#classical writers

By being on the fringes of the Celtic lands, the British and Irish did not enjoy the same amount of attention that the continental Celts received from the classical authors. Though neither the British nor the Irish were ever called Celts by the classical authors, the Roman historian Tacitus did note the resemblance between the Britons and the Gauls[1] and between the Britons and the Irish[2]. Due to the fact that the Hiberni and the Brittani did not write, the only narrative sources that we have of them are from classical authors. Thus we find ourselves having to rely on Roman and Greek writers to learn details about the ancient Celts that cannot be accounted for linguistically or archaeologically. This poses some danger as the accuracy of some of the classical accounts cannot be proven and the written sources very often must be treated with caution and scepticism. So it should be considered how valuable are the classical references to Britain and Ireland? Can they be used as evidence for language, culture and society that existed in those two islands? Or do these narrative sources offer us nothing more but a skewed vision of the insular Celts?  

    Metalinguistic evidence from classical sources is fragmentary at best, especially regarding the insular Celtic languages. In the best cases, the classical authors made off-hand comments on the usage, vocabulary and sometimes even phonology of Celtic languages.[3] Tacitus states in Agricola that the British language has a lot in common with Gaulish[4], implying that the language of the Britons had been influenced by Gauls immigrating to the coast of Britain. This view is supported by British words that were written down by the classical writers, showing the close similarity to British and Gaulish, such as the British word for horse being “ebol” which resembles the Gaulish word “epo-”.[5] Only a few British words have been recorded by the ancient writers, another example for that being covinni which means “north British chariots”.[6] As far as we know, there are unfortunately no classical references to the Irish language.  

    Caesar reported in his Bello Gallico that the coastal Britons were closely related to the Gauls but the interior of the island was inhabited by “a more primitive people”.[7]  This observation is also supported by Strabo, who described the Britons as being taller and darker than the Gauls[8] and having a more primitive agriculture.[9] Caesar goes on to describe in detail the lifestyle of the Britons, noting that most of those living inland did not grow corn and lived almost exclusively on meat and milk, clothing themselves in skins.[10] He also remarks on the usage of woad as a dye, the Britons using this plant to dye themselves in blue as it gave them a “daunting appearance”[11] in battle. These comments seem to underline how alien the natives were to the Romans, provoking for example this statement from Strabo that “their customs are in some respects like those of the Celts, in other respects simpler and more barbaric.”[12] Though the reflex of treating the Britons and the Irish as belonging to another group than the Celts seems to be politically motivated, several classical historians still report the many similarities between the Britons and the Gauls. “The Britons engage in combat not only on horseback and on foot, but also with two-horse chariots and vehicles equipped in a Gallic fashion.”[13] Not as much is written about Ireland but many historians such as Strabo and Pomponius Mela briefly describe the climate of the island. While Strabo writes of Ireland as a “wretched place to live because of the cold”[14], Pomponius Mela opposes Strabo’s views by recommending Ireland’s climate as perfect for cattle. Both historians, however, have nothing positive to report about Ireland’s inhabitants, Strabo describing them as gluttonous incestuous cannibals.[15]  Very little about the religions of the insular Celts was noted by the classical authors, though Tacitus did find that the Britons practiced the same religious rites as the Gauls.[16] Unfortunately though, evidence concerning ancient Irish religions is scant in classical sources, as far as we know, none of the authors reported anything noteworthy on that subject. In his brief account on Ireland, Tacitus observed that Ireland’s culture was quite similar to that of Britain and it is also mentioned that the British traders were familiar with the Irish ports and harbours.[17]

Although there is not a lot of literary information on the social structure of the insular Celts, from the sources available we may make a tentative assumption that it was similar to that of the continental Celts.[18] While Strabo reports that the British tribes were ruled by chieftains[19], Tacitus notes that “at one time they owed obedience to kings” but that now they were divided “into partisan factions under rival chieftains”.[20] This is an interesting observation because later on in his Agricola, Tacitus mentions an exiled Irish tribal king who arrived at Agricola’s camp, which implies that there was a similar social structure in Ireland[21] as in Britain. The Celtic women enjoyed a greater freedom than the Mediterranean women did, indeed shocking the Greek and Roman writers that the women of the Celts could be just as big and aggressive as the men.[22] One of the most iconic female figures of the Celts is Boudicca, a British queen who is described by Cassius Dio as being of great size and notes her “grimness of expression and her harsh voice.”[23] In Dio Cassius’s Epitome, as he comments on north British tribes, particularly the Caledonians and the Maetae, he reports that “they share their womenfolk and rear all their offspring in common.”[24] The lack of monogamy reported in Britain is also found in Ireland, where amusingly enough, the saint Jerome comments that “the Scotti don’t have individual wives, as if they had read Plato’s Republic.”[25] This comparison to Plato’s work is clearly an attempt to link the barbarians to something the Mediterranean people would have recognized and understood, even though the concept of polygamy in reality would have been a difficult concept for the Greeks and Romans to comprehend. Although the society of the Celts was mostly dominated by the warriors, the druids also represented an equally dominant group in the society. Though druids are not mentioned in Ireland, Caesar states that the druidic order originated from Britain, and that many students in Gaul and elsewhere would travel to the island to obtain the best education in druidic lore, even if it could take up to 20 years before one could become a druid.[26] Romans considered the druids as “a cultural and ideological nuisance” as they increasingly “gave cohesion to a supra-tribal “national” opposition to Roman encroachments.”[27] Oppression and extermination proved to be the most effective method in breaking the druids’ influence, the massacre of most of the druids in Anglesey forcing a decline in druidism from which it never recovered.

  The main issue with Graeco-Roman accounts is that they very often tend to be indirect and skewed and are prone to falling victim to parroting stereotypical traits of the “barbarian”. But we are heavily dependent of these sources nonetheless, as they alone can tell us things about ancient Celts that archaeology wouldn’t be able to show. It should be kept in mind though, that the views of these historians were restricted to “brief episodes of explosive confrontation at the frontier between the Celtic peoples and the literate, civilized world.”[28] The classical writers did not always understand the Celts and often did not take interest in the Celtic peoples as in themselves, usually writing about the Celts to justify the superiority of their own civilization or to criticize its decadence.[29] Unfortunately, there are some areas about the Celts that classical writers neglected to write much about, such as religion and language, and as the details of these areas cannot be visibly validated in archaeology, much of the richness of Celtic history is lost. This has happened quite a bit to the Celts in Ireland, much of their language and culture will have to remain shrouded in history due to the absence in interest from the Graeco-Roman writers. Another flaw of the classical references is that they sometimes can be ill-observed and misleading, such as Caesar’s comment that “wives are shared between groups of 10 to 12 men, especially between brothers and between fathers and sons.”[30] It is possible that the male-female relationship of the Celts was more complicated than that and was beyond the comprehension of “monogamous Mediterraneans”.[31] Caesar may have misunderstood this intricate aspect of Celtic society and simply used his observations to underline how primitive the Celts were.

Although Britain and Ireland were situated at the far edge of the Celtic lands, the classical world knew of their existence long before Rome became an expanding empire.[32] They’re both first mentioned as Albiones and Hierni in the late 4th century ad Ora Maritima of Avienus, though knowledge of these islands may derive from Massaliote and Carthaginian sources of the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Though many would argue that archaeological data and linguistic evidence is more accurate than classical references, it shouldn’t be forgotten that ancient writers give us something that neither archaeology nor inscriptions can offer us: contemporary anecdotes on the ancient Celts. We have seen that there are next to no references on the Celtic languages of the islands but we do get an image on the lifestyle of the Celts and a rough idea of how their society would have been structured. It is true that we shouldn’t completely depend on classical sources because their accuracy can never be verified. But to wholly reject them, as Cunliffe writes, is to reject a “rich vein of anecdotes” which provide us with a storyline and gives the Celts a colour. Classical references should be used along with archaeology and language evidence to build up the ancient Celts, for only together can we then stitch together a rich and colourful patchwork of these wonderfully mysterious people.

[1] Tacitus Agricola II, quotedin Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopedia, 845

[2] Tacitus Agricola 24, quoted in as above, 845

[3] J.T Koch, Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopaedia, (California, 2006), 847

[4] Tacitus Agricola 10-12, quoted in Glasgow Celtic Reader, 57

[5] Quoted in Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh, Lecture 3: Language – Ancient and Modern, (Glasgow, 2011) 15

[6] Pomponius, De Chorographia 3.52, quoted in Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopedia 847            

[7] Caesar Bello Gallico 5.12-14, quoted in as above, 846

[8] Rankin, David, The Celts and the Classical World (London, 1987), 214

[9] J.T Koch, Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopaedia, 846

[10] Caesar Bello Gallico V,14, quoted in Roman Britain: A Sourcebook , 15

[11] Caesar Bello Gallico V,14, quoted in as above, 15

[12] Strabo Geography IV.5.2 quoted in as above, 16

[13] Pomponius, De chorographia, III, 6, 52, quoted in Roman Britain: A Sourcebook , 38

[14] Strabo Geography 2.1.13, quoted in Glasgow Celtic Reader, 47

[15] Strabo Geography 4.5.4, quoted in Glasgow Celtic Reader, 47

[16] Tacitus Agricola II, quotedin Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopedia, 849

[17] Rankin, David, The Celts and the Classical World (London, 1987), 302

[18] J.T Koch, Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopaedia, 848

[19] Strabo Geography 4.5.2, quoted in as above, 848

[20] Tacitus Agricola 10-12, quotedin Roman Britain: A Sourcebook , 16

[21] J.T Koch, Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopaedia, 848

[22] Rankin, David, The Celts through classical eyes, in M. Green (ed.) The Celtic World (London, 1995), 22

[23] Cassius Dio LXII.2.3, quoted in The Celts through classical eyes, in The Celtic World, 30

[24] Cassius Dio Epitome LXXVI, 12, 1-5, quoted in Roman Britain: A Sourcebook , 19

[25] Jerome Adversus Jovinianum 2.7, quoted in Glasgow Celtic Reader, 49

[26] J.T Koch, Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopaedia, 849

[27] Rankin, David, The Celts through classical eyes, 30

[28] Koch, John T., An Atlas for Celtic Studies: Archaeology and Names in Ancient Europe and Early Medieval Ireland, Britain and Brittany, (Aberystwyth 2007), 1

[29] As above, 1

[30] Caesar Bello Gallico V,14, quoted in Roman Britain: A Sourcebook , 15

[31] Cunliffe, B., The Ancient Celts (Oxford, 1997), 109