... late jam tum ditione premebat
Sarrastes populos, et quæ rigat æquora Sarnus;
Quique Rufas, Batulumque tenent, atque arva Celennæ;
Et quos maliferæ despectant mœnia Abellæ:
_Teutonico_ ritu soliti torquere _cateias_.
Tegmina queis capitum raptus de subere cortex,
Æratæque micant peltæ, micat æreus ensis.--_Æn._ vii. 737-743.
Now this word _cateia_ may be a provincialism from the neighbourhood of
Sarraste. It may also (amongst other things) be a true Teutonic word.
From what follows it will appear that this latter view is at least as
likely as any other. The commentators state that it is _vox Celtica_.
That this is true may be seen from the following forms--Irish: _ga_,
_spear_, _javelin_; _gaoth_, _ditto_, _a dart_; _goth_, _a spear_
(O'Reilly); _gaothadh_, _a javelin_; _gadh_, _spear_; _gai_, _ditto_;
_crann gaidh_, _spear-shaft_ (Begly)--Cornish: _geu_, _gew_, _gu_,
_gui_ = _lance_, _spear_, _javelin_, _shaft_ (Pryce)--Breton: _goas_,
_goaff_ (Rostremer).
_The Cimbri_--_The Teutones._--Of either the Cimbri separately or of
the Cimbri and Teutones collectively, being of Gallic origin, we have,
in the way of direct evidence, the testimonies exhibited above, viz.
of Sallust, Cicero, Cæsar, Diodorus. To this may be added that of Dion
Cassius, who not only had access to the contemporary accounts which
spoke of them as Gauls, but also was enabled to use them critically,
being possessed of information concerning Germany as well as France.
Of Appian the whole evidence goes one way, viz. that the tribes
in question were Gauls. His expressions are: πλεῖστον τι καὶ
μαχιμώτατον--χρῆμα Κελτῶν εἰς τὴν Ἰταλίαν καὶ τὴν Γαλατίαν εἰσέβαλε.
(iv. 2.) In his book on Illyria he states that the Celts and Cimbri,
along with the Illyrian tribe of the Autariæ, had, previous to the
battle against Marius, attacked Delphi and suffered for their impiety.
(Ἰλλυρ. δ. 4.)
Quintilian may be considered to give us upon the subject the notions
of two writers--Virgil, and either Cæsar or Crassus. In dealing,
however, with the words of Quintilian, it will be seen that there are
two assumptions. That either Cæsar or Crassus considered the Cimbri
to be Gauls we infer from the following passage:--"Rarum est autem,
ut oculis subjicere contingat (_sc._ vituperationem), ut fecit C.
Julius, qui cum Helvio Manciæ sæpius obstrepenti sibi diceret, _jam
ostendam, qualis sis_: isque plane instaret interrogatione, qualem se
tandem ostensurus esset, digito demonstravit imaginem Galli in scuto
Mariano Cimbrico pictam, cui Mancia tum simillimus est visus. Tabernæ
autem erant circum Forum, ac scutum illud signi gratiâ positum." _Inst.
Orat._ vi. 3. 38. Pliny tells the story of Crassus (39. 4.). Although
in this passage the word upon which the argument turns has been written
_galli_, and translated _cock_, the current interpretation is the one
given above.--_Vid. not._ ed. Gesner.
In the same author is preserved the epigram of Virgil's called
Catalecta, and commented on by Ausonius of Bordeaux. Here we learn
that T. Annius _Cimber_ was a Gaul; whilst it is assumed that there was
no other reason to believe that he was called _Cimber_ than that of
his being descended from some slave or freedman of that nation:--"Non
appareat affectatio, in quam mirifice Virgilius,
Corinthiorum amator iste verborum,
Ille iste rhetor: namque quatenus totus
Thucydides Britannus, Atticæ febres,
_Tau_-Gallicum, _min-_, _al-_ spinæ male illisit.
Ita omnia ista verba miscuit fratri.
Cimber hic fuit a quo fratrem necatum hoc Ciceronis dictum notatum est;
_Germanum Cimber occidit_."--_Inst. Orat._ viii. 3. _cum not_.
Dic, quid significent Catalecta Maronis? in his _al-_
Celtarum posuit, sequitur non lucidius _tau-_,
Et quod germano mistum male letiferum _min-_.--_Auson._
Undoubtedly the pronunciation here ridiculed is that of the Gauls,
and it is just possible that in it is foreshadowed the curtailed
form that the Latin tongue in general puts on in the present French.
Again, the slave whose courage failed him when ordered to slay Caius
Marius is called both a Gaul and a Cimbrian by Plutarch, as well as by
Lucan. In the latter writer we have probably but a piece of rhetoric
(_Pharsalia._ lib. ii.)
Amongst tribes undoubtedly Gallic the Nervii claimed descent from
the Teutones and Cimbri. The passage of Tacitus that connects the
Nervii with the _Germans_ connects them also with the Treveri. Now
a well-known passage in St. Jerome tells us that the Treveri were
Gauls:--Νέρβιοι ἠσαν δὲ Κίμβρων καὶ Τευτόνων ἀπόγονοι.--_Appian_, iv.
1. 4. "Treveri et Nervii circa adfectationem Germanicæ originis ultrò
ambitiosi sunt, tamquam, per hanc gloriam sanguinis, a similitudine et
inertiâ Gallorum separentur." _German._ 28. Finally, in the Life of
Marius by Plutarch we have dialogues between the Cimbri and the Romans.
Now a Gallic interpreter was probable, but not so a German one.
Such are the notices bearing upon the ethnography of the Cimbri.
Others occur, especially amongst the poets; of these little or no use
can be made, for a reason indicated above. Justin speaks of embassies
between Mithridates and the Cimbri. Suetonius connects the Cimbri with
the Gallic Senones; he is writing however about Germany, so that his
evidence, slight as it is, is neutralized. Theories grounded upon the
national name may be raised on both sides; _Cimbri_ may coincide with
either the Germanic _kempa_ = _a warrior_ or _champion_, or with the
Celtic _Cymry_ = _Cambrians_. Equally equivocal seem the arguments drawn
from the descriptions either of their physical conformation or their
manners. The silence of the Gothic traditions as to the Cimbri being
Germanic, proves more in the way of negative evidence than the similar
silence of the Celtic ones, since the Gothic legends are the most
numerous and the most ancient. Besides this, they deal very especially
with genealogies, national and individual. The name of Bojorix, a
Cimbric king mentioned in _Epitome Liviana_ (lxvii.), is Celtic rather
than Gothic, although in the latter dialects proper names ending in
_-ric_, (_Alaric_, _Genseric_) frequently occur.
Measuring the evidence, which is in its character essentially
cumulative, consisting of a number of details unimportant in
themselves, but of value when taken in the mass, the balance seems to
be in favour of the Cimbri, Teutones and Ambrones being Gauls rather
than Germans, Celts rather than Goths.
An argument now forthcoming stands alone, inasmuch as it seems to prove
two things at once, viz. not only the Celtic origin of the Cimbri,
but, at the same time, their locality in the Chersonese. It is brought
forward by Dr. Pritchard in his 'Physical History of Mankind,' and runs
as follows:--(_a._) It is a statement of Pliny that the sea in their
neighbourhood was called by the Cimbri _Morimarusa_, or the _dead sea_
= _mare mortuum_. (_b._) It is a fact that in Celtic Welsh _mor marwth_
= _mare mortuum_, _morimarusa_, _dead sea_. Hence the language of the
Cimbric coast is to be considered as Celtic. Now the following facts
invalidate this conclusion:--(1.) Putting aside the contradictions in
Pliny's statement, the epithet _dead_ is inapplicable to either the
German Ocean or the Baltic. (2.) Pliny's authority was a writer named
Philemon: out of the numerous Philemons enumerated by Fabricius, it
is likely that the one here adduced was a contemporary of Alexander
the Great; and it is not probable that at that time glosses from the
Baltic were known in the Mediterranean. (3.) The subject upon which
this Philemon wrote was the Homeric Poems. This, taken along with the
geography of the time, makes it highly probable that the original Greek
was not Κίμβροι, but Κιμμέριοι; indeed we are not absolutely sure of
Pliny having written _Cimbri_. (4.) As applied to Cimmerian sea the
epithet _dead_ was applicable. (5.) The term _Morimarusa_ = _mare
mortuum_, although good Celtic, is better Slavonic, since throughout
that stock of languages, as in many other of the Indo-European tongues
(the Celtic and Latin included), the roots _mor_ and _mori_ mean _sea_
and _dead_ respectively:--"Septemtrionalis Oceanus, Amalchium eum
Hecatæus appellat, a Paropamiso amne, qua Scythiam alluit, quod nomen
ejus gentis linguâ significat congelatum, Philemon _Morimarusam_ a
Cimbris (qu. _Cimmeriis_) vocari scribit: hoc est _mare mortuum_ usque
ad promontorium Rubeas, ultra deinde Cronium." (13.)
One point, however, still remains: it may be dealt with briefly, but
it should not be wholly overlooked, viz. the question, whether over
and above the theories as to the location of the Cimbri in the Cimbric
Chersonese, there is reason to believe, on independent grounds, that
Celtic tribes were the early inhabitants of the peninsula in question?
If such were actually the case, all that has preceded would, up to
a certain point, be invalidated. Now I know no sufficient reasons
for believing such to be the case, although there are current in
ethnography many insufficient ones.
1. In the way of Philology, it is undoubtedly true that words common
to the Celtic tribes occur in the Danish of Jutland, and in the
Frisian and Low German of Sleswick and Holstein; but there is no
reason to consider that they belong to an aboriginal Celtic tribe. The
_à priori_ probability of Celts in the peninsula involves hypotheses
in ethnography which are, to say the least, far from being generally
recognized. The evidence as to the language of aborigines derived from
the significance of the names of old geographical localities is wanting
for the Cimbric Chersonese.
2. No traditions, either Scandinavian or German, point towards an
aboriginal Celtic population for the localities in question.
3. There are no satisfactory proofs of such in either Archæology
or Natural History. A paper noticed by Dr. Pritchard of Professor
Eschricht's upon certain Tumuli in Jutland states, that the earliest
specimens of art (anterior to the discovery of metals), as well as
the character of the tumuli themselves, have a Celtic character. He
adds, however, that the character of the tumuli is as much Siberian
as Celtic. The early specimens of art are undoubtedly like similar
specimens found in England. It happens, however, that such things are
in _all_ countries more or less alike. In Professor Siebold's museum
at Leyden, stone-axes from tumuli in Japan and Jutland are laid side
by side, for the sake of comparison, and between them there is no
perceptible difference. The oldest skulls in these tumuli are said to
be other than Gothic. They are, however, Finnic rather than Celtic.
4. The statement in Tacitus (_German._ 44.), that a nation on the
Baltic called the Æstii spoke a language somewhat akin to the British,
cannot be considered as conclusive to the existence of Celts in the
North of Germany. Any language, not German, would probably so be
denoted. Such might exist in the mother-tongue of either the Lithuanic
or the Esthonian.
It is considered that in the foregoing pages the following propositions
are either proved or involved:--1. That the Cimbri conquered by Marius
came from either Gaul or Switzerland, and that they were Celts. 2.
That the Teutones and Ambrones were equally Celtic with the Cimbri.
3. That no nation north of the Elbe was known to Republican Rome. 4.
That there is no evidence of Celtic tribes ever having existed north
of the Elbe. 5. That the epithet _Cimbrica_ applied to the Chersonesus
proves nothing more in respect to the inhabitants of that locality
than is proved by words like _West Indian_ and _North-American
Indian_. 6. That in the word _cateia_ we are in possession of a new
Celtic gloss. 7. That in the term _Morimarusa_ we are in possession
of a gloss at once Cimmerian and Slavonic. 8. That for any positive
theory as to the Cimbro-Teutonic league we have at present no data,
but that the hypothesis that would reconcile the greatest variety of
statements would run thus: viz. that an organized Celtic confederation
conterminous with the Belgæ, the Ligurians, and the Helvetians
descended with its eastern divisions upon Noricum, and with its western
ones upon Provence.