The history of Rome. Book V

15. IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome.

16. IV. V. Defeat of Longinus.

17. IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome.

18. This remarkable word must have been in use as early as the sixth century of Rome among the Celts in the valley of the Po; for Ennius is already acquainted with it, and it can only have reached the Italians at so early a period from that quarter. It is not merely Celtic, however, but also German, the root of our 'Amt', as indeed the retainer-system itself is common to the Celts and the Germans. It would be of great historical importance to ascertain whether the word - and so also the thing - came to the Celts from the Germans, or to the Germans from the Celts. If, as is usually supposed, the word is originally German and primarily signified the servant standing in battle 'against the bac', (and = against, bak = back) of his master, this is not wholly irreconcileable with the singularly early occurrence of this word among the Celts. According to all analogy the right to keep ambacti, that is, doouloi misthotoi, cannot have belonged to the Celtic nobility from the outset, but must only have developed itself gradually in antagonism to the older monarchy and to the equality of the free commons. If thus the system of ambacti among the Celts was not an ancient and national, but a comparatively recent institution, it is - looking to the relation which had subsisted for centuries between the Celts and Germans, and which is to be explained farther on - not merely possible but even probable that the Celts, in Italy as in Gaul, employed Germans chiefly as those hired servants- at-arms. The 'Swiss guard', would therefore in that case be some thousands of years older than people suppose. Should the term by which the Romans, perhaps after the example of the Celts, designate the Germans as a nation-the name Germani - be really of Celtic origin, this obviously accords very well with that hypothesis. - No doubt these assumptions must necessarily give way, should the word ambactus be explained in a satisfactory way from a Celtic root; as in fact Zeuss (Gramm. p. 796), though doubtfully, traces it to ambi = around and aig = agere, viz. one moving round or moved round, and so attendants, servants. The circumstance that the word occurs also as a Celtic proper name (Zeuss, p. 77), and is perhaps preserved in the Cambrian amaeth = peasant, labourer (Zeuss, p. 156), cannot decide the point either way,

19. From the Celtic words guerg = worker and breth = judgment.

20. IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome.

21. The position which such a federal general occupied with reference to his troops, is shown by the accusation of high treason raised against Vercingetorix (Caesar, B. G. vii. 20).

22. IV. V. The Cimbri.

23. II. IV. The Celts Assail the Etruscans in Northern Italy.

24. V. VII. Art and Science.

25. Caesar's Suebi thus were probably the Chatti; but that designation certainly belonged in Caesar's time, and even much later, also to every other German stock which could be described as a regularly wandering one. Accordingly if, as is not to be doubted, the 'king of the Sueb', in Mela (iii. i) and Pliny (H. N. ii. 67, 170) was Ariovistus, it by no means therefore follows that Ariovistus was a Chattan. The Marcomani cannot be demonstrated as a distinct people before Marbod; it is very possible that the word up to that point indicates nothing but what it etymologically signifies - the land, or frontier, guard. When Caesar (i, 51) mentions Marcomani among the peoples fighting in the army of Ariovistus, he may in this instance have misunderstood a merely appellative designation, just as he has decidedly done in the case of the Suebi.

26. IV. V. The Tribes at the Sources of the Rhine and Along the Danube.

27. IV. V. The Tribes at the Sources of the Rhine and Along the Danube.

28. IV. V. Teutones in the Province of Gaul.

29. The arrival of Ariovistus in Gaul has been placed, according to Caesar, i. 36, in 683, and the battle of Admagetobriga (for such was the name of the place now usually, in accordance with a false inscription, called Magetobriga), according to Caesar i. 35 and Cicero Ad. Att. i. 19, in 693.

30. V. VII. Wars and Revolts There.

31. That we may not deem this course of things incredible, or even impute to it deeper motives than ignorance and laziness in statesmen, we shall do well to realize the frivolous tone in which a distinguished senator like Cicero expresses himself in his correspondence respecting these important Transalpine affairs.

32. IV. V. Inroad of the Helvetii into Southern Gaul.

33. According to the uncorrected calendar. According to the current rectification, which however here by no means rests on sufficiently trustworthy data, this day corresponds to the 16th of April of the Julian calendar.