United States or Monaco ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The knowledge which Julius Caesar possessed of the Druids and of their literary system was very incomplete; yet he presents to his readers a truly grand spectacle, when he speaks of their numerous schools, frequented by an immense number of the youths of the country, so different from those of Rome, in which his own mind had been trained "Ad has magnus adolescentium numerus disciplinae causa concurrit:" when he mentions the political and civil subjects submitted to the judgment of literary men "de omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt. ... Si de hereditate, si de finibus controversia est, iidem decernunt:" when he states the length of their studies "annos nonnulli vicenos in disciplina permanent:" when he finally draws a short sketch of their course of instruction "multa de sideribus atque eorum motu, de mundi ac terrarum magnitudine, .... disputant juventutique tradunt."
Cicero in his earlier treatises disapproved of these questions being discussed by the orator; he wished to leave them to the philosopher; but as he grew in experience he changed his mind. "A cause is defined by Valgius, after Apollodorus, as negotium omnibus suis partibus spectans ad quaestionem, or as negotium cuius finis est controversia.
He should be an adept in royal synchronisms, should know the boundaries of all the provinces and chieftaincies, and should be able to trace the genealogies of all the tribes of Erin up to the first man. Caesar had already told us of the Druids, "Si de hereditate, si de finibus controversia est iidem decernunt."