Belgic Cities of Britain

Abstract

What particular gadfly drove the Belgae into Britain in the early years of the first century B.C. is hidden from us. The pestiferous Cimbri may have lent their sting; for although, alone of the Gauls, the Belgae had beaten them off along the Seine valley in 103 B.c., these vagabond Teutons and their friends cannot have added to the amenities of a continental existence. Thereafter, at any rate, Belgic ambition turned easily northwards to the familiar and relatively empty coasts of southeastern Britain. With a combined initiative and deliberation that may be imagined to have reflected their mixed Celtic and Teutonic origin, organized Belgic tribes or tribal contingents began to settle along our shores and to penetrate inland along our rivers. When Caesar arrived in 55 B.c., he found them, he tells us, in occupation of ‘the maritime districts’.