The rise and fall of the Celtic warriors - Philip Freeman

One summer evening in 335 BCE, Alexander
the Great was resting by the Danube River

after a day of fighting
the Scythian tribes

when a band of strangers
approached his camp.

Alexander had never seen anything
like these tall,

fierce-looking warriors with huge
golden neck rings and colorful cloaks—

so he invited them to feast with him.

They proudly said they were Keltoi or
Celts who came from the far-away Alps.

Alexander asked what they feared the
most in the world,

hoping they would say him.

They laughed and said they feared
nothing at all.

This is one of the earliest stories about
the ancient Celts.

While we don’t know where the first
Celts came from,

by Alexander’s time they had spread across
Europe

from Asia Minor in the east to Spain and
the Atlantic islands of Britain

and Ireland in the west.

The Celts were never one unified empire,
and they didn’t build cities or monuments.

Instead, they were hundreds of independent
tribes who spoke the same language.

Each had its own warrior-king and
religious center.

The tribes fought each other

as enthusiastically as they fought
their enemies.

Few armies could stand up to them.

Somewhat unusually for the time, the
Celts believed in reincarnation—

that they would be reborn on earth to
live and feast and fight again,

which may have contributed to their
fearlessness in battle.

Some of them fought naked, scoffing
at their enemies’ armor.

The greatest trophy a Celtic warrior could
possess was the severed head of a foe.

They preserved these heads in jars of
cedar oil

and showed them to guests who visited
their homes.

Celtic warriors were so valued in the
ancient world

that foreign kings often hired them
as mercenary soldiers

to serve in their armies.

But the Celts were much more than
just warriors.

Among them were many skilled craftsmen,
artists, and great poets called bards.

The bards sang of the brave deeds
of their ancestors

and praised the accomplishments
of warrior kings—

and composed biting satires about
cowardly or selfish leaders.

The Celts worshipped many gods,

and priests known as druids
oversaw this worship.

Anyone could become a druid,

but the training required many years
of study and memorization—

the druids were not allowed to record
any of their teachings in writing.

Druids supervised religious practices
and sacrifices to the gods,

but they were also teachers, healers,
judges, and scientists.

They were so respected that they could
step between warring tribes

in the middle of a battle and call an
end to the fighting.

No Celt would dare to harm a druid,
or question their decisions.

In the second century BCE, the Romans
began to encroach on Celtic territory,

conquering the tribes of northern Italy.

Rather than unite against the Roman
legions in response to this defeat,

the Celts maintained
their tribal divisions.

The tribes of Spain fell soon after.

In the first century BCE, Julius Caesar
marched his armies across France,

using bribery, threats, and lies to turn
tribes against each other.

Only in the closing days of this great war

did the Celts unite against
their common enemy

under the leadership
of king Vercingetorix,

but it was too late.

Countless warriors and their families died

or were enslaved as the Romans
conquered France.

Protected by the surrounding waters,

the Celtic tribes of Britain and Ireland
were the last holdouts.

When the Romans finally invaded Britain,

the queen Boudicca united her tribe
in a revolt after her husband was killed.

She almost succeeded in driving the
Roman legions out of Britain before dying

as she led a final battle
against the enemy.

By the end of the first century CE,
Ireland alone, far out at sea,

remained unconquered by Rome.

There, the ways of the ancient Celts
survived untouched by the outside world

long after Rome itself lay in ruins.