All these passages are confirmed and illustrated by the testimony of Strabo. According to him Gaul produced cattle of all kinds[355]. The Belgæ, who occupied the most northern part, opposite to Britain, excelled the rest of the Gauls in their manufactures. Nevertheless their wool was coarse, and was spun and woven by them into the thick Saga, which were both worn by the natives of the country and exported in great quantities to Rome and other parts of Italy. The Roman settlers, indeed, in the most northern parts had flocks of covered sheep, and their wool was consequently very fine[356].
[355] L. iv. cap. i. § 2. p. 6. ed. Siebenkees.
[356] L. iv. cap. iv. § 3. pp. 56-59. ed. Siebenkees.
Here also may be produced the evidence of Eumenius, who in his Oration, which will be quoted more fully hereafter, intimates the abundance of the sheep on the western banks of the Rhine by saying, that the flocks of the Romans were washed in every part of the stream[357].
[357] Arat illam terribilem aliquando ripam inermis agricola, et toto nostri greges flumine bicorni mersantur. p. 152.
Cæsar informs us, that the ancient inhabitants of Britain had abundance of cattle (pecoris magnus numerus); under the word (pecus) “cattle,” sheep must no doubt be understood to be included. It also appears, that in his time the Celts, or proper Britons, lived to the North of the Thames, the Belgians having expelled them and taken possession of the part to the South, called Cantium or Kent. These last were by far the most civilized inhabitants of the island, not much differing in their customs from the Gauls. With respect to the others, Cæsar says, that for the most part they did not sow any kind of grain, but lived upon milk and flesh, and clothed themselves with skins[358].
[358] Ex his omnibus longè sunt humanissimi, qui Cantium incolunt; quæ regio est maritima omnis; neque multum a Gallicâ differunt consuetudine. Interiores plerique frumenta non serunt; sed lacte et carne vivunt, pellibusqe sunt vestiti. De Bello Gallico, I. v. cap. 10.
It appears therefore, that before our æra, sheep, and probably goats, were bred extensively in England, their milk and flesh being used for food, and their skins with the wool or hair upon them for clothing; and that the people of Kent, who were of Belgic origin, and more refined than the original Britons, had attained to the arts of spinning and weaving, although their productions were only of the coarsest description.
Eumenius, the Rhetorician, who was a native of Augustodunum, now called Autun, delivered his Panegyric in praise of the Emperors Constantius and Constantine in the city of Treves about A. D. 310. In the following passage he congratulates Britain on its various productions, and also on the circumstance, that Constantine had been recently declared Emperor at York on the death of his father:
O fortunate Britain, now the happiest country upon earth; for thou hast been the first to see Constantine made Emperor. It was fit that on thee Nature should bestow every blessing of climate and of soil. Suffering neither from the excessive severity of winter, nor the heat of summer, thy harvests are so fruitful as to supply all the gifts both of Ceres and of Bacchus; thy woods contain no savage beasts, thy land no noxious serpents, but an innumerable multitude of tame cattle, distended with milk, and loaded with fleeces[359].