M. de Jubainville also alleges that Cæsar does not make use of the terms _villæ_ and _fundus_ in speaking of the Gauls; and he concludes from this that neither country estates, _fundi_, nor farms, _villæ_, were to be found in Gaul. “Before the conquest there were neither _fundi_ nor _villæ_, and the land was in common.”[252] This is another surprising statement. M. de Jubainville should not have overlooked the fact that even if these two words do not occur in Cæsar, we find terms which are precisely synonymous. The Romans had more than one word to designate a country estate, _fundus_, or a farm, _villa_. Instead of _fundus_ they sometimes said _ager_; and _ager_ always bears this sense in Cato, Varro, and Columella, and frequently in Cicero and Pliny. Instead of _villa_ they said _ædificium_. When Varro or Columella are speaking of the buildings standing in the midst of an estate, they use _ædificium_ as often as _villa_. Turn to the _Digest_ (Bk. L. Section XVI.) and compare the three fragments 27, 60, and 211; and you will recognise that the Romans were in the habit of calling a domain _ager_ and the buildings on it _ædificium_. Now Cæsar, in speaking of the Gauls, often uses the word _agri_ and still more often _ædificia_. Here are the domains and the _villæ_ which M. de Jubainville was looking for. These _ædificia_ were farms, not huts. They contained as a rule a somewhat numerous rural population; for Cæsar notes in one instance as something exceptional “that he found in the _ædificia_ of the Bellovaci only a small number of men, as almost all had set out for the war” (viii. 7). They also included barns for the storing of crops; for the historian mentions “that the Tencteri, having invaded the country of the Menapii, supported themselves for several months on the corn that they found in the _ædificia_” (iv. 4). The Roman general was well aware that if he wished to find forage for his cavalry he must look for it in these farms, _pabulum ex ædificiis petere_ (vii. 4, and viii. 10). What Cæsar says about the _ædificium_ of Ambiorix shows that it was a large enough building to lodge a numerous body of followers. And so the words _ager_ and _ædificium_ take the place in Cæsar of the words _fundus_ and _villa_, and disprove the assertion that “the Gauls had neither domains nor farms before the conquest.”