judges of questions of boundaries. They were not unacquainted with certain manufactures. In some countries they fabricated serges, which were in great repute, and cloths or felts; in others they worked the mines with skill, and employed themselves in the fabrication of metals. The Bituriges worked in iron, and were acquainted with the art of tinning. The artificers of Alesia plated copper with silver leaf to ornament horses' bits and trappings.[1]
They were also excellent workers in gold, of which they made bracelets, leg-rings, collars, and even breastplates.[2]
In the time of Cæsar, the greater part of the peoples of Gaul were armed with long iron swords, two-edged (σπάθη), sheathed in scabbards similarly of iron, suspended to the side by chains. These swords were generally made to strike with the edge rather than to stab. The Gauls had also spears, the iron of which, very long and very broad, presented sometimes an undulated form (materis, σαύνιον). Their helmets were of metal, more or less precious, ornamented with the horns of animals, and with a crest representing some figures of birds or savage beasts. They carried a great buckler, a breast-plate of iron or bronze, or a coat of mail—the latter a Gaulish invention.
Diodorus Siculus[3] says that the Gauls had iron coats of mail. He adds: 'Instead of glaive (ξιφος), they have long swords (σπάθη), which they carry suspended to their right side by chains of iron or bronze. Some bind their
