Historical tidbits : the ancient Celts

Celtic art, science and economy

Recent studies have shown that the Celts were more advanced than the Romans in some scientific and economic aspects. Being a non-literate society the pre-Roman Celts did not leave any trace of their political or philosophical acuity. This did not prevent them from excelling at complex rational thinking. For example, Celtic calendars, such as the Coligny calendar, have been deemed more accurate than the Roman one. In fact, they were possibly more accurate than the Gregorian calendar in use nowadays.

The Celts were also immensely rich. We now know that Julius Caesar's main reason to conquer Gaul was to lay hands on Celtic gold. Over 400 Celtic gold mines were found in France alone. The Romans had little gold on their home territory, so the conquest of Gaul was a tremendous boost to their power. This is what allowed Julius Caesar to become so powerful politically - more than the generals who conquered any other part of the Roman Empire. It is estimated that Caesar massacred 1 out of 10 million of Celts in Gaul, and put another million into slavery. In modern terms, this would be called a genocide.

The Celts also preempted the Romans in their construction of a road network across the European continent, linking Iberia, Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and the Danube basin together. The network was re-appropriated by the Romans, but was in fact Celtic in origins.

The Celtic world was very decentralised compared to the Roman one, but at least a dozen Celtic towns possessed high stone walls rivalling those of Rome at the time. The longest exceeded 5 km in length. The Servian Wall that enclosed Rome during the 500 years of the Republic gave the city a land area of 427 hectares, a size intermediary to that of the Oppidum of Manching (380 ha) and the one of Kelheim (600 ha). Republican Rome (i.e. at the time when Gaul was annexed) was far smaller than the oppidum of Heidengraben (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), which extended on 1660 hectares, an area even bigger than the Imperial Rome in its heyday, comprised within the Aurelian Walls (1370 ha).

Artistically, the embellishment on Celtic weapons, chariots and artifacts was superior to those of many Mediterranean cultures and highly regarded even by the Romans, who sometimes copied unabashedly from them. The curvaceous and interlaced La Tène style is still in use in modern Celtic arts, especially in Ireland.

Celtic warfare

Prior to the Roman conquest, the Celts had attained a level of military development similar to that of the Greeks and Romans in many respects. La Tène Celts invented the chainmail (later revived by medieval knights) and had swords and shields at least as strong as the Roman ones. The Romans copied their distinctive legionary helmets from their Alpine neighbours. Well before Julius Caesar's subjugation of Gaul, the Celts had asserted their military superiority by plundering Rome (390 BCE), and sacking Delphi (279 BCE).

Their defeat against the Romans circa 50 BCE was mainly due to the fact that they were disunited against the enemy, prone to factionalism and internal conflicts. In fact, a large number of the Gaulish tribes sided with the Romans against their neighbours. After the incorporation of Gaul, Gaulish warriors joined the Roman legion to conquer other Celtic territories like Britain or Iberia. The Romans did not win all by themselves, and may not have been able to without judicious alliances with Celtic warlords.

Celtic culture & lifestyle

The Greeks and Romans put water in their wine. The Celts didn't, which was seen as a barbaric practice by the Gallo-Romans. Nevertheless we seem to have favoured the barbaric practice over time and now discredit the Greco-Roman way of drinking.

The Celts practised human sacrifice to the gods, typically near water (lake, river, spring). They also decapitated the defeated after a battle, took the heads back home as trophies, and exposed the headless bodies hanging on wooden frames. Sometimes, they replaced humans by huge amphoras of wine, and simulated the decapitation by cutting off the top of the amphora with a sword. The spilling wine would represent the blood.

Ancient Celtic society gave much more freedom and power to women than the Greeks and Romans did. Greco-Roman housewives were prohibited to do business and mostly sequestrated in their home under the supervision of male family members (not unlike the condition of Muslim women in Islamic countries nowadays). Celtic women could sometimes become powerful tribe leaders. The empowerment of women has remained stronger to this day in European countries of Celtic and Germanic descent than in Italy or Greece.