ad for long been
peaceably settled, and the times had long gone by when the Celts
there pressed hard on, and to some extent supplanted, the Iberian,
that is, the Basque, original population. The valleys of the Pyrenees
as well as the mountains of Bearn and Gascony, and also the coast-
steppes to the south of the Garonne, were at the time of Caesar
in the undisputed possession of the Aquitani, a great number
of small tribes of Iberian descent, coming little into contact
with each other and still less with the outer world; in this quarter
only the mouth of the Garonne with the important port of Burdigala
(Bordeaux) was in the hands of a Celtic tribe, the Bituriges-Vivisci.

Celts and Romans
Advance of Roman Trade and Commerce into Free Gaul

Of far greater importance was the contact of the Celtic nation
with the Roman people, and with the Germans. We need not here repeat--
what has been related already--how the Romans in their slow advance
had gradually pressed back the Celts, had at last occupied the belt
of coast between the Alps and the Pyrenees, and had thereby totally
cut them off from Italy, Spain and the Mediterranean Sea--a catastrophe,
for which the way had already been prepared centuries before
by the laying out of the Hellenic stronghold at the mouth
of the Rhone. But we must here recall the fact that it was not merely
the superiority of the Roman arms which pressed hard on the Celts,
but quite as much that of Roman culture, which likewise reaped
the ultimate benefit of the respectable beginnings of Hellenic
civilization in Gaul. Here too, as so often happens, trade
and commerce paved the way for conquest. The Celt after northern
fashion was fond of fiery drinks; the fact that like the Scythian
he drank the generous wine unmingled and to intoxication,
excited the surprise and the disgust of the temperate southern;
but the trader has no objection to deal with such customers.
Soon the trade with Gaul became a mine of gold for the Italian merchant;
it was nothing unusual there for a jar of wine to be exchanged
for a slave. Other articles of luxury, such as Italian horses,
found advantageous sale in Gaul. There were instances even already
of Roman burgesses acquiring landed property beyond the Roman
frontier, and turning it to profit after the Italian fashion;
there is mention, for example, of Roman estates in the canton
of the Segusiavi (near Lyons) as early as about 673. Beyond doubt it
was a conseque