In battle, the rich wore checked or plaid cloaks over their shoulders, but no other garment. The common soldiers were almost naked. They were of high stature and savage features. Their hair was yellow, long, and matted--giving them a terrible aspect. Their blind, headlong courage; their immense numbers; the stunning noise which proceeded from their numerous wild horns and trumpets; their terrible devastations in passing through a country; their sacrifice of captives to their deities; their using the skulls of the slain as trophies and as drinking-cups, all contributed to render them the terror of the western world. On one occasion, 389 B. C., the Celts or Gauls entered Italy, advanced towards Rome, sacrificed in battle the flower of the Roman youth, sacked and burnt the city, and laid siege to the capitol, which was only delivered by a Roman army under Camillus. At the period of which we speak, Cæsar found these Gauls a most formidable people. For nine campaigns they resisted him; but their long swords of copper could not withstand the steel swords of the Romans; and besides, their soldiers wanted discipline, harmony, and unity of action. Cæsar overcame them at last; and then he turned his armies against the island of Britain. The people there were Celts, and generally resembled the Gauls. They were, however, in a still more rude and savage state. Along the southern border of the island they were most civilized. Here they wore a dress of their own manufacture, consisting of a square mantle, which covered a vest and trowsers, or a plaited shirt or tunic. Their houses, like those of their Gallic neighbors, were of circular beams, reared upon stone foundations, and covered with straw thatch. They manured their lands with marl; raised abundance of wheat, which they kept in dry pits; and were skilful in training horses, especially for war-chariots. Farther north, the Britons were much more wild and savage. They either went naked, or were only clothed in skins; they had no bread, and lived entirely on the milk or flesh of their flocks. Marriage was not practised, and children knew not their parents. [Illustration: _Agricultural operations of the Ancient Britons._]