mployed 170 rowers (III. II. The Romans Build A Fleet). Comp. Movers,
Phoen. ii. 3, 167 seq.

15. IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome

16. IV. V. Defeat of Longinus

17. IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome

18. This remarkable word must have been in use as early as
the sixth century of Rome among the Celts in the valley of the Po; for
Ennius is already acquainted with it, and it can only have reached
the Italians at so early a period from that quarter. It is not
merely Celtic, however, but also German, the root of our "Amt," as
indeed the retainer-system itself is common to the Celts and
the Germans. It would be of great historical importance to ascertain
whether the word--and so also the thing--came to the Celts from
the Germans, or to the Germans from the Celts. If, as is usually
supposed, the word is originally German and primarily signified
the servant standing in battle "against the back" (-and-= against,
-bak- = back) of his master, this is not wholly irreconcileable with
the singularly early occurrence of this word among the Celts.
According to all analogy the right to keep -ambacti-, that is,
--doouloi misthotoi--, cannot have belonged to the Celtic nobility
from the outset, but must only have developed itself gradually in
antagonism to the older monarchy and to the equality of the free
commons. If thus the system of -ambacti- among the Celts was not
an ancient and national, but a comparatively recent institution, it
is--looking to the relation which had subsisted for centuries
between the Celts and Germans, and which is to be explained farther
on--not merely possible but even probable that the Celts, in Italy
as in Gaul, employed Germans chiefly as those hired servants-at-
arms. The "Swiss guard" would therefore in that case be some
thousands of years older than people suppose. Should the term by
which the Romans, perhaps after the example of the Celts, designate
the Germans as a nation-the name -Germani---be really of Celtic
origin, this obviously accords very well with that hypothesis.--No
doubt these assumptions must necessarily give way, should the word
-ambactus- be explained in a satisfactory way from a Celtic root;
as in fact Zeuss (Gramm. p. 796), though doubtfully, traces it to
-ambi- = around and -aig- = -agere-, viz. one moving round or moved
round, and so attendants, servants. The circumstance that the word
occurs also as a Celtic proper name (Zeuss, p. 77), and is perhaps
preserv