on a grand scale and the concentration of skilled craftsmen under the patronage of strong and wealthy chieftains. This culture flourished from the mid second to the mid-1st century BCE, until it buckled under the combined pressure of the Germanic peoples from the North and the Dacians from the East. Allowance must be made for Julius Caesar's usual equation of primitive poverty with admirable hardihood and military prowess and his connection of luxurious imports and the proximity of "civilization", meaning his own, with softness and decadence. In fact, long-established trading connections furnished Gaulish elites with Baltic amber and Greek and Etruscan wares. Caesar took it as a given that the Celts in the Hercynian Forest were emigrant settlers from Gaul who had "seized" the land, but modern archeology identifies the region as part of the La Tène homeland. As Henry Howarth noted a century ago, "The Tectosages reported by Caesar as still being around the Hercynian forest were in fact living in the old homes of their race, whence a portion of them set out on their great expedition against Greece, and eventually settled in Galatia, in Asia Minor, where one of the tribes was called Tectosages." Volcae of Gaul Volcae Arecomici The Volcae Arecomici ( of Ptolemy's Geography ii), according to Strabo, dwelt on the western side of the lower Rhône, with their metropolis at Narbo (Narbonne): "Narbo is spoken of as the naval-station of these people alone, though it would be fairer to add 'and of the rest of Celtica', so greatly has it surpassed the others in the number of people who use it as a trade-centre." They were not alone in occupying their territory, with its capital at Nemausus (Nîmes). The Volcae Arecomici of their own accord surrendered to the Roman Republic in 121 BC. They occupied the district between the Garonne (Garumna), the Cévennes (Cebenna mons), and the Rhône. This area covered most of the western part of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis. They held their assemblies in the sacred wood of Nemausus, the site of modern Nîmes. In Gaul they were divided into two tribes in widely separated regions, the Arecomici on the east, living among the Ligures, and the Tectosages (whose territory included that of the Tolosates) on the west, living among the Aquitani; the territories were separated by the Hérault (Arauris) or a line between the Hérault and the Orb (Orbis).