IV.

V.Transalpine Relations of Rome 18.

This remarkable word must have been in use as early as the sixth century of Rome among the Celts in the valley of the Po; for Ennius is already acquainted with it, and it can only have reached the Italians at so early a period from that quarter.

It is not merely Celtic, however, but also German, the root of our "Amt," as indeed the retainer-system itself is common to the Celts and the Germans.

It would be of great historical importance to ascertain whether the word--and so also the thing--came to the Celts from the Germans, or to the Germans from the Celts.