scene, experienced the repeated shock of attempted
invasion from beyond the Rhine by another branch
of the great Aryan race, the Teutonic. Cæsar's
conquests added Gaul to the Roman Empire and
fixed its boundary at the river Rhine. For nearly
five centuries the Rhine remained the boundary
between Gaul and independent and barbarous Ger-
mania. The "Roman Peace" was thus imposed
upon what we know to-day as Alsace and Lorraine.

It was under such illustrious auspices that these
lands made their real début into history. With this
Celtic-Roman population some German elements
were mingled, in what proportion it would be im-
possible to say. Roman colonists, governmental,
military, and commercial, brought with them the
characteristic elements of Roman civilization. Here,
as elsewhere, some of the great routes, over which
men still travel, were Roman roads. Agriculture,
industry, and commerce felt the vivifying touch of
Rome. Roman deities came to compete with older
and cruder principalities and powers in the favor of
myth-making men. Some they chased away, others
they absorbed and transformed. Roman cities were
founded which are still the busy haunts of men,
Metz, Toul, Verdun, Strasburg, Saverne. From the
third century vines were planted, whose product was

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