[53] De Bello Gallico, IV. 2.
[54] Strabo, pp. 121, 155, 170, edit. Didot.
[55] “Carpenta Gallorum.” (Florus, I. 13)—“Plurima Gallica (verba) valuerunt, ut reda ac petorritum.” (Quintilian, De Institutione Oratoria, lib. I., cap. v. 57.)—“Petorritum enim est non ex Græcia dimidiatum, sed totum transalpibus, nam est vox Gallica. Id scriptum est in libro M. Varronis quarto decimo Rerum Divinarum; quo in loco Varro, quum de petorrito dixisset, esse id verbum Gallicum dixit.” (Aulus Gellius, XV. 30.)—“Petoritum et Gallicum vehiculum est, et nomen ejus dictum esse existimant a numero quatuor rotarum. Alii Osce, quod hi quoque petora quatuor vocent. Alii Græce, sed αἱλικὡς dictum.” (Festus, voc. Petoritum, p. 206, edit. Müller.)—“Belgica esseda, Gallicana vehicula. Nam Belga civitas est Galliæ in qua hujusmodi vehiculi repertus est usus.” (Servius, Commentaries on the Georgics of Virgil, lib. III. v. 204.—Cæsar, De Bello Gallico, IV. 33, and passim.
[56] De Bello Gallico, II. 5.
[57] De Bello Gallico, I. 7.
[58] De Bello Gallico, VII. 11.
[59] De Bello Gallico, VII. 34, 53.
[60] De Bello Gallico, VII. 58.
[61] The reckoning of these contingents is the most positive element for estimating the state of the population. We find in the “Commentaries” three valuable statements: 1st, the numerical state of the Helvetian immigration in 696 (De Bello Gallico, I. 29.); 2nd, that of the Belgic troops, in the campaign of 697 (De Bello Gallico, II. 4.); 3rd, the census of the Gaulish army which, in 702, attempted to raise the siege of Alesia (De Bello Gallico, VII. 75.) Of 368,000 men, composing the agglomeration of the Helvetii and their allies, 92,000 were able to bear arms; that is, about a quarter of the population. In the campaign of 697, the Belgic coalition counted 296,000 combatants, and, in 702, at the time of the blockade of Alesia, the effective force of a great part of Gaul amounted to 281,000 men. But, in order not to count twice the different contingents of the same states, we suppress from the enumeration of the year 702 the contingents of the countries already mentioned in the census of 697, which reduces the effective force to 201,000 men. Yet this number cannot represent the total of men fit for war; it comprises only the troops which could easily be sent out of the territory, and which were more numerous accordingly as the people to which they belonged were nearer to the theatre of military operations. Thus Cæsar informs us that the Bellovaci, who could bring into the field 100,000 men, only furnished 60,000 picked men in 697, and 10,000 in 702. The contingent of the Atrebates, which had been 15,000 men in 697, was reduced to 4,000 in 702; that of the Nervii, of 50,000 in the former year, sank to 5,000; and that of the Morini similarly from 25,000 to 5,000. From these circumstances we may be allowed to infer that the Gauls armed three-fifths of their male population when the enemy was near their territory, and only one-fifth, or even one-sixth, when he was more distant.
If, then, we would form an idea of the total number of men able to carry arms in Gaul, we must augment the contingents really furnished, sometimes by two-fifths, sometimes in a higher proportion, according to the distances which separated them from the seat of war. By this calculation, the levies of 697 represent 513,600 men capable of carrying arms, and those of 702, at least 573,600; we add together these two numbers, because, as stated above, each army comprises different populations, which gives 1,087,200 men, to whom we must add 92,000 Helvetii; moreover, it is indispensable to take into account the contributive capability of the populations which are not mentioned in the “Commentaries” among the belligerents at the two epochs indicated above, such as the Pictones, the Carnutes, the Andes, the Remi, the Treviri, the Lingones, the Leuci, the Unelli, the Redones, the Ambivareti, and the peoples of Armorica and Aquitaine. By an approximate estimate of their population according to the extent of their territory, we shall obtain the number of 625,000 men. Adding together these four numbers, to obtain the total number of men capable of bearing arms, we shall get 513,600 + 573,600 + 92,000 + 625,000 = 1,804,200 men. Quadrupling this number to get, according to the proportion applied to the Helvetii, the total of the population, we shall have 7,216,800 inhabitants for Gaul, the Roman province not included. In fact, Diodorus Siculus, who wrote in the first century of our era, says (lib. V., c. 25) that the population of the different nations of Gaul varies from 200,000 to 50,000 men, which would make a mean of 125,000 men. If we take the word ἁνδρες in the sense of inhabitants, and if we admit with Tacitus that there were in Gaul sixty-four different nations, we should have the number of 8,000,000 inhabitants, very near the preceding.