Traders from the neighbouring coasts, but more especially from that section of the Germans known by the name of Belgæ,[440] who centuries before had settled on the opposite coast between the Rhine and the Seine, were, in many cases, the intermediate dealers between the Britons and the continental tribes. The whole country was then, as had no doubt been the case for some time previous to the invasion, divided into several small states presided over by chiefs, who are dignified by historians with the title of king. Ptolemy, in his geography,[441] mentions various towns in different parts of Britain of sufficient importance in his time to be recorded, all tending to show that a state of civilization then prevailed throughout the island, and that barbarism and savage life were the exception rather than the rule. Amongst the towns noticed by Ptolemy may be mentioned Isca Damnoniorum (Exeter); Durnium (Dorchester); Venta Belgarum (Winchester), which was a place of great fame in his time; Aquæ-solis (Bath), so called from its hot waters; Ischalis, now Ilchester, and Guildford in Surrey (Noviomagus). Numerous towns and seaports are also noticed by him, as, for instance, in Kent, Rochester, Dover, and Lymne; and in the west and north-west of England, Gleva (Gloucester); Deva (Chester); and near it Uriconium (Wroxeter), the curious remains of which have been quite recently explored;[442] Carlisle and Mona (Anglesey), the great seat of the Druidical worship. In the interior of the country we may record, as among the most famous of the Roman stations or colonies, Eboracum (York); Lindum (Lincoln); Camalodunum (Colchester); Corinium, (Cirencester); and Dorovernia (Canterbury); at or near all of which places extensive Roman remains may still be seen. The principality of Wales, formerly comprehending the whole country beyond the Severn, was supposed by Tacitus[443] to have been originally peopled by emigrants from Spain, and here too may be still traced the vestiges of several Roman camps, as at Usk and Caerleon. At Stonehenge and Abury, in Wiltshire, are still more ancient remains, monuments of great interest, both for the size and the elegant disposition of the stones of which they are formed; and which, at the same time, denote considerable progress in the mechanical arts at a period antecedent, perhaps, by centuries to the invasion of Cæsar.[444] Wherever we go, we find that the Britons at the commencement of the Christian era occupied a position, which, if far short of the high state of civilization the Romans had reached, was greatly superior to that of most of the northern nations of Europe, or to that of the Goths and Vandals, when, three centuries afterwards, they overran the empire and became masters of the imperial city.[445] [Sidenote: Speech of Caractacus.]