CHAP. 1.
----of the warlike country of the Lusitanians ; and the loss sustained by the former, on the side of the east, is compensated by an accession of territory towards the north. The confines of Grenada and Andalusia correspond with those of ancient Baetica. The remainder of Spain, Gallicia, and the Asturias, Biscay, and Navarre, Leon, and the two Castilles, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, and Arragon, all contributed to form the third and most considerable of the Roman governments, which, from the name of its capital, was styled the province of Tarragona[1]. Of the native barbarians, the Celtiberians were the most powerful, as the Cantabrians and Asturians proved the most obstinate. Confident in the strength of their mountains, they were the last who submitted to the arms of Rome, and the first who threw off the yoke of the Arabs.
Gaul.Ancient Gaul, as it contained the whole countrys between the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Rhine, and the ocean, was of greater extent than modern France. To the dominions of that powerful monarchy, with its recent acquisitions of Alsace and Lorraine, we must add the duchy of Savoy, the cantons of Switzerland, the four electorates of the Rhine, and the territories of Liege, Luxemburgh, Hainault, Flanders, and Brabant. When Augustus gave laws to the conquests of his father, he introduced a division of Gaul equally adapted to the progress of the legions, to the course of the rivers, and to the principal national distinctions, which had comprehended above an hundred independent states [2]. The seacoast of the Mediterranean, Langue-doc, Provence, and Dauphine, received their provincial appellation from the colony of Narbonne. The go-
- ↑ See Slrabo, I. ii. It is natural enough to suppose that Arragon is derived from Tarraconensis ; and several moderns who have written in Latin use those words as synonymous. It is however certain, that the Airagon, a little stream which falls from the Pyrenees into the Ebro, first gave its name to a country, and gradually to a kingdom. See D'Anville, Geographie du Moyen Age, p. 181.
- ↑ One hundred and fifteen cities appear in the Notitia of Gaul ; and it is well known that this appellation was applied not only to the capital town, but to the whole territory of each state. But Plutarch and Appian increase the number of tribes to three or foUr hundred.
