without calling in question the testimony of a witness deemed unimpeachable. I allude to the celebrated passage of St. Jerom, in which that learned and venerable writer compares the Belgic speech of the Treviri to that of the Galatæ in Asia Minor. The weight of this testimony, or its application to my present purpose, depends upon the premises that the Treviri were a Belgic tribe and spoke the Belgic language, and that the Galata of Asia Minor, who were principally Volca Tectosages, were Celta, and spoke the Celtic dialect. On these points, as on everything connected with Celtic antiquities, controversies have been raised during late years. All these objections I have endeavoured to anticipate, and I think sufficient proof has been already adduced to establish both positions. If this be conceded, we shall have the direct testimony of St. Jerom for the fact that the Celta and Belgæ had nearly the same language. St. Jerom had lived at Trèves, among the Treviri, and he heard the Galatians speak their language with some slight variation of dialect. St. Jerom, as it is well known, had made languages his particular study. He was the greatest linguist of the early Christian Church. He says, "Unum est quod inferimus-Galatas excepto sermone Græco, quo omnis Oriens loquitur, propriam linguam eandem pænè habere quam Treviros: nec referre si qua exinde corruperint, cum et Afri Phoenicam linguam non nullâ ex parte mutaverint et ipsa Latinitas et regionibus quotidie mutetur et tempore.' These evidences from ancient authors would be sufficient to render the conclusion extremely probable that the Belgic and Celtic tribes spoke nearly approaching dialects, and idioms so closely resembling each other that either would be understood by persons who had only learnt the other. But there is room for a further investigation of this question. I have already observed that Baron William von Humboldt, in his learned investigation of Spanish antiquity, has succeeded in establishing the general conclusion that the Euscarian or Biscayan language was common to all the tribes of the Iberian race, although these, as it may be opportune here to remark, Hieronym. Præf. lib. 2. Comment. Epist. ad Galatas, tom. 1. p. 255. Edit. Paris, 1706. M. Raoul, ubi supra. are said by ancient writers, particularly by Strabo, to have differed from each other in dialect. This inference was deduced from the evidence afforded by topographical names. A similar proof may be applied, even with greater force, to the Celtic question. A remarkably uniform and easily detected character pervades the names of places in undoubtedly Celtic countries. The frequent and almost perpetual recurrence of certain elements of compound names, and even in many instances of the names themselves, is sufficiently striking to arrest the attention even of a careless reader, or of one who cursorily surveys the maps of Celtic countries. Some of these phenomena, though by no means the whole, were long ago pointed out by Schoepflin, the historian of Alsace, and they have been referred to in the preceding chapter on the Euskaldunes. I shall now take occasion to make a more distinct enumeration of Celtic names, and shall endeavour to ascertain how far they are common to both of the great nations of this race on the continent, and to the two departments into which the population of Britain has been divided. I shall consider those names of places as belonging to the language of the Belge which are of frequent occurrence in Belgic Gaul, and in the parts of Britain inhabited by the Belgian tribes. The names occurring in the Celtic parts of Gaul are to be considered as derived from the Celtic language properly so termed; and in the same class I shall venture to include similar names when such are found in the Gallic conquests or colonies, whether in Spain, Italy, Noricum, Pannonia, or in parts of Germany which are known to have been occupied by Gallic colonies. The inland parts of Britain beyond the Belgian or maritime tribes may be reckoned as a separate department, and its toponomy may assist in determining what opinion we are to form as to the supposed Celtic origin of its population. Among the most frequent components of local names in Gaul and Britain, as well as in other countries inhabited by colonies of Gauls, are the four following: DUNUM OF DINUM; DURUM OF DURO; MAGUS; ACUM, ACUS, or IACUM. The following examples will serve to show the frequency of these terms in countries known to have been inhabited by Celtic Gauls. VOL. III. I 1. Names of places in Celtic Gaul terminating in dunum or 2. Names of places in Celtic Gaul containing durum or duro. 3. Names of places ending in magus in Celtic Gaul. I have taken these lists of names principally from Ptolemy. Some are inserted from the Itinerary of Antoninus. The names of tribes to which the places belong are chiefly copied from Ptolemy, and the modern names from the editions of that writer. These last may in some particular instances be erroneous, but on the whole they are probably as correct as they can be expected to be. † Antonin. Itin. Cl. Ptolem. Geogr. c. 55. 4. Names of places ending in acum in Celtic Gaul. IN THE CELTIC COLONIES. 1. The names of places ending in dunum. In Noricum and Pannonia and along the Danube : Gabanodurum. ..... southward of the Danube. Bibrach. 3. Names of places in magus in the Celtic colonies. Scingomagus ........ near Mount Vesulus. Cameliomagus ...... near Placentia. 4. Names of places in acum in Celtic colonies. Teutobodiaci, a Galatian tribe in Cappadocia. (See Diefenbach, Geschichte der In Germany: The preceding examples, to which many others might be added,* are sufficient to prove the frequent occurrence of the above-mentioned elements of local names in the Celtic countries. I now proceed to show that they are equally prevalent in the districts occupied by Belgic tribes. * Besides the above, many places in the same region, viz. in the countries to the southward of the Danube, in Vindelicia, Noricum, and Pannonia, and a few on the northern bank of that river and in Bohemia, have manifestly Celtic names. following will serve as a specimen : Badorigum.. Marobudum.... Cantiabis. --- ..Breslau. Prague. ...Amberg. The Setuacatum. Medoslanium. Anduetium. |