Iustitia, Libertatem, Verum

Caratacus, a barbarian chieftain who was captured and brought to Rome and later pardoned by Claudius, wandered about the city after his liberation and after beholding its splendor and magnitude he exclaimed: ‘and can you then who have got such possessions and so many of them, still covet our poor huts?’

–Cassius Dio, Roman History

Who were the Celts? Fast Facts:

The Celts were Iron Age peoples who spoke a common family of Indo-European languages and shared similarities in material culture and religion.

They were regarded by the Romans as skilled charioteers and, later, skilled horsemen. From the Celts, the Romans adopted the spatha as a cavalry sword and Epona, the Celtic goddess of horses, donkeys, and mules.

The Celts were skilled metal workers, both for decorative and practical purposes.

Celtic political entities were fairly small, ranging from tribes to small kingdoms, making the Celts easily susceptible to divide-and-conquer strategy by the Romans.

Our modern understanding of the Celts derives from archaeological discoveries of Celtic settlements in Hallstatt, Austria and La Tène, Switzerland (after which periods of Celtic Civilization are named).

The etymology of the word “Celt” is unclear. The earliest references by ancient Greek historians refer to various tribes of Κελτοί (Keltoi) living in various regions across Europe, but the word is more likely to be the endonym or exonym of a specific tribe, not a pan-ethnic self-identifier.

Rediscovery/re-appreciation of Greek and Roman texts on the ancient Celts, beginning with the Renaissance, contributed substantially to modern Celtic revivalism.

La percezione è potere; e noi dobbiamo apparire potenti, ora più che mai.

Perception is power; and we must appear powerful, now more than ever.