tinia, Ausar, and many othors, are either precisely the same with the namea of many rivers in France and Great Britain, or may be reduced to the same forms by a perfectly fair process. (See Mr. Williams's Essay.) The Romans, after they had got a footing in Transalpine Gallia, often recognised the Aedui, a people once the chief of aU Gallia, as their " brethren and kinsmen" (Caes. B. G, i. 43); and this has been used as evidence that the Romans thought the relationship to be proved, or they would not have given such a title to barbarians, and those who were their greatest enemies. If the relationship did exist, we must of course go a long way back for its origin, to the ante-historical times when a Roman natien rose out of a mixture of races, one of which was Celtic. But this fraternising with the Aedui seems as easy to be explained, as the. kinship of the Romans and the Segestani of Sicily through their common ancestor Aeneas. (Gic. Verr, iL 4. c. 33.) It may be observed, that if we admit the probability o( Celtic nations (Galli Veteres) having existed in Italy before the great invasion which Livy mentions (v. 34), this probability is not diminished by the fact oi the Galli Veteres not having maintained themselves as a nation; unless they be the Umbri, as to whidi we shall never make all the learned agree. For the Galli have not been able to fix themselves per- manently anywhere out of their native limits ; and their second settlement in Italy, recorded by Polybius and Livy (admitting the fact of a prior settiement) was ultimately unsuccessful. The proof of some Celtic nation having been in the peninsula kmg before all historical times, rests on the incorruptible evidence of the geogrB]diical names of the peninsula. The autiiorities which Livy followed state that the great immigration of the Galti into Italy took phice in the reign S the Roman king Tarquinius Prisons, at which time the Bituriges in the basin of the Loire were the dominant people in Transalpine Gallia. The causes of the emigration were excessive population (Liv. V. 34), or, as Trogus, Justin's authority, says, civil commotions. The cause is not vei^ material, 3o4