The more remote and historical honors of Rouen would present ample materials. Prior to the Roman invasion, it appears to have been of less note than as the capital of Neustria. Julius Cæsar, copious as he is in all that relates to Gaul, makes no mention of Rouen in his Commentaries. Ptolemy first speaks of it as the capital of the Velocasses, or Bellocasses, the people of the present Vexin; but he does not allow his readers to entertain an elevated idea of its consequence; for he immediately adds, that the inhabitants of the Pays de Caux were, singly, equal to the Velocasses and Veromandui together; and that the united forces of the two latter tribes did not amount to one-tenth part of those which were kept on foot by the Bellovaci.--Not long after, however, when the Romans became undisputed masters of Gaul, we find Rouen the capital of the province, called the _Secunda Lugdunensis_; and from that tine forward, it continued to increase in importance. Etymologists have been amused and puzzled by "Rothomagus," its classical name. In an uncritical age, it was contended that the name afforded good proof of the city having been founded by Magus, son of Samothes, contemporary of Nimrod. Others, with equal diligence, sought the root of Rothomagus in the name of Roth, who is said to have been its tutelary god; and the ancient clergy adopted the tradition, in the hymn, which forms a part of the service appointed for the feast of St. Mellonus,-- "Extirpate Roth idolo, Fides est in lumine; Ferro cinctus, pane solo Pascitur et flumine, Post hæc junctus est in polo Cum sanctorum agmine." The partizans of _Roth_ are therefore supported by the authority of the church; the favorers of _Magus_ must defend themselves by more worldly erudition; and we must leave the task of deciding between the claims of the two sections of the word, divided as they are by the neutral _o_, to wiser heads than ours. Footnotes: [119] Précis Analytique des travaux de l'Académie de Rouen, pendant l'année 1812, p. 164.