Note 128 — Chapter II · STATE OF GAUL IN THE TIME OF CÆSAR.

Ammianus Marcellinus (XV. 9) speaks as follows of the ancient Druids: “The men of that country (Gaul), having become gradually polished, caused the useful studies to flourish which the bards, the euhages (prophets), and the Druids had begun to cultivate. The bards sang, in heroic verse, to the sound of their lyres, the lofty deeds of men; the euhages tried, by meditation, to explain the order and marvels of nature. In the midst of these were distinguished the Druids, who united in a society, occupied themselves with profound and sublime questions, raised themselves above human affairs, and sustained the immortality of the soul.” These details, which Ammianus Marcellinus borrows from the Greek historian Timagenes, a contemporary of Cæsar, and from other authors, show that the sacerdotal caste comprised three classes—1, the bards; 2, the prophets; 3, the Druids, properly so called.