to lead their joint army. In this way, we find the fifteen tribes of
the Belgians uniting against the Roman army led by Julius Caesar, and
electing as king over them the chief of one of the tribes "on account
of his justice and wisdom." Five years later, in the year 52 B.C., we
find practically all the inhabitants of what is now France united into
a nation under the leadership of Vercingetorix (Vẽr sin jet'ō riks)
in one last effort to free themselves from Rome. Five hundred years
later, the Romans themselves were driven to join forces with two of
the Germanic tribes to check the swift invasion of the terrible Huns.

In some cases, these alliances were only for a short time and the
kingships were merely temporary. In other cases, the wars that drove
the tribes to unite under one great chief or king lasted for years or
even centuries, so that new generations grew up who had never lived
under any other government than that of a king. Thus when the wars
were ended, the tribes continued to be ruled by the one man, although
the reason for the kingship had ceased to be. In the days of the Roman
republic, from 500 to 100 B.C., when grave danger arose, the senate,
or council of elders, appointed one man who was called the dictator,
and this dictator ruled like an absolute monarch until the danger was
past. Then, like the famous Cincinnatus, he gave up the position and
retired to private life. The first lasting kingships, then, began, as
it were, by the refusal of some dictator to resign when the need for
his rule was ended.

By this time, the custom of choosing the son of a chief or king to
take his father's place was fairly well settled, and it did not take
long to have it understood as a regular thing that at a king's death
he should be followed by his oldest son. Often there were quarrels and
even civil wars caused by ambitious younger sons, who did not submit