Rome’s Deadliest Enemy: The Complete History Of The Ancient Celts

Vivectus. Woe to the vanquished. Long before the Romans, Europe was dominated by the Celts. A mysterious people, they were fierce warriors who practiced a religion too strange and violent even for pagan Rome. Celts were considered to be particularly barbaric. Because they used to behave their enemies and to keep their heads as a trophy of war. Theirs would be a centuries-long struggle for control of Europe. Julius Caesar could have pounced and attacked immediately and he did not. The Romans felt perhaps the time would come, the time would be right to take on their most ancient enemy, namely the Celts to the north. With whom they had had a grudge, to say the least, for at least three, four, even five centuries before the Great Punic Wars. Blood, sacrifice and conquest. Next on Empire Games. 391 B.C., a barbarian army marches south across the Italian peninsula and into the Roman province of Etruria. Their strange hair, clothing and jewelry mark them as outsiders in Roman lands. They are members of a group found throughout Europe at this time, the Celts. Speaking of the Celts, we are actually speaking of Indo-European people stretching from one side to the other of Europe, of Western Europe as well as Eastern Europe and also what is nowadays Turkey. Celtic peoples lived in Europe for centuries before the Romans arrived. They are made up of many different tribes, but they all share common cultural traits, religious practices and language. These Celts are of the Sinones tribe, originating from northern France. They expanded south of the Alps into northern Italy 10 years earlier, part of a mass migration south in the early fourth century B.C. Though small in number, these aggressive and warlike people pose an existential threat to the city of Rome. At this time, a small regional power. The Celts have a much longer history or at least historical origin in the European continent than the people whom we call Romans. The Celts were already engaging in agricultural produce trade before Rome was even founded in the eighth century B.C. The Romans were pretty much a hick town until following the great conquest of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. The Sinones march on Clusium, a city on the edge of Roman controlled territory. They are led by their chieftain, Brennus. Brennus desires new lands on which to settle his people. But like all war chiefs, he craves the glory and renown of battle. The Celts made a series of invasions into the Italian peninsula. The Celts never remained. They never stayed. It does not even appear they really had any desire to. So some historians speculate that the Celtic invasions were really to determine, to seize a lot of luxuries. The Celtic warriors have long braided hair, tattoos and beards. They carry a distinct long bladed sword ideal for hacking and slicing opponents. But most frightening to the Romans, they are known to practice a strange and bloody religion. The Druids are their high priests. The Druids were extremely respected by everybody in Celtic society. They represent the religious side of Celtic society. They also played an extremely important role from the political point of view, because they actually acted as a unifying kind of element for the whole of the Celtic society. Most horrifying to the Romans is the practice of human sacrifice. If one does not have life blood coursing through their veins, it's over. Therefore, if one believes in a supernatural divine being, then the greatest sacrifice to that deity for divine protection, help, sustenance, especially in times of famine, disease, war, destitution, is the sacrifice of human lifeblood and therefore a human being. In 391, Brennus lays siege to Clusium. The Roman historian Livy shows how the city viewed the invaders. The men of Clusium, alarmed by this strange invasion, when they beheld their numbers and the unfamiliar figures of the men and their novel weapons. Though they had no rights of alliance or of friendship with the Romans, did yet dispatch envoys to Rome to ask for help of the Senate. The Roman Senate dispatches Quintus Fabius and his two brothers, Numerius and Caeso, to deal with the Celtic army. The Celts encounter the Roman army for the first time outside the walls of Clusium. The parley with Brennus turns violent when Quintus himself kills a Celtic chieftain. All hope of peace between the Celts and the Romans vanishes. Brennus demands the Roman Senate hand over the brothers or face violent revolution. The Romans, of course, refuse. At this, the Celts were enraged as they had every right to be and return to their people with open threats of war. Brennus and a force of 40,000 Celtic warriors march south through central Italy towards Rome. The Romans send an army of their own and appoint military tribunes to lead them. Among them is Quintus Sopecius. In The Wild Barbarian General, Brennus, Sopecius sees everything Romans hate. In 387 BC, the armies meet at a place called Alia, 11 miles outside of Rome. Brennus immediately sees the advantage of his position. Arrayed before him is a Roman force of just 12,000. At this time, the Roman legions are far from a professional fighting force. Most are simply peasants called up for duty in defense of the city. The Celts, on the other hand, are a culture steeped in warfare. Sopecius arrays his force in a long line. The right flank is situated on a hill across from the Celts. As Brennus surveys the battlefield, he sees the weakness. The Celts charge into battle directly at the Roman right. Sopecius has made the grave mistake of stationing his youngest, most inexperienced troops here. The Roman army breaks. The fleeing Romans are driven to the banks of the river Tiber. And there, in the marshes, the disaster comes to a miserable climax. The Celts show no mercy. Those too weak to cross the marshes in their armor down in the muddy water are butchered by Brennus and his army. The Celts regroup as the tattered remains of the Roman army live back to the city. Brennus is shocked by the ease of their victory. But the real prize lies ahead. Eleven miles away is Rome itself. Fattened by the verdant farmland of central Italy, the city is ripe for plunder. Without delay, Brennus, the great Celtic conqueror, marches on Rome. 387 BC, the Celt chieftain Brennus marches on the city of Rome. The Roman army is shattered and Brennus approaches the city gates unopposed. The Celts form a camp outside the city walls and engage in an ancient form of psychological warfare. They shout, bang shields and make use of a uniquely Celtic musical instrument, the carnax. It's an ancient war trumpet which would have produced a strange and terrifying sound to a Roman ear. Brennus spends an entire night intimidating the Romans with his carnax players. In the morning, the Celts enter the gates and find the city abandoned. Virtually all of the citizens of Rome have fled or taken refuge in a fortress on the Capitoline Hill. The Celts are cautious, wary of falling victim to a Roman trap. They find the homes of the most noble families of Rome wide open. The Roman historian Livy recounts the strange encounter of Celt warriors and Roman nobility. So, nearly akin to religious awe was their feeling as they beheld seated in the vestibules beings who, besides that their ornaments and apparel were more splendid than belong to man, seemed also in their majesty of countenance and in the gravity of their expression most like to gods. One Celt strokes the beard of a Roman named Marcus Papirius. Marcus can take no more insult and lashes out. Marcus struck him over the head with his ivory mace and, provoking his anger, was the first to be slain. After that, the rest were massacred where they sat. And when the nobles had been murdered, there was no mercy then shown to anyone. The houses were ransacked and, after being emptied, were given to the flames. After the sack of Rome, peace terms are discussed. The Celts have complete mastery over the Romans. Sulpicius offers Brennus 1,000 pounds of gold. When the gold is measured in the scales, the Celts use especially heavy weights. Brennus sends a clear signal to the Romans. He unsheathes his sword and places it in the balance, declaring, vi victis, woe to the vanquished. The Celts were eventually pushed out of Italy by the expanding Roman Empire. Many different tribes lived on the wild frontier beyond the Alps. For hundreds of years, they were a check against Roman expansion. In the first century, a distinguished Roman named Julius Caesar arrives, determined to conquer all of Europe. Caesar was a proconsul of the Cisalpine and the Transalpine Gauls. There was a chaotic situation beyond the Alps. In Transalpine Gaul, we have a shifting situation between different tribes, different nationalities of Celts moving from one side to the other and being pushed westwards by the arrival of Germans. So Caesar would place himself in the middle of this chaotic political situation. Julius Caesar decides to do something which not even the Roman Senate had given him sanction or authority to do, namely, expand the Roman Empire. How does one do that if one is an ancient Rome? By conquering and dividing. Standing in his way is a powerful warlord named Vercingetorix. Vercingetorix was the leader of the Arverni tribe, which was one of the main Celtic tribes located more or less in the central part of Gaul. He was the son of Celtil, who used to be a chieftain of the Arverni Celts. Celtil had been murdered by the Celts of his tribe because he actually wanted to become a king. So this also says something about the mentality, the social mentality of these Celts, of these tribes. So they were not really happy about somebody who wanted to become a king, an absolute ruler. The restless Celtic tribes know the kind of ruler Caesar wants to become. A deal with Rome is a deal with the devil. Vercingetorix wanted to unite the tribes, wanted to create one single nation to oppose the strong Roman nation. So Vercingetorix used so much of his political power in order to convince all the other Celtic tribes that they would need a unifying leader in order to survive against the strong Roman military power. Vercingetorix rouses the Celts to revolt against the Romans. He raises an army of mostly poor Celts and marches into battle against the Romans. He first heads to Avaricum, burning the countryside behind him to deprive Caesar supplies. Trailing behind the Celt army, the Romans take vengeance on Avaricum for aiding the rebels. The population of 40,000 is slaughtered. The Celts, led by Vercingetorix, were once again really trying to again preserve their own way of life. Literally their lives. Vercingetorix meets the Romans in battle for the first time at Dravovia. Julius Caesar was facing the Celts from a frontal point of view, attacking Gergovia, the city of Gergovia. But there he had to go through a terrible defeat. These battles were just a prelude. Vercingetorix knows the Romans are unbroken. He must crush Caesar in one decisive battle to drive out the invaders for good. In September of 52 BC, he arrives at the city of Alessia. The Roman army encamps around Alessia. Inside the city walls, Vercingetorix plans a final bloody confrontation with the Roman Empire. The fate of all Celtic Europe hangs in the balance. 52 BC. The Celt chieftain and king, Vercingetorix, wages a bloody revolt against the Empire of Rome. After besting Julius Caesar on the battlefield at Gergovia, his army is now safely behind the city walls of Alessia. Alessia was very important for Vercingetorix from the strategical point of view because that was a fortress on a top of a hill. So Vercingetorix believed that it was quite safe to organize the defense of his armies from that hilltop town. Such towns, situated throughout Europe, were key to Celtic control of their lands. The Romans call them opidum. The Romans did not make the same mistake as they had done previously in Gergovia. So the Romans wanted to change strategy. The Romans know they cannot take the town directly and so they begin building. He surrendered the entire hill by building a fortress outside the fortress and thus encapsulating the city of Alessia. So Julius Caesar digged numerous trenches, he built numerous defensive systems around the hill of Alessia. In that way he aimed at taking the Celts by creating famine. They set to work building one of the most monumental siege works of the ancient world, an earthen rampart 15 kilometers in circumference around the entire town. Caesar could not take the town by force, but he could cut off their contacts with the outside world and starve them to death. Before the ring closes completely, Vercingetorix sends riders out to contact his allies. He needs help if he is to break the siege. The interesting thing is that many other military leaders in Julius Caesar's position, especially for Vainglory, in that moment, as they've already been starving out the Celts, Julius Caesar could have pounced and attacked immediately. And he did not. He had patience. And he waited knowing that now his flanks behind him may have been revealed. With fewer mouths to feed in the city, it will give time for a large Celtic army to come to their aid. Caesar recognizes the danger. After closing the ring around Alessia, he immediately begins work on a second. The second rampart is raised around the first. This one is even larger, 21 kilometers in circumference. Ironically, Julius Caesar was taking a great risk because he was now wringing himself in around his goal named the taking of the Celts. In Alessia, supplies dwindle. Vercingetorix faces an agonizing choice. The women and children of Alessia will either starve to death inside the city or be given over to the Romans and the mercy of Julius Caesar. In the end, he has no choice and opens the city walls to let the civilians through. Some refused thinking it would be better for entire people to experience a kind of genocide. Others realized perhaps it might be a better fate for their people to allow some to at least have a chance at slavery in the Roman world. Something with which the vast majority of ancient societies were quite familiar. In the case of Vercingetorix, he was trying to do what he sincerely thought was best, both strategically, militarily, for the survival of his people. Tragically, Vercingetorix underestimates the cruelty of the Romans. Caesar refuses to enslave the population and instead lets them starve to death. The grisly sight drives Vercingetorix to action. Caesar's cruel treatment of the civilian population of Alessia makes it clear that there will be no peace between the Celts and the Romans. At a certain point from the hill of Alessia, where Vercingetorix is waiting for the other Celtic tribes sending him more troops, he sees that there is a weaker point in the trenches and in the wooden walls built by Julius Caesar around the city, around the fortress, and he decides to attack from that specific point. The day of the attack comes. Vercingetorix directs the relief army to attack the Roman lines at its weakest point. From inside Alessia, Vercingetorix personally leads a second attack. If the Roman camps on the hilltop can be broken, they can turn the tide of the battle. The fighting is close quarters and brutal. The Romans were in trouble, they were suffering a lot also because they were in the middle of a fortress built to defend themselves from Alessia and another wall built to defend themselves from other Celts coming from the plain. The Romans were fighting with all the courage they had against the Celts. At first, Caesar stays cautious, letting the Celts bleed themselves on the Roman fortifications. Patience won the day for Julius Caesar, perhaps more than anything else. With an array of fields laden with booby traps that would make the killing fields of Cambodia look like nothing. Caesar himself leads his cavalry into the fight. The Celts, too exhausted to fight, are routed. Vercingetorix retreats inside the walls of Alessia. The Celtic warlord has another difficult decision to make. He decides to organize an assembly with his warriors and he gives them a double type of option, whether they would prefer to kill him and to give him to Caesar as a dead body or if they, on the contrary, would prefer to end him into Julius Caesar alive. In the end, the assembly of Celtic warriors decides to give him to Julius Caesar alive. He arrives at Caesar's camp on horseback and circles the victor's tent several times before offering himself as a prisoner. Vercingetorix returns to Rome as a prisoner. He lives for six years in a Roman dungeon before Caesar has him strangled, a gruesome prop in a Roman triumph. The relationship of the Romans with the Celtic tribes is really interesting because the Romans proved to be really expert in this, in how to treat with those who had lost the war. So they decided to treat some of the tribes in a friendly way while all the others had to pay yearly tributes to the Romans and they also had to hand in numerous captive prisoners to the Romans. Still, in the furthest corners of the Roman world, Celtic tribes remain free. One hundred years after Vercingetorix, another Celtic leader will resist the might of Rome. A warrior queen of the Celts will try to succeed where kings have failed. In Britannia, the Celtic king Prasutagus of the Isenai tribe dies. He may be a king, but he's still a Roman vassal of the emperor Nero. In his will, Prasutagus names the Roman emperor as co-heir to his kingdom alongside his two daughters. King Prasutagus of the Ceni tribe was really important for the Roman history of this period. He created an alliance with the Romans. He was actually a client of the Romans, which is a different thing. So he decided to establish this type of relationship with the Romans. Prasutagus has hoped his will would strike a compromise. Instead, it sows the seeds of a new Celt rebellion. It is a precarious time for the Celtic tribes of Britain. Since the defeat of Vercingetorix, the Romans have been an unstoppable force, devouring Europe and crossing the Channel into the British Isles. The Celts are given a stark choice. Assimilate into Roman culture and society or be destroyed. The Celts, who never were a formal empire as modern contemporary historians would consider one, they never wanted to be an empire. They were quite happy living their own lives. They obviously had a society. But the primary impetus was that of self-preservation in numbers with mutual interests. To a certain extent, perhaps the Celts were very idealistic for as much as they were pragmatic in trying to stay among their own tribes, etc. But ultimately, that may have been their inevitable downfall. The primary threat to Roman assimilation comes from the Celts' religious leaders, the Druids. The word Druid, this term derives from the term Dris, which in Celtic means oak. Actually, Druids were pretty much related to woods, to oak trees, which they considered to be sacred from many different points of view. They were not only priests, they were also teachers, they were also theologians, they were also spiritual but political leaders as well for their Celtic tribes. The strange and violent forest rituals of the Druids are horrifying to the Romans. Shocking details of their barbaric rituals of human sacrifice spread throughout the Roman world. We have Julius Caesar telling us about that and he actually tells us in his History of the Gallic Wars how the Druids used to kill their enemies sometimes but also other kind of people that they held captives, for example, for different purposes. So they used to do that by placing those people inside huge wickerworks images and then they would set the fire to these elements. So they actually burned them. The Romans saw themselves as a civilizing force against the wild tribes of Europe and so the Druids had to be stabbed out along with the rest of Celtic culture. Against this backdrop, the death of Prasuticus becomes a key moment for the Celts of Britain. Rather than accept status as co-heirs of the dead king's lands, the Romans pro-council in Britain seizes all of it. Once he died, actually the emperor wanted to take the rule of his territory and the rule of the power that had been his power and territory. In the end, the Romans decided to invade the territory of the Iceni tribe and to conquer the whole power that had been Iceni power. The Romans take the family of Prasuticus captive, including the queen, Bodica. The Romans wanted to acquire the whole of Prasutagus' power and territory and the land. Bodica was not thinking the same way so she did not want to give the Romans her territory and the power and her people. As punishment for Bodica's refusal to comply with Rome, she is displayed before her people and brutally flogged. Next, her daughters are raped by Roman soldiers. Bodica was left humiliated but alive, a mistake the Romans would come to regret. The Iceni were one of the first tribes to ally themselves with Rome. Now, Bodica rises in revolt alongside neighboring tribes. Bodica had formal allies among the members of other Celtic tribes so she attempted to create a kind of alliance with the other tribes to go against the Romans. The allied tribes choose Bodica as their leader. The warrior queen now has an army. The Roman historian Tasicus records the words Bodica spoke to her assembled army. It is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry, but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom. My scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters. This is a woman's resolve. As for men, they may live and be slaves. She was trying to regain wealth and that status but identifying herself with her people and that this was their peoples, their way of life, the Celts' last stand, potentially, against the inevitable onslaught of the Roman Empire itself. Bodica targets the Roman city of Camulodunum which have a temple dedicated to the worship of the deified emperor of Rome. It is a symbol of everything the Celts hate about the Romans. Bodica managed to take to conquer Colchester and she set the city into fire and she also managed to kill so many of the Roman citizens who thought to find shelter within the temple of Claudius in that city. Colchester is methodically pillaged and burned over the course of multiple days. The Roman inhabitants are slaughtered, their possessions burned or plundered. The final defenders are besieged and eventually killed inside the imperial temple. The Celtic victory sends shockwaves through the Roman army in Britain. Tribes that kept their distance from Bodica's revolt now join in and her army swells. She gains the attention of the Roman governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. Paulinus is in the west of Britain carrying out a bloody suppression of the Druids. Suetonius Paulinus was really pretty much opposing the religious power and authority of the Druids. Why? Because that was also a kind of political authority and a kind of political leadership that was really acting and operating against Roman interests. The slaughter of the Druids on the Isle of Mona further inflames the Celtic tribes against the occupiers. Even more join Bodica's cause. Paulinus can no longer afford to ignore the rebellion. He marches east to meet the rebel army in battle. Bodica awaits the arrival of the Roman legions. The hour of vengeance for the warrior queen has come. 61 AD. The Celtic queen Bodica has risen in revolt against the Roman Empire. Much of Celtic Britain has joined her. Bodica's goal was that of inflicting as much pain as possible. She managed to do so by devastating several different Roman towns. She takes Londinium, a thriving Roman city on the Thames. Once again, they pillage and burn everything they find. According to Roman sources, tens of thousands are slaughtered. Another stunning victory draws even more warriors to Bodica's army. She now heavily outnumbers the Romans, who can muster only 10,000 men for a defense of the province. Bodica presses the attack, assaulting Orlonium. Paulinus is forced into battle. He cannot afford to lose more Roman towns to the Celtic revolt. Paulinus knows he cannot win a battle against the Celts on open ground. Instead, he chooses a remote wooded area along a Roman road called Watling Street. The battle of Watling Street was really important because that was at stake the survival of Celtic Britain versus the conquest of that part of Celtic Britain by the Roman troops led by Suetonius Paulinus. Before the battle, Bodica addresses her army. Roman historian Cassius Dio records her appeals to the goddess Andraste. Let us therefore go against the Romans, trusting boldly to good fortune. Let us show them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule over dogs and wolves. When she had finished speaking, she employed a species of divination, letting a hare escape from the fold of her dress. And since it ran on what they considered the auspicious side, the whole multitude shouted with pleasure. And Bodica, raising her hand toward heaven, said, I thank you, Andraste, and call upon you as woman speaking to woman. I beg you for victory and preservation of liberty. The next day, Bodica and her Celt army stand before the Romans. They have the numbers, but the terrain favors Paulinus. The wooded battlefield prevents the use of the Celts' feared war chariots. The battle is joined. The fighting is brutal and merciless. Both sides know it is a battle against extinction. Paulinus was really successful in organizing the Roman efforts against the Celts by choosing the proper way of fighting, of course, the typical military order of the Romans, of course, but also the exact position and place from where to defend themselves and attack Bodica's troops. Bodica survives the battle. After the defeat, Bodica, just like Cleopatra, decided to commit suicide in order not to end up in the hands of the Romans by poisoning herself. The defeat of Bodica effectively ends opposition to Rome in Britain. Over time, Celtic religion and society was replaced by Roman custom. Eventually, Christianity drove out pagan belief systems altogether. As the centuries rolled on, the Celts became Romans and then Europeans. The original cultural traditions simply disappeared from Europe, leaving only traces behind. Still, the ancient Celts left a deep imprint on the memory of Europe. Their warrior ethos and defiance against imperial Rome is a source of inspiration to this day. The Celts represent a very rich culture, a very rich tradition, a very rich type of society. About them, we don't know that much. So they had strong spiritual feelings, they had a strong spirituality as it's represented by the Druids, their specific religious college. So the Romans actually managed to wipe this rich culture out from the face of Europe in that time. But it's not completely true. So what the Romans attempted to do and what they managed to do is basically to overcome and to conquer and to destroy at least partially the culture, the spirituality, the typicalities of the Celts. But the Celts managed to survive in some regions of Europe, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, the northern part of France, for example. So along with the Greeks and the Germans, the Celts are the only ancient Indo-European population which is still there in Europe. The Celts stood against an empire and in defeat earned immortality.