Blair Collection > Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the antient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots

Caledonians and Germans. 141
fuch inftruments of defence* But the true rea-
fon feems to have been either a brave contempt
for fuch unmanly impediments, or a natural at-
tachment to the cuftoms of their forefathers. The
Germanic Nations, in Trajan's time, had very
few coats of mail, and fcarce any helmets f. If
we go back beyond that period, it may be pie-
fumed they had none at all.
Upon a comparifon of the weapons ufed by
the Gauls with thofe of the Germans, it v/ill be
eafily found that the difference was very confide-
rable : and hence fbme miight infer, that ihe Ca-
ledonians borrowed the fafhion of their arms from
the latter rather than from the former.
The fhields of the Gauls were long, and their
darts fhort. To prove this aflertion feveral paf-
fages might be quot'=d from ancient authors. But
one authority is fufficient ; that pafTage in the
j^neid, where, among a great variety of very
beautiful figures, the pifture of a GauliHi foldief
is fo finely drawn by Virgil %-
The armies of the old Germans were made
up of feparate tribes. Their battalions confifted
of men who had a natural connexion with each
other, men who had the fame common intereft in
view, were engaged in the fame purfuits of glory,
and ftrongly cemented by an inviolable attachment
to the fame chieftain. Tacitus, who probably
* Herod, lib. Hi. v. 47.
\ Tacit, de mor. Germ. p. 4-57. Ed. Lips.
\ Galli per diimo? aderant
Duo quifque alpini corii'c-nt
Gxfa manu, fcuus piotedi corpca longis.
^neid viii. v. 660, &c.
underiStood