Learning About Celts Through Roman Authors

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Learning About Celts Through Roman Authors

The Celts left very little written documentation behind them. What is

known about the Celts has been discovered through archaeology and

through the writings of Roman authors such as Caesar, Strabo and

Tacitus. Caesar wrote about the Celts in his Gallic Wars as he

documented his arrivals in Britain in 55 and 55 BC. Strabo was a Roman

geographer, and included his knowledge of the geography of Britain in

his texts, and Tacitus in his "Agricola", his histories and his annals

also wrote of his knowledge of the Celts. These three authors, amongst

others, gave us written evidence of the agricultural lifestyle of the

Celts, their trading, commerce and economy, their tribal system, their

politics and their religion.

However, all the Roman authors' works are subject to bias, either

pro-Roman (as in Caesar and Strabo) or of flattery (as in Tacitus, who

was writing a eulogy). Caesar's first paragraph in his account of the

first invasion of Britain, for example, states that the Celts had been

sending reinforcements to the Gauls on the continent during Caesar's

Gallic campaigns. The full truth of this statement is unknown, however

it is unlikely that the Celts would have been interested in sending

men out to Gaul, as it would have been harvest time during that

period, and the Celts were primarily a farming people.

Roman authors tended to share the same opinions concerning the

geography of Britain as each other. Caesar, Strabo and Tacitus all

wrote of Britain as being triangular in shape. Caesar stated that the

southern side faced Gaul and measured roughly 475 miles, the western

side faced Spain, me...

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...litical situations, perhaps the only true

form of politics that all the Celts shared.

The druids were an immense power base in Britain, due to the fact that

the country was highly religious, and the gods could only be contacted

through the druids. The druids also acted as judges in many legal

matters. They were seen as a threat by Caesar and Agricola, who both

launched campaigns on their headquarters in Anglesey.

To conclude, the literary evidence that exists of the Celts that was

written by Roman authors gives a fairly detailed image of the Celtic

lifestyle, although it is, naturally, subject to an amount of bias.

Archaeology has supported a large amount of the evidence given to us

by the Romans, and therefore it is at least possible that to a large

extent, the assertions of the Roman authors were fairly truthful.

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