From: tgpedersen
Message: 55982
Date: 2008-03-26
>Or earlier?
> Here's an interesting aside from Hubert's "The
> Greatness and Decline of the Celts":
>
> at
> http://www.electricscotland.com/history/celts/index.htm
> click on "The Celts in the West. Germany and Gaul."
> p.8 of the pdf.
>
> "A passage in Ausonius [Ordo Urbium Nobilium, xiii, 7
> - 10: -
>
>
> Qua rapitur proeceps Rhodanus genitore Lemanno,
> interiusque premunt Aquitanica rura Cebennoe,
> usque in Tectosagos paganaque nomine Belcas,
> totum Narbo fuit.]
>
> enables us, to some extent, to determine the place held by the Belgæ
> among the other Gallic peoples. When he says that the Volcae
> Tectosages called themselves Belcae Tectosagi, the poet seems to
> suggest that the two names were closely related.
>
> [Belcæ. = Volcæ. Cf. Pauly, CCCLXVIII, iii, cols. 198 - 9.]
> It is of no consequence whether the word is spelt Belcas or Belgas.
> [Pomp. Mela, 36, 57: Belcoe.]
> Their identity is undeniable. [See Rise, pp. 21 ff. GK: Hubert's
> earlier work] From that identity, we may reasonably suppose that
> this is one of those generic terms by which the Celts designated
> themselves. A difference in pronunciation aggravated by a false
> etymology would lead to the name of Belgæ being given to the folk
> north of the Main." {GK: before they crossed the Rhine
> in the 2nd c.BCE}
>