The other day, I was reading the Loeb copy of Julius Caesar’s “The Gallic War”, which my little sister had bought me for my birthday.  (As sisters do, of course — “Even though it’s from that place in Cambridge.”  I don’t argue; she did grad work at Yale.)  More than 21 centuries ago, in Book V, he had shared with us a paragraph of observations on Britain (the below extracts are from the online Project Gutenberg version), and it is remarkable how those views have withstood the test of time:

…The most civilised of all these nations are they who inhabit Kent, which is entirely a maritime district, nor do they differ much from the Gallic customs…

Caesar, yet another continental, full of contempt for the British character, and overly admiring of that of France.  He then continued:

Most of the inland inhabitants do not sow corn, but live on milk and flesh, and are clad with skins.

Hmmm. Animal “rights” campaigner, quoted in the Daily Horror Mail, October 9:

…We can only hope that Samantha Cameron considers the green credentials that her husband advocates and moves into the 21st century, where there are numerous eco-friendly alternatives to leather…

Even in the face of the latest fadsters, Britons are clearly determined to maintain a 2,000 year old culture.  The Consul went on:

All the Britons, indeed, dye themselves with wood [woad], which occasions a bluish colour, and thereby have a more terrible appearance in [a] fight.

The MOD tells us October 10:

Prince William is to serve on attachment to the Royal Navy and the RAF next year it has been announced today, Wednesday 10 October 2007.

These secondments follow a year in the Blues and Royals, one of the two regiments that form the Household Cavalry…

And an armored vehicle is far scarier than anything a member of Legio X ever confronted, of course.  Then Caesar wrote:

They wear their hair long, and have every part of their body shaved except their head and upper lip.

Again, it’s amazing how some national traits have remained largely the same.  Concluding his general observations, Caesar told us:

Ten and even twelve have wives common to them, and particularly brothers among brothers, and parents among their children; but if there be any issue by these wives, they are reputed to be the children of those by whom respectively each was first espoused when a virgin…

Well, some things do change, after all.  The country is far freer now than back then.  For one thing, no longer are wives required.