during the previous ten or fifteen years), their king, Divi'tiacus, was the most powerful of any in Gaul, and had au'thority over all these districts' (i.e. the districts of the Belga), and also secured the dominion of Britain. Now," he says, Galba is king, to whom, on account of his prudence and fairness, all the rest concede the conduct of war.'* The mention of Britain in this sentence is certainly a very curious and interesting notice. The Belge, as we know from other sources, had large colonies in Britain, and the Celtic clans, although mutually quarrelsome, had, as their descendants have, the element of clannishness largely developed, and they easily submitted to joint action under a common commander. Yet it is strange to find that the ruler of a tribe at Soissons in Gaul, who was also the Imperator, or General-in-chief of the Belgic tribes there, was likewise obeyed on this side of the Channel. It proves a closer and more intimate intercourse between Britain and the Continent than has generally been suspected; and this view is strengthened when a few paragraphs further on we find Divitiacus the Eduan, who is pleading for this clemency, telling Cæsar that the leaders who had incited the Bellovaci to attack the Romans had fled to Britain. We may take it, therefore, that at this period the Belge of Gaul were closely united both politically and ethnically with their relatives north of the Channel. Strabo, in fact, tells us there were four passages commonly used from the Continent to the Island-from the mouths of the Rhine, the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne. This will suffice to show, what is à priori most reasonable, that the intercourse between Gaul and Britain was continuous and along well-known and frequented routes long before the conquest of Northern Gaul by Cæsar.

Cæsar tells us that there having been a dearth of corn in the year 57 B.C., he had sent commissaries among the various towns of the Armoricans to collect grain. The Veneti were the chief tribe of the confederacy. They not only had many ships which were wont to cross over to Britain, but they were also well skilled in navigation; and as they held the few ports which were alone available on this exposed coast, they levied black mail or dues upon all who crossed their seas. They seized the Roman commissaries and imprisoned them, an example which was followed by the other tribes of the confederacy. They speedily formed a close alliance, swore to act together and to share a common fortune, and asked for † Cæsar, ii. 14.

* Cæsar, De Bello Gallico, ii. 4.

This

aid from Britain, which lay over against their country. general gathering together of the northern tribes of Gaul, which threatened to spread into a general conflagration, necessitated sharp measures, and the campaign was one fitted to try the skill of Cæsar; but he won a brilliant victory, and the Armoricans were finally and completely subjugated.

Next spring Cæsar had to turn elsewhere to repel the Germans, who had crossed the Rhine and were laying waste Eastern Gaul. He utterly defeated them and then crossed the river; and having made a demonstration on the other side and strengthened the hands of his friends, he once more returned, because, according to his own statement, the work he had determined upon was complete: but we may suppose that another reason was that he meditated a more showy exploit. As Florus says: Omnibus terra marique captis respexit oceanum; et quasi hic Romanus orbis non sufficeret, 'alterum cogitavit.” *

Let us try to follow his steps. After the defeat of the Germans he recrossed the Rhine at or near Bonn. He then goes on to say, that although only a small part of the summer remained, inasmuch as in the latitudes of Northern 'Gaul the winters were early, nevertheless he had determined 'to go to Britain, inasmuch as he understood that in nearly all 'the Gallic wars the Britons had sent assistance to his enemies; and if the season proved too late for active operations, never'theless it would be very useful to visit the island and learn 'what manner of men lived there, and to explore its ports and approaches, which were for the most part unknown to the Gauls, for no one went thither but traders, nor did even these 'know anything but the maritime district.' † This last sentence seems to contain an exaggeration. A more potent reason doubtless for Cæsar's new campaign than any small assistance the Britons may have given his enemies was the desire to do something heroic-something which should attract the applause and stir the imagination of men. To discover a new world and to plant the Roman eagles there would be to do what Pompey could not do. He might rival the Gallic wars, and his campaign against Mithridates was certainly more romantic than those of Cæsar had been; but to transplant his legions to the famous tin country, and thence to bring home trophies for his triumph, would indeed draw down the applause of the Roman mob and win the respect of the masters of the Great Republic. The invasion of Britain, † Cæsar, iv. 20.

* M. H. B. xlviii.

resembles in the career of Cæsar the design of the expedition to Egypt in the career of Napoleon. Yet if it were true that the Britons were wont to send assistance to their Gallic friends in time of war, it follows, even from Cæsar's own words, that there was a good deal more intercourse between the two sides of the Channel than the visits of occasional traders. Having summoned such traders from all sides, he tells us he could not learn from them what was the size of the island, nor what nor how many tribes inhabited it, nor what was their practice in war, nor what their institutions were, nor which of their ports were most suited to harbour a large fleet. The very fact of his receiving an unsatisfactory answer to such queries shows that the information was withheld not from want of knowledge but from an unwillingness to impart it. The monopoly of these traders was threatened, and Strabo expressly says the Veneti were ready to obstruct his passage into Britain, which they used as a mart.* Besides the mere trader's instinct, they were probably also closely allied in blood and traditions with the Britons; and why should they lend a hand to enslave them as the Gauls had already been enslaved? As he could not learn what he wanted from the traders, he despatched Caius Volusenus with a long ship or war galley to explore, and ordered him to return as soon as possible. Caius Volusenus was a military tribune, and is described by Cæsar as a man of great sagacity and valour.†

Meanwhile he marched with his troops from the Rhine to the country of the Morini, whence the passage to Britain was the 'shortest.' There he ordered ships to assemble from all the neighbouring districts, as well as the fleet which he had prepared the previous year for his war against the Veneti. We are told that, his design having become disclosed to the Britons by the merchants, envoys came to him from many of the insular tribes, promising to give hostages and to recognise the authority of the Roman people. Cæsar received these promises affably, exhorted the envoys to abide by them, and then sent them home again, and with them a certain Commius or Comm, whom he had appointed King of the Atrebates when he had conquered them. Cæsar says that he approved of the courage and prudence of Commius, and that he deemed him to be faithful to himself. He also had great influence among the Britons. He ordered him to visit as many of the tribes as possible, and to persuade them to confide in the Roman people † Cæsar, iii. 5.

Strabo, lib. iv.

‡ Id. iv. 21.

and submit to him, and to tell them that he himself would shortly pay them a visit in person.

Volusenus was sent rather to find a convenient landing-place for the army than to pioneer a route across, and returned after as close an examination as a man could make who had to explore from his ship, and dared not land nor trust himself among the natives. He returned after an absence of five days. He had probably run along the coasts of Sussex and Kent, and was able to report to his master that there was no place between Beachy Head and the South Foreland where an army could venture to land in the face of the enemy; while the only convenient strand where, if unopposed, he could run his flotilla ashore was in the reach where Folkestone now stands or in the narrower inlet at Dover. While Cæsar was living at Boulogne awaiting the equipment of the ships, envoys came to him from the greater part of the Morini, who promised in future to do as Cæsar should command. Their submission was welltimed and very grateful, for, as he says, 'he did not want to leave an enemy in his rear, nor was the season a convenient one for fighting them; nor, again, did he wish that such trifling matters should interfere with his plans regarding 'Britain.'

He had collected and impounded or pressed into his service about eighty trading ships or transports, which number, as Mr. Long suggests, proves that the people in these parts had a considerable trade by sea. These he deemed enough to carry over two legions, which, with the necessary camp followers, &c., probably numbered from 10,000 to 12,000 men,† showing they were vessels of some bulk. Besides these transports, he had a certain number of galleys or war-ships, doubtless to act as a convoy, which he distributed among the quæstor or head of the commissariat, the lieutenants or commanders of the legions, and the præfects, i.e. among his staff and field officers. Mr. Long suggests that they were perhaps used for the auxiliaries, the slingers, &c., who are mentioned later on.

Besides these there were eighteen other transports, containing the cavalry, calculated to carry from 400 to 500 horses. There was no room for luxuries, and no doubt the 'impedimenta' or baggage was cut down to the smallest possible amount, so as to accommodate the greater number of soldiers; and we find Athenæus reporting, on the authority of Cotta,

* Napoleon's Cæsar,' ii. 189, note.
+ Cæsar, iv. 22.

Appach, op. cit. 53.

one of Cæsar's companions, that the Imperator himself only took three servants with him.*

Few matters have given rise to so much learned and ingenious controversy as the route followed by Cæsar in his expeditions against Britain. Nor do there seem to be materials for an absolute conclusion. Cæsar tells us the rendezvous he chose for his troops and ships was in the land of the Morini, for thence was the shortest passage to Britain.† The Morini, as is well known, occupied the modern department of the Pas de Calais, which includes the great promontory known as Cape Grisnez, and which is the nearest part of Gaul to Britain. The land of the Morini extended northward probably as far as the village of Mark, which, no doubt, means a march or frontier, and which bounded the later Saxon settlements in Neustria on the north, and probably represented in earlier times the limits of the Morini and the Menapii. On the south it probably extended to the Cauche or the Authie, which separated it from the Ambiani.

We must look for Cæsar's port of embarkation, therefore, somewhere between these limits. In the account of his second journey he tells us the place whence he sailed was called the Portus Itius,' and those who are captivated by superficial etymologies have argued that this name survives in Wissant ; ‡ but to this view there are two fatal objections. Wissant is a corruption of White Sand, and is a Teutonic name not earlier probably than the Saxon settlement here. Wissant, again, cannot be described as a port; it is a mere open beach. Nor is there any port eight miles north of Wissant answering to Cæsar's northern port. Sangatte, which has been suggested, is not eight but six Roman miles distant, while Calais is eleven. We may, therefore, put it aside altogether. Now, further south than this, and at the head of the old harbour of Boulogne, we have a name surviving which, as has been pointed out, has every claim to be a form of Itius, and this is Isques,' which, like Itius, is doubtless a corruption of the Celtic uisk, water.' The survival of the name at this spot

*Ath. Deip. vi. 21; M. H. B. xciv.

+Cæsar, op. cit. iv. 21.

Mr. Bunbury in his elaborate and exhaustive History of Ancient 'Geography,' a work which does honour to the scholarship of our age and country, states his reasons for giving the preference to Wissantmainly because it is the nearest point to Dover, and only three miles from Cape Grisnez; but this does not rebut the facts that Wissant is not a port at all, and that it could not have sheltered Cæsar's expedition.