be ascribed, e.g.  Belenos Augustus.  Cults of local gods became cults of the genius of the place, coupled with the genius of the emperor.  In some cases, however, the native name stands alone.  The process was aided by art.  Celtic gods are represented after Greco-Roman or Greco-Egyptian models.  Sometimes these carry a native divine symbol, or, in a few cases, the type is purely native, e.g. that of Cernunnos.  Thus the native paganism was largely transformed before Christianity appeared in Gaul.  Many Roman gods were worshipped as such, not only by the Romans in Gaul, but by the Gauls, and we find there also traces of the Oriental cults affected by the Romans.[54]

There were probably in Gaul many local gods, tribal or otherwise, of roads and commerce, of the arts, of healing, etc., who, bearing different names, might easily be identified with each other or with Roman gods.  Caesar’s Mercury, Mars, Minerva, etc., probably include many local Minervas, Mars, and Mercuries.  There may, however, have been a few great gods common to all Gaul, universally worshipped, besides the numerous local gods, some of whom may have been adopted from the aborigines.  An examination of the divine names in Holder’s Altceltischer Sprachschatz will show how numerous the local gods of the continental Celts must have been.  Professor Anwyl reckons that 270 gods are mentioned once on inscriptions, 24 twice, 11 thrice, 10 four times, 3 five times, 2 seven times, 4 fifteen times, 1 nineteen times (Grannos), and 1 thirty-nine times (Belenos).[55]

The god or gods identified with Mercury were very popular in Gaul, as Caesar’s words and the witness of place-names derived from the Roman name of the god show.  These had probably supplanted earlier names derived from those of the corresponding native gods.  Many temples of the god existed, especially in the region of the Allobrogi, and bronze statuettes of him have been found in abundance.  Pliny also describes a colossal statue designed for the Arverni who had a great temple of the god on the Puy de Dome.[56] Mercury was not necessarily the chief god, and at times, e.g. in war, the native war-gods would be prominent.  The native names of the gods assimilated to Mercury are many in number; in some cases they are epithets, derived from the names of places where a local “Mercury” was worshipped, in others they are derived from some function of the gods.[57] One of these titles is Artaios, perhaps cognate with Irish art, “god,” or connected with artos, “bear.”  Professor Rh[^y]s, however, finds its cognate in Welsh ar, “ploughed land,” as if one of the god’s functions connected him with agriculture.[58] This is supported by another inscription to Mercurius Cultor at Wurtemberg.  Local gods of agriculture must thus have been assimilated to Mercury.  A god Moccus, “swine,” was also identified with Mercury, and the swine was a frequent representative of the corn-spirit or of