apt to embroil Affairs, and to
sow Dissentions or Animosities between the several _Commonwealths_.
These they joined with in Friendship and Society, and by most honourable
publick Decrees called them their _Friends_ and _Confederates_: And many
of these _Kings_ purchased, at a great Expence, this Verbal Honour from
the _Chief Men_ of _Rome_. Now the _Gauls_ called such, _Reges_, or
rather _Reguli_, which were chosen, not for a certain Term, (as the
Magistrates of the Free Cities were) but for their Lives; tho' their
Territories were never so small and inconsiderable: And these, when
Customs came to be changed by Time, were afterwards called by the Names
of _Dukes, Earls_, and _Marquisses_.
Of the _Commonwealths_ or _Cities_, some were much more potent than
others; and upon these the lesser _Commonwealths_ depended; these they
put themselves under for Protection: Such weak Cities _Caesar_ sometimes
calls the _Tributaries_ and _Subjects_ of the former; but, for the most
part he says, they were in _Confederacy_ with them. _Livius_ writes,
_lib. 5._ that when _Tarquinius Priscus_ reigned in _Rome_, the
_Bituriges_ had the principal Authority among the _Celtae_, and gave a
_King_ to them. When _Caesar_ first enter'd _Gaul_, A.U.C. 695. he found
it divided into Two Factions; the _AEdui_ were at the Head of the one,
the _Arverni_ of the other, who many Years contended for the
Superiority: But that which greatly increas'd this Contention, was,
Because the _Bituriges_, who were next Neighbours to the _Arverni_, were
yet _in file & imperio_ that is, Subjects and Allies to the _AEdui_. On
the other hand, the _Sequani_ (tho' Borderers on the _AEdui_) were under
the Protection of the _Arverni_, lib. 1. Cap. 12. lib. 6. cap. 4. The
_Romans_ finding such-like Dissention; to be for their Interest; that
is, proper Opportunities to enlarge their own Power, did all they cou'd
to foment them: And therefore made a League with the _AEdui_, whom (with
a great many Compliments) they titled _Brothers and Friends of the
People of Rome_. Under the Protection and League of the _AEdui_, I find
to have been first the _Senones_, with whom some time before the
_Parisians_ had join'd their _Commonwealth_ in League and Amity. Next,
the _Bellouaci_, who had nevertheless a great City of their own,
abounding in Numbers of People, and were of principal Authority and
Repute among the _Belgae_, lib. 2. cap. 4. and lib. 7. cap. 7. _Caesar_
reckons the _Centr
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