Celts of the Classical World

All information taken from the course: The Celtic World

1. Who are the Celts?

The term "Celtic" really refers to two different groups of people: the warriors of the continent that battled the Romans and the residents of Ireland and other Celtic lands who kept their traditions alive. For many people, Celtic mostly refers to Irish culture.

Ireland has a population of 6.5 million while the "Celtic Fringe" combines to about 20 million people.

Celtic symbols that have survived until today include the Celtic cross, the leprechaun, the banshee, the bagpipe and the tartan.

Many words have entered English from the Irish language called Gaelic. The words phony and smithereens are Irish in origin.

Old Model of Celtic History

The Celts arose in central Europe in the middle of the first millennium B.C. They were artists but also a warrior culture that glorified battle. They spread out from Central Europe to the rest of Europe. The clashed with the Romans and Greeks who recorded their interactions. They sacked Rome in 390 BC and desecrates the shrine of Delphi in Greece in 279 BC. They also established themselves in central Anatolia (Turkey) and were the ancestors of the Galatians from the New Testament.

The Celts also spread into Gaul (France) and into Spain. Around 200 BC, they invaded Britain and Ireland and conquered the native inhabitants. At one point the Celts dominated most of continental Europe, even into northern Italy.

However, eventually Rome pushed back and conquered Spain and then Gaul and finally Britain but could not conquer Scotland or Ireland. When the Romans left Britain, the Celts battled against the new Anglo-Saxon invaders but ultimately lost and were driven to the more remote parts of the island. Some migrated to Brittany in France and northern Spain which comprise the "Celtic Fringe." This is where Celtic civilization survived.

The Old Model Challenged

The story is probably more complicated than recounted above. The people of Ireland and Britain may have had no ethnic connections to the peoples of continental Europe. Scholars do not believe there was a unified Celtic culture spread by a group of people who share common genetic descent. Instead, Celtic language and art may have simply spread around Europe and was adopted by people with no genetic connection to each other.

There was probably no unified Celtic civilization as those in Ireland would no think they were part of the same civilization as those Galatians in Turkey.

2. The Celts and the Classical World

Most of what we know from the Celts comes from the Greeks and Romans who are obviously biased. However, the druids, did not believe in writing things down or if they did they kept their writings secret.

The word "Celt" was first used by the Greeks to refer to those peoples who lived in Gaul, north of the Greek colony at Massalia, now the French city of Marseilles. Hecataeus of Miletus wrote about these people in 517 BC. Afterwards, the Greeks called these people Keltoi.

We don't know what the word refers to. It could mean "to hide" or "to strike" or "tall ones" as the Celts were described as being a lot taller than the Greeks or Romans.

The Romans latinized the term "Keltoi" and turned into Celtae. However, most Romans still called these people Galli or Gauls.

In the 3rd century AD, the Greeks called the people who invaded Asia Minor the Galatae which probably means "warlike." This seems related to the word the Irish later used for themselves: the Gaels. Thus, "Celt" and "Gaul" refer to the same people and are interchangeable.

The Greek View of the Celts: The Celts were seen as Barbarians. Aristotle said they had a crazed fearlessness and he said they had a predilection for homosexual relationships. Plato criticized the Celts for constant drunkenness. Hieronymus of Cardia wrote that the Celts lived on the edge of the ocean and practice human sacrifice.

The Greek writer Poseidonius reported that the celts had a custom of displaying the severed heads of their enemies prominently. He said they liked to fight naked, and Caesar reported that they put lime paste in their hair to make it stand up o end. They also played loud war trumpets and liked to challenge their enemies to single combat.

Celts in Italy

The Celtic Leponti people lived in northern Italy and were ultimately conquered by other Celtic peoples around 400 BC.

• In 225 B.C. a Celtic army was defeated by the Romans at the Battle of Telamon in Tuscany. This marked the end of the Celts as a power in northern Italy.

The Romans spoke of two different Gauls. Cisalpine Gaul were the people "on this side" of the Alps. Transalpine Gaul were the people "on the other side" of the Alps. The Romans conquered Cisalpine Gaul but did not immediately conquer Transalpine Gaul.

Galatians: In the early 3rd century BC, large groups of barbarians swept into Greece form the north after the collapse of Alexander's Empire. In 281 BC, the Galatae (Galatians) defeated the Macedonian king Ptolemy. They then split into two groups as one marched towards Delphi to sack the temple.

• The Greeks wrote that the invaders became panicked, and their leader Brennus committed suicide. The other groups settled in central Turkey and served as mercenaries to the kingdom of Bithynia. They functioned as bandits and mercenaries until Rome conquered the region. They supported Rome so the Romans allowed them to exist with their autonomy within Roman Anatolia.
• One group of Galatians converted to Christianity and the Galatian language survived for hundreds of years.

Celts in Spain

The Romans referred to some of the people of the Iberian Peninsula as Celts and others as Iberians or Celtiberians for mixed groups.

The Gallaecian language spoken in Northern Spain was definitely Celtic.

The Romans could not conquer this region until well into the 1st century BC.  

3. Celtic Art and Artifacts

The Celts arose in the Central Europe in the middle of the 1st millennium BC in association with two cultures named after archaeological sites. The first was at Hallstatt in western Austria and the second was La Tene in western Switzerland.

Two Main Cultures

The Hallstatt culture flourished from 1200-475 B.C. Most scholars think it comprised Celtic and non-Celtic speaking peoples. The Celts were famous for being excellent metalsmiths and much metalwork has been found in these graves.

It was a highly stratified society that traded with much of Europe and even beyond. They are known for their hillforts which are found across Central Europe and often contain princely graves.

Around 500-450 BC, the Hallstat culture seems to have ended and the hillforts were abandoned, and a new culture took its place: the La Tene civilization.

The La Tene culture seems to have replaced the Hallstat culture. They traded even more with the Mediterranean than the Hallstat did. They appeared to be prosperous and well-connected. A famous burial site of a princess was found in Vix in eastern France around 500 B.C.

The culture was named after a site called La Tene in Switzerland where many artifacts were found. It was known for its art but other artifacts were found such as an enormous Greek wine vessel made of bronze. Over 2500 metal objects were also found at the site, including more than 166 swords.

Artifacts

• Torcs, which were gold neckbands, were found which were worn by both men and women and often denoted status. Ancient sources associate Torcs with the Celts.
• The carnyx was a bronze or copper trumpet that had an animal head (usually a board). They were used in the military and produced a loud and aggressive sound. It was found all over Central Europe from 300 BC to 300 AD and may have been used by other groups as well.
• Decorative helmets have also been associated with the Celts. They were often made in the shape of animals.

Art

Celtic art is characterized by animal motifs, spirals and curvilinear forms and dense, repeated patterns. The art is almost abstract and is influential in modern art styles.

Figures tend to be stylized rather than realistic. There are very few depictions of complete human figures as the artists focused more on animals.

The Gundestrup Cauldron: This is one of the most famous artifacts associated with the Celts. It was found in 1891 in northern Jutland in Denmark. It is a large silver cauldron with decorated plates stacked inside. They would have been fastened to the cauldron. They depict human-like figures that are probably gods. Scholars date it to around 150-50 BC. There is controversy over whether this is really a Celtic object bt one of the gods looks like Cernunnos the god of the hunt.

4. Celtic Languages in the Ancient World

Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European family of languages which includes most of the languages spoken in Europe today and many in the Middle East and India. They all derive from a common ancestor thousands of years ago in the Caucasus region around 6000 B.C. Around 3000 B.C., the Celtic language branched off form the main family of languages.

The Romans borrowed words from the Celts that representing concepts that were new to them. Bracae means "trousers or pants" which were foreign to the Romans. Other words include gaesa (javelin) essedum (chariot) bard and druid. They called beer cervesia as the Romans drank wine much more than beer.

Celtic from the West Model

• "The idea is that Celtic took shape as a language group not in Central Europe but on the western, Atlantic coast of Europe. This theory is based on the fact that there are a lot of similarities in the material remains of the peoples who lived on the west coast of Europe dating back to the Bronze Age." This includes the many stone monuments (megaliths) found in Western Spain, France, Britain and Ireland, Stonehenge being the most famous.

Two main groups: Celtic languages are typically divided into Continental Celtic and Insular (Britain and Ireland) Celtic. The insular languages are then further broken down into Goidelic and Brythonic.

Goidelic refers to the Gaelic languages, which include Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx, the language of the Isle of Man. It is also known as Q-celtic because there is no p sound.

Brythonic refers to the languages that were historically spoken on the island of Britain that now include Welsh and Cornish, but also Breton, which is now spoken in Brittany by the descendants of immigrants from Britain, who arrived in western France in the 5th century. This is also known as P-Celtic.

All Celtic languages lost the p sound at some point in the past but the Brittonic languages did get it back later on. There are many cases in which a Welsh word will have a p, but the Irish word will instead have a /k/ sound spelled with a c. We refer to this as Q-Celtic.

Celtic languages also lake the verb "to have." They speak of things being "at" the person who possesses them. Celtic languages are also characterized by initial mutation. This means the words can change their beginning sound based on the properties of the word that comes before them.

Historians have typically thought there were two different Celtic invasions, one by Q-Celtic speakers and one by P-Celtic speakers. However, now scholars don't see much evidence for any invasion at all.

5. Caesar and the Gauls

The Romans fought with the Cisalpine Gauls and by the 22s B.C. they had exerted dominance and were creating colonies of Romans to live among the Celts. The most important tribe was called the Boi. They allied with Hannibal and helped him win victories including Rome's greatest military defeat at the Battle of Cannae.

However, Hannibal would lose the war and the Romans would conquer the Celts in Cisalpine Gaul by the 1st century BC. Celts that would remain would play a role in the 73 BC slave revolt led by Spartacus.

Massalia: In the middle of the 2nd century BC, Massalia was attacked by a Celtic tribe known as the Salyes. They called on Rome for help in exchange for giving them some of their land. The Romans defeated the Celts and received a strip of coastal territory they called "The Province" which would later be called "Provence."

Instability: One tribe in particular, the Cimbri, became a threat to Rome around 113 BC. They appeared in the Rhône Valley and allied with other tribes, including the Teutones. Over the course of less than a decade, various Gaulish tribes defeated four large Roman armies sent to contain them. By 105 BC, there was nothing between the Gaulish armies and Rome itself.

But instead of heading for Rome, the Cimbri and Teutones turned around and headed west for Iberia, where they plundered for a while before being driven out in turn by the Celtiberians

In 102 BC, a group of Teutones and another tribe called the Ambrones moved south to threaten the Po Valley. The Roman Commander, Gaius Marius eventually encircled and then slaughtered them.

Afterwards there was relative stability in Gaul until the mid-60s BC, Gaul began to be threatened by new invaders from the north and east, namely various tribes of Germans. They began to reoccupy the hillforts which the Romans called oppida.

Caesar: In the middle of the 1st century BC, Caesar tells us that Gaul was divided into three parts: Aquitania in the southwest (Aquitaine), Belgica in the north (the origin of the name Belgium), and Celtica, which was essentially what is now central and southeastern France.

In 71 BC, the Sequani and the Aedui got involved in a quarrel. The Sequani allied with the Germanic tribe called the Suebi, led by a chieftain called Ariovistus. After they defeated the Aedui, the Suebi stuck around and began exacting tribute from the Celtic tribes in the vicinity.

In 60 BC, the chieftain of the Aedui, a man named Divitiacos, appealed to Rome for help against the Germans. He went to Rome as a guest o Cicero's younger brother and got a vague commitment to provide some help. However, Julius Caesar actually decided to make an alliance with the Germans instead.

The Aedui reach outed to the Helvetti, led by Orgetorix in Switzerland. All of the Celts were to be united to resist both the Romans and the Germans.

In 60 BC the First Triumvirate was formed with Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. They carved up the Roman empire into thirds and Cesar was given Illyricum, Cisalpine Gaul and Provence. Caesar wanted to expand his power at the expense of the Celts and would do so in 58 BC when German tribes moved into Helvetti territory, forcing them to flee. The Aedui, seeking another alliance with Caesar, told him where the Helvetti were moving. Caesar met the Helvetti in battle and massacred huge numbers of people. Of the 400k Helvetti, only a quarter survived. German tribes would overrun them and their language would die out.

Caesar then attacked the Suebi and defeated them as well. Caesar would then conquer the Belgae in 57 B.C. and then a year later the Veneti who lived in Brittany. Caesar defeated another German tribe who came into Gaul and then raided Britain in 55 and 54 BC.

The Revolt of 54-52 BC: In 54 BC, almost the whole of Gaul rose in rebellion, led by a chieftain of the Treveri tribe, a man named Indutiomaros. Caesar put a bounty on Indutiomaros's head and he was ambushed and killed by a Gaulish traitor. After several other brutal campaigns in 53 BC, Caesar re-established control sufficiently to withdraw from Gaul for the winter.

Caesar next found a worthy opponent in a man named Vercingetorix, who was named the chieftain of the Arverni tribe in 52 BC. He battled and actually defeated Caesar at the Battle of Gergovia. However, Caesar would end up winning the war.

The last stand of Vercingetorix was very dramatic. He holed up in the fortress of Alesia near Dijon in north central France. Caesar decided to besiege him in Alesia. Vercingetorix called on his Gaulish allies to come and surround Caesar. But Caesar built a fortress of his own facing out towards the armies that might come to relieve Alesia. While the Gaulish allies did arrive and almost squeezed Caesar's army, Caesar took command of the last reserves he had and won the battle.

Vercingetorix was captured and paraded through Rome where he was presumably killed. This ended the last major rebellion against Roman rule in Gaul. Roman culture quickly became widespread throughout Gaul. Ultimately, the Gaulish language would fade away but did impact the French language that would descend from the Latin.

The last remaining areas of Celtic speech outside of the Roman Empire were Britain and Ireland.