Ancient historians wrote about the pagan Celts. The earliest were the Greeks. Hecataeus in the 6th Century
B.C, Herodotus in the 5th Century BC, then Polybius in the 2nd Century BC, and then Diodorus Siculus,
and Strabo, in the 1st Century BC. The Romans wrote about them too, such as: Julius Caesar, Tacitus, and
others. We can also find them in the Bible. The Celts who migrated to Gallatia became the Gallatians that
the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to in the New Testament.
Origin of the Celts
It is documented in the Old Testament of the Bible that after the tower of Babel people began to spread out
in all directions. The clans that spoke the same language and who were like-minded stayed with each other.
The clans that eventually became the Celts followed the Danube River to the Rhein River, Neckar River,
Main River, and the other rivers that feed the Rhein River from France. Eventually, they made it all the
way to the mouth of the Rhein River and crossed the English Channel to Britain. When they eventually
found the Rhone River, it led them back to the Mediterranean Sea with contact once again with their
Mediterranean coastal exploring cousins. But it was in the belt along the Danube and Rhein Rivers in
Switzerland and Austria, including France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Holland, and Britain, where the Celts
developed their pagan civilization over time.
The Cradle of the Celtic Civilization
The cradle of that pagan Celt civilization began in the pocket of the Danube and Rhein River's headwater;
and in Switzerland and Austria. During that time, only a few hundred years before the Bible's Abraham was
born in 2165 BC, the Celts are known to archeologists as the Bell-Beaker people, from the handle-less
drinking-cups that they made while migrating. The Celts found a lot of fish in fresh water lakes and metal
ore in the Alps, and by 2000 BC they had the makings for a little paradise. At that point in history they are known as the Urn-field people because they began cremating the dead, putting them in large urns, and
lining them out in large level fields.
Near Salzburg, Switzerland, in the Salzkammergut there is a place above the western shore of Lake
Hallstatt in a dramatic mountainous setting where modern historians begin to call the people Celts. That
spot is the place where the Celts made an interesting discovery when they were not fishing. It was salt. And
because of salt, they began to trade with their Mediterranean cousins. At the Salzkammergut archeologists
have found Italic metal imports indicating trade with the Etruscans in Italy (forerunners to the Romans) and
they also found amber from trading with the Germans in the north.
Economy and Organization
Trading salt was a very profitable business during the Hallstatt era in the time of King David of the Bible,
and the Greeks subsequent use of Massilia - Marseille, France - as a trading port at the mouth of the Rhone
River caused further development of the Celtic culture to its peak in the next La Te'ne phase, known as the
Iron Age, around 500 BC.
- Anne Ross
The social organization of the pagan Celts was based on the tribe. And the various tribes were bound
together by common speech, customs, and religion. But because each tribe was its own little kingdom they
did not have a central government. And the absence of political unity made them vulnerable to their
enemies and contributed substantially to the eventual extinction of their way of life. Each tribe was headed
by a king and was divided by class into Druids (priests), warrior nobles, and commoners. The nobles fought
on foot with swords and spears.
Their economy was pastoral and agricultural, and they were very fond of feasting and drinking. Over time
Celtic art was influenced by ancient Persian, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art ,and it developed distinctive
characteristics of its own and is considered the first great contribution to European art made by non-
Mediterranean peoples. Celtic mythology is legendary. They had earth gods, woodland spirits, sun deities,
elves and demons. The Celts were intense and emotional and...
The Quotes of Ancient Historians
Among them they say that the Belgae are the bravest. They are divided into 15 tribes between the Rhine
and the Loire. And so they alone are said to have resisted the attack of the German tribes, the Cimbri and
the Teutones. Of the size of their population the following is a proof.- they say that in previous times it was
shown that there were 300,000 Belgae capable of bearing arms.
- Strabo
Throughout Gaul there are two classes of men of some dignity and importance. The common people are
nearly regarded as slaves; they possess no initiative and their views are never invited on any question. Most
of them being weighed down by debt or heavy taxes, or by the injustice of the more powerful, hand
themselves over into slavery to the upper classes, who have all the same legal rights against these men that
a master has towards his slave. One of the two classes is that of the Druids, the other that of the Knights.
The Druids are concerned with the worship of the gods ... they have the right to decide nearly all public and
private disputes and they also pass judgment and decide rewards and penalties in criminal and murder cases
and in disputes concerning legacies and boundaries. When a private person or a tribe disobeys their ruling
they ban them from attending at sacrifices. This is the harshest penalty. Men placed under this ban are
treated as impious wretches; all avoid them, fleeing their company and conversation, lest their contact bring
misfortune upon them; they are denied legal rights and can hold no official dignity. The Druids have at
their head one who holds the chief authority among them. When he dies either the highest in honour
among the others succeeds, or if some are on an equal footing they contend for leadership by a vote of the
Druids, but sometimes even in arms. At a fixed time of the year they meet in assembly in a holy place in
the lands of the Carnutes, which is regarded as the centre of the whole of gaul. All who have disputes come
here from all sides and accept their decisions and judgments .... The Druids are wont to be absent from war,
nor do they pay taxes like the others; they are dispensed from military service and free of all other
obligations .... The second class is that of the Knights. They all take part in war whenever there is need and
war is declared. Before the arrival of Caesar it used to happen nearly every year that they either attacked
another tribe or warded off the attacks of another tribe. The greater their rank and resources, the more
dependents and clients do they possess. This is their only source of influence and power. - Caesar
Among all the tribes generally speaking, there are three classes of men held in special honour: the Bards,
the Vates and the Druids. The Bards are singers and poets; the Vates interpreters of sacrifice and natural
philosophers while the Druids in addition to the science of nature, study also moral philosophy.
- Strabo
They had a custom of fosterage
In the rest of their way of life, nearly their sole difference from other peoples is that they do not allow their
sons to approach them in public unless they have grown up to the age of military service, and they think it a
disgrace for a boy under this age to sit in public within sight of his father.
- Caesar
Comments about Celtic drinking and slavery
They are exceedingly fond of wine and sate themselves with the unmixed wine imported by merchants;
their desire makes them drink it greedily and when they become drunk they fall into a stupor or into a
maniacal disposition. And therefore many Italian merchants with their usual love of luere look on the Gallic
love of wine as their treasure-trove .... [they] receive in return for it an incredibly large price; for one jar of
wine they receive in return a slave, a servant in exchange for a drink.
- Diodorus Siculus
Celtic vanity of appearance and violent manners
Their hair is not only naturally blond, but they also use artificial means to increase this natural quality of
color. For they continually wash their hair with lime-Wash and draw it back from the forehead to the
crown and to the nape of the neck, with the result that their appearance resembles that of satyrs or of pans,
for the hair is so thickened by this treatment that it differs in no way from a horse's mane.
- Strabo
Celtic men were very figure-conscious. It was considered a disgrace to grow corpulent. Strabo writes: 'The
following is a further peculiar trait: they try not to become stout and fat-beflied, and any young man who
exceeds the standard length of the girdle is fined.
- Strabo
Their arms correspond in size with their physique.
- Strabo
Physically the Gauls are terrifying in appearance, with deep-sounding and very harsh voices. Of the Celtic
women he says: The Gallic women are not only equal to their husbands in stature, but they rival with them
in strength as well.
- Diodorus Siculus
Almost all the Gauls are of tall stature, fair and ruddy, terrible for the Fierceness of their eyes, fond of
quarrelling, and of overbearing insolence. In fact a whole band of foreigners will be unable to cope with
one of them in a fight, if he calls in his wife, stronger than he by far and with flashing eyes; least of all
when she swells her neck and gnashes her teeth, and poising her huge white arms, begins to rain blows
mingled with kicks like shots discharged by the twisted cords of a catapult.
- Ammianus Marcellinus
To the frankness and high-spiritedness of their temperament must be added the traits of childish
boastfulness and love of decoration. They wear ornaments of gold, torques on their necks, and bracelets on
their arms and wrists, while people of high rank wear dyed garments besprinkled with gold. It is this vanity
which makes them unbearable in victory and so completely downcast in defeat.
- Strabo
In this way they accumulate large quantities of gold and make use of it for personal adomment, not only the
women but also the men. For they wear bracelets on wrists and arms, and round their neck thick rings of
solid gold and they wear also fine finger-rings and even golden tunics.
- Diodorus Siculus
They wear a snaking kind of clothing - tunics dyed and stained in various colours, and trousers, which they
call by the name of bracae-, and they wear striped cloaks, fastened with buckles, thick in winter and light in
summer, picked out with a variegated small check pattern ... some wear gold-plated or silver-plated belts
round their tunics.
- Diodorus Siculus
They wear the sagus, let their hair grow long and wear baggy trousers. Instead of ordinary tunics they wear
divided tunics with sleeves, reaching down as far as the private parts and the buttocks. Their wool is rough
and thin at the ends, and from it they weave the thick sagi which they call laenae.
- Strabo
Their warlike attitude
and disregard of personal safety and longevity
The whole race, which is now called Gallic or Galatic, is madly fond of war, high-spirited and quick to
battle, but otherwise straightforward and not of evil character. And so when they are stirred up they
assemble in their bands for battle, quite openly and without forethought; so that they are easily handled by
those who desire to outwit them. For at any time or place, and on whatever pretext you stir them up, you
will have them ready to face danger, even if they have nothing on their side but their own strength and
courage.
- Strabo
Gaulish swords in the Battle of Telamon
The Gaulish sword being only good for a cut and not a thrust. [He also says:] From the way their swords
are made, only the first cut takes effect; after this they at once assume the shape of a strigil, being so much
bent lengthwise and sideways that unless the men are given leisure and rest them on the ground and set
them straight with a foot, the second blow is quite ineffectual.
- Polybius
Celtic warriors on their way to a fight
Their arms correspond in size with their physique; a long sword fastened on the right side and a long shield,
and spears of like dimension, and the madaris, which is a kind of javelin. There is also a wooden weapon
resembling the 'grosphus' which is thrown by hand and not by means of a strap, with a range greater than
that of an arrow, and which they mostly use for bird-hunting as well as in battle.
- Strabo
The custom of reviling the enemy
And when some one accepts their challenge to battle they proudly recite the deeds of valour of their
ancestors and proclaim their own valorous quality at the same time abusing and making little of their
opponent and generally attempting to rob him beforehand of his fighting spirit.
- Diodorus Siculus
Details of Celtic battle-gear
Their armour includes man-sized shields decorated in individual fashion. Some of these have projecting
bronze animals of fine workmanship which serve for defense as well as decoration. On their heads they
wear bronze helmets which possess large projecting figures lending the appearance of enormous stature to
the wearer. In some cases horns form one piece with the helmet while in other cases it is relief figures of
the foreparts of birds or quadrupeds. Their trumpets again are of a peculiar barbaric kind; they blow into
them and produce a harsh sound which suits the tumult of war. Some have iron breastplates of chain-mail,
while others fight naked, and for them the breastplate given by Nature suffices. Instead of the short sword
they carry long swords held by iron or bronze chains and hanging along their right flank. Some wear goldplated
or silver-plated belts round their tunics. The spears which they brandish in battle, and which they call
lanciae, have iron heads a cubit or more in length and a little less than two palms in breadth; for their
swords are as long as the javelins of other peoples, and their javelins have points longer than swords.
- Diodorus Siculus
Description of the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC
The lnsubres and the Boii wore their trousers and light cloaks, but the Gaesatae had discarded their
garments owing to their proud confidence in themselves, and stood naked with nothing but their arms, in
front of the whole array, thinking that thus they would be more efficient as some of the ground was
overgrown with brambles which would catch in their clothes and impede the use of their weapons. At first
the battle was confined to the hill, all the armies gazing on it, so great were the numbers of cavalry from
each host combating there pell-mell. In this action Gauis the Consul fell in the melee fighting with
desperate courage, and his head was brought to the Celtic kings .... The Romans, however, were on the one
hand encouraged by having caught the enemy between their two armies, but on the other they were terrified
by the fine order of the Celtic host, and the dreadful din, for there were innumerable horn-blowers and
trumpeters and, as the whole army were shouting their war-cries at the same time, there was such a tumult
of sound that it seemed that not only the trumpets and the soldiers but all the country round had got a voice
and caught up die cry. Very terrifying too were the appearance and the gestures of the naked warriors in
front, all in the prime of life and finely built men, and all in the leading companies richly adorned with gold
torques and armlets. The sight of them indeed dismayed the Romans, but at the same time the prospect of
winning such spoils made them twice as keen for the fight ... reduced to the utmost distress and complexity
some of them (the Gaesatae) in their impotent rage, rushed wildly on the enemy and sacrificed their lives,
while others, retreating step by step on the ranks of their comrades, threw them into disorder by their
display of faintheartedness.
- Polybius
Polybius mentioned the Gaesatae, the mercenary bands from outside the tribal system.
Cavalry exercises borrowed by the Romans
Then those of them who are conspicuous for rank or for skill in horsemanship ride into the lists armed with
helmets made of iron or brass and covered with gilding to attract the particular attention of the spectators
.... They have yellow plumes attached to them, not to serve any useful purpose but rather for display ....
And the horsemen carry oblong shields, not like shields for real battle but lighter in weight-the object of the
exercises being smartness and display---and gaily decorated. Instead of breastplates they wear tunics, made
just like real breastplates, sometimes scarlet, sometimes purple, sometimes parti-coloured. And they have
hose, not loose like those in fashion among the Parthians and Armenians, but fitting closely to the limbs...
- Arrian
The practice of decapitating the enemy
They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The bloodstained
spoils they hand over to their attendants and carry off as booty, while striking up a paean and
singing a song of victory; and they nail up these first fruits upon their houses, just as do those who lay low
wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm in cedar oil the heads of the most distinguished
enemies; and preserve them carefully in a chest, and display them with pride to strangers, saying that for
this head one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of a large sum of money.
They say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head in gold; thus displaying what is
only a barbarous kind of magnanimity, for it is not a sign of nobility to refrain from selling the proofs of
one's valour. It is rather true that it is bestial to continue one's hostility against a slain fellow man.
- Diodorus Siculus
Lack of organization
Such was the end of the war against the Celts, a war which, if we look to the desperation and daring of the
combatants, and the numbers who took part and perished in the battles, is second to no war in history, but is
quite contemptible as regards the plan of eampaigns, and the judgement shown in executing it, not most
steps but every single step the Celts took being commended to them rather by the heat of passion than by
cool calculation.
- Polybius
