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Holmes's Ancient Britain Ancient Britain and the Invasions of . By T. Rice Holmes. With 44 Illustrations and 3 tinted Maps. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1907. 8vo. Pp. xvi + 764. 2 is. net.

R. A. Smith and A. G. Peskett

The Classical Review / Volume 22 / Issue 03 / May 1908, pp 91 - 95 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00001268, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00001268

How to cite this article: R. A. Smith and A. G. Peskett (1908). Review of Michael Sullivan 'Modern Social Policy' The Classical Review, 22, pp 91-95 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00001268

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 130.133.8.114 on 03 May 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW

HOLMES'S ANCIENT BRITAIN.

I. Ancient Britain and the Invasions of Julius able that our neolithic population was Caesar. By T. RICE HOLMES. With 44 descended from the river-drift men who Illustrations and 3 tinted Maps. Oxford : lived in south-east England before the straits Clarendon Press, 1907. 8vo. Pp. xvi+764. of Dover were cut; at least there is little to 2 is. net. shew that a new race arrived till the end of the neolithic period, when round-heads IT was to be expected that the exhaustive crossed the Channel. Their remains are work on the Gallic war published last year found in barrows erected before the intro- by Mr. Rice Holmes would be followed by duction of bronze, and Mr. Holmes insists a similar treatment of the passages dealing that they were not Celtic. To him, as to with Britain; but Caesar's text plays a very most of the classical writers, and Prof. subordinate part in the present well-filled Ridgeway (for example) at the present day, volume. The genesis of the work is evident the Celts appear as a tall, muscular and from the preface, where the author declares almost brutal race, with skulls of medium his aim to have been to tell the story of or decided length, and fair or red hair, in man's life in our island from the earliest striking contrast to the Grenelle or Alpine times to the Roman invasion of A.D. 43. race of Central Europe. They were a con- What was merely an introductory chapter in quering race that advanced westward, and, his earlier volume has here grown into a on reaching France, conquered and incor- treatise of over 400 pages, or 100 more porated the round-headed inhabitants settled than are devoted to the Julian invasions. there since early neolithic times. The result Mr. Holmes speaks with the highest authority was a mixed race that passed over by degrees on the Commentaries, and has given us a into this country and accounts for the varied masterly description of the stirring events of human remains in our round barrows. B.C. 55-4; but archaeology has also occupied Though Mr. Holmes has made out a good much of his well-earned leisure, and many case, it seems an extreme measure to identify, who have not read Caesar since their school- as he practically does, the Teuton and the days will heartily welcome a volume that is Celt, old established names standing for dis- the result of steady work throughout the tinct types. While laying too much stress vacations of nearly thirty years. on the Germanic element in the Celtic The hopes raised by the announcement population of Western Europe in the Bronze that Mr. Holmes was to deal with Britain Age, he seems to minimise that element in are more than realised by a careful reading, the Belgae, who, as Caesar says, were to a and it is a pleasant duty to record our large extent Germans. The exact date and sincere admiration of his work, both in extent of the Belgic invasion of Britain can- principle and detail. But the author will not be determined, but Mr. Holmes may be expect something more than eulogy in recommended to define the Belgic area by general terms; and at the risk of losing the distribution of pedestal urns and the proportion, an attempt will be made to associated rite of cremation, which was focus his views on some of the most impor- specially connected with the German races. tant problems, and to criticise in detail a few The Belgae had apparently spread westward passages in which the balance might have in Ptolemy's time, but in the early Iron Age been held a little more truly. they seem to have been confined to the south-east, where coins were particularly The hiatus-theory, which has been proved plentiful. Westward was the area where the untenable for the Pyrenees, is not so strongly earliest metal currency took the form of held as formerly in Britain, and the tendency iron bars, and Mr. Holmes accepts these as is to reduce the interval that separates us settling the text of a well-known passage in from the palaeolithic period. It is conceiv- THE CLASSICAL REVIEW Caesar. He may be interested to know of mixture with a more northern type, and there two other sites where they have been dis- seems to have been a similar intermixture in covered— Holne Chase, near Ashburton, . Mr. Holmes holds (pp. 431,438) that , and Lyneham Barrow, near Chipping the great mass of the population called Norton, Oxon. With regard to Aylesford, Celtae by Caesar, was of neolithic origin, the reader should be warned against the view but that the name was bestowed (on them- expressed on pp. 268, 288, that the ' family- selves and the people they found in posses- circle' burials, the cist burials, the drinking sion) by invaders from the East who cup and cinerary urn were in any sense introduced the Celtic language first into contemporary: they only shew that the Germany and then into Gaul, not before the burial-ground had been in use for several seventh century B.C. centuries, and the older graves had been A little more generosity towards distin- disturbed. As Mommsen has declared many guished writers who have had the courage to problems connected with Caesar's invasion change their minds would have made this insoluble, the negative result of Mr. Holmes' volume more pleasant reading. It is no elaborate investigations was almost inevitable, doubt fair and instructive to cite Dr. A. but he has collected the material in a series Evans' three dates for the Belgic invasion of masterly essays. As to the naval camp of Britain, but a certain animus can be of B.C. 54, he may not be aware that a long traced in the author's references to ' the fore- intrenchment parallel to the sea and skirting most Celtic scholar of this country.' The the cemetery between Deal and Walmer, was voluminous appendices on the more debat- used for early Roman burials, evidently at a able points in British archaeology are time when it had ceased to be a defensive sufficient evidence of their extreme difficulty, work. and Sir John Rhys' services to that study On p. 457 the author sanctions a most should not be estimated by a parade of incon- unfortunate phrase, 'Teutonic Briton,' and sistent passages written perhaps at widely there is an Hibernian flavour in the following different times. Mr. Holmes' critical faculty professorial dictum cited (without approval) is very properly aroused, but he knows well in an appendix on the Celts: ' No Gael ever enough that many of his own conclusions set his foot on British soil save on a vessel may need revision in a few years, and that that had put out from Ireland'; but Mr. the pre-historian must depend mainly on Holmes is not always happy in his quota- successive discoveries in the soil. Again, tions. Thus on p. 430 he writes as if Sir the author fails to justify his attack on Prof. John Evans' chronology of the Ridgeway, as the following extract will shew (propounded in 1881) had been definitely (p. 501): adopted in the British Museum Guide to the Formerly the professor held that ' the only diffi- Bronze Age, whereas it is given there simply culty in identifying Ictis with the is for comparison with other systems, as the the statement of Diodorus that the tin was conveyed context clearly shows. On the same page across to the island at low water'; for 'geologists maintain that Wight could not have been joined to some apparent contradictions about the Celts the mainland in historic times.' Geologists, how- in Britain are mentioned, but even with the ever, have changed their minds; and accordingly latest data at his disposal, Mr. Holmes would Prof. Ridgeway has changed his. probably not deny that of all the pre-historic The Professor, like others, was in the peoples of Britain 'the Bronze Age inhabi- hands of the geologists, and when Mr. tants of this country seem to have been the Clement Reid removed the last obstacle to most closely connected with the true Celts. his contention, he cannot fairly be said to He may indeed ask who the true Celts were, have changed his opinion. and has endeavoured to answer the question; Though a passage in the British Museum but admits that some invaders of the Grenelle Iron Age Guide might admittedly have been (or Alpine) type reached these shores in the more explicit, the nonsense complained of Bronze Age. The greater stature of many by Mr. Holmes (p. 506) is mainly of his own Bronze Age skeletons no doubt shews inter- making. He would have found no difficulty THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 93 in understanding how the tin trade-route archaeologist,' ' an eminent metallurgist,'' the from St. Michael's Mount would have foremost Celtic scholar of France.' Some- involved a longer and more dangerous sea- times the name is added in a footnote, but passage than from the Isle of Wight, if he in many cases the reference is to some other had adopted the second alternative suggested passage or to some periodical barely acces- by Prof. Ridgeway—' from Narbo by way of sible to the majority of readers. Some space the Garonne, past Corbilo at the mouth would have saved by a simple mention of of the Loire, thence by sea round Ushant the name, and a journalistic trick of this or across , and thence to Wight by kind is strangely out of place in a monument way of the Channel islands.' He should of British scholarship. further have noticed that the overland route Misprints are surprisingly few in a volume to Corbilo from the Channel is indicated by the so loaded with references, but proper names distribution of the Channel Islands type of are wrongly given on pp. 124, 168 and 405, silver coins (cf. Guide, pp. 85, 151); and and there are some slips of greater import- though the connection between these coins ance: such as the statement (p. 145) that and the tin-trade has yet to be proved, the 'from daggers were derived a class of Professor's attractive theory cannot be sum- weapons very rare in this country called marily dismissed. M. Blanchet assigns this halberds.' Halberds are particularly com- series of coins to the latest period of Gaulish mon in Ireland, and were perhaps as a class independence, but this would correspond to earlier than the bronze dagger. Again, Sir a fairly early period of the British coinage, Wollaston Franks is wrongly quoted (p. 238) and these large silver (or white metal) pieces as affirming that late Celtic swords invariably look much nearer to a classical prototype had bronze handles. The illustrations in the than the British coins in use just before text present no novelties and might well Roman influence was felt. In any case the have been more numerous, and there is no trade represented by these coins did not excuse for omitting underlines, the titles reach Britain via or Kent, and the being most inconveniently relegated to a crossing between Wight and (say) Cherbourg table. It may be added that fig. 38 is may have been adopted long before the inverted. coins were struck. Such minor blemishes however will Once more (p. 704), Mr. Holmes speaks hardly detract from the value and interest slightingly of Higden, the monk of Chester, of what must remain a standard work for who wrote at Westminster in the fourteenth years to come. Mr. Holmes' chief merit century and lived at a time when there were lies not in original discoveries or in con- probably clearer traces of the Roman roads structive archaeology, but rather in a sane than there are to-day. In any case he may and comprehensive criticism of what others be presumed to have known something of have produced. He has swept together and the Watling Street; and before adding a arranged with method practically everything note of horror to his name, the author should of importance bearing on his subject, and have been more careful in translating the has cleared the way for a further advance passage quoted. By accepting the traditional into the dim recesses of Britain's past A version, he makes nonsense of what seems critic of his powers and energy cannot rest to be a literal truth. upon his oars; and with all deference we There may also be mentioned a curious would suggest that he should next turn his practice that to some readers may prove a attention to the notices of our islands that source of irritation. The anonymous method now lie buried in the Monumenta Historica of citation no doubt has its merits, but there Britannica and elsewhere, bringing his vast is a constant occurrence of such phrases as erudition to bear on the many knotty pro- 'the foremost British soldier of our time,' blems there awaiting solution. 'our most experienced numismatist,' 'an eminent scholar,' 'a distinguished French R. A. SMITH. 94 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW

II. MR T. RICE HOLMES, whose exhaustive the conclusion that Caesar landed in 55 on study of Caesar's campaigns in Gaul is well the 26th of August, and not, as is usually known to all scholars, has now supposed, on the 27th, and in 54 on the 7th published an equally exhaustive account of of July of the Julian calendar or within one Caesar's invasions of Britain in a volume day of that date. The whole of this section which also treats of the ancient history of on the Julian calendar is a remarkable piece Britain. The part concerned with Caesar of close, and as far as I can judge, accurate occupies pp. 301-373, which contain a reasoning, and cannot be neglected by any succinct narrative of the invasions, and pp. student of Roman chronology. To illustrate 5X7—737 which are devoted to elaborate the minuteness with which the work is done disquisitions on various controverted points. I may mention that the author has calculated Mr Holmes' treatment of these topics is the date of the January new moon of 45 B.C. - marked by the profound erudition, the 'first by reckoning back the number of comprehensive grasp of detail, and the lunations from the new moon of January 6th, critical acumen, that readers of his previous 1856, which occurred at 11.17 p.m., taking works have learned to expect. Two main the length of a lunation to be 29 days, results stand out with especial prominence. 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.84 seconds, and Mr Holmes has in my judgment proved allowing 2 hours for the secular acceleration conclusively that Caesar started from Bou- of the moon's mean motion; and secondly logne. This result is particularly gratifying by the method explained in Augustus De to one who has maintained for some years, Morgan's Book of Almanacs, 1851, pp. xiv.- though of course on the basis of a much xv. Both methods have led me to the same narrower survey of the facts, that Boulogne result, namely, that there was a new moon was the only place that answered the con- on January 2, 45 B.C.' ditions of the narrative. In his earlier book, The difficult question of the tides has also published in 1899, Mr Holmes argued been treated by the author with extraordinary somewhat strongly in favour of Wissant, but care and minuteness. Other sections of the a closer study of the evidence has naturally book deal with the details of the Roman and rightly led him to abandon that view. expedition into the interior, and here the The second result that Mr Holmes has, in results seem to be less certain owing to the my opinion, established beyond question, is lamentable lack of precision in notes of that Caesar landed on both occasions on the time and place which was the besetting sin east coast of Kent somewhere near Deal. of nearly all ancient writers. He places the landing in 55 between Walmer I may add remarks on one or two small Castle and Deal Castle, and in 54 somewhere points. Mr Holmes has misunderstood my north of Deal Castle. It was objected to note on B.G. v. 18 (p. 699), as I probably Mr Holmes' former book that he expended misunderstood Napoleon's comments on the too much pains in slaying the slain : perhaps passage. In B.G. v. ro (p. 687), I believe one might say the same of parts of this book; he correctly explains cum iam extremi essent yet one could ill spare the searching and in conspectu, ' when the rearguard only was in relentless criticism that he brings to bear on sight'; but he omits to defend, as he might the strange theories that Caesar landed at easily have done, the omission in Latin of Pevensey or near Hythe. With regard to the the (to us) necessary qualifying word ' only.' former I fully agree with his statement This would have rendered unnecessary his (p. 621), 'not a single argument of the least remarks on the word iam. In B.G. v. 17 weight has been or can be adduced to shew (p. 692), Kraner's alteration may be need- that Caesar landed at Pevensey or anywhere less, but I don't admit that ' the unpractical on the coast of Sussex.' Mr Holmes has fellow' was writing nonsense. Why is it also made a searching investigation into the nonsense to say that whenever (sicubi) chronology of the period and has come to foraging parties detached themselves from THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 95 the main body they were liable to be cut off no corresponding number in the text: by the enemy who were hovering around ? apparently it should be incorporated with The book is well and carefully printed, note 6. 7 but on p. 567 I observe a note which has A. G. PESKETT.

A BOOK OF GREEK VERSE.

A Book of Greek Verse. By WALTER HEAD- old to fly the females take him on their LAM,Litt.D. Cambridge, 1907. Pp. xxiii, wings and carry him. On Sappho's cele- 308. Price [not given]. brated love song, translated so often from Catullus down, he makes a pretty comment: EVERY scholar knows what an accomplished writer of Greek and Latin verse Mr. Headlam There is always in the verse of Sappho a directness is. This volume will largely enhance his and unlaboured ease of language, as if every lovely sentence came by nature from the mouth at once; as reputation, as showing his command over the though she spoke in song, and what she sang were most varied and difficult Greek metres in all the expression of her very soul, the voice of languorous dialects, and proving that he is the possessor enjoyment and desire of beauty : of much skill in giving the Greek masterpieces My blood was hot wan wine of love, an English dress. All the poems translated And my song's sound the sound thereof, (with perhaps two or three exceptions) are The sound of the delight of it. masterpieces. The Greek specimens come Let the reader, consider, too, the passage from the poetry of some ten centuries, from (very prettily translated) from Lucian on the seventh century B.C. to the sixth A.D., p. 273, showing how deeply the Syrian cynic from Sappho to Palladas, and the English felt the pathetic beauty of Simonides' Danae; constitute a golden treasury in little. Mr. also the note on The Wisdom of Solomon, Headlam expresses a hope in his Preface p. 274, in the 18th chapter of which Mr. that the volume may please those who care Headlam rightly discerns a strikingly Pin- for poetry, whether they know Greek or not. daric spirit and style—he has translated the This hope will certainly be realised, and per- whole chapter into an admirable Pindaric haps even Greekless readers will obtain a ode, a great feat of finished scholarship. clearer notion of what Greek poetry was like. Let him compare also Mr. Headlam's own The Preface is full of true and new remarks version of the famous poem of Callimachus' on the importance of metre, which, as he to the dead Heraclitus (p. 221) with the well- justly says, sets at once the tone and the known rendering of William Johnson (p. 302), mood of a whole piece, and is powerful and study the acute yet respectful criticism enough to make it or mar it. His explana- thereof. tion of his reasons for the choice of metre in With Mr. Headlam's criticism we agree to various cases is full of interest and sugges- a large extent. Johnson has missed the spirit tion—why, for instance, the Harvest Home of Callimachus. Johnson is not restrained of Theocritus is rendered in couplets while like Callimachus, but effuse. But the version The Magic Wheel finds its fitter garb in runs trippingly on the tongue, while Mr. alternate rhymes. The Preface will be found Headlam's creaks and jolts, and 'a charr'd rarely good reading, and the notes afford ash' is a vile phrase, not to be defended by much curious and interesting information. Gladstone's For instance, on Alcman's well-known lament Once a flambeau, now an ash, that he is becoming too old to keep up with the Spartan chorus girls in the dance, a clear a curiously bad rendering of the pretty light is shed by a note from Antigonus of Dilapsam in cineres facem. Carystus which says that the 'ceryl' is the 'Ash' cannot rightly be used in modern male halcyon, and that when he grows too English except to denote the ash of a cigar,