hores of the Baltic and North Sea. Again,
the Germani themselves first appear in the Celtic host destroyed by
Marcellus at Clastidium in 225 B.C. All the true Celtae or Galatae in
France had come across the Rhine; the Belgic tribes in northern France
were Cimbri, who also had crossed the Rhine: in Caesar's day the Germans
were still constantly crossing that river, and so-called Gauls who lived
near the Germans, e.g. the Treveri, closely resembled the latter in
their habits, while in later times were to come Goths and Franks from
beyond the great river. It is then not strange that the Gallic name for
a henchman (_ambactus_) is the same as the Gothic (_ambahts_).

The earliest invaders, under the name of Celtae, had occupied all
central Gaul, doubtless mixing with the aboriginal Ligurians and
Iberians, who, however, maintained themselves respectively in the later
Provence and in Aquitania. The Celts had firmly established themselves
by the 7th century B.C. and we know not how long before, the Bituriges
(whose name survives in Berri) being the dominant tribe. In the Alps and
the Danube valley some of the Celts had dwelt from the Stone Age; there
they had developed the working of copper, discovered bronze (an alloy of
copper and tin), and the art of smelting iron (see HALLSTATT). The
Umbrians, who were part of the Alpine Celts, had been pressing down into
Italy from the Bronze Age, though checked completely by the rise of the
Etruscan power in the 10th century B.C. The invention of iron weapons
made the Celts henceforth irresistible. One of the earliest movements
after this discovery was probably that of the Achaeans of Homer, who
about 1450 B.C. invaded Greece (see ACHAEANS), bringing with them the
use of iron and brooches, the practice of cremating the dead, and the
style of ornament known as Geometric. Later the Cimmerians (see SCYTHIA
and CIMMERII) passed down from the Cimbric Chersonese, doubtless
following the amber routes, and then turned east along the Danube, some
of their tribes, e.g. the Treres, settling in Thrace, and crossing into
Asia; others settled in southern Russia, leaving their name in the
Crimea; then when hard pressed by the Scythians most of them passed
round the east end of the Euxine into Asia Minor, probably being the
people known as Gimirri on Assyrian monuments, and ravaged that region,
the relics of the race finally settling at Sinope.

At the beginning of the 6th century B.C. the Celts of Franc