very many images. Their traditions make him the inventor of all the arts and the patron of roads and journeys, and they think him the most powerful in the matter of acquiring money and in the transactions of commerce. After him, they worship Apollo, Mars, Jupiter and Minerva: of these they entertain much the same opinion as other nations, namely, that Apollo drives away diseases, that Minerva teaches the elements of the various trades and arts, that Jupiter rules over the sky, and that Mars has the direction of wars. Indeed, it is usual for them, as soon as they have resolved to engage in battle, to vow beforehand to Mars all the spoils they may take in the war; so they sacrifice to him all the animals captured, and bring all the rest of the booty together to one spot. In many of their cities, heaps of these things may be seen piled up in their sacred places. Nor does it often happen that anybody so far disregards the traditional custom as to dare either to conceal any of the booty at home or carry away any of the booty set aside: in case such a crime is committed, the offender is tortured and most severely punished.
Such is the purport of Caesar's words, and it will be well to see how far Gaulish epigraphy is found to corroborate or correct them. Unfortunately for the study of Celtic religion and philology, few of the monuments of Gaul supply us with inscriptions in the national tongue; and probably all of them, whether in Gaulish or in Latin, date after the advent of the Roman conqueror and the initiation of his policy of assimilating the gods of vanquished Gaul with those of Borne. This policy took a very definite form under Augustus. He as pontifex maximus united the religions of the Roman world; but the
