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trated the Cevennes, and extended as far as the upper course of the Rhone; and, if it stopped at this river, it was because behind it was the Roman province, which was a social force. It included a part of Switzerland with its mountains and the upper course of the Rhine. From this point the Rhine served as its boundary, but was continually crossed in both directions. Gaul thus embraced a great number of fluvial basins : the Garonne, the Loire, the Seine, the Scheldt, the Meuse; and many orographic systems besides. It touched upon the Atlantic and the North Sea, and it crossed the Channel.
It would, however, be an error to consider Gaul as forming what we call a nationality. It was divided into tribes, which formed alliances and federations, following circumstances in a more or less permanent fashion, and which were divided among themselves by divergent social interests exploited by the ambition of the chiefs.
It is here necessary only to keep in mind that all the tribes occupied portions of basins ; they were thus geographically inter- dependent; they were separated neither by rivers nor by moun- tains. This will prove to be a factor favorable to their fusion.
A number of years before our era, under Augustus, we find Gaul divided into three provinces Belgic Gaul, Celtic Gaul, and Aquitaine. All the old territorial limits of the tribes or groups of tribes, already so slightly geographic, were overthrown. The Celtic province had henceforth only half of its old territory ; that of Aquitaine was quintupled, including all the country between the Loire and the Garonne. In return, two Belgian civitates were annexed to the Celtic province, and three Celtic civitates to the Belgic. Even the number of civitates changed; from the year 10 B. C. to 20 A. D. the number increased from 60 to 64. Toward the year 400, Gaul included not less than 17 provinces and 113 cities. Both had become simple administrative, financial, and military divisions. As to the two parts of Germany, they were both independent of the Belgic province from a military point of view, and dependent from a civil and financial point of view. There can therefore be no question in regard to the natural fron- tiers of the tribes ; for, supposing that there had been such, they
