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 2nd 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 1st 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 1st 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.