The genuine history of the Britons asserted against Mr. Macpherson ...

THE BRITONS ASSERTED. 2^
fabulis credere libet) fuperatas. CioiTing the
Alps, fufifque acie Tufcis, baud procul Ticino
flumine-^condidere urbern, Mediolanum appel-
larunt. Alia fubinde manus,—Elitovio duce,—
favente Bellovefo, quum tranfcendiffet Alpes,
ubi nunc Brixia ac Verona urbes funt—confidunt.
Pofl hos Salluvii— circa Ticinum amnem—^.
Deinde Boii Lingones—, quum jam inter Padum
atque Alpes omnia tenerentur, Pado ratibus trajefto,
non Etrufcos modo, fed etiam Umbros,
agro pellunt. Turn Senones, recentiffimi advenarum,
attacked Clufium and burnt Rome '. And
the regular detail of fuch an hiftorian fixes [the
point beyond all poffibility of doubt. The
.Gauls firft entered Italy about the year 600 be-
fore Chrift, when the country was compleatly
inhabited from end to end.
But the authors quoted byMr.Macpherfon have
been wronged in the application by him. The
Umbri might be the defcendants of antient Gauls,
and even the firfl inhabitants of Italy ; and yet
not be derivatives from Gaul. As the great body
of the Celtce puQied by land or coafted by fea
for the feat of their future Empire in Gaul, a
part of them might divide from the reft, and
make a fettlement in Italy. And this appears, I
think, to have been actually the cafe. That
jihe Umbri were really Celtaeor Gauls, is afferted
by fuch authorities, as, however infignificant in
» L. V. c. 35—35.
theiTifelves,