The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

i64 THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
The Sabines, who had overrun much of the Latin territory, even as far as the
hill overlooking the Palatine, seem to have adopted the Latin language, while retaining
a few features of their original Umbrian dialect. Soon afterwards some Kimri from
Felsina seem to have made themselves war lords over Etruria, and to have for a time
extended the Etruscan empire from the Alps to Pompeii, but being a small military
aristocracy in a land with an ancient and advanced culture, they failed to impose their
Wiro language upon the inhabitants.
But the larger group of Kimri had settled by the upper waters of the Danube and
had adopted with modifications the Celtic speech. About 900 B.C. disagreements arose
between them and the Q speaking Gaelic lords of the villages in the mountain zone, and
no time was lost in attacking these communities in Switzerland and Savoy, in burning
the pile-dwellings and expelling the inhabitants.
We must now take up again the tale of the bronze-using Q-speaking Celts, the story
of fresh Gaelic movements, but this time a story of flight rather than of invasion. This
was not a question only of Gaelic lords, for the Alpine peasants, who doubtless spoke
a Celtic dialect and called themselves Celts, were also involved in this ruin. They fled
by divers routes to the north and the west. By the swords of Type G we can trace their
wanderings over Gaul, down the Rhone, the Loire and the Seine. Others seem to have
fled northwards to Schleswig, Jutland, Sweden and even Finland, to escape their
pursuers, while a large party landed in England, mainly between the Thames and the
Wash, and found refuge with their relations who had settled on the open downs some
centuries before.
The former arrivals had been Nordic lords, with perhaps a few half-breed
retainers ; the refugees were largely Alpine peasants, unaccustomed to pastoral
pursuits on the high downs, and more anxious for water-meadows and arable patches
by the margins of lakes and rivers. Settlements were made by the banks of the Thames
between London and Richmond, and doubtless higher up the river. Lowlands were
cleared in Wessex in the Vale of Pewsey, such as the village at All Cannings, and other
settlements were made by lakes and marshes in South Wales.
In most parts of Gaul the Kimri followed the refugees, and drove them from
the valleys of the Rhone and the Loire into the hills. In the Seine vaUey, however, the
Sequani were left undisturbed and gave their name to the river. Though no positive