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Ancient Britain and the Invasions of Julius Caesar Flashcards

T. Rice (Thomas Rice) Holmes · Public domain edition · 425 cards · 115 chapters

T. Rice Holmes argues that Caesar’s British expeditions can be reconstructed through careful use of archaeology, geography, and textual evidence, and he examines longstanding problems such as Portus Itius and the landing place. The deck covers Holmes’s aims, his views on archaeological method, and the Palaeolithic evidence for early human occupation in Britain.

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Chapter 1 · Question

What does Holmes claim about the two long-standing problems of Portus Itius and Caesar's landing place?

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Section 14 cards

What does Holmes claim about the two long-standing problems of Portus Itius and Caesar's landing place?
The author argues that although eminent scholars including Mommsen pronounced these problems insoluble, his inquiry has now worked them out to demonstration. He asks critics who find this claim arrogant or frivolous to read the articles through before judging, and notes the questions would have been settled long ago had a competent writer given them the care expended on Hannibal's Alpine passage.
Chapter 1
How does Holmes say archaeological details should be handled from the historical standpoint?
Holmes states that 'prehistory' cannot be written without knowledge of archaeology, but from the historical standpoint archaeological details must be handled not for their own sake, only in so far as they illustrate the development of culture. He applies the same principle as in his earlier book on Gaul, with the second part devoted to questions unsuitable for narrative chapters.
Chapter 1
What is Holmes's stated aim in this book, and how does it differ from his earlier Caesar's Conquest of Gaul?
Holmes says that in the earlier book the main object was to illustrate the conquest and the opening chapter was merely introductory. Here his aim has been to tell the story of man's life in the island from the earliest times in detail, covering the period comprehensively from the beginning to the Roman invasion of A.D. 43.
Chapter 1
What does Holmes say about the novelty of his book and the scope it covers?
Holmes claims that books and articles on various branches of the study of ancient Britain are practically innumerable, but that no other book intended to treat the subject comprehensively from the beginning to the Roman invasion of A.D. 43 had, so far as he knew, yet appeared. This is the author's own assessment of his work's place in the literature.
Chapter 1

Section 23 cards

What did Caesar fail to learn from Gallic traders before his first British expedition?
Caesar summoned the Gallic traders who plied between Gaul and the Kentish coast but, in his own words, could not find out the island's extent, its tribes, their size, fighting methods, manners and customs, or which harbours could accommodate a large flotilla. The author notes that even after seeing the country himself Caesar learned little more, summing up the aborigines in a single sentence.
Chapter 2
How did Boucher de Perthes' Somme gravel discoveries become accepted?
From 1841 to 1860 Boucher de Perthes explored Pleistocene gravels near Abbeville and Amiens, collecting flints proved shaped by human hands. Lyell, Prestwich, John Evans, Lubbock, and Flower visited and testified to their authenticity; after long controversy even the reluctant admitted the human race was far more ancient than previously imagined.
Chapter 2
What did Pitt-Rivers contribute to archaeological method?
General Pitt-Rivers brought a soldier's experience and his own genius to archaeological and anthropological problems. The author credits him with demonstrating the value of thorough excavation and accurate pictorial illustration, pressing on students the need for precision in recording every find's circumstances, and spending a considerable fortune on adding to knowledge as an example of enlightened generosity.
Chapter 2

Section 33 cards

What disciplines does Holmes say can unlock the secrets of Caesar's voyages?
Holmes argues that astronomers and hydrographers have perfected knowledge of tidal streams, forging a key that can unlock Caesar's voyages—but only for those who possess the indispensable knowledge of seamanship and ancient military history. He also credits physical geography, geology, purified texts, inscriptions, and military experts as contributing to understanding the campaigns.
Chapter 3
Why does Holmes say archaeological work languishes in Britain?
Holmes argues that such work, an object of national concern in other civilized countries, languishes in Britain for want of funds. He claims no British Government can expect support from the intelligence and public spirit of its constituents in spending money on archaeological research, nor has the courage to lead; and he asks where wealthy Englishmen will follow their American cousins in endowing such work.
Chapter 3
Why does Holmes devote a chapter to the Palaeolithic Age in a book on English history?
Holmes concedes it has been questioned whether Palaeolithic man left descendants in Britain, but notes that in France, if not here, the Palaeolithic merged—perhaps by long transition—into the Neolithic; Britain's Neolithic inhabitants descended from Palaeolithic ancestors; and Palaeolithic culture was apparently much the same everywhere. He adds sentiment: gratitude to the unconscious founders of European civilization.
Chapter 3

Section 44 cards

What evidence shows palaeolithic men lived in East Anglia after the glaciers left?
Excavations at Hoxne in Suffolk showed tool-makers lived there separated by two climatic waves, attested by the flora of two sets of strata, from the age when the latest boulder-clay was deposited. The Ouse valley gravels containing implements were worn down through boulder-clay, and doubts have arisen in other cases about the flints' artificial character or the beds' age.
Chapter 4
What did Benjamin Harrison find on the Kentish plateau, and why is their authenticity disputed?
From 1885 Harrison found flints of divers shapes in plateau gravels, which he called 'eoliths'. Sceptics ascribe the chipping to natural action; Marcellin Boule showed cement-factory processes could produce eolithic forms, and one sceptic found a natural eolith whose notch fitted another stone. Greenwell, Pitt-Rivers and Prestwich, however, were convinced they were man-made.
Chapter 4
Why does the absence of palaeolithic implements in northern Britain not settle the question?
Some geologists argue the high-level Thames drift was laid down when ice covered Northern Britain, and no palaeoliths are found there. But critics note flint is scarce in the north, harder rocks make human workmanship hard to detect, alluvial deposits are not easily searched, and animal bones contemporary with palaeolithic man are also absent there.
Chapter 4
What was the environment of palaeolithic man in Britain after the southern glaciers passed?
The author describes a different configuration: the chalk ranges of Kent and Picardy were unbroken; the Thames deposited gravels a hundred feet above its present level and wandered east across a now-sunken plain to a greater Rhine. Mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, giant elks, hippopotamuses, brown and grizzly bears, lions and hyenas inhabited the land.
Chapter 4

Section 54 cards

What evidence suggests French cave artists may have emigrated to Britain?
A single art specimen was found in the Robin Hood Cave in Creswell Crags, and the implements associated with it resemble those of the French caves. The author argues this likeness justifies the assumption that the primitive artists of France sent emigrants to Britain.
Chapter 5
In what four classes of deposits are palaeolithic relics found in Britain?
The relics are grouped in four classes: plateau gravels; gravels apparently deposited by heavy rains on frozen chalk downs rather than by rivers; river-drift; and caves. Unlike neolithic belongings, palaeolithic remains are generally not found on or near the surface except in special cases.
Chapter 5
Why can't Mortillet's French chronological classification be applied in Britain?
The same implement types exist in Britain, but their relative antiquity can seldom be determined, because implements of the oldest French types have been found in deposits belonging to the close of the British Palaeolithic Age. Even comparing high-level and lower terraces shows no marked distinction.
Chapter 5
Why does the author doubt dating palaeolithic tools by associated animal remains?
The proposed succession — straight-tusked elephant, big-nosed rhinoceros and hippopotamus earliest; mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave-bear and hyena later; reindeer last — cannot be distinguished in Britain or Northern Gaul. Arctic and tropical animals are commingled in the same beds, so the author concludes such tests are hardly worth using.
Chapter 5

Section 64 cards

What evidence of burial does the chapter cite for Palaeolithic peoples?
The chapter says how Palaeolithic people disposed of their dead in Britain leaves no sign. However, in caves near Mentone, inhabited in successive periods of the Palaeolithic Age, corpses had been decently interred, and skeletons found in Moravia had been carefully protected by a rampart of stones.
Chapter 6
What is Tylor's minimum definition of religion, and how does the chapter qualify it?
The chapter adopts Professor Tylor's 'minimum definition of religion' as belief in spiritual beings, though it notes it might be rash to call materialism inconsistent with religion. It adds that a primitive mind's spiritual being differs from a theologian's: for the savage, as for Tertullian and Origen, spirits are not immaterial but exceedingly subtle yet corporeal, and not necessarily immortal.
Chapter 6
How does Arunta totemism differ from the earlier anthropological model?
Anthropologists long held as an article of faith that a totem-animal's life was sacred to its clan and marriage within a clan was tabooed. But careful observation of the Arunta of Central Australia marked a new era: with them totemism does not forbid slaughter of the totem-animal and does not prescribe exogamy, resting instead on descent from quasi-human animal or vegetable ancestors whose souls are reborn in human form.
Chapter 6
What does the chapter conclude about totemism's origin and its possible traces in Britain?
The chapter argues totemism's origin can never be solved with certainty, since it cannot be observed in its primitive state and any backward tracing must start from conjecture. It notes superstitions and names suggesting totemism may once have existed in Britain, but says their source cannot be identified, and that Caesar's remark on Britons counting hares, fowls and geese impious to eat is 'a mere guess' as a totemic survival.
Chapter 6

Section 73 cards

What does the chapter say about the timing of the first neolithic immigrants to Britain?
The chapter states that no one can say how long after the Ice Age the first neolithic immigrants appeared, nor whether the last glacier in Northern Britain had melted. It notes that the Dover Strait was extremely narrow and may not have existed at all, and that neolithic hunters roamed forests now buried beneath the Bristol Channel and the sea off Land's End.
Chapter 7
What physical type characterized most later neolithic invaders of Britain?
The chapter says skeletons from neolithic tombs in England, Scotland, and Ireland mostly belong to one general type: long narrow skulls, oval faces, regular features, aquiline noses, middle height, and rather delicate limbs. The same type lived in Gaul and Spain and is still numerous in the Mediterranean basin; the chapter notes it is often called Iberian, though British representatives need not have been Iberian specifically.
Chapter 7
What does the chapter conclude about dolmens and attempts to trace migration by them?
The chapter calls attempts to trace migration to an original starting-point by dolmen distribution vain. Some archaeologists argue a dolmen-building race moved west from Syria via Gibraltar through Spain and Gaul to Britain; others say Scandinavia. The author argues dolmens may not have been designed by any one people, and that similarities could simply reflect different tribes acting similarly in similar circumstances.
Chapter 7

Section 84 cards

What two classes of Neolithic flint implements does Holmes distinguish?
Holmes groups Neolithic flint implements into two classes. In the first, comprising larger kinds such as axes and hammer-stones, the implement was made from a block of flint, with splinters struck off as waste or reused for smaller tools. The second class consists of tools made from flakes, with the core thrown away once the required flakes were detached.
Chapter 8
What does Holmes say about the term 'celt' and its origin?
Holmes notes that many readers know the term 'celt' but not that it has no connection with the name of the people who were the latest prehistoric invaders of Britain. It is simply an Anglicized form of a Latin word meaning a chisel, which occurs only in the Vulgate. Celts comprised hatchets and adzes, and some may have served as chisels and knives.
Chapter 8
How were Neolithic flint implements made, according to Evans's experiments?
Holmes reports that Sir John Evans believed flakes were generally struck off with a hammer or pebble alone, and found experimentally that a practised hand can attain almost perfect precision. Laying flakes flat-face uppermost on a smooth stone block, Evans chipped their ends into desired forms by blows of a pebble. Hatchets were first rough-hewn by striking splinters, then gradually chipped into shape; for finest work, implements were ground on a fixed stone and polished with stone rubbers and sand.
Chapter 8
What are pygmy flints and what does Holmes say about their use?
Pygmy flints are tiny objects made of minute flakes, found in parts of Britain and Ireland as well as France, Belgium, Spain, North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, and India. In one collection the marks of working could not be detected without a microscope, and sixty-four specimens, many no more than a quarter of an inch long, weighed less than half an ounce. Holmes says numerous guesses about their use need not be repeated, and notes their forms are identical everywhere.
Chapter 8

Section 94 cards

What did the excavator of the Waddon subterranean chambers suggest they were used for?
The three wholly subterranean chambers at Waddon near Croydon, about twelve feet in diameter and seven feet high, contained Romano-British pottery fragments but flint flakes and blocks assigned to the Stone Age. The antiquary who explored them was struck by their resemblance to Portuguese neolithic burial chambers, yet suggested they might also have served as shelters in times of excessive heat or cold.
Chapter 9
Why does the chapter doubt that British neolithic people practiced agriculture?
Cereals and flax fabrics, abundant in Swiss lake-dwellings, are absent from every explored British neolithic deposit. Stone pestles rarely prove corn-grinding, and rough celts may not all be Stone Age. The author argues agriculture was rare before bronze, noting neolithic teeth are remarkably perfect while Bronze Age teeth are worn, suggesting grain diets began later.
Chapter 9
What evidence suggests neolithic women had a harder life than men?
Skeleton measurements show the sex difference in stature was about twice that of civilized communities: men averaged roughly five feet six inches, women only four feet ten. The author concludes that when food was scarce men thought first of themselves, and that women suffered from early child-bearing and more than their share of toil. Thurnam calculated average age at death at no more than forty-five.
Chapter 9
What was the couvade, and how did the chapter explain its origin?
The couvade required the father to take to his bed for days or weeks after a child's birth while the mother resumed ordinary life. Greek writers report it among Corsicans, Tibareni, and Iberians. The chapter says it arose from belief in a physical union between father and child, but argues this belief was not primitive: matriarchy came first, and the custom was a parody of lying-in asserting paternal rights.
Chapter 9

Section 104 cards

What did Piette claim about the lozenges on the Lorthet reindeer-horn engraving?
Piette argued that the two small lozenges, each enclosing a central line, on the spirited engraving of reindeer and salmon were the artist's signature, saying the artist was 'justly proud of his work' and appended it. The chapter presents this as Piette's opinion rather than established fact, noting 'be this as it may.'
Chapter 10
What signs were found in the Placard, La Madelaine, and Mas d'Azil caves, and what did Piette conclude?
Antlers incised with signs exactly resembling various Greek and Phoenician letters, comparable to signs found in a Pacific island. These are not letters but symbols, not combined to form words or inscriptions. Piette maintained that being symbols, they do constitute a kind of primitive writing. No such signs have been found in any prehistoric deposit in Britain.
Chapter 10
What does the orientation of long barrows and chambered cairns suggest about their builders' beliefs?
The axis generally lies due east and west or close to it, with the broader, higher end holding the sepulchral deposits usually facing eastward. The chapter concludes the builders intended the spirits of the dead might look upon the rising sun. Variations between north-north-east and south-east likely depended on the place of sunrise at the season of erection.
Chapter 10
What did Pitt-Rivers conclude about the Wor Barrow on Cranborne Chase?
Pitt-Rivers doubted before opening it whether it belonged to the Bronze Age, given its uncommon oval form. After the tumulus was removed, a trench enclosing an oblong space appeared in the chalk, with stake-holes detected in it. He concluded the stakes were simply 'a wooden version of the long chambers of stone.'
Chapter 10

Section 114 cards

What evidence led Thurnam to suspect cannibalism in long barrows?
Thurnam believed long barrows showed evidence of cannibalism, and when some Yorkshire barrows were opened the flesh appeared to have been removed from bodies before interment. The author notes that ancient writers' accusations of cannibalism mainly referred to the Irish and to their own contemporaries. Even if cannibalism occurred in the Neolithic Age, the author argues the motive was not hunger but likely a funeral feast or absorbing the dead's qualities.
Chapter 11
Why might animals have been buried whole in Neolithic interments?
The author calls whole-animal burial perhaps the most curious feature of Neolithic interments. At Eyford in Gloucestershire a dog was buried with a woman, possibly her companion, but near Stonehenge a long barrow held the skeleton of an uneaten goose. The author asks whether this reflects a religious prejudice against eating geese like that Caesar noted, or whether the goose had been sacrificed.
Chapter 11
What does the author conclude about evidence for Neolithic religious belief?
The author says the sepulchral monuments, built with stupendous labour, witness a belief that may be called religious, perhaps illustrating that fear first begat gods. But apart from the graves there is hardly certain evidence of Neolithic religion in Britain, since grave goods are rare compared with France and Scandinavia. The author concludes we know little more of Neolithic than of Palaeolithic religion and must remain ignorant of its details.
Chapter 11
Why does the author doubt a Copper Age existed in Britain?
The author notes copper implements exist in prehistoric Britain, but such finds may be explained by tin being temporarily wanting rather than by a distinct Copper Age. Copper and bronze implements are often found together, and sometimes advanced copper types appear with primitive bronze. Where copper repeatedly underlies the oldest bronze, a Copper Age is established, as in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Cyprus, but for Britain the evidence is insufficient.
Chapter 11

Section 124 cards

When does Holmes date the start of the British Bronze Age?
Holmes reports that the veteran archaeologist who examined nearly every specimen concluded the British Bronze Age began at the latest between 1400 and 1200 B.C. No expert would now argue for a later date, though some maintain bronze was first used in Britain twenty centuries before the Christian era.
Chapter 12
Were the Bronze Age invaders Celtic-speaking people?
No. Holmes states there is no evidence, and it is in the last degree improbable, that any Celtic tribe had appeared in Gaul when the alien immigrants began settling in Britain, or that Celtic had taken shape as an Indo-European branch. The round-headed Gauls were a different stock; Celtic invaders of Britain are not recognizable in any British graves.
Chapter 12
Did bronze weapons give the first invaders victory?
Holmes argues this notion is disproved: in the earlier part of the era bronze was both costly and rare. Chieftains might have bronze while clansmen kept old-fashioned weapons, so neolithic tribes, where conquered, yielded to superior numbers, skill, or strength. Some districts were probably never conquered, as at Rochdale and Ashton-under-Lyne, where no bronze was found.
Chapter 12
Why were the Yorkshire Wolds densely settled despite poor soil?
The Wolds had scanty vegetation and could not tempt a people depending mainly on flocks and herds, yet numerous barrows and thousands of flint implements show dense population. Holmes explains they were unencumbered by forests needing arduous clearing, had a healthy climate, and were isolated by the wooded Derwent valley, Holderness swamps, the Humber estuary, and the morasses of the York plain.
Chapter 12

Section 134 cards

Why does Holmes doubt that British forts suffered prolonged sieges?
The author argues that no army can sustain a prolonged siege without a continuous food supply, requiring forethought and organization of which barbarous clans were incapable. He notes that even the more advanced Gauls repeatedly abandoned promising movements because their commissariat was neglected. So garrisons knew danger would pass if they held out briefly, and women likely carried up water in skin or earthenware vessels for a few days, as the Maoris did recently.
Chapter 13
How did the flanged celt and palstave develop from the flat celt?
Flat axes resembling polished neolithic celts were made early in the Bronze Age. Later the sides above the cutting edge were hammered upwards, probably to steady the blade against lateral strain, turning the flat celt into a flanged one. A stop-ridge was cast on the narrow part to stop the blade being forced too far into its haft. Flanges became wings hammered inward, forming a rudimentary socket; such celts are called palstaves, a word of Icelandic origin meaning spade.
Chapter 13
What does Holmes say about the origin of British socketed celts?
The author argues the socket was invented by an ingenious foreign cutler, not locally. Palstaves with wings bent over are rare in Britain, while socketed celts with ornamental wings are common, suggesting the socket was copied from abroad. Socketed celts were never widely diffused in northern Britain and did not wholly displace palstaves even in the south. After local manufacture began, output was still supplemented by imports from Gaul, a narrow-bladed square-socketed type common in north-western France and southern English counties.
Chapter 13
How were bronze shields made, and who could own them?
Shields were so thin they could not be cast at all but were wrought by hammer. Even at the close of the Bronze Age they were probably unobtainable except by the rich, while the rank and file made shift with bucklers of wicker-work, wood, or leather. Bronze Age shields were invariably circular, nearly all ornamented over the whole surface with concentric rings, one example having as many as thirty separated by circles of small studs, an ornamentation peculiarly British. One shield from the Fen country bears serpentine lines possibly representing snakes.
Chapter 13

Section 144 cards

What evidence suggests improved longevity and status of women in the British Bronze Age?
The author cites a smaller stature disparity between men and women than in the Neolithic, and Thurnam's estimate that round-barrow people averaged fifty-five years of age, eight more than the aboriginals. Skeletons showing extreme age have been exhumed in Britain, though the author notes famines and cattle disease still occurred.
Chapter 14
What did excavations at Ty Mawr reveal about Bronze Age hut-circles?
Ty Mawr on Holyhead Mountain held over fifty huts clustered in a village, sheltered by a cliff and fortified against attack from below. Walls about three feet thick enclosed spaces fifteen to twenty feet across, with entrances facing south-west. Some huts were workshops, littered with broken quartz, slag, and mortars used for breaking stone rather than grinding corn.
Chapter 14
What was found in the Heathery Burn Cave, and what does it show about bronze use?
Explorers recovered bones, shells, and many tools, weapons, and ornaments from the close of the Bronze Age, including a unique pair of bronze tongs, a casting mould, swords, spear-heads, socketed axes, a cauldron, and a gold bracelet. The skeletons differed from round-barrow types and resembled river-bed remains, showing bronze spread to descendants of the older population.
Chapter 14
How does the author contrast the Heathery Burn cave-dwellers' wealth with their living conditions?
The author notes the family was well armed, equipped with the best tools, owned flocks and herds, cultivated land, and could load their women with ornaments, yet lived in a dark damp cavern traversed by a stream that flooded one night and drowned them in their sleep. He finds it hard to conceive why they stayed, though refuse heaps prove long occupation.
Chapter 14

Section 154 cards

What evidence of sham jewellery existed in the Bronze Age?
Three penannular rings found near Forfar were made of bronze coated with gold leaf, showing that imitation jewellery was in vogue even in the Bronze Age. The author notes this as an alternative for those who could not afford costly ornaments but were not limited to perforated boars' teeth or bone beads.
Chapter 15
Why does the author think Wiltshire was so rich in imported ornaments?
The author offers an explanation with diffidence: it is improbable that most riches from South Wiltshire graves belonged to local families, since the abundance of barrows around Stonehenge suggests chieftains were brought from distant parts to be buried there. He also suggests the clans there may have been stronger, better organized, or better armed, gaining wealth by plunder.
Chapter 15
How did the spiral design reach Britain, and where is it found?
The spiral travelled along the amber trade route via the Danube valley and Hungary to Scandinavia, and ultimately reached Britain from Scandinavia. In Britain it occurs only on stone balls, cist stones, and megalithic monuments such as New Grange, confined to Scotland, Cumberland, Lancashire, Northumberland, northern Ireland, and Merionethshire.
Chapter 15
How did British culture compare with Central and Southern Europe in the Bronze Age?
The author argues Britain was outside the pale of the civilized world, with regular trade only with Northern Gaul and probably later Massilia and Phoenician Spain. Britons still used stout daggers after swords were common abroad, used bronze for centuries after iron was adopted elsewhere, and their workmanship never matched Scandinavian bronze excellence.
Chapter 15

Section 163 cards

Why is the chronology of round barrows difficult to establish?
Socketed celts, swords, and socketed spear-heads are almost never found in barrows with an interment, so most antiquaries infer round barrows belong to the earliest Bronze Age. That would imply mound-raising ceased for four or five centuries and was then revived in the Iron Age, which is hard to explain.
Chapter 16
What evidence suggests some Wiltshire barrows are late Bronze Age?
Dr. Arthur Evans notes an amber necklace from a Stonehenge barrow matches Hallstatt necklaces in form and arrangement, and affirms the disk-shaped Wiltshire barrows belong to the end of the Bronze Age. Glass beads in South Wiltshire graves were likely contemporary with socketed weapons, dated to the eighth and seventh centuries BCE.
Chapter 16
What does the chapter say about the theory that chiefs were unburnt while wives and retainers were cremated?
The author argues this distinction was possible in some places but obviously very unusual. Otherwise, in districts where cremation was universal, no chiefs would have been buried in barrows at all, though barrows were universally admitted to honour chiefs. On the Yorkshire Wolds the method chosen had nothing to do with rank, sex, or age.
Chapter 16

Section 174 cards

What proportion of interments in the Yorkshire Wolds contained grave goods?
Less than one-fourth of the interments in the Yorkshire Wolds were associated with any article whatever, while even in South Wiltshire barely two-thirds had such associations. In Derbyshire and Scotland relics were comparatively frequent but not universal, and in Cornwall they were almost entirely absent. The author uses this uneven distribution to argue against expecting uniformity of burial custom or rigid consistency of belief among different tribes and individuals.
Chapter 17
What evidence does the author cite for human sacrifice in Bronze Age Britain?
The author points to several bodies frequently interred in one barrow at the same time, and cases where a man and woman were laid in one grave or adjoining graves of the same date. In a barrow overlooking the Derwent valley, a woman was buried with a man whose head her hands clasped, his legs above hers and his right hand upon her hip. The author finds no explanation save sacrifice or suicide.
Chapter 17
Did cremation and inhumation in the West reflect different beliefs about the afterlife?
A distinguished archaeologist argued that in Greece, Gaul, and Britain inhumation and cremation were associated with different conceptions of a future life, the buried ghost tenanting the grave while the burned soul flew to Hades. The author rejects this for the West, noting both rites were practised contemporaneously in the Neolithic and later, sometimes in the same grave, and that Mentone caves show both in the Old Stone Age.
Chapter 17
What did Stukeley claim about stone circles, and how does the author assess it?
The imaginative Stukeley regarded stone circles as Druidical temples, a teaching still echoed in many handbooks. The author notes that nearly every modern antiquary ridicules the theory, yet none can prove it contains no kernel of truth, since Druids presided at all religious ceremonies. The author adds that if some circles were solar temples, Druids may well have directed the worshippers.
Chapter 17

Section 183 cards

What did the recent excavation at Stonehenge actually prove about its date?
It proved only that copper or bronze was known in Wiltshire when the stones were erected: a stain from contact with copper or bronze was found on a sarsen seven feet below the surface. Stone tools found there leave the date unsettled, since deer-horn picks were common in the Bronze Age and bronze tools are useless for working stone. The author argues Stonehenge was among the latest British circles.
Chapter 18
What did Pytheas learn from the Cornish inhabitants about tin?
They told him tin was cast into ingots shaped like ankle-bones, two forming a pack-horse load, and carried to an island off the Cornish coast called Ictis, accessible at low tide to their wagons. There it was shipped to Corbilo on the Loire, then transported on horseback to the mouth of the Rhone. The author notes the whereabouts of Ictis has long been disputed.
Chapter 18
What scientific achievements does the author credit to Pytheas?
The author calls Pytheas a great man and forerunner of Columbus. Using a gnomon in Massilia he estimated its latitude within seconds; his Atlantic observations showed tide height related to the moon's age; he determined the configuration of Gaul and Britain with some accuracy; and at four stations he took noon sun altitudes from which Hipparchus calculated latitudes. His work 'On the Ocean' has perished.
Chapter 18

Section 194 cards

What did the name 'Pretanic Island' suggest about Brythonic settlement in Britain?
Pytheas learned Britain was called the Pretanic Island. The word implied an earlier form Qrtanic, since Gauls had changed qu to p while some Western Gaul tribes and Gaelic-speaking Britons kept it. If Pytheas heard Pretanic from Britons, the author argues the Brythons were already predominant in those parts of Britain, and it is morally certain Brythonic tribes had settled at least half a century before he came.
Chapter 19
What does the chapter say about the date of the earliest Celtic invasion of Britain?
The author states the slender historical evidence does not warrant assigning the earliest Celtic invasion to more than six or seven centuries before the Christian era. Philologists who once accepted this date now push it back three centuries or more without giving reasons. The Hallstatt period in Gaul lasted roughly 800 to 400 B.C., but it is almost entirely unrepresented in Britain by iron weapons, so it gives no firm help.
Chapter 19
Why does the chapter doubt that iron reached Britain through a new invading people?
Two Cowlam round barrows in Yorkshire held women's skeletons in the contracted position, with pottery like Bronze Age domestic ware; only a brooch and Iron Age ornaments revealed the later period. The explorer concluded no new people came with iron, but the author says this is unwarranted except perhaps for that district. Iron might have spread by barter to Yorkshire after newcomers introduced it nearer Gaul; the prevalent view is Gallic invaders brought it about 400 B.C.
Chapter 19
What does the chapter conclude about attempts to determine the order of Brythonic tribal arrivals?
Schemes based on tribal geography, such as the Britanni taking Kent and the Votadini arriving last, may contain some truth, but the author says they bristle with difficulties. It is not certain the obscure Britanni ever invaded Britain; the same writer who calls them first comers also calls them Belgic. The Belgae, though last, took the best land nearest the Continent. The author concludes nothing can be learned of the history of these settlements.
Chapter 19

Section 201 cards

What is the ancestry of the pedestalled cinerary urns found at Aylesford?
The urns, wheel-turned and finer than Bronze Age pottery, resemble Belgic urns from near St. Valéry-sur-Somme and the lower Seine, belonging to the latest period of Gallic independence. But the type was not indigenous in Gaul: its descent traces to earthenware in North Italian graves of the fifth and fourth centuries BC, themselves derived from bronze vases common on both shores of the Northern Adriatic, whose cordons survived from wooden rings compacting staves.
Chapter 20

Section 213 cards

What did the relics found in Iron Age hill-forts prove about their occupation?
Holmes says the finds show the forts were permanent abodes, not merely refuges. Bill-hooks, ploughshares, bridle-bits, querns, iron slag, loom-weights, bone weaving-combs and spindle-whorls indicate an industrial population, including women doing domestic work. Forts on inaccessible heights or far from water were, however, sparsely inhabited in peacetime.
Chapter 21
What was Hunsbury, and what did its excavated remains reveal?
Hunsbury, near Northampton, was a small fortified town of only four acres, not a tribal centre. Its pit-dwellings held no trace of Roman influence, and experts dated the remains to Caesar's time. Inhabitants kept horses and chariots, wove cloth, sawed timber, made pottery, grew corn and smelted iron ore; skulls found outside had holes, suggesting amulets.
Chapter 21
How did brochs and 'Picts' houses differ from ordinary British dwellings?
Brochs were elaborate dry-stone round towers about sixty feet high and fifty feet in diameter, really small forts, found only in Scotland from Orkney and Shetland to Berwickshire. 'Picts' houses' were underground dwellings, a paved trench lined with dry masonry, roofed with slabs and ending in a round chamber, found in the far north and Cornwall.
Chapter 21

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Did all of Britain share the same level of culture in pre-Roman times?
No. The chapter states that culture was uneven: Scottish Late Celtic workmanship is mostly later than the Claudian conquest, and iron tools were probably rare or unknown in outlying districts of England and Wales. No purely British Early Iron Age objects were found in Lancashire, and on Cranborne Chase Pitt-Rivers detected no interval between the Bronze Age and the Roman occupation.
Chapter 22
How does the chapter assess Caesar's claim that interior Britons ate no corn?
The chapter calls Caesar's information somewhat misleading: remains of four kinds of corn were counted at Hunsbury, and cloth and linen were worn in Yorkshire by the well-to-do in the Bronze Age, so spinning and weaving were not lost. Still, the author argues Caesar's statement points to a truth: western and northern uplands resisted Rome longer and were never really Romanized.
Chapter 22
What does the chapter say about war and political change among the Britons?
Intertribal fighting remained frequent even in the south after the Belgic tribes settled as the dominant people. The chapter argues war was probably now waged for new motives: clans were being welded into larger communities Caesar called civitates, and successful chiefs assumed the state of petty kings, seeking dominion or overlordship as trade and wealth increased.
Chapter 22
What does the chapter say about the status of women and female rulers?
The Britons admitted the sovereignty of women: Cartismandua was queen of the Brigantes in the mid-first century, and Boudicca led the Iceni revolt. The chapter contrasts this with Caesar's account of Gallic wives, who could own property and brought dowries, but whose husbands held power of life and death and whose kin could torture and burn them on suspicion of foul play.
Chapter 22

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Why does Caesar's ranking of Mercury above Mars among Celts seem plausible to the author?
The author suggests the war-god had once been most conspicuous when the Celts were a host of warriors, and his later inferiority to Mercury may indicate progress in the arts of peace. He notes Lug may have been the British Mercury, but we cannot tell whether Lug ranked higher than Mars.
Chapter 23
What discrepancy do British inscriptions show regarding Caesar's claim about Mercury and Mars?
In British inscriptions Mercury's name is far less common than Mars, which the author calls remarkable in view of Caesar's statement. He says if this connects with British backwardness it must also be remembered that Roman Britain's organization was military. Mars appears with Celtic epithets including Camulus, 'god of heaven'.
Chapter 23
What does the author argue about Lucan's trinity of Toutates, Esus, and Taranis?
The author argues it is not likely Lucan would have learned the names of the trinity he made famous unless their worship had been national. He rejects the inference from scarce inscriptions that they were insignificant local cults, noting a devotee would not ascribe the qualities of Mars to a mere local god.
Chapter 23
How does the author explain the absence of pre-Roman statues of Celtic gods?
No pre-Roman statue has been found in Britain, nor in Gaul after the Palaeolithic. The author suggests Caesar's simulacra may have been menhirs, like formless stones Greeks venerated as Hermes. He notes Romans under Varro long had no sacred images, and Celts readily accepted foreign sculptors.
Chapter 23

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What powers did the Druids hold over justice and community life?
The Druids practically monopolized civil and criminal jurisdiction, though they had no legal power to enforce judgements and were nonetheless obeyed. They met yearly to dispense civil justice in the plain near modern Chartres. Those who disregarded their decrees were excommunicated, which meant exclusion from the civil community as well as from religious rites. The author suggests outlaws in Gaul were criminals they had banished.
Chapter 24
What evidence does the author cite for Pythagorean influence on Druidism?
Diodorus Siculus and Timagenes imply the Druids owed their conception of immortality to Pythagoras, testimony the author says has been contemptuously rejected. The author argues it seems not improbable that Druidism absorbed Pythagorean tenets via the Greeks of Massilia, and notes a British gold coin found at Reculver bearing the pentagram, a well-known Pythagorean symbol.
Chapter 24
How did the author characterize Druidism's relationship to Roman rule?
The author argues that while every ancient people had priests, the Druids alone were a veritable clergy. Their more definite theology might counteract Celtic religion's natural harmony with Rome, making Druidism a danger to Roman dominion. British Druidism supported and renovated the Druidism of Gaul, forming one of the bonds of union between the two Celtic lands.
Chapter 24

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Why did Caesar execute the Venetian senate after their surrender?
The Veneti surrendered unconditionally, and Caesar was determined to teach the Gauls that 'the rights of envoys' must be respected in future. He therefore put the Venetian senate to death, and all the tribesmen who failed to escape were sold into slavery.
Chapter 25
Why did Caesar's campaign against the Morini end without a decisive victory?
The season was too far advanced. The Morini refused battle and took refuge in forests; Caesar lost a few men in a surprise but punished his assailants. After days of cutting trees and seizing baggage and cattle, continuous heavy rain made tents unsafe, forcing him to abandon the campaign, leaving his base insecure.
Chapter 25
Why did Caesar choose Portus Itius (Boulogne) as his embarkation port?
Caesar marched to the Morini because the shortest passage to Britain was from their coast. The Liane estuary at Gesoriacum offered a protected, deep harbour with shipyards, roads, timber floated from the forest of Boulogne, and an excellent campsite; and despite being slightly farther than Wissant in a straight line, tidal streams and south-westerly winds made the passage more convenient.
Chapter 25
Why did the Gallic traders fail to give Caesar the information he wanted about Britain?
Caesar questioned traders from north-eastern Gaul about the island's size, tribes, fighting methods, customs, and harbours. He says they knew nothing of Britain except the coast and the parts opposite Gaul. Commentators note the Kentish harbours they knew could not shelter a large fleet; Strabo's account suggests they may have stayed silent from interested motives.
Chapter 25

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Why did the shipwreck at full moon panic Caesar's army?
A north-east gale combined with a spring tide at the full moon swept the beached galleys and drove the transports ashore; several vessels were wrecked and the rest lost anchors and tackle. With no tools or materials for repairs, and no grain, the army panicked, asking how they would subsist and how they would get back to Gaul without ships.
Chapter 26
What did the British chiefs plan after the shipwreck, and how did Caesar respond?
The chiefs saw the shipwreck at the full moon as a good omen, knew Caesar lacked supplies and cavalry, and resolved to recall their tribesmen, cut off supplies, and harass the Romans in irregular warfare, hoping to starve them or delay re-embarkation until winter. Caesar suspected trouble, sent for repair materials, and had his legionaries rebuild the fleet.
Chapter 26

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Why did Caesar have to leave Britain in September 55 B.C.?
Caesar's departure could not be postponed: it was about the middle of September and the dreaded equinox was near. With his unsound ships he would need a fine night for the voyage. He was relieved when, on the very day of their defeat, the British chiefs sued for peace; he demanded twice as many hostages as before, to be sent to Gaul since he could not wait.
Chapter 27
What does Holmes identify as causes of Caesar's partial failure in Britain?
Holmes argues the time for preparation was too short. The transports' excessive draught caused unnecessary loss during disembarkation; neglecting to bring supplies exposed the 7th legion to potentially calamitous defeat; and the absence of cavalry made it impossible to learn about the country and weakened the final victory's effect. The expedition's objects were otherwise not attained.
Chapter 27
How were the Morini punished after attacking the stranded Romans?
About three hundred soldiers from two transports that failed to make the Portus Itius were attacked by the Morini, a clan that had submitted weeks before. The Romans formed a square and held out for four hours until Caesar's cavalry rescued them. Next day Labienus marched against the Morini with two legions just back from Britain, and almost all were taken prisoner.
Chapter 27
What preparations did Caesar order for his second British expedition?
Before leaving Belgium, Caesar ordered his generals to repair old ships and build a new fleet. Ships were to be shallower than Mediterranean vessels, to ease loading and hauling ashore, but broader for troops and freight. Two thousand cavalry horses and transport cattle were to cross the Channel, and rigging was to be imported from Spain. About six hundred vessels and twenty-eight warships were built.
Chapter 27

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What caused Caesar's fleet to drift off course on the night crossing?
After the hawsers were cast off towards sunset, the wind gradually died down until it barely gave steerage way. The fleet was borne along by a rapid flood tide and drifted into the North Sea, so that at daybreak Caesar saw the cliffs of Kingsdown and the South Foreland receding on the port quarter. It is probable that sufficient allowance had not been made for the current.
Chapter 28
Why did Caesar order his ships hauled up on land after the second shipwreck?
Caesar reluctantly concluded that the only way to prevent another disaster was to have all the ships hauled up on land out of reach of the highest spring tides. An earthwork was thrown up around them and connected with the existing camp. About twenty thousand men worked in relays all day and all night, completing the task in about ten days, though repairs required longer.
Chapter 28
How did the second shipwreck change the course of Caesar's campaign?
The author argues the shipwreck was a calamity in which the mere loss of ships was the smallest part, because it changed the course of the campaign. Caesar had dealt the enemy heavy blows within two days of landing, but his carelessness undid all he had done. Britons saw Romans in full retreat and concluded they were not invincible, giving them time to unite under Cassivellaunus.
Chapter 28

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How did Cassivellaunus counter Caesar's march inland?
Cassivellaunus warned inhabitants to drive cattle into the woods and take refuge there. Knowing the country and enjoying superior mobility, he hid his force in wooded spots and swooped on Roman horsemen who rode out to plunder, inflicting heavy loss. Caesar then kept his terrorized cavalry in constant touch with the infantry, while the legions burned and ravaged whatever they could reach.
Chapter 29
How did Caesar cross the Thames despite Cassivellaunus's defenses?
Caesar learned the river was fordable at only one spot. Cassivellaunus had lined the far bank with sharp stakes and massed tribesmen, with more stakes concealed underwater. Caesar sent cavalry to swim across behind cover, then the infantry plunged in; while removing stakes, slingers and archers harassed the enemy. The infantry advanced with such swiftness that the Britons abandoned the bank and fled.
Chapter 29
On what terms did Cassivellaunus surrender to Caesar?
Cassivellaunus, losing heart after his country was harried, his people enslaved, and his cattle taken, sent envoys to propose surrender and asked Commius to negotiate. Caesar, glad to leave with a semblance of success and warned by Labienus of trouble in Gaul, demanded hostages, fixed an annual tribute for the tribes of the league, and ordered Cassivellaunus to leave the Trinovantes and their king unmolested.
Chapter 29

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What did Tacitus say Caesar achieved in Britain?
Tacitus said Julius, though by a successful engagement he struck terror into the inhabitants and gained possession of the coast, must be regarded as having indicated rather than transmitted the acquisition to posterity. Holmes argues even this judgement was based on imperfect knowledge, and that modern historians, including the greatest scholar, have tended to underrate what Caesar achieved.
Chapter 30
What was Caesar's avowed object in invading Britain, and was it gained?
The author argues Caesar's avowed object was to stop the Britons abetting the resistance of their kinsmen in Gaul. He impressed upon them such respect for Roman power that this object was effectually gained: the Britons ceased to abet the resistance of their kinsmen across the Channel. Caesar also forced the most civilized peoples of the island to acknowledge Rome's supremacy.
Chapter 30
What did Holmes argue against Mommsen about the tribute?
Mommsen asserted it is certain the stipulated tribute was never paid. Holmes calls this not only improbable but opposed to such evidence as we possess, arguing Mommsen did not fully appreciate the severity of Cassivellaunus's punishment or Caesar's hold over him through hostages. Holmes notes the Britons later paid duties at Gallic harbours, possibly an equivalent for uncollectable tribute.
Chapter 30
What do inscribed British coins reveal about political centres before Claudius?
From about 30 B.C. most new coins bore the name of the prince, tribe, or mint town. This shows Verulamium and Camulodunum were the chief political centres of Southern Britain. Notably, Londinium's name appears on no British coin yet found, though it may already have been the chief commercial town, as it certainly was from the start of Roman occupation.
Chapter 30

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Why did Augustus abandon his intention to invade Britain?
Strabo's Geography gives the official explanation: conquest would be very costly, and the revenue would likely not exceed the expense of garrison and administration. The harbour duties on British trade were more productive than any tribute, and Britain was too weak to be dangerous, so conquest was unnecessary. The author also suggests the petition of Tincommius and Dubnovellaunus may have been officially read as virtual British submission.
Chapter 31
What happened to the British coinage of Commius's sons' districts?
With the sons of Commius, British coinage in the districts they had ruled came to an end, with the sole exception of Kent. The author notes one possible explanation is that inhabitants had begun using only Roman money, as Gauls did, but since Kent's coinage continued, the more probable explanation is that they could no longer hold out against the King of the Catuvellauni.
Chapter 31
What prompted Claudius to dispatch Aulus Plautius to invade Britain?
The author suggests several motives: Caratacus and Togodumnus may have taken offence when Bericus and Adminius were not sent back, and even committed or threatened violence against Roman power. Their attitude, combined with information Bericus gave about internal British politics, may have been among the motives inducing Claudius to send the force under Aulus Plautius that began the Roman conquest.
Chapter 31
What does the author argue were the lasting results of the Roman conquest?
The author argues the invasion developed influences already begun: upper classes and townspeople learned Latin and adopted Roman customs, eventually regarding themselves as Romans; Late Celtic art gave way to Roman art, with Samian pottery and rude hypocausts even in cottages; by the fourth century a British church was fully developed and flourished after Roman administration ceased; and Britain became completely Romanized, receiving an impress not yet wholly faded.
Chapter 31

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Where in Britain have Palaeolithic implements been found, and what is said about Scotland?
Palaeolithic implements appear confined to the south of Britain; none has been found further north than Lincoln, or possibly the East Riding of Yorkshire. An attempt to prove such tools were used in Scotland was rejected, with the best judges unanimously of the opinion that the contention has not been established.
Chapter 32
What physical characteristics define the Neanderthal-type skulls described in the chapter?
Skulls of the Neanderthal type are extraordinarily dolichocephalic, with extremely low and retreating foreheads, heavy projecting lower jaws, and amazingly prominent brow ridges. The people were short, big-boned, and muscular. Only four human skulls referable to the British Palaeolithic period have been found in England, and their identification is uncertain.
Chapter 32
What did Schwalbe argue about the Neanderthal skull in 1901?
Schwalbe refused to regard the Neanderthal skull as human in the accepted sense, placing it as a distinct species intermediate between the Pithecanthropus of Java and man. He also placed the Spy skulls in the same class and insisted all other European Palaeolithic human skulls were different, disturbing previously settled convictions.
Chapter 32
How does Holmes criticize Boyd Dawkins's distinction between River-drift men and Cave-men?
Holmes argues the term Cave-men is poorly chosen since Dawkins admits they mostly camped in the open, and that River-drift men also used caves. He contends the absence of higher implement types from river-drift is explicable by perishability and field use, and that the two groups could hardly have avoided amalgamating.
Chapter 32

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How does Holmes criticize Boyd Dawkins's account of palaeolithic man's disappearance?
Holmes argues Dawkins's account is self-contradictory: Dawkins says the Cave-men were ruthlessly exterminated yet survived as ancestors of the Eskimos, and that they migrated eastward leaving no descendants, though he admits they came into contact with Neolithic invaders. Holmes asks why continuity could not have existed in Britain as it did in France.
Chapter 33
What evidence does Rhys offer for prehistoric British pygmies, and how does Holmes rebut it?
Rhys links the tribal name Coritani to cor, a dwarf, and cites small mound cells plus folklore about 'Mound Folk.' Holmes replies that the derivation is uncertain, the Coritani were themselves counted among Brythonic invaders, and the 'Picts' houses' are far later, some built after 80 A.D. He notes MacRitchie himself calls popular tradition unreliable.
Chapter 33
What did Thurnam and Beddoe estimate as the average height of Neolithic long-barrow skeletons?
Thurnam's latest estimate for 25 male skeletons from long barrows was 5 feet 5.4 inches (1.661 m). Beddoe gave reasons for thinking this too low and estimated 5 feet 6.7 inches (1.694 m). Holmes notes recent measurements including individuals under 5 feet do not invalidate these figures, and Scottish Neolithic skeletons gave practically the same results.
Chapter 33
What exceptions to the normal Neolithic long-barrow type does Holmes describe?
Holmes notes wide variation: a West Kennet skull with an angular square jaw deviating from the normal type, a Littleton Drew jaw described as thick and heavy, and a Uley skull with strong brow ridges. A West Kennet thigh bone of 20 inches implies a man about 6 feet tall, far above the average.
Chapter 33

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What three arguments does Holmes summarize for the Long Barrow race being Iberian?
First, Tacitus described the Silures as dark and curly-haired and inferred Iberian migration into Britain. Second, stress was laid on the alleged resemblance of Long Barrow skulls to Basque skulls, cited by Garson, Thurnam, and Beddoe. Third, Sergi placed the Long Barrow people in the Iberian branch of the Mediterranean stock based on skull comparisons with Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Hissarlik, and East African skulls.
Chapter 34
How does Holmes rebut the argument from Basque skull resemblance?
Holmes argues Basque cranial studies have produced widely different results and Garson does not specify which Basque group he means. Collignon shows Spanish Basques are dolichocephalic while French Basques are sub-brachycephalic, differing from each other. Holmes adds that the purest French Basques are generally fair and Spanish Basques less dark than other Spaniards, whereas the Long Barrow race was undoubtedly dark.
Chapter 34
What weakness does Holmes find in Sergi's inhumation argument?
Sergi claims the Mediterranean stock preserved primitive inhumation wherever it settled and that incineration was of Aryan, meaning Asiatic, origin. Holmes replies that this weakens Sergi's case, since it is certain that incineration was practised by many of the Long Barrow people. Holmes also notes that thirteen skeletons at Rodmarton had powerful frames, contradicting Sergi's 'slender and delicate' Mediterranean type.
Chapter 34
What does Holmes conclude about the Long Barrow people's origin and dolmen diffusion?
Holmes concludes there is insufficient evidence to assign the Long Barrow people to the Iberian rather than another branch of the Mediterranean stock, though their resemblance to the dolichocephalic neolithic population of Gaul supports the broader Mediterranean theory. On dolmen origins he offers no opinion, but finds least improbable the theory that a dolichocephalic people erecting dolmens in France and Spain were forced westward by brachycephalic invaders.
Chapter 34

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What does the chapter say about the origin of the name 'Pict'?
The chapter surveys competing scholarly views on whether 'Pict' was pre-Aryan or Celtic, noting Rhys changed positions repeatedly and Zimmer held it was a Latin translation of a British name. The author concludes the one certain point is that the name of the Picts has not been proved to be of pre-Aryan origin.
Chapter 35
How do P Celts and Q Celts differ according to the chapter?
The Gauls and Brythons are called P Celts because they changed the original sound qu into p; the Goidels, whose dialect was the ancestor of Gaelic, Irish, and Manx, are called Q Celts because they retained qu and in the sixth century A.D. modified it into c.
Chapter 35
What linguistic evidence is said to show the Picts once inhabited all Britain?
The Irish name of the Picts was Cruthni; the Welsh name for Britain, ynys Prydein, means 'island of the Picts', and Prydein derives from an old Welsh Priten, connected with the Greek Pretanoi. This etymology is accepted by scholars who differ on Pictish ethnology, including Rhys and d'Arbois de Jubainville.
Chapter 35
How does Zimmer interpret Caesar's passage on British polyandry?
Zimmer argues Caesar's words refer only to the interiores, the Britons of the interior, not the maritimi descended from Belgic invaders, since Caesar says the latter differed little in customs from the Gauls. Zimmer and Rhys further hold Caesar misunderstood the institution, which was really matriarchy, succession through the female line.
Chapter 35

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What does Holmes conclude about the racial composition and language of the Picts?
The author argues the Picts were a mixed people descended from neolithic aborigines, the Round Barrow race, and Celtic invaders, and that they spoke a Celtic dialect. He rejects the view that the Caledonians were pure neolithic survivors speaking a non-Aryan language, since the aborigines were generally small dark 'Iberian' types while the Caledonians Tacitus describes were big, fair or red-haired.
Chapter 36
Why does Holmes think tattooing proves nothing about Pictish ethnology?
Holmes argues tattooing was widespread and not confined to the Picts: Herodian mentions only Britons, not Picts, and Rhys himself admits Goidels practiced it. Nicholson's coin evidence shows tattooing among many Celtic Gaulish tribes such as the Ambiani and Sequani. Since tattooing appears across many unrelated peoples, it cannot establish that the Picts were pure neolithic survivors.
Chapter 36
What is Holmes's verdict on using the Pictish inscriptions for ethnology?
Holmes says the so-called Pictish inscriptions are so intractable that for ethnology they are practically useless. Rhys himself admits he can do little more than pick the most probable reading from previous attempts. Even if a non-Aryan residue existed, Holmes argues it would only show a non-Aryan language survived in remote parts, not that the Picts in general spoke one.
Chapter 36
How does Holmes use Celtic personal names to argue the Picts spoke Celtic?
Holmes argues that many tribes called Picts bore Celtic names, and not a single Pictish tribal, geographical, or personal name preserved by Ptolemy or other authorities has been proved non-Celtic. He cites Argentocoxos as a Pict with a Celtic name. If the Picts spoke a non-Celtic language, he reasons, their own names would not have been Aryan.
Chapter 36

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What six origins have been proposed for the tall Round Barrow brachycephals?
The chapter lists six answers given to their origin: that they were Goidelic Celts; that they were Belgae; that they were Finns; that they came from Denmark or the Scandinavian peninsula; that their original home was Dalmatia; and that they may be traced to the Rhine valley. The author notes the Goidelic view was repeated by almost every recent writer.
Chapter 37
Why does the author call the Belgic theory of the Round Barrow people absurd?
The author argues the Belgic invasion began at the earliest in the third century BC, while the first Round Barrow invaders landed by about 1400 BC, probably earlier. He also says Thurnam's skull comparisons are superficial and that Broca denied physical affinity between Round Barrow brachycephali and the so-called real Celts of Gaul.
Chapter 37
What two facts does the author say absolutely disprove the Goidelic theory?
First, no characteristic Round Barrow skull has ever been found in Ireland, with only four prehistoric brachycephalic skulls there, though Ireland was long a principal Goidelic home. Second, the Round Barrow race probably invaded Britain in the Neolithic, and the earliest Celtic invasion is dated no earlier than the seventh century BC, centuries after the Bronze Age began.
Chapter 37
What does the author affirm about the skull type of the Celtic invaders of Britain?
The author affirms the Celtic invaders of Britain, insofar as descended from the Celtic-speaking conquerors of Gaul, were dolichocephalic or mesaticephalic, not brachycephalic. He does not claim they were homogeneous: he assumes the dominant race had intermixed with descendants of neolithic stocks before embarking, but holds dolichocephaly, tallness and fairness prevailed among them.
Chapter 37

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What two errors does Holmes identify in Broca's definition of the 'Celts of history'?
Holmes says Broca wrongly assumes no classical writer except Caesar has any value, and fails to see that Caesar's statement that the people who called themselves 'Celts' were called 'Gauls' by the Romans makes the two words synonymous, as they were for Polybius and Pausanias. Holmes adds that Broca ignores the Helvetii, whom Caesar included among the Celtae.
Chapter 38
What does Holmes conclude about the skull type of the dominant Celtic-speaking invaders of Britain?
Holmes argues that while some Celtic-speaking invaders may have been brachycephalic, the dominant element — Celtic in blood and speech, matching the ancient writers' physical type — was mesaticephalic or dolichocephalic. He notes that Celtic skulls of the later British Bronze Age cannot be found because they were reduced to ashes by cremation.
Chapter 38
Why does Holmes reject Gray and Tocher's claim that Bronze Age Aberdeenshire people resembled modern Dalmatians?
Holmes disputes their 'fact' that bronze came to Britain from South-East Europe directly. He argues bronze arrived through primitive commerce via Northern France, not carried by Italians or Dalmatians, and that the Round Barrow people were still in their Stone Age when they invaded. He also says a direct Adriatic immigration is inconceivable and would have left traces en route.
Chapter 38
What does Holmes identify as the great mistake in discussing the brachycephalic Round Barrow immigrants?
Holmes says the mistake is assuming they arrived at one time from one place. He argues some came before the end of the Neolithic Age, others may have brought bronze, and others came in successive hordes during the Bronze Age — from Gaul, the Rhine, or Denmark and outlying islands. He also notes Huxley found no brachycephalic skeletons in Heathery Burn Cave.
Chapter 38

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What does Professor Kuno Meyer claim about Gaels reaching Britain?
Meyer holds that no Gael ever set foot on British soil except on a vessel that had put out from Ireland. He cites concurrent Irish and Welsh tradition of partial conquests of Britain from the second century AD until the sixth, and notes Gaelic inscriptions in Southern Britain belong almost exclusively to South Wales. He admits the difficulty of explaining how Romans permitted this but does not explain it away.
Chapter 39
How does d'Arbois de Jubainville's view of Goidels in Britain differ from Rhys's?
D'Arbois holds that Goidels, or speakers of the Celtic dialect from which Goidelic evolved, mastered the British Isles in Pytheas's time, and that between then and Caesar Britain was conquered by Cymric Brittones. He differs from Rhys in being unable to accept evidence that Goidelic tribes remained in Western and Northern Britain in Caesar's time, holding many were driven into Ireland by the Belgae. The author inclines to believe Goidelic was still spoken in remoter parts.
Chapter 39
What is Mr. Nicholson's theory about the Celtic invaders of the British Isles?
Nicholson argues the earliest Celtic invaders were Brythons, whom he calls Kymri; then came a horde of Goidels; in the third century BC the Picts, also Goidels, invaded Scotland; and finally the Belgae, who were Goidels too. The result, he claims, is that the great majority of tribes in Roman Britain were Goidels, though he concedes a later Kymric recovery and victory in Wales.
Chapter 39
What evidence does the author cite for Belgic settlement in Britain?
The author says the only tribal names indicating Belgic presence are the Catuvellauni, around Verulamium (St Albans), including Hertfordshire and Middlesex; the Atrebates in parts of Hampshire and Berkshire; and the Belgae, whose chief towns Ptolemy gives as Aquae Calidae (Bath) and Venta (Winchester). Caesar's words suggest the Cantii, Trinovantes, and Regni were also Belgic, though their names are absent from Gaul's Belgic list.
Chapter 39

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According to Rhys and d'Arbois de Jubainville, how did Βρεττανικαὶ arise from Πρετανικαί?
They hold that Brittani, the Goidelic name of the Brythonic invaders of Britain, had no connexion with Πρετανοί but was eventually confounded with it. Rhys locates the confusion in the ττ of Πρεττανική and attributes it to scribes. The author notes the puzzle that Diodorus, Ptolemy, and Marcian still wrote Πρετανικαὶ νῆσοι.
Chapter 40
What did Rhys in 1904 maintain about the Belgae and the name Brittones?
In 1904 Rhys distinguished the Belgae from other Brythons, called them the second group of Brythonic invaders, and gave the name Brittones to them and to their predecessors. The author finds it puzzling that two groups, Belgic and non-Belgic, should be named after the most obscure tribe of the second group.
Chapter 40
How does the author respond to Frazer's claim that magic is older than belief in spirits?
Frazer argues magic is a mistaken application of simple association of ideas, while religion assumes personal agents behind nature, which he calls more complex. The author says this is not obvious to him: a savage fancying everything that moves is alive seems a less rudimentary act than fearing a traction-engine, and the difference is only one of degree. He also calls Frazer's definition of magic singularly narrow.
Chapter 40
What evidence does the author use against Reinach's 'passive atheism' of primitive savages?
Reinach holds the true primitive savage lives in passive atheism and that the most backward known savages are Neolithic. The author objects that the Tasmanians a hundred years ago were Palaeolithic yet believed themselves surrounded by spirits, and asks how Reinach can make it evident that any savage ever lacked the fancy that moving things are alive.
Chapter 40

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What evidence does Gowland cite for copper or bronze use at Stonehenge?
Gowland reports only one trace of copper or bronze: a stain of CuCO₃ on a sarsen block seven feet below the surface. He argues it could only come from prolonged contact with a small copper or bronze object, perhaps an ornament, but not an implement. Holmes counters that no bronze was found in Bronze Age hut-circles or cemeteries either.
Chapter 41
How does Holmes rebut Gowland's argument that no bronze tools were lost at Stonehenge?
Holmes notes that no bronze has been found in Dartmoor hut-circles or in cemeteries undoubtedly of the Bronze Age. He suggests that workmen with no use for bronze tools at Stonehenge were no more likely to lose them there than the masons who built St. Paul's Cathedral were to drop their table knives in the churchyard.
Chapter 41
What date does Dr. Arthur Evans assign to Stonehenge's foundation, and on what grounds?
Evans places the foundation at the end of the fourth or beginning of the third century B.C. He links Stonehenge structurally to nearby disk-shaped barrows, notes glass beads and gold relics near the monument, and cites an amber collar matching Hallstatt manufacture, dating roughly 450-300 B.C. Holmes disputes several of these arguments.
Chapter 41
What did the 1901 excavations at Stonehenge under Gowland uncover?
Working only a fraction of the site, Gowland's team found chippings of sarsens and blue-stones, over a hundred stone implements (many flint, used for dressing softer stones), bones of domestic animals, splinters of deer antler, a large antler with its lowest tine worn away as if used as a pick, and Roman coins only in superficial layers.
Chapter 41

Section 424 cards

How does Holmes propose the Friar's Heel could have helped fix the solstice date?
Holmes argues that if the Friar's Heel stood slightly south of the midsummer sunrise point, the sun would rise over it twice—once before and once after the solstice. By counting the days between these two mornings and halving the number, the builders could determine the solstice with sufficient accuracy, then watch the sun's approach to the stone in later years.
Chapter 42
What evidence does Holmes cite for dating Stonehenge to before the Iron Age?
Holmes notes that the stones were not standing when round barrows were first erected on Salisbury Plain, since one barrow lies within the vallum and the vallum encroaches on another. Coles found Bronze Age interments in Scottish circles, and Holmes concludes Stonehenge was built before the close of the Bronze Age, likely among the latest stone circles.
Chapter 42
What is Dr. Evans's theory about the origin and purpose of stone circles like Stonehenge?
Evans argues that wherever the meaning of these monuments is clear, they connect with sepulchral usage: the circle is an enlarged version of the ring around a grave-mound, the dolmen represents the cist, and the avenue continues the burial gallery. He stresses Stonehenge's connection with sepulchral rites rather than claiming it was itself a cemetery.
Chapter 42
Why does Holmes doubt that Stonehenge was a solar temple or hosted solstitial festivals?
Holmes argues that orientation to the sunrise does not prove a solar temple, comparing Milan Cathedral's equinoctial orientation. He notes the sunrise-observance tradition is undocumented before Henry of Huntingdon and may postdate 1771. He also cites circles with differing centres and clustered circles on Dartmoor, suggesting solar worship was at most incidental.
Chapter 42

Section 434 cards

What are the five main theories about the identity of the Cassiterides?
The chapter lists five theories: that the Cassiterides were islets off north-western Spain; that they were headlands of that same coast; that they were the Scilly Islands; that they were Cornwall, thought to be an island or group of islands separated by estuaries mistaken for channels; and that they were the British Isles. The author notes the identity remains disputed.
Chapter 43
How does Strabo describe the Cassiterides and their inhabitants?
Strabo says the Cassiterides are ten in number, close together in the open sea north of the harbour of the Artabri. One is uninhabited; the rest wear black robes to their feet and carry staves, 'like the Furies in tragedy.' They are nomadic, live on flesh, and barter tin and hides for pottery, salt, and bronze. The Phoenicians once monopolized the trade from Gades.
Chapter 43
What did Publius Crassus do regarding the Cassiterides, according to Strabo?
Strabo reports that Publius Crassus sailed across to the islands, ascertained that the tin lay near the surface, and indicated the route for traders, though the passage was longer than that to Britain. Earlier, the Phoenicians had kept the route secret from Gades, but the Romans discovered it after numerous attempts.
Chapter 43
What is the author's own conclusion about the location of the Cassiterides?
The author argues that Strabo's Cassiterides were not in Spanish waters at all, but in the open sea far to the north of Corunna. He agrees with Torr that the harbour of the Artabri was the gulf holding Ferrol and Corunna, but rejects Torr's view that Strabo's account was fiction. He notes islands may have served as depots for mainland tin.
Chapter 43

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How does Holmes respond to Marx's identification of the Tin Islands with Britain and Wight?
Holmes challenges Marx's reasoning: if Marx is right that sub vertice means north of Finistère, the gulf (sinus) cannot be the English Channel and must be the gulf containing the Channel Islands. He asks why the Isle of Wight has anything beyond its insular nature to favour identification, and agrees with Stevenson that the Tin Islands cannot be the Scilly Islands unless Avienus's indications are utterly misleading.
Chapter 44
Why does Holmes reject Tozer's objection that Strabo placed the Cassiterides too far west for Scilly?
Holmes argues Tozer's objection assumes Strabo knew Scilly was close to Land's End. Strabo imagined the Pyrenees ran north-south, Gaul's coast ran straight to the Rhine, and southern Britain lay parallel and nearly opposite the Pyrenees' northern end. Since Strabo placed the Cassiterides in Britain's latitude, saying they lay north of the Artabri harbour was natural even for Scilly.
Chapter 44
What does Holmes conclude about the identity of the Cassiterides?
Holmes declines to argue the ancients meant Scilly alone. Though Scilly produced some tin, most British tin came from Cornwall; von Gutschmid held ancient writers supposed tin came from where it was exchanged, and Phoenicians may have occupied a Scilly island. Holmes thinks it safer to conclude the Scilly Islands may originally have been included with Britain under the name Cassiterides.
Chapter 44
How does Holmes explain Caesar's claim that tin came from Britain's interior?
Holmes suggests Crassus, in Brittany in 57-56 BC, was directed by Caesar to visit and report on the tin districts of the British Isles. Crassus may have landed near St Michael's Mount, where tin was delivered to merchants, and been told the tin was won inland—literally true. Caesar may then have hastily concluded the mines lay far from the coast.
Chapter 44

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What does Holmes say about Haverfield's claim that annexation of Gallia Narbonensis secured Diodorus's tin route?
Holmes says he cannot find any evidence that the route Haverfield describes—from Narbo by the pass of Carcassonne and Toulouse to Bordeaux—was the route to which Diodorus referred. Haverfield had affirmed that the Roman annexation of Gallia Narbonensis secured the trade route by which British tin reached the Mediterranean. Holmes disputes the identification of that route with Diodorus's account.
Chapter 46
How does Holmes answer Rhys's claim that any tin trade between Britain and the Loire was unknown to Caesar?
Holmes replies that if Rhys's own account holds—tin moving via south-eastern Britain between the tin districts and the Loire—that trade too must have been unknown to Caesar, since Caesar mentions neither route. Holmes then argues Caesar's silence is not ignorance: Crassus's voyage to the Cornish tin districts, equally unmentioned by Caesar, shows Caesar was reticent rather than uninformed.
Chapter 46
What reasons does Haverfield give for thinking the Cornish tin trade died out before A.D. 50?
Haverfield notes that little found west of Exeter connects with the first two centuries of the Roman Empire, and that the Romans of the conquest period did not advance beyond Exeter—which they would hardly have done had tin been flourishing. He suggests the trade may have ceased because iron replaced bronze, Spanish ore was cheaper, or accessible Cornish streams seemed exhausted. Holmes reports Haverfield holds the trade vanished before A.D. 50 and reappeared two centuries later.
Chapter 46
What evidence does Holmes cite for Carthaginian and Gaditanian voyages to British waters?
Holmes cites Festus Avienus, assumed to draw ultimately on the Carthaginian traveller Himilco, who says both the Carthaginians and the people of Gades used to sail to the British seas. Himilco's voyage was not later than the fifth, probably the sixth, century B.C., and according to Pliny its object was to explore the outer parts of Europe. Holmes concludes the Carthaginians traded by sea with Britain after Himilco's time, if not before.
Chapter 46

Section 474 cards

What did Holmes conclude dene-holes were primarily used for?
The author concludes dene-holes were intended as granaries, though they may occasionally have served as places of concealment, and the chalk removed from them was used as manure when wanted. He notes their name means 'Dane-holes,' i.e. hiding-places from the Danes, and that charred wood, animal bones and coarse pottery found in one near Dunstable show some were occasionally inhabited.
Chapter 47
How do bell-pits differ from dene-holes according to the chapter?
Bell-pits, sometimes confused with dene-holes, were undoubtedly made for the sake of chalk and, unlike dene-holes, were made broad so a large amount of material could be taken out at each haul. Some bell-pits are ancient, but the author doubts any could be proved pre-Roman; Pitt-Rivers believed the Britons learned chalk top-dressing from the Romans.
Chapter 47
What evidence does Gosselet give against the gulf of St. Omer existing in Caesar's time?
Gosselet proved the gulf did not exist before the latter part of the third century AD, since Gallo-Roman remains including 2,354 coins, some from the time of Postumus, were found in the area. He called the Sinus Itius a mere invention of seventeenth-century writers. The author notes no evidence was ever adduced that the shallow salt-water mere existed in Caesar's day.
Chapter 47
What did Roach Smith infer from Roman remains found north of Sandown Castle and coins at Stonar?
Roach Smith affirmed that Roman remains indicative of habitations were discovered in the sand-hills considerably north of Sandown Castle, and coins were found at Stonar opposite Richborough. From these facts he inferred that the sea's recession from the low land between Thanet and Walmer probably began much earlier than commonly supposed, undercutting claims of a wide Roman-era estuary.
Chapter 47

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What did Lyell conclude from the blue clay borings in the Goodwin Sands?
Sir Charles Lyell concluded that the Goodwins are 'a remnant of land, and not a mere accumulation of sea sand,' since blue clay resting on chalk was found at depths of 7, 15, 57, and 78 feet. He conjectured that the last remains of a clay island, like Sheppey, may have been carried away by the destructive storm of 1099 recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Chapter 48
What did Dr. Guest believe about the Goodwin Sands in Caesar's time?
Dr. Guest held that in Caesar's time the Goodwin Sands did not exist. He cited Somner's report that 'several men of judgement' thought they appeared only after Earl Godwin, and noted Sir Thomas More shared this view. He argued Leland attributed Sandwich's decay to the sands, and since Sandwich flourished in the fourteenth century, the sands likely reached formidable size only in the fifteenth.
Chapter 48
Why did Holmes reject Burrows's claim that the Dover Straits were two miles wider?
Holmes argues Burrows offered no proof, and that erosion of the South Foreland was not continuous since Caesar. Captain Martin said the cliff was protected by shingle and unchanged for time immemorial; erosion occurred only after the shingle supply was cut off. Since Caesar described 'precipitous heights' and Cicero 'astonishing masses of cliff,' the cliffs were little lower then than now.
Chapter 48

Section 494 cards

How did Elliott explain the formation of Romney Marsh?
Elliott argued that a shingle bar, made of pebbles from south-western cliffs and rivers and driven up the Channel by prevailing winds, gradually closed off the marsh. This protection let sediment from the hills settle, and the sea's deposits slowly raised the marsh surface. The shingle advanced rapidly at first, then very slowly, eventually reaching the hills at West Hythe Oaks, temporarily enclosing the marsh.
Chapter 49
Why did Lewin believe the shingle barrier was burst asunder?
Lewin held that after the shingle reached West Hythe Oaks the marsh was temporarily enclosed, but this could not last. Although the sea was excluded, the Limen (Rother) and about twenty smaller streams kept increasing the water volume inside the marsh. Eventually the shingle spit was burst asunder between Romney and Lydd, letting the sea back in until the Rhee Wall shut it out.
Chapter 49
What did Dowker claim about the Rhee Wall's origin?
Dowker argued the Rother originally entered the sea at Romney and gradually raised its bed and banks with sediment. He claimed the Rhee Wall was first a natural river-bank, the bank of the Rother, later raised and altered by the Barons of the Cinque Port of Romney, though only between Snargate and Warehorn. Holmes calls this notion simply fantastic.
Chapter 49
How does Holmes refute the claim that the Rother flowed out near Hythe?
Holmes calls Hasted's statement quite incorrect. Elliott, who knew Romney Marsh thoroughly, affirms no trace of any river remains between Lymne and Appledore, confirmed by Topley. Dowker notes such a river would have occupied the Military Canal's space and left no trace, and the Rhee Wall could not have protected against it. Holmes also notes the Itinerary never mentions the river, and Beale Poste misquotes Somner.
Chapter 49

Section 504 cards

What does Holmes say about Leland's evidence for a port at Lympne?
Holmes argues Leland mentions no tradition about a port; he merely asserts that Lymme Hill or Lyme was once a famous haven good for ships reaching the hill's foot. Holmes treats this as assertion, not tradition, and stresses that everything depends on the unascertainable date of the alleged tradition's origin.
Chapter 50
How does Holmes counter Appach's claim that Stone Street ends abruptly at Lympne?
Holmes notes that a road diverges right from Stone Street's straight course at New Inn Green and ends just north of Stutfall Castle. Mr. Thurston adds that continuing Stone Street straight would point to Shipway Cross and descend to West Hythe, the only spot where a roadway could descend the hill in a straight line.
Chapter 50
What does Elliott conclude about the estuary at Lympne, and on what evidence?
Elliott finally concluded there was no harbour at Lympne even in Caesar's time. Levels across Romney Marsh show land at Hythe Oaks is 18 inches higher than a mile west, impossible had an eastern outlet existed after western closure; tidal flow would have scoured, not silted. A shingle barrier had sealed the eastern mouth long before the historic period.
Chapter 50
What does Holmes say about Lewin's final view that the Portus Lemanis was at Hythe?
Holmes cannot follow Lewin, who shifted from a port at Lympne to a pool harbour behind a shingle spit from West Hythe Oaks to Shorncliffe, then narrowed it to Hythe without explaining why. Holmes notes Elliott retained the wider view in a map for Furley's History of the Weald of Kent, published 1871.
Chapter 50

Section 514 cards

What evidence does Holmes use to refute Appach's theory about Romney Marsh?
Holmes argues that Roman remains have been found not only at Dymchurch but at Eastbridge, Newchurch, Ivychurch, and across Romney Marsh Proper, while Welland, Guildford, and Denge Marsh yielded none. He concludes that Romney Marsh Proper was enclosed during the Roman occupation, and that Appach's theory is pulverized by this fact.
Chapter 51
What are Holmes's five conclusions about the Rother, Lympne, and the Rhee Wall?
Holmes concludes: the Rother entered the sea near Appledore, not Lympne; the marsh was closed at West Hythe Oaks, so Lympne had no harbour; the Rhee Wall was not yet built, so the marsh flooded at spring tides between Romney and Lydd; the Portus Lemanis was a pool harbour from West Hythe to near Shorncliffe; and the Rhee Wall was built in Roman times.
Chapter 51
What did Caesar do before his first British expedition, and where did he gather his fleet?
Caesar sent Gaius Volusenus to reconnoitre the British coast and find harbours for a large fleet. He marched to the country of the Morini because the shortest passage to Britain was from there, ordered ships from neighbouring districts and the Veneti fleet to assemble, and sailed soon after midnight with about 80 transports, some warships, and small fast vessels from an unnamed port.
Chapter 51
Why does Holmes argue Caesar sailed from the Portus Itius on both expeditions?
Holmes weighs Drumann, who says Caesar first sought the shortest passage and only later learned of the Itius, against Long, who says Caesar found the best departure point on his first voyage and kept it. Holmes notes Caesar never explicitly says he sailed from the same port, and that Strabo's testimony may only reflect Strabo's own construction of Caesar's words.
Chapter 51

Section 523 cards

What does Holmes argue about Caesar's use of proficisci with in?
Holmes argues that in almost every instance where Caesar uses proficisci with in, the context proves the destination was reached. He cites Meusel's Lexicon Caesarianum lists, noting proof usually comes from another clause but not always. For the Morini passage, Holmes says Caesar ordering his fleet to assemble there confirms he was in Morini territory.
Chapter 52
What error does Holmes identify in Airy's claim about Fabius wintering among the Morini?
Airy argued the order for a legion to march 'in Morinos' from the Portus Itius proved Caesar was not in Morini country. Holmes says 'from the Portus Itius' begs the question: one legion, not legions, was sent from Samarobriva in Ambiani territory, where all legions were temporarily assembled, as the context shows.
Chapter 52
How does Holmes refute Airy's reading of Strabo's 'para' and 'paulo infra delatae'?
Airy claimed para means 'near to,' not 'in,' Morini country; Holmes cites Dr. Guest's refutation and other Strabo passages where par' hois means 'in whose country.' On 'paulo infra delatae sunt,' Holmes notes Caesar uses defero as 'drifted' four times and infra locally three times, none supporting Airy's wind-force theory.
Chapter 52

Section 533 cards

Why does Holmes reject the argument that 'Wissant' derives from 'Itius'?
Holmes calls the argument from nomenclature worthless: 'Wissant' is said to be merely a corruption of 'Weiss-sand' (Whitesand), not a derivative of 'Itius.' He also notes there is no evidence for the alleged Roman road, since the road Henry claimed led from Thérouanne to Wissant actually led to Sangatte.
Chapter 53
What does Holmes say about Ridgeway's argument that Strabo's 'το Ιτιον' must mean a headland, not a harbour?
Holmes grants Ιτιον may agree with ἄκρον but says Ridgeway must prove the headland was not Cap d'Alprech, which shelters the Liane estuary and matches Ptolemy's position. He adds that ναύσταθμον does not exclude a harbour, citing Strabo on the Piraeus and Pausanias on Nauplia, and notes Caesar himself wrote 'ad portum Itium.'
Chapter 53
Why does Holmes reject Long's inference that the Portus Itius passage was the shortest to Britain?
Holmes says Long strains Caesar's language. Caesar stated generally that the shortest passage was from the Morini's country, but it is bad logic to conclude the Portus Itius passage was shortest as the crow flies. Holmes argues Caesar meant the shortest of the regular passages, and the Portus Itius, being 'the most convenient,' was for practical purposes the shortest.
Chapter 53

Section 544 cards

How does Long interpret καί in Strabo's phrase about the Itian harbour?
Long argues that καί in the relative clause (παρ' οἷς ἐστι καὶ τὸ Ἴτιον) marks emphasis rather than adding a second harbour. He contends that if Strabo meant another port besides the Itius, there would be five points of transit instead of the four he lists, so Strabo would contradict himself. He cites other Strabo passages where Groskurd's 'auch' makes no sense.
Chapter 54
What did excavation reveal about the 'mottes' near Wissant?
The hillocks known as 'mottes' near Wissant were excavated and proved to be simply tumuli containing skeletons, flint implements, and bone pins — not defensive works. The 'Camp de César' was shown to be post-Roman and under an acre and a quarter, too small for more than 500 men, while the alleged camp of Labienus was shown to be purely imaginary.
Chapter 54
Why does Holmes argue Caesar gained nothing by sailing from Wissant?
Holmes argues that although Wissant is nearer England, Caesar would have gained nothing even for the voyage itself. Captain Iron of Dover affirmed the fleet would have 'made a better run' from Boulogne. Since Caesar sailed when the tide ran down the Channel and turned north-eastward mid-voyage, the greater part of the voyage from Wissant would have been made on the eastward stream with a south-west wind.
Chapter 54
What does Holmes conclude about the Portus Itius and Wissant?
Holmes concludes it is not possible to prove the Portus Itius was at Wissant, but it is possible to prove it was not. He notes he once argued for Wissant himself but his knowledge was then imperfect. He also suggests, following Rudolf Schneider, that if Strabo meant the Itian port differed from the Morini's usual port, Strabo was simply mistaken.
Chapter 54

Section 554 cards

Why does Holmes argue Caesar sailed from Boulogne rather than Wissant in 55 B.C.?
Holmes argues the portus ulterior from which the cavalry transports sailed can only have been Ambleteuse, not Sangatte, so Caesar sailed from Boulogne. He adds that having experienced Boulogne's advantages, Caesar would not have discarded it for a place inferior in all respects. The author presents this as his settled conclusion after demonstrating Wissant was not the departure point.
Chapter 55
What evidence does Holmes cite that Boulogne's harbour could accommodate Caesar's fleet?
Holmes cites Desjardins, who showed the Liane estuary was broader and deeper in Caesar's time and was the only port protected from every wind. Henry, though advocating Wissant, called Gesoriacum the most convenient harbour in Belgic Gaul for commerce and shipbuilding. Captain Iron assured Holmes Caesar's shallow vessels could clear the harbour in a single tide, since their draught was under five feet.
Chapter 55
How does Holmes answer Airy's objection about the distance from Boulogne to Ambleteuse?
Airy measured about 4½ nautical miles by sea, not Caesar's 8 miles. Holmes replies that Airy's measurement is accurate but irrelevant, since Caesar must have meant distance by land. Lewin notes the land route through Wimille and Slacq to Ambleteuse is twelve kilometres. Holmes also mocks Airy for stressing Caesar's distance estimate while elsewhere calling Caesar's sea estimates valueless.
Chapter 55
How does Holmes rebut Long's claim that Gesoriacum and Portus Itius were different places?
Holmes argues 'Portus Itius' is not a proper name but simply means 'the Itian harbour,' so a harbour could bear both names, as Athens' port was called the Piraeus. He also rejects Long's distance argument: Pliny's fifty Roman miles likely referred to Richborough, and Strabo estimated the maritime stadium at eight, not ten, to the Roman mile.
Chapter 55

Section 564 cards

Why did Caesar not land at the first British site he approached?
Caesar saw an armed enemy force drawn up on all the heights, and the ground was peculiar: the sea was so closely walled in by precipitous heights that a missile could be thrown from above onto the shore. Judging the place unsuitable for landing, he waited at anchor until the ninth hour for the rest of the fleet, then moved about 7 Roman miles to an open, evenly shelving shore.
Chapter 56
What happened to the eighteen cavalry transports on the fourth day after landing?
They set sail from the further harbour with a light wind and were visible from Caesar's camp when a sudden storm struck. Some were carried back to the harbour they had left; the others were driven down in great peril to the lower, more westerly part of the island. They anchored, but waves broke over them, so they stood out to sea at night and made for the Continent.
Chapter 56
What effect did the full moon have on Caesar's ships?
There was a full moon that night, and Caesar notes that full moon causes extraordinarily high tides in the ocean. Combined with the gale, the high tide waterlogged the warships drawn up on the shore, and many transports riding at anchor were driven ashore and wrecked.
Chapter 56
What does the author argue is needed to identify Caesar's landing place?
The author argues that Caesar's indications are sufficient for an attentive reader, but only with collateral knowledge: ancient geography of the Kent coast, Channel tides, elementary seamanship, intimate knowledge of Caesar's writings, and understanding of ancient warfare from modern campaigns. He contends that critics like Mommsen and Kiepert failed not because Caesar was vague but because they lacked this preparation.
Chapter 56

Section 574 cards

Why does Holmes reject Airy's argument about Caesar's full moon?
Holmes argues Airy's argument is unsound because astronomers could predict lunar phases long before Caesar's time, as Livy records a tribune predicting an eclipse in 168 B.C. The unusually high tide on the night Caesar called full moon presents no difficulty: it would have been higher than normal and increased by the gale Caesar mentions. Holmes adds that extraordinarily high tides have occurred even at neaps.
Chapter 57
What does Holmes conclude about the exact date of Caesar's landing?
Holmes concludes it is not possible to say with absolute certainty on what day Caesar landed. It is morally certain Caesar used inclusive reckoning, and probable he landed on the fifth day before the moon he called full, though possibly the fourth. Holmes thinks it probable Caesar landed on August 26, but he may have landed on August 27 or possibly August 25.
Chapter 57
Why does Holmes agree with Vogel against Dion Cassius on the landing place?
Holmes agrees with Vogel that Dion's statement proves nothing, since it likely represents only Dion's own interpretation of Caesar's words. Caesar speaks only of the place he had ascertained the previous year to be best for landing, not that he had landed there. Still, Holmes holds it certain Caesar landed in the same part of the island both years.
Chapter 57
What is the main point at issue between the Lympne/Hythe and Deal/Sandwich theories?
Holmes says the chief point at issue is whether, when Caesar sailed with wind and tide in his favour from his anchorage and steered for his landing place, the tidal stream was running up or down the Channel. The prevailing recent belief is that it has been proved he sailed down, but Holmes engages to show that the so-called proof is no proof at all.
Chapter 57

Section 584 cards

What did the Nautical Almanac Office calculate for high water at Dover in August 55 B.C.?
The Nautical Almanac Office calculated that the Greenwich mean time of high water at Dover was 6.21 a.m. on 26 August, 7.42 a.m. on 27 August, and 8.44 a.m. on 28 August, 55 B.C. The author states their error is probably insignificant. He uses these figures to argue that high water on the landing day was not early, undermining the tidal theories of Airy and Lewin.
Chapter 58
How does the author use Calver's tidal observations against Lewin's theory?
Calver observed the stream turning westward 3 h. 40 m. after high water, with a westward duration of only 5 h. 53 m. on one occasion. The author argues that if high tide occurred at 5.31 a.m., the westward stream could have ceased at 3.4 p.m., which would destroy Lewin's theory. He says Lewin could not have denied this without signing his theory's death-warrant.
Chapter 58
Why does the author reject Airy's claim that Caesar anchored five miles offshore?
Airy places Caesar's anchorage five nautical miles from shore to prop up his Pevensey theory. The author argues this is absurd because at that distance Caesar could not have seen the armed men swarming on the cliffs without a powerful telescope. He cites Lewin's conclusion that Caesar must have anchored within a mile, probably half a mile, of the shore.
Chapter 58
Why does the author argue the cavalry transports could not have returned to the Authie?
The author reasons that the gale blew from about the north-east, and the course to the Authie from Pevensey would have been within less than nine points of the wind. In such a gale the ships could hardly have made less than four points of lee-way, so they would have had to lie within less than five points of the wind, which they could not do. A Dover harbour-master said they would have fetched Dieppe.
Chapter 58

Section 594 cards

How does Holmes refute Airy's reading of 'sub sinistra relictam'?
Holmes argues that if Caesar had not drifted as far east as Dover, his vessel would have been moving parallel with the British coast, so Caesar could not have described Britain as 'lying behind on the left.' He notes Lewin overlooked this point. Holmes treats the phrase as placing Caesar east or north-east of the South Foreland, which he says alone disposes of Airy's theory.
Chapter 59
Why does Holmes reject Pevensey because of the four chieftains?
Holmes argues the four chieftains who attacked Caesar's naval camp in 54 B.C. belonged to Kent, not Sussex. Against Airy's claim that the more numerous Kentish men came to help their countrymen, Holmes cites Lewin: since the Kentish men were distinct from the Regni of Sussex, their assault on the camp implies the camp was in Kent. Holmes adds that internecine war made such a long march implausible.
Chapter 59
How does Holmes rebut Airy's translation of 'summa tranquillitas'?
Airy claimed 'summa tranquillitas' meant 'a stiff north-west wind,' citing Cicero and Vergil. Holmes replies that Cicero's letter concerns being weatherbound by trade winds, using 'tranquillitates' for fine weather, and that Vergil's passages describe gentle winds or a storm's cessation. Holmes cites Cicero's 'mirae tranquillitates' and Caesar's 'tanta tranquillitas' for the Veneti, both meaning dead calm.
Chapter 59
What objections does Holmes raise against Ridgeway's Pevensey theory?
Holmes asks how Caesar's cavalry transports could have returned from near Pevensey to Sangatte, steering east-north-east against a gale from east of north. He also says Ridgeway's claimed manuscripts reading 'about forty miles' do not exist, and that Malden noted Caesar landed in the teeth of a British army, so he did not avoid the narrow crossing for Ridgeway's reason.
Chapter 59

Section 604 cards

What problem does Holmes raise about Lewin's Hythe landing theory regarding Caesar's 54 B.C. camp?
Holmes asks how a camp linked to the beached ships by 'a single defensive work' (una munitione) could have been built on a shingle beach. He argues no material but shingle was available, and the work could not cross the deeply submerged 'narrow gut.' He concludes camp and connecting work must both have been made of shingle, mocking the idea.
Chapter 60
Why does Holmes reject Lewin's claim that a north-easterly gale drove Caesar's transports back to Ambleteuse?
Holmes calculates that returning to Ambleteuse would require sailing within less than eight points of the wind, and even allowing four points of lee-way, the ships would need to lie within four points of the wind—impossible in a heavy gale. He also notes a north-easterly gale could not drive anchored ships ashore in a northerly direction.
Chapter 60
How does Holmes counter Lewin's argument that a prudent commander would steer west toward Hythe?
Holmes says the argument assumes without grounds that Volusenus never reconnoitred north of the South Foreland, meaning he neglected his duty. He adds that Caesar acted on Volusenus's report, not on what he could see from his moorings, and that no competent commander in ancient warfare would attempt landing at Hythe or Lympne.
Chapter 60
How does Holmes use Caesar's phrase 'litore molli atque aperto' to criticize Lewin and other commentators?
Lewin and others explain apertum variously—distance of heights, visibility inland—but Holmes says all are wrong. In the second expedition Caesar uses the phrase of a shore where he left ships at anchor with little anxiety, so apertum must suit an anchorage. Holmes argues the quoted explanations would make the word irrelevant in that passage.
Chapter 60

Section 614 cards

What does Holmes say about the alleged marshy ground near Caesar's landing-place?
Holmes states there is no evidence of marshy ground at or near Caesar's landing-place, and adds that even if such ground existed, the fact would not prove Caesar landed at Hythe. This undercuts Lewin's topographic argument for the Hythe/Romney Marsh theory.
Chapter 61
How does Holmes rebut Lewin's claim that the tide range at Romney Marsh supports a Hythe landing?
Holmes calls the comparison between high-water range at Romney Marsh and at Deal irrelevant, doubting Lewin would seriously maintain that a storm-heightened spring tide between Walmer and Deal could not have caused the damage Caesar described. He also notes Lewin elsewhere says the wind was north-east, not south-east.
Chapter 61
Why does Holmes say a south-west wind makes a Hythe or Lympne landing unlikely?
Caesar sailed from Portus Itius with a south-west wind, which Holmes says would not favour a voyage from Boulogne to Hythe or Lympne. The wind would be abeam, the flat-bottomed ships would make lee-way, and the current turned east-north-east for hours. Holmes notes Lewin inadvertently quoted Dougall's opinion damaging his own case.
Chapter 61
What does Heller argue the phrase 'inferior pars insulae' proves about Caesar's camp?
Heller argues that Caesar's phrase about ships driven 'to the lower and more westerly part of the island' must mean a different side of the island from Caesar's camp. Comparing Caesar's Fifth Book description of the island's sides, Heller concludes 'inferior pars' means the southern side, so Caesar's camp was on the eastern angle—not the south coast.
Chapter 61

Section 624 cards

What did Appach argue about Caesar's 55 B.C. landing place?
Appach argued Caesar's troops disembarked in 55 B.C. between the foot of the spur from Aldington Knoll, about four miles west of Lympne, on the right, and a point about halfway between Bonnington and Bilsington on the left; in the following year the left of the line extended westward as far as Kennardington. Holmes notes the theory differs only slightly in locality from Malden's but rests on different arguments.
Chapter 62
How does Holmes refute Appach's use of 'omnibus collibus'?
Appach claimed Caesar's word 'all' in 'omnibus collibus' pointedly implied more than two hills, supporting the Hythe-Sandgate valleys. Holmes replies that to anyone familiar with Caesar's usage the inference is forced, and that the Dover cliffs eastward toward the South Foreland show the same succession of heights — six, not three, between the Priory Valley and the South Foreland — matching Caesar's description exactly.
Chapter 62
Why does Holmes reject Appach's argument about chariots and shingle?
Appach argued that since Britons used chariots and cavalry against the landing, there could have been no shingle, and Bonnington meets this condition. Holmes answers that the coast north of Sandown Castle also meets it, so the argument does not locate Bonnington. He adds that horses need not gallop into the sea; they only had to carry riders a little way into the water to throw missiles, as at Lympne, Hythe, or Deal.
Chapter 62
How does Holmes counter Appach's reading of 'sub sinistra Britanniam relictam conspexit'?
Appach claimed Caesar's words would be meaningless if the coast were as now, since Britain could not be elsewhere, but fit if the sea filled the Bay of Apuldore and Caesar expected Britain on his right. Holmes replies Caesar wrote for countrymen ignorant of Britain's shape until Book V, chapter thirteen; cites Polybius on Hannibal having the Mediterranean on his right; and notes Caesar could not have drifted the fifteen-plus nautical miles needed between midnight and daybreak.
Chapter 62

Section 634 cards

Why does Holmes doubt Caesar's exact recorded hour for weighing anchor?
Holmes argues Caesar likely had no reliable timepiece and probably estimated the hour from the sun or memory rather than a diary. Even if he had a water-clock, it would need correcting for latitude and calm seas. Holmes therefore insists it is folly to stake the whole argument on the accuracy of Caesar's stated hour.
Chapter 63
What does Holmes conclude about the direction Caesar sailed from his anchorage?
Holmes concludes Caesar sailed north-east when he weighed anchor off the Kentish cliffs. He argues Caesar was too wise to begin a seven-mile sail on the last of the ebb tide, and Caesar's own words say he had wind and tide in his favour. Holmes also claims it is impossible Caesar landed at Pevensey or anywhere on Romney Marsh.
Chapter 63
Why does Holmes trust Dion Cassius's claim that Caesar rounded a promontory?
Holmes argues Dion would not have invented so definite and simple a statement, and that even a careless rhetorical writer would copy such a detail correctly from a source. He therefore believes Dion took it from a lost authority and that it is true, identifying the promontory as the South Foreland. He concedes the argument can be dispensed with if disputed.
Chapter 63
Why does Holmes think Volusenus would have chosen East Kent for the landing?
Holmes argues Volusenus would have rejected the Sussex coast and the cliffs near Folkestone and Lympne as unsafe for landing beneath heights. Near Walmer he would have seen open coast offering easy access inland, the only safe landing if Dover Harbour were held by an enemy and the only place allowing an effective cavalry charge after victory.
Chapter 63

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Why does Holmes say Lewin's own argument is fatal to Lewin's theory?
Holmes argues that if Lewin's reasoning rules out a landing near Deal, it equally undermines Lewin's own Hythe theory. Lewin must assume Caesar drifted no further than off the South Foreland, leaving under thirteen nautical miles to row with the stream—so hard rowing would be inexplicable. Lewin ignores this, and his admitted drift of at least twelve miles is impossible in the available hours.
Chapter 64
What does Holmes think Caesar meant by 'following the turn of the stream'?
Holmes argues Caesar never said his men rowed hard exactly with the stream the whole way. Rather, they followed the tide until reaching a point where continuing would carry them past their destination, then rowed hard across the current toward the landing place—a modification of Schneider's explanation. This fits a landing anywhere between Walmer and Sandwich.
Chapter 64
How does Holmes answer Airy's objection about forests and cornfields near Deal?
Holmes cites Long, who notes fine wheat land at Worth between Deal and Sandwich, and Guest, who says the uplands round Deal are white with corn each autumn. Absence of woods now proves nothing, since many English forests have vanished. Holmes adds there are five woods within about a mile to three and a quarter miles of Upper Deal, while Caesar mentions only one distant wood.
Chapter 64

Section 654 cards

Where does Holmes conclude Caesar landed on his first and second voyages?
Holmes concludes Caesar landed in 55 B.C. between Walmer Castle and Deal Castle, and in 54 B.C. north of Deal Castle, in East Kent. He argues Caesar did not land at Pevensey, anywhere in Sussex, at Hythe, or in Romney Marsh. For the second voyage he reasons the camp lay near Sandwich because the cavalry fight on the Stour was about twelve miles from camp.
Chapter 65
How does Holmes explain Caesar's phrase about leaving ships on a 'nice open shore'?
Caesar wrote that he felt little anxiety for the ships because he left them at anchor on a soft and open shore (litore molli atque aperto). Holmes argues, though no commentator had noticed it, that Caesar was excusing himself for leaving the ships at anchor despite the severe lesson of the previous year's storm, by pleading that he had chosen a more favourable anchorage.
Chapter 65
What charge does Dr. Vogel make about Cicero's phrase 'Britannici belli exitus exspectatur'?
Vogel insists the words can only mean the end of the British war is expected, i.e. that the hazardous and unremunerative expedition will be abandoned. He dates the letter before 8 June, and cites Caesar's Treveri campaign and a later letter to Quintus as hints that Caesar hesitated. Holmes rejects this as resting on a mistranslation, since the Latin will bear his own reading.
Chapter 65
How does Holmes answer Vogel's claim that a break in letters shows Caesar concealed a crisis in Kent?
Holmes says reading between the lines is easy but one must avoid reading what is not there. The break is explained by Caesar marching inland, negotiating with Cassivellaunus, and returning to the sea, or by his simply not writing. He notes dum haec in his locis geruntur is one of thirteen similar 'meanwhile' phrases, imprecise but not meaningless.
Chapter 65

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What does Holmes conclude about Dr. Vogel's charges against Caesar's narrative?
Holmes concludes that the charges which Dr. Vogel brought against Caesar's narrative for the most part break down, but that in the one instance he noted Vogel may have detected a flaw. He does not claim Caesar told the whole truth, but argues the specific accusations largely fail.
Chapter 66
What does Holmes identify as the most serious omission in Caesar's British campaigns?
Holmes says Caesar either passed over in silence a hurried temporary visit to his naval camp just before 1 September (5 August Julian) 54 B.C., or, if he stayed in camp until final departure, his account of negotiations with Cassivellaunus and the return march to the coast is misleading.
Chapter 66
How does Holmes counter Lewin's claim that Caesar invented a pretext to return to Gaul in 55 B.C.?
Holmes asks where the alleged veil is, notes Dion's account confirms Caesar's, and shows Lewin misread Dion: the Morini negotiations occurred right after the landing, not at departure. Holmes adds Caesar's humorous admission that only two British tribes sent hostages confirms his frankness.
Chapter 66
What does Caesar say about how British chariots were used in battle?
Caesar describes charioteers driving across the field while warriors hurl missiles, confusing enemy ranks by the terror of horses and clatter of wheels. Warriors jump off between cavalry troops and fight on foot; drivers withdraw and position cars for easy retreat. Caesar praises their mobility combined with infantry steadiness.
Chapter 66

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What evidence does Holmes give that the Little Stour once ran with water?
Holmes cites Bryan Faussett (writing 1767–1773) saying the Little Stour a mile below Kingston was 'seldom or never dry,' and Philippott's claim that in Edward III's reign a small navigation ran up the river to Bekesbourne. Holmes himself saw it running strongly past Barham on 18 April 1904. He concludes it could have been a running stream in Caesar's day, though summers in 55 and 54 B.C. were exceptionally dry.
Chapter 67
Why does Holmes reject Vine's claim that the Britons held the near bank?
Holmes says Vine places the Britons on the nearer side of the river, which contradicts Caesar's narrative. Vine relies on Pomponius Sabinus, an Italian scholar born 1,470 years after Caesar died—and the quoted passage isn't even in Seneca. Holmes argues the only inference ever drawn from Caesar is that the Britons were on the further side and advanced to the left bank to dispute the crossing.
Chapter 67
What is Holmes's conclusion about where the battle was fought?
Holmes calls it 'morally certain' that the river was the Great Stour, not the Little Stour. Below Fordwich the Stour flowed through a broad morass and was impassable before an enemy; between Canterbury and the bridge above Sturry it is virtually flush with its banks. He concludes Caesar crossed either between Fordwich and Sturry, near Thanington just above Canterbury, or possibly at Canterbury itself.
Chapter 67

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What did Caesar actually mean by 'munitioni castrorum tempus relinqui volebat'?
The author argues Caesar meant he would not let his troops pursue the Britons far after dislodging them from their stronghold, because he wanted time to build the temporary camp for that night. Long wrongly took the words to refer to the seaside camp, which would require the exhausted legionaries to march back twelve miles, entrench, and march out again.
Chapter 68
Why does the author reject von Göler's claim that 'legiones equitatumque revocari atque in itinere resistere iubet' is corrupt?
Von Göler argued 'atque' demands a climax, but the author shows the literal sense already supplies one: Caesar orders the legions and cavalry to be recalled and not only to return but also to defend themselves on the march. The author adds that Meusel's Lexicon Caesarianum shows this use of 'atque' matches Caesar's habitual usage.
Chapter 68
What evidence does the author give against Long's assumption that the Britons had no cavalry?
Caesar reports Roman foragers surrounded by 'equitatu atque essedis', which must mean cavalry and chariots. Horsemen appear on ancient British coins, and the Britons had cavalry in A.D. 61 and under Agricola. Von Göler adds that charioteers could not fight effectively without cavalry support.
Chapter 68
How does the author explain the disputed sentence about 'equestris proelii ratio'?
The author argues it must refer either to a combat between Roman and British cavalry, or between Roman cavalry and combined British charioteers and cavalry. Since no purely cavalry combat is evidenced, and the idea that pursuing cavalry faced equal danger is absurd, he favors the Köchly-Rüstow-Napoleon reading: the British mode of fighting exposed the Romans alike in retreat and pursuit. He notes the passage is absent from the editio princeps and perhaps an interpolation.
Chapter 68

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What was Guest's argument for Coway Stakes as Caesar's Thames crossing?
Guest argued that Halliford, near Coway Stakes, was the only place on the lower Thames whose name indicates a ford, matching Caesar's claim of a single ford. He also cited a dyke running from St. George's Hill toward Walton, whose ditch faced the river, as a barrier against traffic from the crossing. The author calls these arguments of unequal value and not 'almost decisive.'
Chapter 69
Why does the author reject Napoleon III's Sunbury ford conclusion?
The author argues Napoleon reasoned from the present to the past, ignoring 2,000 years of river change. Guest noted that in Caesar's time the Thames ran to the sea without interruption, but now weirs and locks from Teddington westward make it a canal. The Sunbury shallow is a consequence of Sunbury weir; remove the weir and the ford would be scoured away within a year.
Chapter 69
How does the author explain Caesar's cavalry preceding the legions at the Thames?
The author follows von Göler and Turpin de Crissé: Caesar sent cavalry to swim across a deeper, unbarricaded stretch and attack the enemy, protecting the infantry's passage while stakes were removed. He rejects Peskett's literal reading that infantry crossed directly behind cavalry as militarily impossible, and cites the word 'sed' to show the infantry outvied the cavalry and crossed first.
Chapter 69
What does the author say about the evidence for Brentford as Caesar's crossing?
The author notes that Brentford's name referred to a ford over the Brent, not the Thames, and that occasional foot crossings near London were exceptional and prove nothing. He credits Montagu Sharpe's pamphlet with real evidence: a line of stakes surviving about 400 yards below Isleworth Ferry, extending a mile upriver from 'Old England,' with no other ancient stakes found in the lower river.
Chapter 69

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Why does Holmes reject Jenkins's claim that Caesar's oppidum was in Essex?
Holmes says Caesar states the stronghold belonged to Cassivellaunus, so it could not lie in Trinovantes territory. Since Caesar mentions the stronghold as 'not far off' right after forbidding plunder of the Trinovantes, Holmes concludes it stood near their common frontier. He notes Verulam fits best, though identity is unproved.
Chapter 70
What evidence does Holmes give that London existed before the Roman conquest?
Holmes argues London probably pre-dated the conquest because the same commercial advantages would attract British as well as Roman traders, and because it is improbable the Romans would give a purely Celtic name to a town they built on a virgin site. He concedes a British London, if it existed, had little political importance.
Chapter 70
How does Holmes respond to Green's argument against British London?
Green relied on Higden for a pre-Roman road crossing the Thames west of Westminster. Holmes notes Higden never mentions such a British road, that its existence is only conjectured, and that Loftie, whom Green cites, actually concluded a British town existed. Holmes adds that Haverfield knew nothing suggesting Watling Street predated A.D. 43.
Chapter 70
What were the data for dating Caesar's first invasion return in 55 B.C.?
The 7th legion was attacked several days after August 31; stormy weather followed; the Britons then attacked camp and sued for peace. Caesar sent for hostages to the Continent because the equinox (September 26) was near. Holmes places the return about mid-September; Napoleon fixed September 12.
Chapter 70

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What two facts does Holmes use to refute Le Verrier's date for Caesar's letters?
Holmes argues the letters were written before Caesar's first return trip, not on 21 September, because Caesar waited 'a considerable time' for returning ships before the second trip, and because Cicero writes 'reportabant' (were bringing back), not 'reportaverant' (had brought back). If Le Verrier were right, the letters would have come from Gaul, not Britain.
Chapter 71
How does the nundinae argument prove 90 days were intercalated in 708?
Dion Cassius says the Kalends of January 702 was a market-day, and that a day was intercalated extraordinarily in 713 to stop the Kalends of 714 falling on a market-day. So the days from Kalends 702 to end of 713 must be a multiple of 8. That total is 4,401 on the 67-day theory (not divisible by 8) but 4,424 on the 90-day theory (divisible).
Chapter 71
According to Solinus and Macrobius, what error did the pontiffs make with Caesar's calendar?
They report that Caesar ordered one day intercalated on completion of the fourth year, but the pontiffs intercalated at the beginning of the fourth year instead of the end. Thus, Solinus says, twelve days were intercalated in thirty-six years when only nine should have been. Macrobius adds that Augustus corrected the error after thirty-six years by ordering twelve years without intercalation.
Chapter 71
Why does Holmes reject Soltau's claim that 709 was the first Leap Year?
Holmes argues Soltau's theory clashes with Dion Cassius, who says the 713 intercalation was 'extraordinary' (παρὰ τὰ καθεστηκότα). If the previous intercalation had been in 709, the 713 one would have come at the proper time, not early. Holmes also notes Soltau's reading of Solinus and Macrobius is not necessarily correct.
Chapter 71

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What did Holmes conclude about the correspondence of the Kalends of January 709 with the Julian calendar?
Holmes concludes that the Kalends of January, 709, fell on the 1st of January, 45 B.C. From this he derives that 708 contained 445 days with 90 intercalated, that 702 had a 23-day intercalary month making 378 days, and that 701 and 703–707 were ordinary years of 355 days each.
Chapter 72
According to Holmes, what date in 54 B.C. corresponded with the last day of 700?
Holmes calculates that the last day of 700, the year of Caesar's second expedition to Britain, corresponded with the 30th of November, 54 B.C. He also states that the sixth day before the Kalends of October, when Caesar wrote to Cicero from Britain, corresponded with the 29th of August.
Chapter 72
What happened when Caesar went to the country of the Treveri before his second British expedition?
Two Treveran chiefs, Cingetorix and Indutiomarus, were struggling for supremacy. Cingetorix came to Caesar and promised fidelity, while Indutiomarus collected levies and prepared to fight. Many leading men made terms with Caesar; Indutiomarus, finding he had miscalculated, excused himself, and Caesar took hostages and returned to Portus Itius.
Chapter 72
How long was Caesar detained before sailing for Britain, and from where did he sail?
After returning to the Portus Itius, Caesar was detained about 25 days by contrary winds before sailing for Britain. Earlier he had ordered all his ships to assemble at the Portus Itius, identified as Boulogne, with camps probably on the estuaries of the Canche, the Authie, the Somme, and the Seine.
Chapter 72

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What does Cicero's letter prove about Caesar's location on September 1?
Cicero writes that Caesar sent him a letter from Britain on September 1, stating that Quintus was not with him when he reached the coast. Holmes argues this proves Caesar had returned from the interior to the coast on or before that date, which corresponds to August 5 in the Julian calendar.
Chapter 73
What two alternatives does Holmes pose for Caesar's early return to the coast?
Either Caesar had finished the campaign against Cassivellaunus by August 5 (Julian) and stayed on the coast until August 29, or he made a hurried temporary visit to the coast whose purpose is unexplained. Holmes notes the Commentaries do not support the temporary-visit reading.
Chapter 73
Why does Holmes reject Vogel's explanation of Caesar's coastal visit?
Holmes argues Vogel's view contradicts Caesar's narrative, requires believing Caesar made no headway for about 17 days within a dozen miles of the sea, and ignores that Quintus Cicero would have reported the real state of affairs in his letters before September 1.
Chapter 73
What date does Holmes give for Caesar's return to Gaul?
Holmes concludes it cannot be fixed earlier than several days after August 29 (Julian), the date of Caesar's letter saying he was about to bring back the army. Bearing in mind Caesar's statement that the equinox was at hand, Holmes places the return about the middle of September.
Chapter 73

Section 744 cards

What does Professor Gowland say about sand or loam moulds in the Bronze Age?
Professor Gowland affirms that moulds of sand or loam were undoubtedly of later times in the Bronze Age, because there are considerable mechanical difficulties in preparing them. Holmes cites this in a note on page 148, drawing on Gowland's 1906 article in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute.
Chapter 74
What does Lieut.-Col. McHardy suggest about vitrified forts and their vitrifaction?
McHardy suggests some vitrified forts may have been built in Viking times, and argues the vitrifaction was probably never intentional. He notes loose stones below the vitrification are supported by ordinary masonry that could have been carried up the whole way, and that the greatest vitrifaction occurs where a strong parapet is least needed. He thinks the forts served for signalling, the vitrifaction caused by smouldering beacon fires.
Chapter 74
What does Canon Greenwell report about burial positions in the Danes' Graves?
Greenwell states that by far the larger number of bodies were laid on the left side, and about one-third had the head pointing north-east. He adds that it does not seem the dead were laid with the face turned towards the sun. He also observes that charcoal near an unburnt body, so universal in Bronze Age graves on the Yorkshire Wolds, was not noticed except in a few cases at the Danes' Graves, possibly accidental.
Chapter 74
How does Holmes respond to the claim that Caesar's ships could 'head-reach' close to the wind?
Holmes calls the claim rank heresy and doubts anyone versed in ancient navigation would accept it. He notes we do not know whether Gallic ships were rigged like Mediterranean ones, and cites Cicero and Livy as suggesting ancient ships could work to windward only with difficulty. He argues that if they could, Caesar's cavalry transports would not have been windbound and forced back by contrary winds.
Chapter 74

Section 754 cards

What did Caesar's Commentaries claim about the Britons of the interior?
The chapter's index notes Caesar wrote on the Britons of the interior, and that his Commentaries are a key source whose credibility is debated. The author treats Caesar's account as evidence requiring scrutiny rather than plain fact, listing passages discussed and questioning the narrative's reliability.
Chapter 75
When did the Belgae probably first strike coins in Britain?
The chapter states British coins were probably first struck in Britain by the Belgae, and that inscribed coins show knowledge of writing. Coins are described as materials for British history, and the Dumnonii had none. The author also notes their religious significance.
Chapter 75
What does the chapter say about the date of the Celtic invasion of Britain?
The chapter lists the date of the Celtic invasion of Britain among disputed questions, giving several page references, and states Celts were not identical with earlier round-headed invaders. It treats the invasion's dating and the ethnology of the Celts as matters examined at length rather than settled.
Chapter 75
How did Commius's cavalry aid Caesar in Britain?
The chapter records that Commius was sent by Caesar to Britain, that his cavalry performed service, and that he later negotiated for Cassivellaunus. It also notes Commius rebelled against Caesar and founded a dynasty whose conquests in Britain are traced.
Chapter 75

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What does the chapter say about the identification of Ictis?
The author argues Ictis cannot be Thanet or the Isle of Wight and must be identified with St. Michael's Mount. The chapter lists Ictis at several index entries and states it is 'not Thanet' and 'nor the Isle of Wight,' concluding it 'must be identified with St. Michael's Mount.'
Chapter 76
Where does the chapter say Caesar defeated the Britons?
The chapter states Caesar defeated the Britons on the banks of the Great Stour, citing pages 336, 353, 660-2, 664, 678-9, and 682-5, with cross-references to Chilham, Fordwich, Sturry, Thanington, and Wye. It also notes Kentish kings attacked Caesar's naval camp.
Chapter 76
What does the chapter record about the introduction of iron into Britain?
The chapter states iron implements were not used in the British Bronze Age, that the date of their introduction is given as 126 and 231-2, and that they were probably introduced by the Brythons (232). It also lists iron mines and related iron objects such as axes, swords, and currency bars.
Chapter 76

Section 774 cards

What does Holmes say about the full moon of August 31, 55 B.C.?
The index lists the full moon of Aug. 31, 55 B.C. at pages 319 and 600-603, with its exact time given at 610 and 665-6. This date matters because Caesar's first invasion of Britain is tied to tidal and lunar calculations in the book. The author argues over such astronomical details in reconstructing Caesar's landings.
Chapter 77
What does the chapter say about Pytheas's scientific work and reputation?
Pytheas is credited with a voyage (217-26) and scientific and geographical work (218-19, 221, 223, 351-2), and is called an authority on British ethnology (227-9, 411-2, 445-6, 459). He announced the moon's influence on tides (219, 319). He was discredited in Caesar's time (307). Diodorus's description of Ictis was ultimately derived from him (499).
Chapter 77
What does the index record about the site of Portus Itius?
Caesar sailed from Portus Itius to Britain (306-7, 312, 327, 330), and dispatch vessels plied between it and Britain (348). The question of its site is discussed at 552-95, with cross-references to Ambleteuse, Boulogne, Calais, the Somme, and Wissant. The author treats the location as a debated problem, not a settled fact.
Chapter 77
What does the chapter say about the Morini and Caesar's dealings with them?
The Morini appear at 133 and 302; Caesar campaigned against them (305-6), their envoys proffered submission (133, 312), and Cotta is linked to them (314). They attacked the Romans and were punished (324, 593-4). Their country offered the shortest passage to Britain (554, 571, 596, 619), and Caesar sailed from it (558-63).
Chapter 77

Section 784 cards

What did Holmes say about swords in Bronze Age interments?
The chapter's index entry states that swords were not found in interments of the Bronze Age, citing pages 181-2 and 184. Swords themselves are listed at pages 131, 145-7, and 172, with Late Celtic swords at 238-9. So the absence is specifically about grave deposits, not about swords existing in the period.
Chapter 78
How does the chapter treat the solar temple theory of stone circles?
The index lists the solar temple theory under stone circles at pages 210-1, 216-7, and 478-9, with astral temples marked by a question mark at 481-2. Sun-worship is cross-referenced at pages 116, 206-7, 210-1, 216-7, 280, 282, and 472-80. The question mark signals the astral idea was speculative, not settled.
Chapter 78
What does the chapter say about tin trade with Britain?
The index raises open questions: whether the tin trade had temporarily ceased in Caesar's time (509) or before A.D. 50 (509-11), and whether the Phoenicians traded for tin with Britain (511-4). British tin trade is listed at 218, 220-3, 251, 307, 358, and 483-514, with tin produced in the Cassiterides at 483-98.
Chapter 78
Which sites does the chapter say were wrongly identified with Ictis?
The index states that Thanet is not to be identified with Ictis (222, 500-2), and that the Isle of Wight was wrongly identified with Ictis (222-3, 501-7). It also notes Pliny confounded Thule with (M)ictis at 499 n. 5 and 505. These are corrections of earlier identifications, not new claims.
Chapter 78

Section 794 cards

What did Clement Reid concede about a seventy-foot elevation and animal migration?
Holmes reports that in an April 11, 1906 conversation at the Geological Museum, Clement Reid virtually admitted the force of Holmes's argument, remarking that an elevation of seventy feet would have enabled animals to cross from Gaul to Britain, since the scour of the tides had doubtless deepened the Channel over thousands of years.
Chapter 79
What did Reid conclude about land sinking before Palaeolithic inhabitants at Hitchin and Hoxne?
Holmes notes that Reid concluded, from examining Palaeolithic deposits at Hitchin (Proceedings of the Royal Society, lxi, 1897, especially p. 46) as well as at Hoxne, that before the time of the Palaeolithic inhabitants of those districts the land had again sunk.
Chapter 79
How did Howorth and Jukes-Browne disagree over mammoth remains and drift?
Howorth claimed to have proved that drift never underlies land surfaces containing mammoth remains, which Holmes says amounts to making the mammoth preglacial. Jukes-Browne replied that mammoth-bearing gravels occur in many valleys generally considered eroded from Glacial Drift, and that Howorth had not shaken this conclusion.
Chapter 79
What did Reid say about climate in Britain during the Palaeolithic Age?
Holmes states that descriptions of southern Gaul's climate based on cave fauna, however true, do not apply in Britain. The little known of Britain's climate suggests to Clement Reid 'extremes with sharp alternations of cold, drought, and sudden floods' (Man, iii, 1903, No. 29, p. 56).
Chapter 79

Section 804 cards

What did Clement Reid argue about so-called river-drift deposits and palaeolithic man?
In an April 11, 1906 conversation with the author, Clement Reid said he saw no reason to suppose palaeolithic man 'was an aquatic animal'; much so-called river-drift would probably prove not due to fluviatile action; and the geology of the Thames Valley, on the edge of the ice in the Glacial Epoch, presented great difficulties. He did not believe many deposits classed as river-drift deserved that title.
Chapter 80
How did de Mortillet classify the oldest palaeolithic types, and how did Hoernes differ?
In de Mortillet's classification the oldest type was the Chellean, named after Chelles in Seine-et-Marne; then followed successively the types represented at Le Moustier, at Solutré, and in the cave of La Madelaine. Dr. M. Hoernes, in Der diluviale Mensch in Europa (1903), combined the Chellean and Mousterian periods.
Chapter 80
What dispute does the chapter record about hippopotamus remains and palaeolithic man in Britain?
Boyd Dawkins said that except at Pont Newydd, association of traces of man with hippopotamus remains had not been observed in bone caves in Britain or the Continent. Evans recorded hippopotamus bones without implements near Acton, Bedford and Folkestone, and had no doubt the animal was contemporary with palaeolithic man in Britain; but Clement Reid questioned whether its bones were ever found with implements.
Chapter 80
What did Schoetensack conclude about the perforated 'bâtons de commandement', against Reinach?
M. Reinach insisted that the so-called sceptres or bâtons de commandement—engraved and perforated instruments of reindeer-horn found in French palaeolithic caves—were used in magical ceremonies. Dr. O. Schoetensack, however, proved that they were merely dress-fasteners similar to those used by the Eskimos.
Chapter 80

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What does Holmes say about Dr. A. H. Keane's estimates of the Neolithic Age's length?
Holmes calls Keane's estimates 'extravagant,' noting they range from 'scarcely less than 60,000 years' to 'over 100,000 years.' He argues these figures rest on obsolete calculations of Glacial Period chronology, referring readers to his earlier discussion.
Chapter 81
What does Holmes conclude about the ambidexterity claim of Johnson and Wright?
Johnson and Wright, having collected tools in North-Eastern Surrey, noted some were fitted for the right hand and others for the left, concluding the users were ambidextrous. Holmes counters that the more natural conclusion is simply that some of the people were left-handed.
Chapter 81

Section 824 cards

According to Professor Ridgeway, why did humans first wear jewellery?
The author cites Professor Ridgeway's argument that mankind was led to wear such objects by magic rather than aesthetic considerations. Ridgeway held that the use of all objects still employed in modern jewellery primarily arose from the magical powers attributed to them, by which they were thought to protect the wearer. The author notes that M. Salomon Reinach's review of Ridgeway's article is worth reading.
Chapter 82
How did Hippolyte Müller test the primitive method of skull perforation?
The primitive method of trepanning was apparently scraping. M. Hippolyte Müller performed the operation on four skulls by scraping with a flint implement and concluded that this method was adopted in the case of living patients. The author adds that M. Capitan, driven by scientific ardour, experimented on several living dogs, and wryly asks what will happen if the Anti-Vivisection Society hears of it.
Chapter 82
What does the perforated skull from Bute suggest about trepanning in Britain?
A perforated skull found in an interment in Bute may perhaps show that trepanning existed in this country as early as the Bronze Age. However, a physician who examined the perforation believes it was not produced by trepanning. Artificially perforated skulls were also found just outside the Late Celtic fortified village of Hunsbury near Northampton.
Chapter 82
Why does Mortimer's view that Yorkshire long barrows are later than round ones lack weight?
Mortimer was slightly inclined to consider the long barrows of the Yorkshire Wolds more recent than most round ones, but his only reason was frequently finding both long and round skulls in round barrows of the same district. The author says this has no weight against the facts that led all other investigators to regard long barrows as earlier, noting no metal or sepulchral pottery occurs with primary interments in long barrows.
Chapter 82

Section 834 cards

What evidence does Holmes cite against de Baye's claim that Neolithic inhumation in France was almost universal?
Holmes says M. de Baye exaggerates. He cites M. E. Cartailhac, who gives numerous instances of incineration in neolithic tombs in the departments of the Aisne, the Marne, the Morbihan, and elsewhere, showing cremation was practiced in Neolithic France.
Chapter 83
What did Pitt-Rivers find in the Wor Barrow on Cranborne Chase, and what parallel did he draw?
Pitt-Rivers found six skeletons 'huddled together beneath a small mound' within and distinct from the monument. Three were crouched; the rest were placed in as bones with long-bones beside the skull. He compared an Egyptian Fifth Dynasty burial (about 3500 B.C.) where bones were cut up and boxed with an effigy.
Chapter 83
What does Holmes concede and reject in Salomon Reinach's theory of primitive metallurgy?
Holmes grants that smiths were sometimes viewed with superstitious awe and that metallurgy touched religion. But he rejects Reinach's claim that 'primitive alchemy' had no industrial application, calling it unverifiable and improbable. Ore smelting must have been accidental, and the alchemist could still have turned gold into ornaments or copper into axes.
Chapter 83
What does Holmes say about evidence for a Copper Age in Britain versus Ireland?
Holmes says there is sufficient evidence for a copper age in Ireland, but not for Britain. He notes du Chatellier thought Brittany had one but admitted he could not settle it, and that British archaeologists do not bow to Montelius's authority. Pitt-Rivers suggested copper implements were melted down into bronze, leaving scanty evidence.
Chapter 83

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What does Holmes concede about dating a fort without excavation?
Holmes freely admits that, without excavation, it would generally (though not always) be idle to express an opinion as to the particular prehistoric epoch to which a fort belonged. He nevertheless resists Gray's broader claim that no opinion at all can be offered about a camp's age without digging.
Chapter 84
How does Holmes respond to Burnard's point that Bronze Age pottery also occurs in the Early Iron Age?
Holmes agrees such pottery, and bronze implements too, were also used in the Early Iron Age. But he argues that, as a rule, finding Bronze Age pottery or bronze implements unaccompanied by Early Iron Age objects raises a presumption, correct in most instances, that the site was occupied in the Bronze Age.
Chapter 84
What does Holmes say about Scottish forts and the Bronze Age, citing Dr. Joseph Anderson?
Anderson observes that no Scottish fort can be assigned with certainty to the Bronze Age. Holmes accepts this but adds that it is nevertheless morally certain that many such forts did exist then, distinguishing certainty of assignment from confidence that the forts existed in that period.
Chapter 84

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What evidence suggests lathe use existed in Bronze Age Britain?
Professor Boyd Dawkins notes that if the Hove amber cup was British workmanship, it proves lathe use in Bronze Age Britain. Sir John Evans thinks the cup may have been imported, but points to shale cups certainly turned in a lathe, probably British-made, found in round barrows on Broad Down near Honiton. Sir R. C. Hoare found an urn he believed lathe-turned. The author says the statement is generally true of the British Isles and Northern and Western Europe.
Chapter 85
What did Hoare find inside a tree in a bowl barrow?
Sir R. C. Hoare found, in the trunk of a tree inside a bowl barrow along with a skeleton, an urn he described as 'different both in shape and colour to any we have ever found in the British sepulchres,' and which appeared to him to have been turned in a lathe. The author cites this as supporting evidence for lathe use, while noting the general statement remains broadly true.
Chapter 85
How does the chapter use bronze razors to illustrate ancient practice?
Pitt-Rivers explains the name because some examples are found with an edge as sharp as a penknife. The author notes the thought of shaving with a bronze razor is not pleasant, yet the negroes of Tanganyika still used razors of this metal, and the Flamen Dialis might only shave with a bronze knife, citing Frazer's Golden Bough.
Chapter 85

Section 864 cards

What did Mortimer suggest about the incomplete stone rings inside barrows?
Mortimer suggested the incomplete stone rings or trenches found within barrows were meant to mark off the sacred spot where the ceremony and interment would later be conducted. He held that the break in the circle had no other significance than to serve as a place of ingress and egress.
Chapter 86
Why did Herdman and Kermode assign certain cists to the Neolithic Age, and why does Holmes disagree?
Herdman and Kermode assigned the cists to the Neolithic Age, but Holmes says the evidence they adduce is purely negative. He concedes the builders may have had only stone tools, yet argues that interments in cists accompanied by cinerary urns prove they were made after bronze had come into use.
Chapter 86
What did Greenwell assert about bronze implements in Yorkshire barrows, and how does Holmes challenge it?
Greenwell asserted that knife-daggers and flat axes, the only bronze implements found in Yorkshire barrows, never accompany swords and spear-heads in hoards, and argued this proved the early date of round barrows generally. Holmes notes that even if true it only dates those Yorkshire barrows, and flat axes have twice been found in hoards, once with palstaves and once with swords.
Chapter 86
What did Abercromby argue about bronze weapons in graves, and how does Holmes respond?
Abercromby argued that the few Bronze Age and Hallstatt bronze swords and spear-heads that filtered into Britain were too precious to be laid by forever in a grave, even at the end of the Bronze Age. Holmes calls this begging the question, asking why large weapons could not be buried when bronze was common, and why gold ornaments were sacrificed if bronze swords were too costly.
Chapter 86

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What does Mortimer argue about drinking-cups and food for the dead?
Mortimer argues that if food was essential to the dead, so would liquid be, and he knew of no instance of animal matter in a true drinking-cup, so they likely held liquid. Holmes counters that Mortimer is more logical than Bronze Age people, since evidence exists that drinking-cups sometimes held food.
Chapter 87
What does Coffey claim about geometric patterns, and how does Holmes respond?
Coffey holds that geometrical forms were never spontaneously invented but invariably derived by conventionalisation from realistic prototypes, and that Bronze Age ornament was generally tied to religious or talismanic meaning. Holmes grants some cases but calls the theory too sweeping, noting patterns on neolithic and palaeolithic objects and forms hard to derive from any prototype.
Chapter 87
What does Pitt-Rivers say about proving ornamental patterns were copied?
Pitt-Rivers says general resemblance of ornamental patterns is not enough to prove they were copied from one another. But when resemblances are very minute and distribution limited and continuous, it may be fairly argued that different kinds of earthworks in the same district were of the same period.
Chapter 87

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What five characteristics are cited for the Cerne Giant as evidence of a Bronze Age date?
The chapter lists the Cerne Giant as petrographic, colossal, nude, ithyphallic, and clavigerous. It notes that forms possessing these five characteristics have been found in Scandinavian rock carvings and belong only to the Bronze Age and its overlap with the Early Iron Age. The author suggests the figure may belong to the Bronze Age and be connected with phallus-worship.
Chapter 88
What does the author argue about the kerb of stones around cairns?
The author disputes John Ward's view that the kerb was merely a structural improvement, an 'advance' on the structureless cairn. He notes that stone rings within cairns and on barrows in Northern Germany were certainly not utilitarian, and suggests the kerb may have had religious or mystical meaning. He also says there is no evidence it was an advance.
Chapter 88
How does the author respond to Lukis's objection that grouped circles imply many congregations?
Lukis asked why worshippers would be divided into so many congregations if circles were temples. The author replies that since not all circles are claimed as solar temples, the argument applies only to those instances and is inconclusive. He suggests each circle was probably erected for a chieftain, with sun-worship possibly practised by his clan.
Chapter 88
What did Plutarch ascribe to Pytheas about the tides, and how does the author judge it?
Plutarch, evidently knowing nothing about tides, ascribed to Pytheas the statement that high tide occurs at full moon and low tide at new moon. The author calls this an absurd blunder, agreeing with Müllenhoff that nobody who had spent twenty-four hours on the Atlantic coast could have made it. He thinks Pytheas was unfortunate in his reporter.
Chapter 88

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Why does Holmes reject identifying Thule with Norway?
Holmes agrees with Hergt and Jullian that Pytheas landed in Norway, but argues he cannot conceive how Pytheas then came to regard Thule as one of the British Isles. He notes there is no evidence Pytheas ever visited Thule, and no evidence Thule was Celtic-speaking.
Chapter 89
How does Holmes rebut Müllenhoff's arguments about Thule?
Holmes says every argument rests on the unproven assumption that Pytheas visited Thule. He adds there is no evidence Thule was Celtic-speaking, that corn was certainly cultivated in Scandinavia in the Bronze Age, and that even if Pytheas visited Thule, he need not have gone far enough north to meet Lapps.
Chapter 89
How does Holmes criticize Tozer's argument for Thule as Mainland?
Tozer holds Thule was Mainland and places the 'sleeping-place of the sun' in the Arctic Circle, excusing barbarian inaccuracy. Holmes calls this weak: on Mainland the winter sun stays above the horizon five hours, the barbarians never entered the Arctic Circle, and Pytheas, who accurately fixed Massilia's latitude, would not accept Mainland as on the Circle.
Chapter 89

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How does Holmes respond to Reinach's claim that Bronze Age industry had ceased by Caesar's time?
The author argues that Reinach's inference of a civilization arrested or recoiled from Caesar's remark about imported bronze is untenable. Holmes notes that Bronze Age culture persisted in parts of Britain until the Roman conquest, and asks how bronze implements could have been paid for without industrial activity. He calls the industrial activity of the Early Iron Age unquestionable and doubts any theory of a bronze trade ceasing alongside iron manufacture.
Chapter 90
What did Caesar call an oppidum, and how does Holmes connect this to British hillforts?
Caesar states (B.G. v, 21) that the Britons call an oppidum a fortified wood protected by rampart and ditch, to which they withdraw to avoid enemy raids. Holmes uses this passage, alongside archaeological evidence from sites like Mount Caburn, Cissbury, and Winkelbury, to discuss British fortifications and the pits and relics found within them.
Chapter 90
What is the debate over vitrified stone forts, and what did the best authorities conclude?
Vitrified forts occur in northern and western Scotland and in France, but not England, with doubtful examples in Wales and Ireland. The question is whether the vitrifaction from fire was accidental or designed. The best authorities concluded that small vitrified areas may be accidental, perhaps from beacon fires, but vitrifaction traced almost all round a rampart was intentional, likely to give cohesion to walls.
Chapter 90
Why does Holmes doubt that Offa's Dyke belonged to the Britons' defensive system?
Holmes notes that excavated dykes, Bokerly Dyke and Wansdyke, were Roman or post-Roman. He argues it is in the last degree improbable that earthworks spanning territory belonging to several tribes were built when tribes only combined briefly and under urgent common peril. He cites Haverfield in support, rejecting McKenny Hughes's suggestion that Offa's Dyke was part of British defenses.
Chapter 90

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How does Holmes respond to d'Arbois de Jubainville's claim that Caesar's uxores means concubines?
Holmes calls it equally rash to assume Caesar was mistaken, or that uxores means 'wives' in §1 and 'concubines' in §3. He suggests instead that the husband's power over wives may have been checked by public opinion, reconciling Caesar's statement with the dowry customs d'Arbois cites.
Chapter 91
According to note 1138, what distinction does Holmes draw about Caesar's claim on Mercury?
Holmes notes Caesar does not say Mercury was actually the supreme deity of the Gauls, only the most fervently worshipped; Caesar expressly says they regarded their Jupiter as lord of the celestials. Holmes cites Sir Alfred Lyall's comparison with Hinduism, where uppermost gods may be less accessible than lower ones.
Chapter 91
What evidence does Jullian cite about Mars versus Mercury inscriptions, and what caveat does Holmes add?
Jullian points out that in Corpus Inscr. Lat. vol. vii there are sixty-one inscriptions honouring Mars (eight uncertain) and only eight for Mercury, with Mars's popularity also visible in Ephemeris epigraphica supplements. Holmes adds that inscriptions where Mars is not coupled with a Celtic deity should be disregarded, though Mars's ascendancy remains unaffected.
Chapter 91
Why does Holmes reject the inference that Esus was worshipped in Britain?
Holmes calls d'Arbois de Jubainville rash in concluding that because a Briton named Esunectus (possibly a Gaulish immigrant) existed, Esus was worshipped in Britain. He notes the name AESV on an Iceni coin has uncertain meaning, and that the scholiasts of Lucan who identified Esus with Mercury are worthless authority on the matter.
Chapter 91

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What does Holmes say about Professor Rhys's views on Druidism's origin?
The author argues that Rhys's position shifted repeatedly and inconsistently: in 1879 he held Druidism reached Gaul through Belgae settled in Britain; later he denied any Belgic or Brythonic people had Druids; in 1901 he derived it from the sids; and by 1904 he concluded it originated independently among non-Celtic aborigines of both Gaul and Britain. Holmes calls this an example of Rhys's 'powerful but erratic' mind.
Chapter 92
How does Holmes assess Caesar's claim that Druids taught transmigration of souls?
Holmes notes that d'Arbois de Jubainville, citing Mela and Valerius Maximus, argued the Druids taught only immortality, not metempsychosis. Holmes counters that Caesar's authority is higher and not really contradicted by Mela, so Caesar was probably not misinformed. Still, Holmes concedes it is possible the Druids did not preach Pythagorean metempsychosis and Caesar did not intend to say so.
Chapter 92
What does Holmes argue about whether the priests in Caesar's B.G. vii, 33 were Druids?
Holmes admits the statement is open to dispute: Caesar says priests (sacerdotes), not expressly Druids, exercised the function. Holmes argues the only other known priestly name in Gaul was gutuater, found in two Gallo-Roman inscriptions, and he doubts it can be proved the gutuater was not a Druid. Given the Druids' political and legal power, Holmes finds it hard to believe they would let a non-Druid exercise so important a function.
Chapter 92
What does Holmes say about the origin of Druidism and scholarly disagreement?
Holmes presents the origin of Druidism as an example of how Celtic scholars diverge on nearly every important question of Celtic religion. He notes the first known mention came from Sotion of Alexandria around 200 B.C., preserved in Diogenes Laertius. D'Arbois inferred from this that Belgic invaders found Druidism flourishing in Britain and transplanted it to Gaul; Holmes observes that if Belgae were preceded by other Brythons, the date gives no clue to origin.
Chapter 92

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What did Rhys argue about Diviciacus's empire in Britain?
Rhys argued that since Caesar's narrative gives no hint of a revolution, Diviciacus's empire probably continued under his successors in Caesar's time. He identified the Trinovantes with the Remi and the Catuvellauni with the Suessiones. Holmes rejects this, noting the Catuvellauni were bitter enemies of the Trinovantes in Caesar's time and that Camulos was worshipped by many tribes besides the Remi.
Chapter 93
Why does Holmes doubt Diviciacus's empire lasted long?
Holmes says Caesar's passage on Diviciacus leaves the impression that his empire, like that of Celtillus, father of Vercingetorix, was short-lived. He also notes there is no evidence for asserting its continuance. He further suggests the Gallic Catuvellauni may have become clients of the Remi only because of Caesar's favour toward the Remi.
Chapter 93
What did Caesar want to learn before invading Britain?
According to B. G. iv, 20, Caesar thought a visit would be greatly useful if he could only see the island, observe the kind of people, and learn the places, harbours, and approaches. He knew the Britons had supplied aid to his enemies in nearly all Gallic wars, and that little was known beyond the coast facing Gaul.
Chapter 93
How did the Veneti oppose Caesar's British expedition?
Strabo says the Veneti were the ones who fought Caesar at sea, being ready to prevent his voyage to Britain because they controlled the trade. Holmes notes the estuary of the Loire was the nearest considerable harbour to the naval battle, and doubts Caesar would have sent his fleet to smaller Venetic ports.
Chapter 93

Section 944 cards

What did Sir John Evans claim about the deities on Cunobeline's coins?
Evans observed that Jupiter Ammon, Hercules, Apollo, Diana, Cybele and other deities appear on silver and copper coins of Cunobeline, which he says proves how completely Roman mythology had taken root—unless the types were left to the mere fancies of engravers who were Roman or trained in Roman workshops.
Chapter 94
Why does Holmes reject Rhys's theory about Bericus and Antedrigus?
Holmes argues Rhys's theory will not bear examination. If Antedrigus had prevailed over Bericus and forced him to flee, his party was evidently stronger—so why would he then be forced out of Icenian territory? Holmes instead suggests Bericus was one of Cunobeline's sons at variance with Caratacus and Togodumnus, and Antedrigus was an unpopular king of the Iceni driven out by his own nobles and subjects.
Chapter 94
How does Holmes challenge Dion Cassius on the Caledonians?
Xiphilinus, continuator and epitomator of Dion Cassius, says the Caledonians had democratic government, but Holmes notes Dion wrote in the third century and also claimed they did not till the soil—hardly credible, since bronze sickles have been found in Perthshire, Aberdeenshire and Sutherlandshire and ancient Scottish querns are numerous.
Chapter 94
What does Holmes conclude about Solinus's statement on the Silures?
Evans said Solinus made the statement about the Silures of South Wales, but Solinus actually speaks of the island of Silura, separated from the Dumnonii's country by a stormy strait. Mommsen notes no island called Silura exists, so either the reading is the Scilly islands or Solinus carelessly perused Pliny. Considering what Solinus says about the Dumnonii, Holmes adopts the former alternative.
Chapter 94

Section 954 cards

Whose method of estimating stature from long bones does Holmes consider best, and why?
Holmes says Dr. Beddoe's arguments are very strong and his method appears better on the whole than Topinard's formula (Femur x 100)/27.1 or Rollet's (Femur x 100)/27.3. He notes Manouvrier's discussion is the most exhaustive and points out defects in all three methods, but holds that approximate results suffice for the ethnological problems at hand.
Chapter 95
What correction does Beddoe make for prehistoric bones, and how does it affect Manouvrier's results?
Beddoe remarks that prehistoric bones have lost much of their original substance and are probably 1 to 3 millimetres short of their original length. He says Manouvrier made no provision for this reduction, so his computed statures must on average be a little too low. Beddoe also confesses his own method probably errs by excess in the higher statures.
Chapter 95
Why does Holmes think the statuettes cannot prove a steatopygous race existed in Britain?
Holmes says the existence of such a people is inferred from statuettes found at Brassempouy and near Mentone. He judged the carving he saw so villainous that no scientific conclusion could be drawn from it, and notes Manouvrier agreed. He adds that even if such a race existed in palaeolithic Gaul, there is no evidence it ever penetrated into Britain.
Chapter 95
What does Holmes say about the age of the Neanderthal skull and the Laugerie-Basse skeletons?
Holmes reminds readers the age of the Neanderthal skull is uncertain, and that known skulls of Neanderthal type do not belong to 'les premiers temps quaternaires.' He rejects Garson's implication that the Laugerie-Basse skeletons belonged to the Neanderthal race and cannot follow Salmon's claim that the Laugerie-Basse skull shows a transition to Cro-Magnon.
Chapter 95

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What did Huxley argue about the Caithness skulls, and how does Holmes qualify it?
Huxley argued that the Caithness skulls were virtually identical with those of Australian aborigines. Holmes notes that on another occasion, when Huxley's combative instincts were aroused, he affirmed the contrary. Holmes also cites a later source doubting whether the Caithness skulls were neolithic at all.
Chapter 96
Why does Holmes reject d'Arbois de Jubainville's Silurus mountain argument for Silurian origins?
D'Arbois cited Festus Avienus's mention of a Spanish mountain called Silurus to support Tacitus's claim that the Silures came from Spain. Holmes objects that the origin of the name Silures is unknown, so founding an ethnological argument on its resemblance to Silurus is rash. He compares it to inferring kinship from Mexico's Tamesi river resembling Tamesis.
Chapter 96
What does Holmes say about Boyd Dawkins's Basque axe-word argument?
Boyd Dawkins argued that identifying neolithic aborigines with modern Basques is confirmed by the Basque word aizcora, meaning an axe as 'stone mounted in a handle.' Holmes asks how this establishes identity with British neolithic aborigines, since it only shows that the ancestors of the Basques used stone tools.
Chapter 96
How does Holmes respond to the argument that a distinct dolmen-building race must have existed?
The argument was that some countries continuously inhabited since palaeolithic times, such as Austria, contain no dolmens, implying a particular dolmen-building race. Holmes replies that this only proves certain peoples did not build dolmens, not that a distinct race existed.
Chapter 96

Section 974 cards

What did Caesar claim about the marriage customs of the ancient Britons?
Caesar ascribes polyandry to the ancient Britons, describing brothers holding wives in common. Jevons argues Caesar made the same mistake as Polybius, mistaking the Joint Undivided Family for wife-sharing. D'Arbois de Jubainville, citing the Senchus Mor, concludes wife-community among brothers existed in early Ireland, though the editor disagrees.
Chapter 97
How did Professor Rhys's view of the Pictish tattoo question change over time?
Rhys's position shifted repeatedly. In 1884 he accepted MacFirbis's derivation linking Cruithni to painted forms and Claudian's description. In 1891 he rejected both, calling Gildas's silence proof positive. In 1900 he reversed again, and in 1904 reverted to his 1884 view. Holmes asks how one can follow a guide forever changing his mind.
Chapter 97
What was the 'Pictish succession' and how does Holmes respond to d'Arbois's objections?
Under Pictish succession a king was succeeded not by his own son but by a sister's son, which some took as evidence of matriarchy. D'Arbois de Jubainville cites Caesar, Octavius, and Tiberius to deny it implies matriarchy. Holmes concedes the point but stresses that during the known history of the Picts a king was never once succeeded by his own son.
Chapter 97
What did Rice Holmes conclude about the theory that the Caledonians were Germans?
Holmes says the view, advocated by Borlase and others, is hardly worth discussing, resting only on Tacitus's remark that red hair and large limbs indicated German origin. Holmes notes ancient writers described Germans and Celts as physically virtually identical. Some Caledonians may have descended from German immigrants, but that is consistent with their being Celtic-speaking.
Chapter 97

Section 984 cards

How did Holmes correct Dr. Beddoe's stature figures for the skeletons?
Holmes notes Beddoe's figures were not absolutely correct: the measurements of the twenty-seven skeletons appear in Tables I and II of Crania Britannica and exclude the Arras skeleton of the Early Iron Age. By Beddoe's method the seventeen brachycephali averaged just over 5 ft. 9⅕ in., and the twenty-seven mixed skeletons about 5 ft. 9⅗ in.; by Rollet's method the figures would be just under 5 ft. 8½ in. and just over 5 ft. 9⅖ in.
Chapter 98
What did Thurnam find about skull indices from round barrows?
Holmes reports that Thurnam's figures were much about the same: out of 70 skulls from round barrows, 44 had indices ranging from 80 to 89. Holmes adds that some round skulls from round barrows may have been artificially flattened on the occiput in infancy, but Thurnam shows their brachycephaly was only due in a minor degree to this cause.
Chapter 98
How does Holmes distinguish the Grenelle race from the Round Barrow race?
Holmes cites Haddon, who distinguishes the short, swarthy, dark-haired brachycephalic race of Central Europe (the 'Celtae' or 'Type de Grenelle') from the tall, fair, brachycephalic race possibly from Denmark (the 'Celts' of some authors, the 'Round Barrow Race' of all). Holmes argues that identifying the Grenelle race with the Celtae is misleading, since the Celtae were a mixed population including neolithic dolichocephalic descendants, the Grenelle race, and real Celts who introduced Celtic language into Gaul about the eighth century B.C.
Chapter 98
What did Dr. Wright's measurements of the Driffield 'Danes' Graves' skulls suggest?
Holmes says the skeletons in the 'Danes' Graves' at Driffield, Yorkshire, belong to the Early Iron Age and predate Agricola. Thurnam and Greenwell's male skulls had indices of 75, 76, 70, 75 and 71; Mortimer's collection averaged 75·5; and fourteen skulls measured by Dr. Wright ranged from 68 to 79. Wright's men averaged only 5 ft. 3½ in., which Holmes says is so low as to suggest they were not Celts, though chariot remains were found in one grave.
Chapter 98

Section 994 cards

What does Caesar's Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres say about the Belgae, Aquitani, and Celtae?
Caesar states that Gaul is divided into three parts: one inhabited by the Belgae, another by the Aquitani, and the third by those called Celtae in their own language but Galli in ours. Holmes cites this passage (B. G., i, 1, § 1) as evidence that the two names denoted one and the same people.
Chapter 99
What did Broca mean by 'les Celtes,' and how does Holmes correct this?
Holmes notes that Broca applied the name 'Celtes' to a pre-Gallic population. Holmes argues this was mistaken: the people Broca called Celts were not the brachycephalic neolithic race alone, but that race plus mesaticephalic neolithic people plus their conquerors. Collignon and Hervé support the correction, though Holmes says they do not make the composite character sufficiently clear.
Chapter 99
How does Holmes respond to Rhys's argument that Celtae and Galli were ethnologically distinct?
Holmes argues that Rhys's claim rests on a misconception of Broca and Bertrand. Bertrand distinguished Celtes from Galates but explicitly denied any racial distinction between them. Holmes adds that Caesar expressly says the two names denoted one people, and that ancient writers including Polybius generally used Celtae and Galli as synonyms. Diodorus's distinction is dismissed as worthless.
Chapter 99
What does Holmes say about Diodorus Siculus's distinction between Celtae and Galatai?
Holmes argues Diodorus's testimony is worthless because his Galatai included the Cimbri and other Germans, implicitly contradicting Caesar. Even if accepted, it would only show the Celtae as a whole differed from the Galatai, not that the Galatic conquerors differed in race from earlier Celtic conquerors. Holmes adds that Diodorus habitually uses Galatai in a general sense and draws no physical distinction.
Chapter 99

Section 1004 cards

How does the author rebut Nicholson's claim that Eppillus derives from epos for equos?
The author notes that if Eppillus came from epos (equos), it should have only one p, as Nicholson himself concedes. Yet the double p is remarkable, and Epillos, certainly the same word, occurs on Gallic coins of the Lemovices and on coins from Poitiers and near Arles, supporting a different explanation.
Chapter 100
What inconsistency does the author find in Nicholson's theory about painted Britons and Belgae?
Nicholson suggests the Britons strictly speaking were the Kymric branch who painted themselves, as opposed to Goidelic tattooers. The author asks whether Nicholson would then exclude the Belgae, whom he treats as Goidels and as the original Brittani, from the painted Britons, despite Caesar's statement that all Britons painted themselves.
Chapter 100
Why does the author consider Rhys's Camulos argument for Belgic settlement in Britain not decisive?
Rhys argued that the Remi, closely linked to the Suessiones, should appear in Britain, and that the god Camulos, worshipped by the Remi, survives in Camulodunum (Colchester). The author notes the argument is not decisive because Camulos was worshipped by other Gallic tribes too, and his name appears in Camulogenus, a chief of the non-Belgic Aulerci, though Rhys's conclusion may still be right.
Chapter 100
What does the author argue about statistics of nigrescence and cranial measurements, using the plum-pudding analogy?
The author argues such statistics retain value if handled with skill and judgement. Comparing whole populations is misleading because physical resemblance combines with differences from cross-breeding and from differing social, geographical and climatic environments. He compares two plum-puddings made from identical ingredients in different quantities, kitchens and cooks, which turn out very different.
Chapter 100

Section 1014 cards

What objections does Holmes raise against dating Stonehenge by its midsummer sunrise alignment?
The author argues that in the English climate Sidbury is probably not visible from Stonehenge at sunrise once in twenty years, that builders would soon have adopted a line near enough for their purposes though not for ours, and that everything depends on guessing the critical phase of sunrise or sunset.
Chapter 101
How does Holmes criticize Professor Montelius's endorsement of Lockyer's Stonehenge conclusions?
The author argues Montelius should not meddle with astronomy he does not understand, noting that the astronomers' results appeal to Montelius and Lockyer's imagination but stand to Lockyer's credit alone, and recommends the Nineteenth Century article of June 1903 in which another astronomer demolished them.
Chapter 101
What does Holmes say about the barrows containing Stonehenge stone chippings?
Montelius treats the chippings as evidence that the barrows are not much later than 2000 B.C., but Holmes notes the two barrows are assigned by a great archaeologist to about 300 B.C., and that Abercromby proved many Wiltshire barrows were later than 800 B.C.
Chapter 101
How does Holmes respond to the claim that Stonehenge's appearance proves it was a temple, not a sepulchral monument?
The author argues that the remark is not helpful, since Stonehenge is unique among megalithic circles; that many such circles have been proved to be sepulchral monuments; and that evidence shows Stonehenge was a scene of sepulchral rites.
Chapter 101

Section 1024 cards

What does the Ora maritima say about the Oestrymnides islands?
The Ora maritima describes the Oestrymnides as islands lying loosely scattered (laxe iacentes) beneath the headland of the Oestrymnic gulf, and rich in the metals tin and lead (metallo divites stanni atque plumbi). The gulf itself opens beneath the summit of a prominent ridge whose headland the older age called Oestrymnis.
Chapter 102
According to Diodorus, how was tin transported from Ictis to the Rhône?
Diodorus says merchants bought tin from the inhabitants of Ictis, carried it to Gaul, and finally transported the loads on horseback overland through Gaul for about thirty days to the mouth of the Rhône river. Holmes stresses that ekbole means the river's mouth, not a junction with an affluent.
Chapter 102
What does Holmes say about the claim that Posidonius visited Britain?
Holmes argues there is absolutely no evidence that Posidonius ever crossed the Channel. He calls the descriptions by Elton and Rhys of Posidonius's visit to Britain purely imaginary, and says Elton's citation of Priscian of Lydia proves nothing about Posidonius.
Chapter 102
Why does Holmes reject identifying Ictis with the Isle of Wight via Stans Ore Point?
Holmes cites Schrader's point that stannum probably did not mean 'tin' before the fourth century A.D., so the supposed derivation is doubtful. Even if established, he argues it would not prove Ictis was the Isle of Wight, since tin was doubtless carried eastward from Cornwall but not for Mediterranean markets.
Chapter 102

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What does Holmes find puzzling about Haverfield's views on Cornish tin?
The author argues Haverfield contradicts himself: he suggested accessible tin deposits might have been worked out or ousted by Spanish competition two centuries earlier, yet also held that in the third century Cornish tin began taking its place as an article of commerce in Roman Britain. Holmes notes the deposits evidently were not worked out, and British tin must have had vitality to reassert itself after being ousted.
Chapter 103
What does Holmes say about the purpose of Himilco's voyage?
Holmes states that the object of Himilco's voyage was undoubtedly to open up new markets for trade, not merely to explore. He notes that Müllenhoff had anticipated this remark. Holmes also cites Pliny's Natural History, which pairs Himilco's account of exploring Europe's outer coasts with Hanno's written record of his voyage from Gades.
Chapter 103
What does Holmes conclude about the two-looped palstave's distribution?
Borlase noted this rare palstave form was found exclusively in Cornwall and Devon, Ireland, and the western and north-western Iberian Peninsula, dating to about 1250–1050 BC, and concluded Cornwall and Spain's west coast were already in communication then. Holmes concedes 'perhaps,' but says not necessarily Cornwall and Gades, since similar celts also occur in France.
Chapter 103
How does Holmes rebut Hasted's claim about Upper Deal's past proximity to the sea?
Hasted said Upper Deal once stood closer to the sea, citing a 1624 deed describing a Lower Street house as abutting 'le sea bank versus orientem.' Holmes replies the deed doesn't state the bank's breadth, so it proves nothing; and since Deal Castle hasn't moved, Hasted's view would require an absurd sudden landward bay just north of the castle.
Chapter 103

Section 1044 cards

What did Captain McDakin's experiments show about cliff erosion at Dover?
McDakin's four-year experiments found the average erosion was unexpectedly small, only half an inch per year. He admitted the average rate since erosion began was probably much faster. He concluded heaviest falls follow long continued rain, springs at the cliff base undermine the cliffs, and shingle-laden sea attacks the undercliff but defends the cliff base where it accumulates.
Chapter 104
What did Sir John Coode conclude about shingle loss near St. Margaret's Bay?
Coode stated positively that the decrease of shingle south-west of St. Margaret's Bay was not caused by extending the Admiralty Pier at Dover. He concluded it was due to the remarkable accumulation of shingle and south-east projection of Dungeness, noting similar diminution westward near Folkestone, Sandgate and Hythe.
Chapter 104
What did McDakin say about the Roman Pharos and cliff recession?
McDakin remarked that the Roman Pharos on the Castle Cliffs, and the foundations of a similar building in the Redoubt on the Western Heights, give no indication that the cliff edge has receded since those earliest Roman buildings occupied their present site.
Chapter 104
What did Coode determine about Dungeness's seaward advance?
From Trinity House records, Coode found that from 1792 to 1850 the point advanced 530 feet, about 9 feet per annum, and from 1850 to 1871 it advanced 280 feet, about 13 to 14 feet per annum. Redman's claim of nearly six yards annually from the seventeenth to nineteenth century is probably an exaggeration.
Chapter 104

Section 1064 cards

Where did Caesar gather his fleet before his second invasion of Britain?
Caesar went with all his forces to the country of the Morini, because from there the crossing into Britain was the shortest. He ordered ships from the neighbouring regions, and the fleet he had built the previous summer for the Venetic war, to assemble there.
Chapter 106
Why did Caesar distribute his legions among several states in the winter after the second invasion?
Because drought had made the grain supply in Gaul smaller that year, Caesar was forced to station his army in winter quarters differently from previous years, distributing the legions among more states. He sent one legion to the Morini under Fabius, one to the Nervii under Quintus Cicero, one to the Esuvii under Roscius, and others elsewhere.
Chapter 106
What did the seamen questioned by Cluver say about the Dover–Boulogne passage?
Cluver, staying with Sir Thomas Waller, Warden of the Cinque Ports, questioned all trustworthy informants, especially seamen, about the crossings between England and France. They unanimously said Dover to Calais was 28 English miles, and that the most convenient passage was Dover to Boulogne, 32 English miles.
Chapter 106
What does Holmes say about the medieval port of Wissant and its location?
Holmes argues that if local tradition is trusted, the medieval port was simply the mouth of the rivulet called the Rieu de Sombre, Rieu d'Herlan, or Ruisseau du Moulin, enlarged and deepened. He agrees with Haigneré that the harbour was at the mouth of the Rieu d'Herlan, confirmed by Rigaux's explorations.
Chapter 106

Section 1074 cards

What did Geoffrey of Monmouth and Matthew Paris suppose about Caesar's movements after his second expedition?
Both Geoffrey of Monmouth (Hist. Britonum, iv, §3) and Matthew Paris (Chronica majora, ed. Luard, i, p. 73) supposed that Caesar, after his second expedition, had returned to Boulogne. The author cites them alongside Le Roman de Brut as examples of this traditional belief.
Chapter 107
How does Holmes estimate the distance Caesar's fleet sailed before sighting Britain behind on the port quarter?
Holmes estimates not less than 31 knots, about 57½ kilometres, assuming the wind lasted 5 hours and the drift 3 hours. He notes Napoleon's map gives 57 kilometres. Captain Iron advised that with a light south-westerly wind ships could sail 6 knots an hour, and the flood tide helped from about 9 or 9.30 p.m.
Chapter 107
What does Holmes think of Desjardins' argument that Cap d'Alprech was more prominent than Cape Grisnez?
Holmes argues Desjardins would not have resorted to this argument had he not persuaded himself that identifying Portus Itius with Boulogne depended on identifying Cap d'Alprech with the Itian promontory. Holmes counters that the ancients had sufficient powers of observation to see that Cape Grisnez marked the great bend in the coast of North-Eastern Gaul.
Chapter 107
How does Heller defend Caesar describing Britain as triangular despite landing between the Forelands?
Heller argues that Caesar's word angulus does not mean an angle in the geometrical sense but only a strip of coast between two angles. He compares a passage in Livy's description of the siege of Saguntum (xxi, 7, §5): Angulus muri erat in planiorem patentioremque quam cetera circa vallem vergens.
Chapter 107

Section 1084 cards

Why does Holmes reject Mariette's claim that the ulterior portus was Bononia?
Holmes argues Caesar says the eighteen cavalry ships were detained by contrary winds eight miles from the harbour sheltering the fleet, then orders the cavalry to embark at the ulterior portus, so the detention site must be that port. He adds that if the ulterior portus were adjacent to Caesar's departure port, Caesar would have made the fleets sail together.
Chapter 108
How does Holmes refute Wauters' use of Lambert of Ardres for Wissant?
Wauters argued that because Lambert of Ardres, writing in the thirteenth century, called Wissant the portus Britannicus, Wissant must be Pliny's portus Morinorum Britannicus. Holmes replies that Lambert was not referring to Roman times; he simply meant that in his own day Wissant was a frequented departure port for England.
Chapter 108
What does Holmes say about Napoleon III's Boulogne argument?
Napoleon III maintained that the first Napoleon's choice of Boulogne for his intended invasion of England was a strong argument that Caesar did the same. Holmes lays no stress on it, saying it is superfluous if Wissant would not have served Caesar equally well, and notes Boulogne was only one, though the principal, of several ports Napoleon selected.
Chapter 108
How does Holmes interpret adversa nocte in Caesar's account of the storm-tossed ships?
Holmes rejects reading adversa as 'unfavourable,' since Caesar's crossings were made by night and there was a full moon that night. Following Kraner-Dittenberger, he takes adversa nocte like adverso colle ('up the hill') and adverso flumine ('up the river'), meaning 'in the face of night' or 'into the night.'
Chapter 108

Section 1094 cards

What error does Holmes identify in Cardwell's claim about tides at Folkestone?
Holmes argues Cardwell was grossly inaccurate in claiming the time of high water at a full moon is the same across centuries and that each tide is later by exactly twenty-five minutes. Holmes cites Admiralty Tide Tables showing high tide times varied between years, and one interval was 90 minutes rather than 50. Holmes says Cardwell would have been correct only if he had said 'on the average.'
Chapter 109
How does Holmes use visibility limits to challenge the idea Caesar saw the Britons from afar?
Holmes cites Wolseley's Soldier's Pocket-Book stating good eyesight distinguishes troops at 2,000 yards, with a man or horse appearing as a dot at that distance. Holmes acknowledges abnormally long vision in some primitive districts but argues we may reasonably assume Caesar could not see eight or nine times as far as a modern Englishman, undermining claims based on Caesar's sighting of the enemy.
Chapter 109
What is Malden's objection to Ridgeway's claim that Caesar landed opposite the Wealden Forest?
Ridgeway argued a passage in Caesar's Fifth Book proves he landed opposite the Wealden Forest, since the Britons fled into woods after being driven from a stream. Malden replies that Caesar only says woods existed for refuge, not that his inland march was barred by an all but impenetrable forest 30 to 40 miles wide. Holmes presents this exchange as a live scholarly dispute.
Chapter 109
Why does Holmes reject the theory that Caesar's ships were driven ashore off Pevensey by a gale?
Holmes argues that if Caesar's transports had been anchored off Pevensey on the night of the full moon, a north-north-easterly gale could not have driven them ashore unless they had been inside the harbour, which Caesar would have mentioned. This forms part of his broader critique of Airy's and related landing-place theories based on tidal and wind conditions.
Chapter 109

Section 1104 cards

What does Holmes say about Caesar's mention of 'steep places' in B.G. iv, 33?
Holmes notes that Caesar's remark about 'steep places' (B.G., iv, 33, § 3) is purely general and does not necessarily refer to any combat between Caesar's troops and the Britons. The point is a caution against reading a specific engagement into a vague topographical phrase.
Chapter 110
How does Holmes use the Herodotus and Strabo passages in his notes?
Holmes cites Herodotus viii, 129, where a great ebb of the sea during Artabazos' siege produced shallow water, and Strabo iii, 5, § 11, where a shipmaster deliberately ran his vessel into shallows. These are offered as classical parallels or illustrations bearing on tidal and shoal conditions, not as direct evidence about Caesar's landings.
Chapter 110
What does Holmes criticize about Appach's reconstruction of Caesar's 55 B.C. landing?
Holmes rejects Appach's claim that Caesar was 'completely ignorant of the turn of the stream in the Channel.' Holmes argues that since Caesar at anchor could see how the stream ran, Volusenus could have observed the same; calling Caesar completely ignorant assumes Volusenus was a fool, and Caesar's Gallic seamen knew the Channel well.
Chapter 110
How does Holmes treat Dr. Guest's argument that 'dolo' in Nennius means Deal?
Holmes is amazed that a scholar like Dr. Guest would argue 'dolo' means Deal, noting the reading is not even mentioned in Mommsen's apparatus criticus. Holmes observes that Nennius calls Dolo a proconsul under the British king, and that Nennius evidently believed Caesar landed north of the South Foreland, probably on the East Kent coast.
Chapter 110

Section 1114 cards

What does Holmes argue about the tidal drift figures used by Lewin for Caesar's fleet?
The author argues Lewin's estimate of eighteen miles' drift per tide is greatly exaggerated. Holmes notes Caesar's ships drifted only from about midnight until daybreak, not a whole tide, and cites Admiral Sir Frederick Bedford's rough rule that a vessel is carried about nine miles by the stream in a whole spring tide. Holmes also points out Lewin wrongly placed the expedition at the full moon rather than near new moon.
Chapter 111
Why does Holmes reject the reading that Caesar's men could not stand firmly because the ground was soft?
Holmes cites John Harris, who claimed Caesar's phrase that his men could not firmiter insistere implies hard, solid ground was lacking. Holmes counters that Caesar says this only of men struggling in the water against the enemy; in such circumstances no one could stand firmly even on a hard, solid floor, such as that of a swimming bath.
Chapter 111
How does Holmes defend Caesar's statement that almost all ships from Gaul steered for the 'corner' near Dover?
Holmes suggests quo may mean ad quem, referring to angulus rather than Cantium, so Caesar meant ships steered for the 'corner'. He argues Dover lies quite close to that corner even if it is strictly limited to the coast between the South and North Foreland. He adds that demanding finer geographical precision from an ancient writer, as Battely does, is idle.
Chapter 111
What textual argument does Holmes accept for emending miratos to muratos in Cicero's letter?
Holmes follows Professor Tyrrell, who argues a copyist would not have changed the obvious munitos into the inexplicable miratos, but would likely miswrite the rare muratos as the common miratos without regard to sense. Tyrrell compares a compositor setting 'serious effusion' for 'serous effusion', and notes muratos, though post-classical, suits a letter describing the approach to Britain as ramparted with cliffs.
Chapter 111

Section 1124 cards

What error does Holmes identify in Pitt-Rivers' suggestion about a scythe blade?
Pitt-Rivers suggested a scythe blade found at Woodyates might be a British chariot war scythe, citing Strabo. Holmes corrects this: Strabo (xvii, 3, §7) attributes scythed chariots not to the Britons but to the Pharusii and Nigretes of Mauritania, so the British chariot connection is unsupported.
Chapter 112
What do discovered British chariot-wheel diameters reveal, and which ancient writers does this confirm?
Found British chariot-wheels vary in diameter between 2 ft. 11 in. and 2 ft. 4½ in. Holmes says this discovery proves Arrian (Ars tactica, 19) and Dion Cassius (lxxvi, 12, §3) were right in stating that British chariot-horses were small.
Chapter 112
Why does Holmes reject Camden's link between 'Julliberrie's Grave' and Laberius Durus?
Camden was 'almost persuaded' the tumulus near Chilham held Laberius Durus, the tribune killed in Caesar's campaign. Holmes notes the mound is a neolithic long barrow (Archaeologia, xlii, 1869), erected more than a millennium before Laberius Durus was born, so the name-based identification is chronologically impossible.
Chapter 112
What does Holmes say about Hasted's claim that Barham Down was Caesar's main camp?
Hasted claimed 'all the learned agree' Barham Down was Caesar's main camp, with a chain of military works from the landing place. Holmes counters that in Hasted's time it was not understood that such questions should be settled by pick and shovel rather than imagination. Flinders Petrie called the works ancient but did not attribute them to Caesar.
Chapter 112

Section 1134 cards

Why does Holmes reject Napoleon's argument dating Caesar's return to Gaul?
Holmes says Napoleon's conclusion may be right but his argument is flawed. Napoleon wrongly assumed Caesar reached Boulogne about nine o'clock, but the 54 B.C. return was a dead calm with rowed ships, unlike 55 B.C. when they sailed. Napoleon also wrongly claimed the fleet could only enter Boulogne harbour at high tide.
Chapter 113
What error does Holmes identify in Napoleon's lunar calculation?
Napoleon claimed the full moon of September 699 fell on the 14th, but since a full moon had occurred on 31 August, the new moon of September actually fell on the 14th. Holmes calls this error immaterial, but still faults the argument built upon it.
Chapter 113
How does Holmes use Cicero's letters to prove there was no intercalary month in 705?
Holmes argues that if 705 had an intercalary month, Caesar's march from Corfinium to Brundisium would have taken 39 or 40 days, which is incredible given his notorious speed; without one it took 17 days. He also cites Cicero's letter of 16 May 705 mentioning the equinox, which fits only if 706 and 707 had no intercalation.
Chapter 113
What does Holmes say about Bergk's reading of 'litoribus Britanniae proximo'?
Holmes rejects Bergk's claim that the phrase means the coasts nearest to Britain, i.e. Boulogne, noting Caesar had already named the Portus Itius twice in the Commentaries, so had no reason to avoid it. Holmes accepts Boot's conjecture proximis and holds the letters were written in Britain.
Chapter 113

Section 1143 cards

Why might the pontiffs have interpreted Caesar's calendar regulation inclusively?
Holzapfel argues that although Romans generally used the inclusive method only for small numbers and official phraseology, it would not have been unnatural for the pontiffs to read Caesar's regulations that way. He also suggests they knew little astronomy, perhaps no more than Censorinus, who said the length of the year was not yet certainly determined.
Chapter 114
What did Macrobius say about a market-day Kalends of January?
Macrobius reports that whenever the year began with a day assigned to the nundinae, the whole year was mournful with unlucky disasters, and this belief was especially strengthened by the Lepidus tumult. The author notes this holds only if the Kalends of January 711 did fall on a market-day, which is the disputed point.
Chapter 114
What does the author conclude about the new moon of January 45 B.C.?
The author calculated the new moon by reckoning back lunations from January 6, 1856, and by De Morgan's almanac method, both giving a new moon on January 2, 45 B.C. This supports Matzat against A. Mommsen, who argued Caesar's calendar began January 2, while others claimed January 1.
Chapter 114

Section 1154 cards

Why does Holmes reject Bergk's claim that the campaign ended by early August?
Holmes says Bergk fixes the date by Caesar's remark that autumn began on 11 August, but forgets that this date was set in the Julian calendar eight years after the invasion. Holmes also argues that aestas in the Commentaries means the period when campaigning was practicable, not a season ending on a fixed date.
Chapter 115
What evidence does Holmes give that Caesar's aestas extended to mid-September?
Holmes cites two passages. In the last chapter of Book I Caesar says he finished two great campaigns in one aestas, and the decisive battle of the second is dated about 14 September. In Book IV, 20 Caesar invaded Britain with only a small part of aestas left, yet did not land until 26 August.
Chapter 115
How does Caesar divide the year in the Commentaries, according to Holmes?
Holmes argues Caesar generally ignored spring and autumn, dividing the year like Thucydides into two seasons: aestas, when campaigning was practicable, and hiems. Caesar uses ver only once (B. G. vi, 3, § 4) and autumnus only three times, none referring to campaigning. Holmes notes the proper Latin word for winter is bruma, not hiems.
Chapter 115
What does Holmes say about the word hiems in Caesar's usage?
Holmes states that the Latin word for winter properly so called is not hiems but bruma. In Caesar's scheme hiems functions as the counterpart of aestas, the campaigning season, rather than a strictly defined winter. This supports Holmes's argument that Caesar's seasonal terms are practical, not calendar-based.
Chapter 115

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All questions and answers

What does Holmes claim about the two long-standing problems of Portus Itius and Caesar's landing place?

How does Holmes say archaeological details should be handled from the historical standpoint?

What is Holmes's stated aim in this book, and how does it differ from his earlier Caesar's Conquest of Gaul?

What does Holmes say about the novelty of his book and the scope it covers?

What did Caesar fail to learn from Gallic traders before his first British expedition?

How did Boucher de Perthes' Somme gravel discoveries become accepted?

What did Pitt-Rivers contribute to archaeological method?

What disciplines does Holmes say can unlock the secrets of Caesar's voyages?

Why does Holmes say archaeological work languishes in Britain?

Why does Holmes devote a chapter to the Palaeolithic Age in a book on English history?

What evidence shows palaeolithic men lived in East Anglia after the glaciers left?

What did Benjamin Harrison find on the Kentish plateau, and why is their authenticity disputed?

Why does the absence of palaeolithic implements in northern Britain not settle the question?

What was the environment of palaeolithic man in Britain after the southern glaciers passed?

What evidence suggests French cave artists may have emigrated to Britain?

In what four classes of deposits are palaeolithic relics found in Britain?

Why can't Mortillet's French chronological classification be applied in Britain?

Why does the author doubt dating palaeolithic tools by associated animal remains?

What evidence of burial does the chapter cite for Palaeolithic peoples?

What is Tylor's minimum definition of religion, and how does the chapter qualify it?

How does Arunta totemism differ from the earlier anthropological model?

What does the chapter conclude about totemism's origin and its possible traces in Britain?

What does the chapter say about the timing of the first neolithic immigrants to Britain?

What physical type characterized most later neolithic invaders of Britain?

What does the chapter conclude about dolmens and attempts to trace migration by them?

What two classes of Neolithic flint implements does Holmes distinguish?

What does Holmes say about the term 'celt' and its origin?

How were Neolithic flint implements made, according to Evans's experiments?

What are pygmy flints and what does Holmes say about their use?

What did the excavator of the Waddon subterranean chambers suggest they were used for?

Why does the chapter doubt that British neolithic people practiced agriculture?

What evidence suggests neolithic women had a harder life than men?

What was the couvade, and how did the chapter explain its origin?

What did Piette claim about the lozenges on the Lorthet reindeer-horn engraving?

What signs were found in the Placard, La Madelaine, and Mas d'Azil caves, and what did Piette conclude?

What does the orientation of long barrows and chambered cairns suggest about their builders' beliefs?

What did Pitt-Rivers conclude about the Wor Barrow on Cranborne Chase?

What evidence led Thurnam to suspect cannibalism in long barrows?

Why might animals have been buried whole in Neolithic interments?

What does the author conclude about evidence for Neolithic religious belief?

Why does the author doubt a Copper Age existed in Britain?

When does Holmes date the start of the British Bronze Age?

Were the Bronze Age invaders Celtic-speaking people?

Did bronze weapons give the first invaders victory?

Why were the Yorkshire Wolds densely settled despite poor soil?

Why does Holmes doubt that British forts suffered prolonged sieges?

How did the flanged celt and palstave develop from the flat celt?

What does Holmes say about the origin of British socketed celts?

How were bronze shields made, and who could own them?

What evidence suggests improved longevity and status of women in the British Bronze Age?

What did excavations at Ty Mawr reveal about Bronze Age hut-circles?

What was found in the Heathery Burn Cave, and what does it show about bronze use?

How does the author contrast the Heathery Burn cave-dwellers' wealth with their living conditions?

What evidence of sham jewellery existed in the Bronze Age?

Why does the author think Wiltshire was so rich in imported ornaments?

How did the spiral design reach Britain, and where is it found?

How did British culture compare with Central and Southern Europe in the Bronze Age?

Why is the chronology of round barrows difficult to establish?

What evidence suggests some Wiltshire barrows are late Bronze Age?

What does the chapter say about the theory that chiefs were unburnt while wives and retainers were cremated?

What proportion of interments in the Yorkshire Wolds contained grave goods?

What evidence does the author cite for human sacrifice in Bronze Age Britain?

Did cremation and inhumation in the West reflect different beliefs about the afterlife?

What did Stukeley claim about stone circles, and how does the author assess it?

What did the recent excavation at Stonehenge actually prove about its date?

What did Pytheas learn from the Cornish inhabitants about tin?

What scientific achievements does the author credit to Pytheas?

What did the name 'Pretanic Island' suggest about Brythonic settlement in Britain?

What does the chapter say about the date of the earliest Celtic invasion of Britain?

Why does the chapter doubt that iron reached Britain through a new invading people?

What does the chapter conclude about attempts to determine the order of Brythonic tribal arrivals?

What is the ancestry of the pedestalled cinerary urns found at Aylesford?

What did the relics found in Iron Age hill-forts prove about their occupation?

What was Hunsbury, and what did its excavated remains reveal?

How did brochs and 'Picts' houses differ from ordinary British dwellings?

Did all of Britain share the same level of culture in pre-Roman times?

How does the chapter assess Caesar's claim that interior Britons ate no corn?

What does the chapter say about war and political change among the Britons?

What does the chapter say about the status of women and female rulers?