CHAP. 31. (17.)—GALLIA BELGICA.
The whole of Gaul that is comprehended under the one
general name of Comata[1], is divided into three races of
people, which are more especially kept distinct from each
other by the following rivers. From the Scaldis to the Sequana[2] it is
Belgic Gaul; from the Sequana to the Garumna[3]
it is Celtic Gaul or Lugdunensis[4]; and from the Garumna
to the promontory of the Pyrenæan range it is Aquitanian
Gaul, formerly called Aremorica[5]. Agrippa makes the entire
length of the coast of Gaul to be 1800 miles, measured from the Rhine
to the Pyrenees: and its length,
from the ocean to the mountains of Gebenna and Jura,
excluding there from Gallia Narbonensis, he computes at
420 miles, the breadth being 318.
Beginning at the Scaldis, the parts beyond[6] are inhabited
by the Toxandri, who are divided into various peoples with
many names; after whom come the Menapii[7], the Morini[8],
the Oromarsaci[9], who are adjacent to the burgh which is
known as Gesoriacum[10], the Britanni[11], the
Ambiani[12], the Bel-
lovaci[13], the Hassi[14], and, more in the interior, the
Catoslugi[15],
the Atrebates[16], the Nervii[17], a free people, the
Veromandui[18],
the Suæuconi[19], the Suessiones[20], a free people, the
Ulmanetes[21],
a free people, the Tungri[22], the Sunuci[23], the
Frisiabones[24],
the Betasi[25], the Leuci[26], a free people, the
Treveri[27], who were
formerly free, and the Lingones[28], a federal state, the federal
Remi[29], the Mediomatrici[30], the Sequani[31], the Raurici[32], and
the Helvetii[33]. The Roman colonies are Equestris[34] and
Rauriaca[35]. The nations of Germany which dwell in this
province, near the sources of the Rhine, are the Nemetes[36],
the Triboci[37], and the Vangiones[38]; nearer again[39], the Ubii[40],
the Colony[41] of Agrippina, the Cugerni[42], the Batavi[43], and
the peoples whom we have already mentioned as dwelling
on the islands of the Rhine.
1. Transalpine Gaul, with the exception of that part of it called
Narbonensis, was called Gallia Comata, from the custom of the people
allowing their hair to grow to a great length.
2. From the Scheldt to the Seine.
3. From the Seine to the Garonne.
4. Lyonese Gaul, from Lugdunum, the ancient name of the city of Lyons.
5. Said by Camden to be derived from the Celtic words Ar - mor, "by
the Sea."
6. The provinces of Antwerp and North Brabant.
7. Inhabiting Western Flanders.
8. So called, it is supposed, from the Celtic word Mor, which means
"the sea." Térouane and Boulogne are supposed to occupy the site of
their towns, situate in the modern Pas de Calais.
9. D'Anville places them between Calais and Gravellines, in the Pas de
Calais, and on the spot now known as the Terre de Marck or Merk.
10. Boulogne, previously mentioned.
11. Cluver thinks that "Brianni" would be the correct reading here; but
D'Anville places the Britanni on the southern bank of the stream called
La Canche in the Pas de Calais.
12. According to Parisot and Ansart they occupied the department of
the Somme, with places on the site of Amiens (derived from their name)
and Abbeville for their chief towns.
13. They dwelt in the modern department of the Oise, with Beauvais
(which still retains their name) for their chief town.
14. D'Anville is of opinion that the place called Haiz or Hez in the
diocese of Beauvais, received its name from this people, of whom nothing
else is known. The name is omitted in several of the editions.
15. D'Anville is of opinion that their chief town was situate at the
modern Chaours, at the passage of the river Serre, not far from Vervins
in the department of the Aisne.
16. According to Ptolemy their chief town would be on the site of the
modern Orchies in the department du Nord, but Cæsar makes it to be
Nemetacum, the modern Arras, the capital of the department of the
Pas de Calais.
17. According to Ansart their chief town was Bavai, in the department
du Nord. They are called "Liberi," or free, because they were left at
liberty to enjoy their own laws and institutions.
18. Their capital was Augusta Veromanduorum, and it has been
suggested that the place called Vermand, in the department de
l'Aisne, denotes its site; but according to Bellay and D'Anville the
city of St.
Quentin, which was formerly called Aouste, marks the spot.
19. Nothing whatever is known of them, and it is suggested by the
commentators that this is a corrupted form of the name of the
Suessiones, which follows.
20. They gave name to Soissons in the southern part of the department
de l'Aisne.
21. It has been suggested that these are the same as the Silvanectes,
the inhabitants of Senlis in the department de l'Oise.
22. The people of Tongres, in the provinces of Namur, Liège, and
Limbourg.
23. They are supposed to have dwelt in the eastern part of the province
of Limbourg.
24. They probably dwelt between the Sunuci and the Betasi.
25. They are supposed to have dwelt in the western part of the province
of Limbourg, on the confines of that province and South Brabant, in the
vicinity probably of the place which still bears the name of Beetz, upon
the river Gette, between Leau and Haclen, seven miles to the east of
Louvain.
26. According to Ptolemy the Leuci dwelt on the sites of Toul in the
department of the Meurthe, and of Nais or Nays in that of the Meuse.
27. From them Trèves or Trier, in the Grand Duchy of the Lower
Rhine, takes its name.
28. Their chief town was on the site of Langres, in the department of the Haute Marne.
29. gave name to the city of Rheims in the department of the Marne.
30. Their chief town stood on the site of the modern Metz, in the department of the Moselle.
31. Besançon stands on the site of their chief town, in the department of the Doubs, extending as far as Bale.
32. The inhabitants of the district called the Haut Rhin or Higher Rhine.
33. The inhabitants of the west of Switzerland.
34. Or the "Equestrian Colony," probably founded by the Roman Equites. It is not known where this colony was situate, but it is suggested by Cluver and Monetus that it may have been on the lake of Geneva, in the vicinity of the modern town of Nyon.
35. Littré, in a note, remarks that Rauriaca is a barbarism, and that the reading properly is "Raurica."
36. Spire was their chief city, in the province of the Rhine.
37. They are supposed to have occupied Strasbourg, and the greater part of the department of the Lower Rhine.
38. They dwelt in the modern Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt; Worms was their chief city.
39. That is, nearer the mouths of the Rhine.
40. They originally dwelt on the right bank of the Rhine, but were transported across the river by Agrippa in B.C. 37, at their own request, from a wish to escape the attacks of the Suevi.
41. Now known as the city of Cologne. It took its name from Agrippina, the wife of Claudius and the mother of Nero, who was born there, and who, as Tacitus says, to show off her power to the allied nations, planted a colony of veteran soldiers in her native city, and gave to it her own name.
42. Their district was in the modern circle of Clèves, in the province of Juliers-Berg-Clèves.
43. Dwelling in the Insula Batavorum, mentioned in C. 29 of the present Book.