BELGAE, a Celtic people first mentioned by Caesar, who states that they formed the third part of Gaul, and were sepa rated from the Celtae by the Sequana (Seine) and Matrona (Marne). On the east and north their boundary was the lower Rhine, on the west the ocean. Caesar's statement (B.C. i. I) that the Belgae differed from the Celtae in language, institutions and laws, is too sweeping, at least as regards language, for many words and names are common to both. Only the eastern districts would have been affected by invaders from over the Rhine, the chief seat of the Belgae proper being in the west. T. R. Holmes comes to the conclusion that "when the Roman delegates told Caesar (Bell. Gall. ii. 4) that the Belgae were descended from the Germans, they probably meant that the ancestors of the Belgic conquerors had formerly dwelt in Germany, and this is equally true of the Celtae ; but it is quite possible that in the veins of some of the Belgae flowed the blood of genuine Ger man forefathers." W. Ridgeway (Early Age of Greece, Igo') considers that the Belgic tribes were Cimbri, "who had moved directly across the Rhine into north-eastern Gaul." The Belgae had made their way over to Britain in Caesar's time, and settled in some of the southern counties. Among their towns were Mag nus Portus (Portsmouth) and Venta Belgarum (Winchester).