England Before the Norman Conquest
by Charles William Chadwick Oman (9780217713870)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III CAKHAK IN BRITAIN (b.c. 55-54) A VERY cursory exploration of Caesar's account of his earlier Gallic campaigns suffices to show the close connection of the Britons of the South and their relatives beyond the Straits of Dover ?a connection that was both political, commercial and religious. Within human memory Divitiacus, king of the Suessiones, and for a time suzerain over most of the continental Belgians?had extended his power over some of the British states.1 This empire, like all Gaulish hegemonies, had been short and fleeting. But there were still close personal connections between the Island and the Continent. Commius, whom Caesar had made king of the Atrebates, the tribe between Somme and Lys, had great authority, as we are assured, in certain British regions?presumably among others in that occupied by the insular Atrebates along the south bank of the middle Thames.2 Gaulish exiles, who had made their own countryside too hot for them, were wont to take refuge in Britain.3 British adventurers used to cross over in a similar fashion to Gaul: Caesar remarks that in nearly every Gallic campaign he had found Britons fighting among the ranks of his Celtic enemies.4 How close was the religious tie between the continental and the insular Celts, we have already seen, when dealing with the vexed question of the Druids. Gallic merchants and shipmen were well acquaintedB.c. 55] CAESAR'S DESIGNS ON BRITAIN 33 1 Caesar, E.G., ii. 4. -//.../., iv., 24. It would be invaluable to us to know whether other tribes kept up the same touch as the Atrebates: e.g., were the Menapii of South-Eastern Ireland (a Belgic colony sent out to Wexford by the Menapii of Picardy), in similar correspondence with the mother state: or the Parisii of the Humber with the older Parisii of the ...

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