--These, and many others, are gone; but the reflection of
their glory still plays upon the walls of the city, which was bright,
while they lived, with its lustre;--"nam praeclara facies, magnae
divitiae, ad hoc vis corporis, alia hujuscemodi omnia, brevi dilabuntur;
at ingenii egregia facinora, sicuti anima, immortalia sunt. Postremo
corporis et fortunae bonorum, ut initium, finis est; omnia orta occidunt
et aucta senescunt: animus incorruptas, aeternus, rector humani generis,
agit atque habet cuncta, neque ipse habetur."
The more remote and historical honors of Rouen would present ample
materials. Prior to the Roman invasion, it appears to have been of less
note than as the capital of Neustria.
Julius Caesar, copious as he is in all that relates to Gaul, makes no
mention of Rouen in his Commentaries. Ptolemy first speaks of it as the
capital of the Velocasses, or Bellocasses, the people of the present
Vexin; but he does not allow his readers to entertain an elevated idea
of its consequence; for he immediately adds, that the inhabitants of the
Pays de Caux were, singly, equal to the Velocasses and Veromandui
together; and that the united forces of the two latter tribes did not
amount to one-tenth part of those which were kept on foot by the
Bellovaci.
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