Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/223

 964 GALLIA TRANS. aod at firet he found it strange, but habit made him indifferent to it Posidonos was a Stoic. There is hardly a vice of which Uie GalH are not accused by the Greeks and Romans; drunkenness, cruelty, and abominable lust. We may easily guess what the Galli would have said of Caesar and his men, if they had written the history of the conquest. The Italian and Massaliot mercliants encouraged the Gallic propensity to drink, just as the white, trader now demoralises the Indians of North America. (Died. V. 26.) The Bel^ae had less intercourse with these greedy adventurers (jS. G. i. 1), and they were less corrupted than the Celtae. The Galli made beer and mead ; but they liked wine better, and would drink till they were mad. A Gall would give a boy for a good jar of wine. The political condition of the Celtae and of all the Gallic nations was miserable. The country was divided into numerous independent states, the most powerful of which were always contending for the supremacy. The weaker states served one or the othei' of the more powerful states, and paid them tribute. The political system was a tynmny of the rich over the poor ; and the religion was a horrible SDperstition. Two classes of men had the power and the wealth : the noble, as we may call liim, and the priest. The poorer sort went for nothing. (£. G. vi. 13.) The Celtae had slaves, and many of the poOT chose the state of servitude to some noble, instead of freedom, when they became over- loaded with debt, or unable to pay their taxes, or when they were wronged by some powerful neighbour. In servitude the poor Celt would have at least a master to feed him and protect him against ether tyrants. These nobles were " equitcs,*'— mounted men, — and each maintained as many dependents as he could, and horses for them. They were always fighting and quarrelling ; almost every year till Caesar's arrival. Caesar does not explain how the poorer sort got into debt ; nor how the land was divided. The rich had doubtless large tracts. There is no evidence that the poor had any land in full ownership. They were probably in the condition of tenants who paid their rent in kind, or partly in money and partly in kind ; and their debts might either arise from arrears of rent, or from borrowing to supply their wants. There is no difficulty in seeing where they might borrow: the towns would contain the traders, and the market would be in the towns. Arms, agricultural implements, and clothing must be bought with com, cattle, and hogs. The poor cultivator, whether a kind of proprietor or a tenant, would soon find himself in bad plight between his lord, the shopkeeper, and the " mercator," who tra- velled the countiy with his cart loaded with the tempting liquor that he could not resist. (Diod. v. 26.) The enormous waste of life in the Gallic domestic quarrels, their foreign expeditions, and in their wars with the Romans, was easily supplied. A poor agricultural nation, with such robust women as the GalU had (Diod. v. 32), is exactly the people to produce soldiera. Among such a people more male children are bom than the land requires ; and those who are not wanted for the plough, the spade, or to watch the cattle, are only fit to handle the sword. A braver set of men never faced the enemy than the Galli with whom Caesar fought. Most of them were the children of poverty, brought up to suffer and to die. We often read, atearlier periods, of their losing, through intemperance, the fmits of a hard-fought battle ; but nothing of this kind appears in the Gallic waiv. GALLIA TRAHS. The nobles were immensely rich, while the nasi of the people was poor. Of their great wealth then is conclusive evidence. Caenr (jB.(7. L 18} infbnns us that Dunmorix, an Aedoan, had nuuie a grcat fortune by fiurming the tolls and other taxes, aod that he was able to maintsin a large bodj of horse: The rich Galli were polygamists, uid they had the power of life and death over wife and chUdrea. Caesar does not expressly limit this power to the rich; but we may be sure that it was a power which no poor man ever exercised. He mentioiis a kind of marriage settlement among the rich, — for to them only it can apply, — which shows that the oooditka of women of that class was not so bad. If the hus- band recnved a portion with his wife, he added to it as much from his own fortune. The produce of the joint stock was accumulated, and the whole stock, with its accumulatknis, belonged to the Borrivar. {B. G. vi. 19.) This is like an English estate by entireties, as it is called. It was a good eoattivaDoe for keeping up the wealth of a ftroily and pranding for the wife, if she survived. Caesar aajs nothing of the law of succession among the GallL It seems that in Caesar's time things were changed. Gallia had gone though many revolutions. He girei some instances of the superstition of the Galli, aad of the barbarous practices of their reUgim {B. G, vi. 15); and he mentions the Druids and the nMen as the ruling classes. But we see little of priestly rule : it had evidently declined before the power ef the nobles, and the growth of the nnmeroaa towns which Gallia then contained ; and probablj the in- fluence of the Greeks was felt over a large pait «f the country. Caesar (B. G, vi. 13) was told that the Druidical system was the growth of Britain, aad imported into Gallia. He merely tells us what hs heard; but he states that in his time those who wished to master thoroughly this mysterioos leaniii^ generally went to school in Britain. It b moeh more likely that some revolution in Gallia drone Druids into Britain, and we must suppose that they carried their most learned doctors with them. TIm Galli were, as the Roman says. " a natioo greatly given to superstitims," a circumstance in whid^ thcv conqueror and his officers did not resemble tbem at all. The Gallic Druids had a pontiff: and when one died, the next in merit (dignitas) succeeded; bat if several were equal, a successor was choeen by the votes of the Druids, or, as it somettmes happened, the title to the office was decided by anna, llaay young men flocked to the Druids to lesm what they had to teach ; and the priests, we may sappose, were taken from these pupils. It would be an abject of ambition to get into this sacred class; for the Drai^ were highly respected. They were priests, and jodges in almost all disputes, public and private. LQte the old Roman patricians, they had both religion and law in their hands. The priest did not fight; and he paid no taxes. This explains why parents were so eager to get their sons into this privileged onkr. (B. G, vi. 14.) It was a provision for thorn. The pupils learned by heart a vast number of venes, though the Dmids were well able to write, and nsed the Greek character for writing their language, both in public and private affiurs. Here we have clear evidence that before the Christian aera the Celtic was a written language, a ciroumstance that would fix it; and the practice of committing to memoty this long string of verses would hove the same eflect. Caesar supposes that the verses were not oommitted to writing, partly to prevent the learning from bdng