Let us make a slight acquaintance with this outer history of the Gauls;
for it is well worth while to follow them a space upon their distant
wanderings. We will then return to the soil of France, and concern
ourselves only with what has passed within her boundaries.




CHAPTER II. THE GAULS OUT OF GAUL.

About three centuries B.C. numerous hordes of Gauls crossed the Alps and
penetrated to the centre of Etruria, which is nowadays Tuscany. The
Etruscans, being then at war with Rome, proposed to take them, armed and
equipped as they had come, into their own pay. "If you want our hands,"
answered the Gauls, "against your enemies, the Romans, here they are at
your service--but on one condition: give us lands."

[Illustration: A Tribe of Gauls on an Expedition----27]

A century afterwards other Gallic hordes, descending in like manner upon
Italy, had commenced building houses and tilling fields along the
Adriatic, on the territory where afterwards was Aquileia. The Roman
Senate decreed that their settlement should be opposed, and that they
should be summoned to give up their implements and even their arms. Not
being in a position to resist, the Gauls sent representatives to Rome.
They, being introduced into the Senate, said, "The multitude of people in
Gaul, the want of lands, and necessity forced us to cross the Alps to
seek a home. We saw plains uncultivated and uninhabited. We settled
there without doing any one harm. . . . We ask nothing but lands. We
will live peacefully on them under the laws of the republic."