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[1] Now, since—as the lofty bard of Mantua said of old—a greater work¹ undertake, a greater train of events ariseth before me, I think now a suitable time to describe the regions and situation of the Gauls, for fear that amid fiery encounters and shifting fortunes of battle I may treat of matters unknown to some and seem to follow the example of slovenly sailors, who are forced amid surges and storms to mend their worn sails and rigging, which might have been put in order with less danger.

[2] The ancient writers, in doubt as to the earliest origin of the Gauls, have left an incomplete account of the matter, but later Timagenes,² a true Greek in accuracy as well as language, collected out of various books these facts that had been long forgotten; which, following his authority, and avoiding any obscurity, I shall state clearly and plainly.

[3] Some asserted that the people first seen in these regions were Aborigines, called Celts from the name of a beloved king, and Galatae (for so the Greek language terms the Gauls) from the name of his mother. Others stated that the Dorians, following the earlier Hercules,³ settled in the lands bordering on the Ocean.

[4] The Drysidae⁴ say that a part of the people was in fact indigenous, but that others also poured in from the remote islands and the regions across the Rhine, driven from their homes by continual wars and by the inundation of the stormy sea.

[5] Some assert that after the destruction of Troy a few of those who fled from the Greeks and were scattered everywhere occupied those regions, which were then deserted.

[6] But the inhabitants of those countries affirm this beyond all else, and I have also read it inscribed upon their monuments, that Hercules, the son of Amphytrion, hastened to destroy the cruel tyrants Geryon and Tauriscus, of whom one oppressed Spain, the other, Gaul; and having overcome them both that he took to wife some high-born women and begat numerous children, who called by their own names the districts which they ruled.

[7] But in fact a people of Asia from Phocaea, to avoid the severity of Harpalus,⁵ prefect of king Cyrus, set sail for Italy. A part of them founded Velia⁶ in Lucania, the rest, Massilia⁷ in the region of Vienne. Then in subsequent ages they established no small number of towns, as their strength and resources increased. But I must not discuss varying opinions, which often causes satiety.

[8] Throughout these regions men gradually grew civilised and the study of the liberal arts flourished, initiated by the Bards, the Euhages and the Druids.⁸ Now, the Bards sang to the sweet strains of the lyre the valorous deeds of famous men composed in heroic verse, but the Euhages,⁹ investigating the sublime, attempted to explain the secret laws of nature. The Druids, being loftier than the rest in intellect, and bound together in fraternal organisations, as the authority of Pythagoras determined, were elevated by their investigation of obscure and profound subjects, and scorning all things human, pronounced the soul immortal.

Res Gestae. Ammianus Marcellinus. John C. Rolfe (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-1940.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Tufts University.

Current edition Perseus

History (English) (Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Res Gestae Perseus (Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., editor. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).) — 15.9 focus

De origine Gallorum; et unde dicti Celtae ac Galatae; deque eorum doctoribus.

[1] Proinde quoniam—ut Mantuanus vates praedixit excelsus— maius opus moveo¹ maiorque mihi rerum nascitur ordo, Galliarum tractus et situm ostendere puto nunc tempestivum, ne inter procinctus ardentes, proeliorumque varios casus, ignota quibusdam expediens imitari videar desides nauticos, attrita lintea cum rudentibus, quae licuit parari securius, inter fluctus resarcire coactos et tempestates.

[2] Ambigentes super origine prima Gallorum, scriptores veteres notitiam reliquere negotii semiplenam, sed postea Timagenes, et diligentia Graecus et lingua, haec quae diu sunt ignorata collegit ex multiplicibus libris. Cuius fidem secuti, obscuritate dimota, eadem distincte docebimus et aperte.

[3] Aborigines primos in his regionibus quidam visos esse firmarunt, Celtas nomine regis amabilis et matris eius vocabulo Galatas dictos—ita enim Gallos sermo Graecus appellat—alii Dorienses antiquiorem secutos Herculem oceani locos inhabitasse confines.

[4] Drysidae memorant re vera fuisse populi partem indigenam, sed alios quoque ab insulis extimis confluxisse et² tractibus transrhenanis, crebritate bellorum et alluvione fervidi maris sedibus suis expulsos.

[5] Aiunt quidam paucos post excidium Troiae fugitantes Graecos ubique dispersos disperses loca haec occupasse tunc vacua.

[6] Regionum autem incolae id magis omnibus asseverant, quod etiam nos legimus in monumentis eorum incisum, Amphitryonis filium Herculem ad Geryonis et Taurisci saevum³ tyrannorum perniciem festinasse, quorum alter Hispanias, alter Gallias infestabat; superatisque ambobus, coisse cum generosis feminis suscepisseque liberos plures, et eos partes quibus imperitabant suis nominibus appellasse.

[7] A Phocaea vero Asiaticus populus, Harpali inclementiam vitans, Cyri regis praefecti, Italiam navigio petit. Cuius pars in Lucania Veliam, alia condidit in Viennensi Massiliam: dein secutis aetatibus oppida, aucta virium copia, instituere non pauca. Sed declinanda varietas saepe satietati coniuncta.

[8] Per haec loca hominibus paulatim excultis, viguere studia laudabilium doctrinarum, inchoata per bardos et euhagis et drasidas drysidas. Et Bardi quidem fortia virorum illustrium facta, heroicis composita versibus, cum dulcibus lyrae modulis cantitarunt, Euhages vero scrutantes sublimia, leges⁴ naturae pandere conabantur internas.⁵ Drysidae ingeniis celsiores, ut auctoritas Pythagorae decrevit, sodaliciis astricti consortiis, quaestionibus occultarum rerum altarumque erecti sunt, et despectantes humana, pronuntiarunt animas immortales.

Notes on the current edition

History

1. Aen. vii. 44 f,

maior rerum mihi nascitur ordo, Maius opus moveo.

2. Timagenes of Alexandria, who, according to Suidas, was brought to Rome as a prisoner of war by Pompey. He wrote a History of Alexander and a History of the Gauls. Cf. Hor., Epist. i. 19, 15; Quint., i. 10, 10; x. i. 75.

3. Earlier seems to be contrasted with the son of Amphytrion in 9, 6, below and the Theban Hercules in 10, 9, whom Ammianus identifies with the son of Amphytrion. The story of a hero similar to Hercules is found in Greece, Italy, Egypt, the Orient, and among the Celts and Germans. Cicero, De Nat. Deor. iii. 16, 42, names six Herculeses, Serv., ad Aen. viii. 564, four: the Tirynthian, Argive, Theban, and Libyan. The Theban Hercules is generally regarded as the son of Amphitryon, but the one here referred to seems to have been the Italic hero, locally called Recaranus and Garanus, who was later identified with the Greek Heracles.

4. Druids

5. An error for Harpagus, see Index.

6. Modern Castellamare della Bruca.

7. Marseilles.

8. The three are connected also by Strabo (iv. 4. 4), who says that the bards were poets; the euhages ( οὐάτεις), diviners and natural philosophers; while the Druids studied both natural and moral philosophy. L.C.L. ii. p. 245.

9. Properly, Vates ( οὐάτεις).

Ammianus Marcellinus Res Gestae 15.9

John C. Rolfe (Translator)

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De origine Gallorum; et unde dicti Celtae ac Galatae; deque eorum doctoribus.

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