When Cæsar came to Gaul, the country was in great commotion. Languedoc, Provence, and only since a short time, Dauphiné also and Savoy, were subject to the Roman sway; the Allobroges called for Cæsar’s protection against the inroads of the Helvetians. This is one of the strangest events in the whole of antiquity. A man of high rank prevails upon the whole of the nation to break up, and to conquer new abodes in the then distracted land of Gaul, promising to lead them into fine countries where they might live like gentlemen, whilst the conquered people were to till the fields. He might perhaps have felt some dread at the spread of the Sueves in the Alps, as they would have been obliged to defend themselves against them at a disadvantage, or have to place themselves under the protection of Rome. Such a thought as this conceived by an individual is not a thing quite so unheard of; but that he could have made the whole nation destroy its towns and villages, and that after his death, they still followed up his plan, is certainly surprising. Yet they did it, and marched with the Tigurini into Southern Gaul. How Cæsar now negotiated with the Helvetians; how he blocked up their road to the Roman province, and having beaten them in two battles, obliged them, after a terrible slaughter in which the Romans revenged themselves on the Tigurini for the Cimbric devastations, to capitulate to him; is not only generally known, but also told very circumstantially in the first book of the Commentaries. The power of the Helvetians having been broken, the remnant returned to their home: it was an awful end of a fantastic scheme. What may be said to explain and excuse it, is the then situation of Gaul, which, quite different from the present compact country of France, was parcelled out among a great number of distinct tribes. One must distinguish the Aquitanians, who were Iberians, in Guienne; the mingled Iberians and Celts, in Languedoc; the mixture of Celts and Ligurians on the Rhone; the Ligurians on the coast of Provence; and further in the interior of France, the Celts or Gauls. Yet all the people between the Garonne in the south, and the Seine and the Marne in the north, were not Celts: there certainly were Cymri or Belgians already in Basse Bretagne. Their alleged emigration from Britain in the fifth century is fabulous. These Cymri were strangers to the true Gael or Celts. It is not surprising that they kept their ground in Brittany; for originally they had their abodes all along the north of the Seine and the Marne, but were afterwards severed from each other by the Celts, who pushed on from the south to the north.