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LIVY: Titus . Also known as LIVY (-59 + 17).
A historian, the author of a monumental history of Rome since its foundation (Ab urbe condita)
in 142 books. Below what it is possible to glean there.
AB URBE CONDITA LIBRI (the History of Rome).
BOOK V. Events of years 403 to 396.
Chapter XXXII.
Marcus Caedicius, a member of the plebs, reported to the tribunes that, whilst he was in the
Via Nova, where the chapel now stands, above the temple of Vesta, he heard, in the silence
of the night, a voice more powerful than any human voice; bidding the magistrates be told that
the Celts were approaching.
No notice was taken of this, partly owing to the humble rank of the informant, but also partly
because the Celts were a distant and therefore an unknown nation. It was not the monitions
of the gods only that were set at naught. The one human aid which they had against it, M.
Furius Camillus, was removed from the City.
Chapter XXXIII.
After the expulsion of that citizen; whose presence, if there is anything certain in human
affairs, would have made the capture of Rome impossible, the doom of the fated City swiftly
approached. Ambassadors came from Clusium begging for assistance against the Celts.
The tradition is that this nation, attracted by the report of the delicious fruits, and especially of
the wine, a novel pleasure to them; crossed the Alps and occupied the lands formerly
cultivated by the Etruscans. Arruns of Clusium imported wine into the Celts in order to allure
them into Italy. His wife had been seduced by a certain Lucumo, to whom he was guardian;
and from whom, being a young man of considerable influence, it was impossible to get
redress without getting help from abroad. Arruns led the Celts across the Alps and prompted
them to attack Clusium.
Chapter XXXIV.
Regarding the passage of the Celts into Italy, we have received the following account. Whilst
Tarquinius Priscus was king of Rome, the supreme power […] was in the hands of the
Bituriges; they used to furnish the king of the Celticum. Ambigatus was king at that time. A
man eminent for his own personal courage and prosperity as much as for those of his
kingdom. During his sway the harvests were so abundant, and the population increased so
rapidly, that the government of such vast numbers seemed almost impossible. He was now
an old man, and anxious to relieve his realm from the burden of overpopulation. He signified
his intention of sending his sister's sons, Bellovesus and Segovesus, both enterprising young
men, to settle in whatever locality the gods should by augury assign to them. They were free
to invite as many as wished to accompany them, to prevent any nation from repelling their
approach. The forest of Hercynia was assigned to Segovesus when the auspices were taken;
to Bellovesus the gods gave the far pleasanter way, into Italy. Bellovesus invited the surplus
population of the Bituriges, the Averni, the Senones, the Aedui, the Ambarri, the Carnutes,
and the Aulerci, and with an enormous force of horse and foot, he came to the Tricastini.
Beyond stretched the barrier of the Alps; they appeared to him, very likely, as being
insurmountable, for they had never yet been surmounted by any route, as far at least as
unbroken memory reaches, unless you choose to believe the fables about Hercules. Whilst
the mountain heights kept the Celts, somehow fenced, they were looking everywhere to see
by what path they could cross the peaks which reached to heaven, and so enter a new world;
when they were prevented from advancing by a sense of religious obligation: for news came
that some strangers, like them in quest of territory, were being attacked by the Salyi. These
were Massilians [today Marseilles] who had sailed from Phocaea. The Celts, looking upon this
as an omen of their own fortunes, went to their assistance consequently, and enabled them to
fortify the spot where they had first landed, without any interference from the Salyi. After
crossing the Alps by the passes of the Taurini, they defeated the Tuscans in battle, not far
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from the Ticinus, and when they learned that the country in which they had settled belonged
to the Insubres, a name also borne by a canton of the Aedui, they accepted the omen of the
place: they built a city which they called Mediolanum.
Chapter XXXV.
Another body, consisting of the Cenomani, under the leadership of Elitovius, followed the
track of the former, and crossed the Alps by the same pass, with the goodwill of Bellovesus.
They had their settlements where now stand the cities of Brixia and Verona.
The Libui came next, and the Saluvii; they settled near the ancient tribe of the Ligurian Laevi,
who lived about the Ticinus. Then the Boii and Lingones crossed the Pennine Alps, but as all
the country between the Po and the Alps was occupied, they crossed the Po on rafts, and
expelled not only the Etruscans but the Umbrians as well. They remained, however, north of
the Apennines. The Senones, the last to come, occupied the country from the river Utens to
the Aesis. It was this last tribe, I find, that came to Clusium, and from there to Rome but it is
uncertain whether they came alone or helped by contingents from other cisalpine peoples.
Chapter XXXVI.
…“Although we [the Celts] are hearing the name of Romans for the first time, we believe
nevertheless that you are brave men, since the Clusines are imploring your assistance, in
their time of danger.
Since you prefer to protect your allies by negotiation rather than by the war, we on our side do
not reject the peace you offer; on condition that the Clusines cede to us Celts, who are in
need of land, a portion of that territory which they possess; to a greater extent than they can
cultivate. On any other conditions, peace cannot be granted. We wish to receive their reply in
your presence, and if territory is refused us we shall fight whilst you are still here; that you
may report to those at home how far the Celts surpass all other men, in courage.” The
Romans asked them what right they had to demand, under threat of war, territory from those
who were its owners, even what business the Celts had in Etruria; the haughty answer was
returned that they carried their right in their weapons, and that everything belonged to the
brave; passions were kindled on both sides; they flew to arms, joined the battle. And
thereupon, contrary to the law of nations, the ambassadors seized their weapons, for the
Fates were already urging Rome to its ruin. And what was more, Quintus Fabius rode forward
in the front line at a Celtic chieftain, who was impetuously charging right at the Etruscan
standards; ran his spear through his side and slew him. But, whilst he was in the act of
despoiling the body, the Celts recognized him, and the word was passed through the whole
army that it was a Roman ambassador.
Chapter XXXVII.
To such an extent does Fortune blind men's eyes when she will not have her threatened
blows parried; that, though such a weight of disaster was hanging over the State, no special
steps were taken to avert it. In the wars against Fidenae and Veii and other neighboring
states, a dictator had on many occasions been nominated, as a last resource. But now when
an enemy, never seen, or even heard of before, was rousing up war from Ocean and the
furthest corners of the world; no recourse was had to a dictator, no extraordinary efforts were
made. Those men through whose recklessness the war had been brought about were in
supreme commands as tribunes, and the levy they raised was not larger than had been usual
in ordinary campaigns. Meantime the Celts learned that their embassy had been treated with
contempt, and that honors had actually been conferred upon men who had violated the law of
nations.
Burning with rage-as a nation, they cannot control their passions-they seized their standards
and hurriedly set out on their march. At the sound of their tumult as they swept by, the
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frightened cities flew to arms and the country folk took to flight. Horses and men, spread far
and wide, covered an immense tract of country. Wherever they went they made it understood
by loud shouts that they were going to Rome. But though they were preceded by rumors and
by messages from Clusium, and then from one town after another, it was the swiftness of their
approach that created most alarm in Rome. An army hastily raised by a levy en masse
marched out to meet them. The two forces met hardly eleven miles from Rome, at a spot
where the Alia, flowing in a very deep channel from the Crustuminian mountains, joins the
river Tiber, a little below the road to Crustumerium. The whole country in front and around was
now swarming with the enemy, who, being as a nation given to wild outbreaks; had by their
hideous howls and discordant clamor filled everything with dreadful noise.
Chapter XXXVIII.
The military tribunes had secured no position for their camp, had constructed no
entrenchments behind which to retire, and had shown as much disregard of the gods as of
the enemy, for they formed their order of battle without having obtained favorable auspices.
They extended their line on either wing to prevent their being outflanked by the enemy, but
even so they could not make their front equal to the adversary's, whilst by thus thinning their
line they weakened the center, so that it could hardly keep in touch with their wings. On their
right was a small eminence which they decided to hold with reserves, and this disposition,
though it was the beginning of the panic and flight, proved to be the only means of safety to
the fugitives. For Brennus, the Celtic chieftain, fearing some ruse in the scanty numbers of the
enemy, and thinking that the rising ground was occupied in order that the reserves might
attack the flank and rear, while their front was engaged with the legions, directed his attack
upon the reserves; feeling quite certain that, if he drove them from their position, his
overwhelming numbers would give him an easy victory on the level ground. So, not only
Fortune, but tactics also, were on the side of the barbarians. In the other army, there was
nothing to remind one of Romans, either among the generals or the private soldiers. They
were terrified, and all they thought about consequently, was flight, and so utterly had they lost
their heads that a far greater number fled to Veii, a hostile city, though the Tiber lay in their
way; than by the direct road to Rome, to their wives and children. For a short time, the
reserves were protected by their position; but in the rest of the army, no sooner was the battle
shout of the Celts heard on their flank by those nearest to the reserves, and then in their rear
by those at the other end of the line than they fled, whole and unhurt, almost before they had
seen their untried foe, without any attempt to fight or even to give back the battle shout. None
were slain while actually fighting, they were cut down from behind, whilst hindering one
another's flight, in a confused, struggling mass. Along the bank of the Tiber, whither the whole
of the left wing had fled, after throwing away their arms, there was great slaughter. Many who
were unable to swim, or were hampered by the weight of their cuirasses, even other armor,
were sucked down by the current.
The greater number, however, reached Veii in safety, yet not only were no troops sent from
there to defend Rome, not even was a messenger dispatched to report the defeat to Rome.
All the men on the right wing, which had been stationed at some distance from the river,
nearer to the foot of the mountain, came back to Rome precipitately and took refuge in the
Citadel without even closing the City gates.
Chapter XXXIX.
The Celts, for their part, were almost dumb with astonishment at so sudden and extraordinary
victory. At first they did not dare to move from the spot, as though puzzled by what had
happened; then they began to fear a surprise; at last, they began to despoil the dead, and, as
their custom is, to pile up arms in heaps. Finally, as no hostile movement was anywhere
visible, they commenced their march and reached Rome, shortly before sunset. The cavalry
who had ridden on in front reported that the gates were not shut; there were no pickets on
guard in front of them, and no soldiers on the walls. This second surprise, as extraordinary as
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the previous one, held them back. Fearing a nocturnal conflict in the streets of an unknown
City, they halted then bivouacked, between Rome and the Anio.
Reconnoitering parties were sent out to examine the circuit of the walls and the other gates,
even to ascertain what plans their enemies were forming in their desperate plight. As for the
Romans, since the greater number had fled from the field in the direction of Veii instead of
Rome, it was universally believed that the only survivors were those who had found refuge in
the city; the mourning for all who were lost, whether living or dead, filled the whole City with
the cries of lamentation. But the sounds of private grief were stifled by the general terror when
it was announced that the enemy was at hand; presently the yells and wild war-whoops
[ululatus] of the barbarian squadrons were heard, as they rode round the walls. All the time
until the next day's dawn, the citizens were in such a state of suspense, that they expected
from moment to moment an attack. They expected it first when the enemy approached the
walls, for the Celts would have remained at the Allia had not this been their object.
Then, before sunset, they thought the enemy would assault, because there was not much
daylight left. And then when the night was fallen, they imagined that the attack was delayed till
then, to create all the greatest terror. Finally, the approach of the next day completed freezing
them with fear, and the entrance of the enemy's standards within the gates of the City was
then the dreadful climax to fears that had known no respite. But all through that night and the
following day, the citizens afforded an utter contrast to those who had fled in such terror at the
Allia. Realizing the hopelessness of attempting any defense of the City with the small
numbers that were left, they decided that the men of military age and the able-bodied among
the senators should, with their wives and children, withdraw the Citadel and the Capitol. And
after getting in stores of arms and provisions should from that fortified position defend, their
gods, themselves, and the name of Rome. The flamen and priestesses of Vesta were to carry,
far away from the bloodshed and the fire, the sacred things of the public worship; that should
not be abandoned as long as a single person survived to observe it. If only the Citadel and
the Capitol, the abode of gods; if only the Senate, the guiding mind of the national policy; if
only the men of military age, survived the ruin of the City, then the loss of the crowd of old
men left behind in the City, could be more easily borne; in any case, they were certain to
perish. To reconcile the aged plebeians to their fate, the men who had been consuls and
enjoyed triumphs, gave out that they would meet their fate side by side with them, and not
burden the scanty force of fighting men with bodies too weak to carry arms or defend the
country.
Chapter XLI.
After all the arrangements that circumstances permitted, had been made, for the defense of
the Capitol; the old men returned to their respective homes and, fully prepared to die, awaited
the coming of the enemy. Those who had filled curule offices, resolved to meet their fate
wearing the insignia of their former rank, and honor, and distinctions. They put on the splendid
dress which they wore when conducting the chariot of the gods or riding in triumph through
the City, and thus arrayed, they seated themselves in their ivory chairs in front of their houses.
Some writers record that, led by M. Fabius, the Pontifex Maximus, they recited the solemn
formula in which they devoted themselves to gods, for the safety of their country and the
Quirites. As the Celts were refreshed by a night's rest, after a battle which had at no point
been seriously contested, and as they were not now taking the City by assault or storm; their
entrance the next day was not marked by any signs of excitement or anger. Passing the
Colline gate, which was standing open, they came to the Forum, and gazed round at the
temples and at the Citadel, which alone wore any appearance of war. They left there a small
body to guard against any attack from the Citadel or Capitol whilst they were scattered, and
then they dispersed in quest of plunder through the streets in which they did not meet a soul.
Some poured in a body into all the houses near, others made for the most distant ones,
expecting to find them untouched and full of spoils. Appalled by the very desolation of the
place, and dreading lest some stratagem should surprise the stragglers, they returned to the
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neighborhood of the Forum, in close order. The houses of the plebeians were barricaded, the
halls of the patricians stood open, but they felt greater hesitation about entering the open
houses than those which were closed. They gazed with feelings of religious veneration upon
the men, who were seated in the porticoes of their mansions, not only because of the
superhuman magnificence of their apparel and their whole bearing and demeanor, but also
because of the majestic expression of their countenances, wearing the very aspect of gods.
So they stood here, gazing at them as if they were statues, till, as it is asserted, one of the
patricians, M. Papirius, roused the passion of a Celt, who began to stroke his beard -which in
those days was universally worn long-by smiting him on the head with his ivory staff. So they
stood, gazing at them as if they were statues, till, as it is asserted, one of the patricians, M.
Papirius, roused the passion of a Celt, who began to stroke his beard -which in those days
was universally worn long-by smiting him on the head with his ivory staff. He was the first to
be killed; the others were butchered in their chairs. After this slaughter of the magnates, no
living being was thenceforth spared; the houses were rifled, and then set on fire. After this
slaughter of the former magistrates, no living being was thenceforth spared; the houses were
rifled, and then set on fire.
Chapter XLII.
Now whether it was that the Celts were not all animated by a passion for the destruction of
the City, or whether their chiefs had decided; on the one hand, to present the spectacle of a
few fires, as a means of intimidating the besieged into surrender from a desire to save their
homes; and on the other, by abstaining from a universal conflagration, hold what remained of
the City as a pledge by which to weaken their enemies' determination; certain it is that the
fires were far from being so indiscriminate or so extensive as might be expected on the first
day of a captured city. As the Romans, beheld from the Citadel the City filled with the enemy
who were running about in all the streets, while some new disaster was constantly occurring,
first in one quarter then in another; they could no longer control their eyes and ears; let alone
their thoughts and feelings. In whatever direction their attention was drawn by the shouts of
the enemy, the shrieks of the women and boys, the roar of the flames, and the crash of
houses falling in, thither they turned their eyes and minds as though set by Fortune to be
spectators of their own country's fall, powerless to protect anything left of what they
possessed beyond their lives; above all others who have ever stood a siege were they to be
pitied, cut off as they were from the land of their birth but seeing all that had been theirs, in
the possession of the enemy. The day which had been spent in such misery was succeeded
by a night not one whit more restful, this again by a day of anguish, there was not a single
hour free from the sight of some ever-fresh calamity. And yet, though, weighed down and
overwhelmed with so many misfortunes, they had watched everything laid low in flame and
ruin, they did not for a moment relax their determination to defend by their courage one spot
still left to freedom : the hill which they held, however small and poor it might be. At length, as
this state of things went on day by day, they became as it were hardened to misery, and
turned their thoughts from the circumstances round them to their arms and the sword in their
right hand, which they gazed upon as the only things left to give them hope.
Chapter XLIII.
For some days the Celts had been making useless war merely upon the houses of the City.
Now that they saw nothing surviving amid the ashes and ruin of the captured City, except an
armed foe whom all these disasters had failed to appall; and who would entertain no thought
of surrender unless force were employed, then they determined as a last resort to make an
assault on the Citadel. At daybreak the signal was given and the whole of their number
formed up in the Forum; then, raising their battle shout and locking their shields together over
their heads, they advanced. The Romans awaited the attack without excitement or fear: the
detachments were strengthened to guard all the approaches; in whatever direction they saw
the enemy advancing, there they posted a picked body of men and allowed the enemy to
climb up, for the steeper the ground they got on to, the easier they thought it would be to fling
them down the slope. About midway up the hill the Romans halted; then from the higher
ground, which of itself almost hurled them against the enemy, they charged, and routed the
Celts with such loss and overthrow, that they never again attempted that mode of fighting
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either with detachments or in full strength. All hope, therefore, of forcing a passage by direct
assault being laid aside, they made preparations for a blockade. Up to that time, they had
never thought of one; all the corn in the Town had been destroyed in the conflagrations, whilst
that in the fields around had been hastily carried off to Veii, since the occupation of the City.
So the Celts decided to divide their forces; one division was to invest the Citadel, the other to
forage among the neighboring so that they could supply corn to those who were keeping up
the investment.
Chapter LXVI.
And during these days there was little going on in Rome; the investment was maintained for
the most part with great slackness; both sides were keeping quiet, the Celts being mainly
intent on preventing any of the enemy from slipping through their lines; when suddenly a
Roman warrior drew upon himself the admiration, of foes and friends alike. The Fabian house
had an annual sacrifice on the Quirinal.
Gaius Fabius Dorsuo, wearing his toga “ in the Gabine cincture,” and bearing in his hands the
sacred vessels, so came down from the Capitol, passed through the middle of the hostile
pickets, unmoved by either challenge or threat, and reached the Quirinal. There he duly
performed all the solemn rites, and returned with the same composed expression and gait,
feeling sure of the divine blessing, since not even the fear of death had made him neglect the
worship of the gods; finally, he re-entered the Capitol and rejoined his comrades-in-arms.
Either the Celts were stupefied at his extraordinary boldness, or else they were restrained by
more or less religious feelings, for as a nation they are by no means inattentive to the claims
of religion. At Veii there was a steady accession of strength as well as courage: not only were
the Romans who had been dispersed by the defeat and the capture of the City gathering
there; but volunteers from Latium also flocked to the place that they might be in, for a share of
the booty…
Chapter XLVII.
While these proceedings were taking place at Veii, the Citadel and Capitol of Rome were in
imminent danger. The Celts had, either noticed the footprints left by the messenger from Veii,
or had themselves discovered a comparatively easy ascent up the cliff, to the temple of
Carmentis. Choosing a night when there was a faint glimmer of light, they sent an unarmed
man in advance to try the road; then handing one another their arms where the path was
difficult, and supporting each other or dragging each other up as the ground required, they
finally reached the summit. So amazingly silent had their movements been that not only were
they unnoticed by the sentinels, but they did not even wake dogs, animals peculiarly sensitive
to nocturnal sounds. Nevertheless they did not escape the notice of the geese, which were
sacred to Juno and had been left untouched in spite of the extremely scanty supply of food.
This proved the safety of the garrison, for their clamor and the noise of their wings, aroused
Marcus Manlius, a distinguished soldier who had been consul three years before. He
snatched up his weapons and ran to call the rest to arms, then while the rest hung back, he
struck with the boss of his shield a Celt who had got a foothold on the summit, and knocked
him down. He fell on those behind and upset them; then Manlius slew others who had laid
aside their weapons and were clinging to the rocks with their hands. By this time other
Romans had joined him, and they began to dislodge the enemy with volleys of stones and
javelins, till the whole body fell helplessly down to the bottom. When the uproar had died
away, the remainder of the night was given to sleep, as far as was possible under such
disturbing circumstances, whilst their peril, though past, still made them anxious. At daybreak
the soldiers were summoned by sound of trumpet to a council of war in the presence of the
military tribunes, when the due rewards for good conduct and for bad would be awarded.
First, Manlius was commended, for his bravery, and rewarded, not by the tribunes alone but
by the soldiers as a body, for every man brought to him, at his quarters, which were in the
Citadel, half a pound of meal and a quarter of a pint of wine. This does not sound much, but
the scarcity made it an overwhelming proof of the affection felt for him, since each stinted
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himself of food, and contributed in honor of that one man, what had to be taken from his
necessaries of life. Next, the sentinels who had been on duty at the spot where the enemy
had climbed without their noticing it, were called forward. Quintus Sulpicius, the military
tribune, declared that he should punish them all by martial law. He was, however, deterred
from this course by the shouts of the soldiers, who agreed in throwing the blame upon one
man. As there was no doubt of his guilt, he was amid general approval flung from the top of
the cliff. A stricter watch was now kept on both sides; by the Celts because it had become
known that messengers were passing between Rome and Veii; by the Romans, who had not
forgotten the danger they were in that night.
Chapter XLVIII.
But the greatest of all the evils arising from the siege and the war was the famine, which
began to afflict both armies, whilst the Celts were also visited with pestilence. They had their
camp on low-lying ground between the hills, which had been scorched by the fires and was
full of malaria, the least breath of wind raised not dust only but ashes. Accustomed as a
nation to wet or cold, they could not stand this at all, and, tortured as they were by heat and
suffocation, disease became rife among them: they died off like sheep. They soon grew
weary of burying their dead singly, so they piled the bodies into heaps and burned them
indiscriminately; and made the locality notorious: because it was afterward known as the
Busta Celtica. Subsequently a truce was made with the Romans, and with the sanction of the
commanders, the soldiers held conversations with each other. The Celts were continually
bringing up the famine, and calling upon them to yield to necessity, and surrender. To remove
this impression, it is said that bread was thrown in many places from the Capitol into the
enemies' pickets. But soon the famine could neither be concealed nor endured any longer.
So, at the very time that the general-in-chief with full powers [Camillus], was raising his own
levy at Ardea, and ordering his master of the horse,
Lucius Valerius, to withdraw his army from Veii ; and making preparations for a sufficient force
with which to attack the enemy on equal terms; the garrison of the Capitol, worn out with
incessant duty, but still superior to all human ills, had nature not made famine alone
insuperable by them; were day by day eagerly watching for signs of any help from the
general-in-chief with full powers.
At last not only food but hope failed them. Whenever the sentinels went on duty, their feeble
frames almost crushed by the weight of their armor; the army insisted that they should, either
surrender or purchase their ransom, on the best terms they could; for the Celts were throwing
out unmistakable hints that they could be induced to abandon the siege for a moderate
consideration. A meeting of the Senate was now held, and the consular tribunes were
empowered to make terms. A conference took place between Quintus Sulpicius, the military
tribune, and Brennus, the Celtic chieftain, and an agreement was arrived at by which 1000
lbs. of gold was fixed as the ransom of a people destined before long to rule the world. This
humiliation was great enough as it was, but it was aggravated by the despicable meanness of
the Celts, who produced unjust weights, and when the tribune protested, the insolent Celt
[named Brennus] threw his sword into the scale, with the following exclamation, so intolerable
to Roman ears, "Woe to the vanquished!"
BOOK VII. Events of years 366 to 342.
Chapter IX.
The consuls for the following year were C. Sulpicius and C. Licinius Calvus. They resumed
operations against the Hernici and invaded their territory, but did not find the enemy in the
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open. They attacked and captured Ferentinum, a Hernican City; but as they were returning
home, the Tiburtines closed their gates against them. There had previously been numerous
complaints made on both sides, but this last provocation finally decided the Romans, in case
the Fetials failed to get redress, to declare war against the Tiburtines. It is generally
understood that T. Quinctius Pennus was the general-in-chief with full power, and Servius
Cornelius Maluginensis the master of the horse. Macer Licinius writes that he was named by
the consul for the purpose of holding elections, because his colleague hastening to have the
comices over before undertaking the war, that he might continue the consulship; he thought it
right to thwart his ambitious designs. Licinius Macer's desire to appropriate the credit of this to
his house (the Licinii) lessens the weight of his authority. As I find no mention of this in the
older annalists, I am more inclined to believe that it was the prospect of a war against the
Celts, which was the immediate cause why a general-in-chief with full power was nominated.
At all events it was in this year that some Celts formed their camp by the Salarian road, three
miles from the City at the bridge across the Anio. In the face of this sudden and alarming
inroad, the general-in-chief with full power proclaimed the justitium (state of emergency), and
made every man who was liable to serve take the military oath; he marched out of the City
with an immense army and fixed his camp on this side the Anio.
Each side had left the bridge between them intact, as its destruction might have been thought
due to fears of an attack.
There were frequent skirmishes for the possession of the bridge; as these were indecisive,
the question was left unsettled. A Celt of extraordinary stature strode forward on to the
unoccupied bridge, and shouting as loudly as he could, cried: "Let the bravest man of the
Romans come out and fight me that we two may decide which people is the superior in war."
Chapter X.
A long silence followed, the best and bravest of the Romans made no sign: they felt ashamed
of appearing to decline the challenge, and yet they were reluctant to expose themselves to
such terrible danger. Thereupon T. Manlius, the youth who had protected his father from the
persecution of the tribune, left his post and went to the general-in-chief with full power.
"Without your orders, General, I will never leave my post to fight, not even if I saw that victory
was certain for me; but if you give me permission, I want to show that monster as he stalks so
proudly in front of their lines that I am a scion of the family which hurled the troop of Celts
from the Tarpeian rock." […] His comrades-in-arms fastened on his armor; he took an infantry
shield and a Spanish sword, better adapted for close fighting; thus armed and equipped, they
led him forward against the Celt, who was exulting, in his brute strength, and (even the
Ancients thought this worth recording) putting his tongue out in derision. They retired to their
posts and the two armed champions were left alone in the midst, more after the manner of a
scene on the stage than under the conditions of serious war, and to those who judged by
appearances, by no means equally matched. The one was a creature of enormous bulk,
resplendent in a many-colored coat and wearing painted and gilded armor; the other a man of
average height, and his arms, useful rather than ornamental, gave him quite an ordinary
appearance. There was no singing of war songs, no prancing about, no silly brandishing of
weapons. With a breast full of courage and silent wrath Manlius reserved all his ferocity for
the actual moment of conflict. When they had taken their stand between the two lines, while
so many hearts around them were in suspense between hope and fear, the Celt, like a great
overhanging mass, held out his shield on his left arm to meet his adversary's blows and
aimed a tremendous cut downwards with his sword. The Roman evaded the blow, and
pushing aside the bottom of the Celt's shield with his own he slipped under it, close up to the
Celt, too near for him to get at him with his sword. Then turning the point of his blade
upwards, he gave two rapid thrusts in succession and stabbed the Celt in the stomach and
the groin, laying his enemy prostrate over a large extent of ground. He left the body of his
fallen foe unspoiled, with the exception of his torc, which, though smeared with blood, he
placed round his own neck. Astonishment and fear kept the Celts motionless. The Romans
ran eagerly forward from their lines to meet their hero, and amid cheers and congratulations
they conducted him to the general-in-chief. In the doggerel verses which they extemporized in
his honor, they called him Torquatus, and this sobriquet became for his posterity a [proud]
family name. The general-in-chief gave him a golden crown, and before the whole army,
10
alluded to his victory in terms of the highest praise.
Chapter XXVI.
Whilst the Romans were passing their time quietly at the outposts, a gigantic Celt in splendid
armor, advanced towards them, and delivered a challenge through an interpreter: to meet any
Roman in single combat. There was a young military tribune, named Marcus Valerius, who
considered himself no less worthy of that honor than T. Manlius had been. After obtaining the
consul's permission, he marched, completely armed, into the open ground between the two
armies. The human element in the fight was thrown into the shade by the direct interposition
of the gods, for just as they were engaging a crow settled all of a sudden on the Roman's
helmet, with its head towards his antagonist. The tribune gladly accepted this, as a divinely
sent augury, and prayed that whether it were a god or goddess who had sent the auspicious
bird that deity would be gracious to him or help him. Wonderful to relate, not only did the bird
keep its place, on the helmet, but every time they encountered it rose on its wings and
attacked the Celt's face and eyes with beak and talon, until, terrified at the sight of so dire a
portent and bewildered in eyes and mind alike, he was slain [by Valerius]. Then, soaring away
eastwards the crow passed out of sight [….] The consul mustered his troops on victory’s
parade, and after praising the conduct of the tribune presented him with ten oxen and a
golden crown. In consequence of instructions received from the Senate, he took over the
maritime war and joined his forces with those of the praetor.
The Greeks were too lacking in courage to run the risk of a general engagement, and there
was every prospect of the war proving a long one. Camillus was in consequence authorized
by the Roman senate to nominate T. Manlius Torquatus as general in chief with full power, for
the purpose of conducting the elections [comices]. Marcus Valerius Corvus (for that was
henceforth his cognomen), the young man of twenty-three, was declared to be duly elected
amid the enthusiastic cheers of the people.
BOOK X. Events of years 303 to 293.
Chapter XXVII.
After crossing the Apennines, the consuls descended into the district of Sentinum and fixed
their camp about four miles' distance from the enemy. The four nations consulted together as
to their plan of action, and it was decided that they should not all be mixed up in one camp,
nor go into battle at the same time: the Celts were linked with the Samnites, the Umbrians
with the Etrurians. They fixed upon the day of battle, the brunt of the fighting was to be
reserved for the Celts and Samnites, in the midst of the struggle the Etruscans and Umbrians
were to attack the Roman camp. These arrangements were upset by three deserters, who
came in the secrecy of the night to Fabius, and disclosed the enemy's plans.
These men were rewarded for their information and dismissed among the enemy with
instructions to find out and report whatever fresh decision was arrived at. The consuls sent
written instructions to Fulvius and Postumius to bring their armies up to Clusium, and ravage
the enemy's country on their march, as far as they possibly could. Now that they had got them
out of the way, the consuls tried hard to bring on an engagement. For two days they sought to
provoke the enemy to fight, but during those two days nothing took place worth mentioning; a
few fell on both sides and enough exasperation was produced to make them desire a regular
battle without, however, wishing to hazard everything on a decisive conflict. On the third day,
the whole force on both sides marched down into the plain. Whilst the two armies were
standing ready to engage, a hind driven by a wolf from the mountains ran down, into the open
space between the two lines, with the wolf in pursuit. Here they each took a different direction;
the hind ran to the Celts, the wolf to the Romans. The way was made for the wolf between the
ranks; the Celts speared the hind. On this a soldier of the front lines exclaimed: "In that
place where you see the creature sacred to Diana lying dead, flight and carnage will begin;
here the wolf, a creature sacred to Mars, whole and unhurt, reminds us of our Founder and
11
that we too are of the race of Mars." The Celts were stationed on the right, the Samnites on
the left. Quintus Fabius posted the first and third legions on the right wing, facing the
Samnites; to oppose the Celts, Decius had the fifth and sixth legions, which formed the
Roman left. The second and fourth legions were engaged in Samnium with Lucius Volumnius
the proconsul. When the armies first met, they were so evenly matched that had the
Etruscans and Umbrians been present, whether taking part in the battle or attacking the
camp, the Romans must have been defeated.
Chapter XXVIII.
But although neither side was gaining any advantage and Fortune had not yet indicated in
any way to whom she would grant the victory, the fighting on the right wing was very different
from that on the left. The Romans under Fabius were acting more on the defensive and were
protracting the contest as long as possible. Their commander knew that it was the habitual
practice of both the Celts and the Samnites to make a furious attack to begin with, and if that
were successfully resisted, it was enough.
The courage of the Samnites gradually sank as the battle went on, whilst the Celts, utterly
unable to stand heat or exertion, found their physical strength melting away. In their first
efforts they were more than men, in the end they were weaker than women. Knowing this, he
kept the strength of his men unimpaired against the time when the enemy usually began to
show signs of defeat. Decius as a younger man, possessing more vigor of mind, showed
more dash; he made use of all the strength he possessed in opening the attack, and as the
infantry battle developed too slowly for him, he called on the cavalry. Putting himself at the
head of a squadron of exceptionally gallant troopers, he appealed to them as the pick of his
soldiers to follow him in charging the enemy, for a twofold glory would be theirs if victory
began on the left wing and, in that wing, with the cavalry. Twice they swept aside the Celtic
horse; but making a third charge, they were carried too far, and whilst they were now fighting
desperately in the midst of the enemy's cavalry, they were thrown into consternation by a new
style of warfare. Armed men mounted on chariots and baggage wagons came on with a
thunderous noise of horses and wheels, the horses of the Roman cavalry, unaccustomed to
that kind of uproar, became uncontrollable through fright.
The cavalry, after their victorious charges, were now scattered in frantic terror; horses and
men alike were overthrown in their blind flight. Even the standards of the legionaries were
thrown into confusion, and many of the front-rank men were crushed by the weight of the
horses and vehicles dashing through the lines. When the Celts saw their enemy thus
demoralized, they did not give them a moment's breathing space in which to recover
themselves, but followed up at once with a fierce attack. Decius shouted to his men and
asked them whither they were fleeing, what hope they had in flight; he tried to stop those who
were retreating and recall the scattered units. Finding himself unable, do what he would, to
check the demoralization, he invoked the name of his father, Publius Decius, and cried: "Why
do I any longer delay the destined fate of my family? This is the privilege granted to our house
that we should be an expiatory sacrifice to avert dangers from the State. Now will I offer the
legions of the enemy together with myself as a sacrifice to Tellus and the Manes." When he
had uttered these words he ordered the pontiff, M. Livius, whom he had kept by his side all
through the battle, to recite the prescribed form in which he was to devote "himself and the
legions of the enemy on behalf of the army of the Roman Quirites people." He was
accordingly devoted in the same words and wearing the same garb as his father, P. Decius, at
the battle of Veseris, in the Latin war. After the usual prayers had been recited he uttered the
following curse: “I will infect the standards, the armor, the weapons, of the enemy with dire
and manifold death, the place of my destruction shall also witness that of the Celts and
Samnites." After uttering this imprecation on himself and on the enemy he spurred his horse
against that part of the Celtic line, where they were most densely massed, and leaping into it
was slain by their missiles.
12
Chapter XXIX.
From this moment the battle could hardly have appeared to any man to be dependent on
human strength alone. After losing their leader, a thing which generally demoralizes an army,
the Romans arrested their flight and recommenced the struggle. The Celts, especially those
who were crowded round the consul's body, were discharging their missiles aimlessly and
harmlessly as though bereft of their senses; some seemed paralyzed, incapable of either fight
or flight. But, in the other army, the pontiff Livius, to whom Decius had transferred his lictors
and whom he had commissioned to act as propraetor, announced in loud tones that the
consul's death had freed the Romans from all danger and given them the victory, the Celts
and Samnites were made over to Tellus the Mother [Tellus] and the Manes, Decius was
summoning and dragging down to himself the army which he had devoted together with
himself, there was terror everywhere among the enemy, and the Furies were lashing them
into madness. Whilst the battle was thus being restored, Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Caius
Marcius were ordered by Fabius, to bring up the reserves from the rear to the support of his
colleague. There they learned the fate of Publius Decius, and it was a powerful
encouragement to them to dare everything for the Republic. The Celts were standing in close
order covered by their shields, and a hand-to-hand fight seemed no easy matter, but the
general officers (legates) gave orders for the javelins which were lying on the ground between
the two armies to be gathered up and hurled at the enemy's shield wall. Although most of
them stuck in their shields and only a few penetrated their bodies, the closely massed ranks
went down, most of them falling without having received a wound, just as though they had
been struck by lightning. Such was the change that Fortune had brought about in the Roman
left wing. On the right […] the Samnites could not face the onslaught and fled precipitately
past the Celts to their camp, leaving their allies to fight as well as they could. The Celts were
still standing in close order behind their shield wall. Fabius, on hearing of his colleague's
death, ordered a squadron of Campanian horse, about 500 strong, to go out of action and ride
round to take the Celts in the rear […] 25,000 of the enemy were killed in that day's fighting
and 8000 made prisoners. The victory was by no means a bloodless one, for P. Decius lost
7000 killed and Fabius 1700.
BOOK XXI. Events of years 201 to 199.
Chapter XX.
Here a strange and appalling sight met their eyes. The men attended the council fully armed;
such was the custom of the country. When the ambassadors, after extolling the renown and
courage of the Roman people and the greatness of their dominion, asked the Celts not to
allow the Carthaginian invaders a passage through their fields and cities, such interruption
and laughter broke out that the younger men were with difficulty kept quiet by the magistrates
and senior members of the council.
They thought it the stupidest and most impudent demand to make: that the Celts, in order to
prevent the war from spreading into Italy, should turn it against themselves and expose their
own lands to be ravaged instead of other peoples. After quiet was restored the envoys were
informed that the Romans had rendered them no service, nor had the Carthaginians done
them any injury to make them take up arms either on behalf of the Romans or against the
Carthaginians.
On the other hand, they heard that men of their race were being expelled from Italy, and
made to pay tribute to Rome, and subjected to every other indignity. Their experience was the
same in all the other councils of Celtica; nowhere did they hear a kindly or even a tolerably
peaceable word till they reached Marseilles.
13
BOOK XXIII. Events of years 197 to 195.
Chapter XXIV.
…While these matters were engrossing attention, a fresh disaster was announced, for
Fortune was heaping one disaster upon another this year. It was reported that L. Postumius,
the consul elected, and his army had been annihilated in Celtica. There was a vast forest
called by the Celts, Litana, and through this the consul was to conduct his army. The Celts cut
through the trees on both sides of the road in such a way that they remained standing as long
as they were undisturbed, but a slight pressure would make them fall. Postumius had two
Roman legions, and he had also levied a force from the country bordering on the Upper Sea,
sufficiently large to bring the force with which he entered the hostile territory up to at least
25,000 men. The Celts had posted themselves round the outskirts of the forest, and as soon
as the Roman army entered, they pushed the sawed trees on the outside, these fell upon
those next to them, which were tottering and hardly able to stand upright, until the whole
mass fell in on both sides, and buried in one common ruin arms and men and horses. Hardly
ten men escaped, for when most of them have been crushed to death by the trunks or broken
branches of the trees, the remainder, panic-struck at the unexpected disaster, was killed by
the Celts who surrounded the forest.
Out of the whole number only very few were made prisoners, and these, whilst trying to reach
a bridge over the river, were intercepted by the Celts who had already seized it. It was there
that Postumius fell whilst fighting most desperately to avoid capture. The Boii stripped the
body of its spoils and cut off the head, and bore them in triumph to the most sacred of their
temples. According to their custom, they cleaned out the skull and covered the scalp with
beaten gold; it was then used as a vessel for libations and also as a drinking cup for the priest
and ministers of the temple. The plunder, too, which the Celts secured was as great as their
victory, for although most of the animals had been buried beneath the fallen trees, the rest of
the booty, not having been scattered in flight, was found strewn along the whole line where
the army lay.
BOOK XXXVIII. Events of years 189 to 187.
Chapter XVII.
As it was this enemy, so much dreaded by all the people in that part of the world, that was to
be met in war, the consul paraded his soldiers and delivered the following speech to them: "I
am quite aware, soldiers, that of all the nations of Asia the Celts have the highest military
reputation. This fierce people, after wandering and warring over almost the entire world, have
taken up their abode among the gentlest and most peaceable race of men. Their tall stature,
their long red hair, their huge shields, their extraordinarily long swords; still more, their songs
as they enter into battle, their war whoops and dances [ululatus et tripudia], and the horrible
clash of arms as they shake their shields in the way their fathers did before them-all these
things are intended to terrify and appall.
Chapter XXI.
…In close fighting where they can receive and inflict wounds in turn, their fury stimulates their
courage; but when they are being wounded by missiles flung from a distance, by an unseen
foe, and there is no one against whom they can make a blind rush, they dash recklessly
against their own comrades-in-arms, like wild beasts that have been speared. Consequently
more blood flowed from them, the open gashes appeared more horrible, and the whiteness of
their bodies showed up the stain of the dark blood. Open wounds, however, do not trouble
them much! Sometimes, where it is a surface bruise rather than a deep wound, they cut the
skin, and even think that in this way they win greater glory in battle. But when the head of an
arrow has gone in or a leaden bullet buried itself and it tortures them with what looks like a
slight wound and defies all their efforts to get rid of it, they fling themselves on the ground in
shame and fury at so small an injury threatening to prove fatal.
14
BOOK XXXIX. Events of years 187 to 183.
Chapter XLV.
Lucius Julius was directed to hasten his departure. Transalpine Celts, as has been said
before, crossing into Italy by a pass hitherto unknown, were building a city in the territory
which now belongs to Aquileia. The praetor was instructed to prevent them from doing this.
15
POLYBIUS (circa –200 –118 before Common Era).
A Greek historian, statesman and general. Below is what we can read in his Histories.
BOOK I.
Chapter VI.
It was in the nineteenth year after the sea-fight at Aegospotami, and the sixteenth before the
battle at Leuctra; the year in which the Lacedaemonians made what is called the Peace of
Antalcidas with the King of Persia; the year in which the elder Dionysius was besieging
Rhegium after beating the Italian Greeks on the river Elleporus; and in which the Celts took
Rome itself by storm and were occupying the whole of it except the Capitol. With these Celts
the Romans made a treaty or settlement which they were content to accept….
Chapter LXXXIV.
Finally, he managed unexpectedly to beleaguer them on a ground highly unfavorable to them
and convenient for his own force; and reduced them to such a pitch of distress that, neither
venturing to risk an engagement nor being able to run away, because they were entirely
surrounded by a trench and stockade; they were at last compelled by starvation to feed on
each other: a fitting retribution at the hands of Providence for their violation of all laws human
and divine in their conduct to their enemies.
Chapter LXXXV.
But when they had used up for food the captives in this horrible manner, and then the bodies
of their slaves, and still no one came to their relief from Tunes, their sufferings became too
dreadful to bear; the common soldiers broke out into open threats of violence against their
officers. Thereupon Autaritus, Zarzas, and Spendius decided to put themselves into the hands
of the enemy and to hold a parley with Hamilcar, and try to make terms.
BOOK II.
Chapter XIII.
Seeing him strengthening the Carthaginian influence in Spain, and rendering it continually
more formidable, the Romans were anxious to interfere in the politics of that country. They
discovered, as they thought, that they had allowed their suspicions to be lulled to sleep, and
had meanwhile given the Carthaginians the opportunity of consolidating their power. They did
not venture, however, at the moment, to impose conditions or make war on them, because
they were in almost daily dread of an attack from the Celts. They determined therefore to
mollify Hasdrubal by gentle measures for him, and to leave themselves free to attack the
Celts first, and try conclusions with them, for they were convinced that, with such enemies on
their flank, they would not only be unable to keep their hold over the rest of Italy, but even to
reckon on safety in their own city. Accordingly, while sending envoys to Hasdrubal, and
making a treaty with him by which the Carthaginians, without saying anything of the rest of
Iberia, engaged not to cross the Iber in arms, they pushed on the war with the Celts in Italy.
Chapter XIV.
This war itself I shall treat only summarily, to avoid breaking the thread of my history; but I
must go back somewhat in point of time, and refer to the period at which these tribes
originally occupied their districts in Italy. For the story I think is worth knowing for its own sake,
and must absolutely be kept in mind, if we wish to understand what tribes and districts they
were on which Hannibal relied to assist him in his bold design of destroying the Roman
dominion. I will first describe the country in which they live, its nature, and its relation to the
rest of Italy; for if we clearly understand its peculiarities, geographical and natural, we shall be
better able to grasp the salient points in the history of the war. [….] To the south of this range,
which I said we must regard as the base of the triangle, are the most northerly plains of Italy,
the largest and most fertile of any with which I am acquainted in all Europe. This is the district
16
with which we are at present concerned. Taken as a whole, it too forms a triangle, the apex of
which is the point where the Apennines and Alps converge, above Marseilles, and not far from
the coast of the Sardinian Sea. The northern side of this triangle is formed by the Alps,
extending for 2200 stadia; the southern by the Apennines, extending 3600; and the base is
the seaboard of the Adriatic, from the town of Sena to the head of the gulf, a distance of more
than 2500 stadia. The northern side of this triangle is formed by the Alps, extending for 2200
stadia; the southern by the Apennines, extending 3600; and the base is the seaboard of the
Adriatic, from the town of Sena to the head of the gulf, a distance of more than 2500 stadia.
The total length of the three sides will thus be nearly 10,000 stadia.
Chapter XV.
The yield of corn in this district is so abundant that wheat is often sold at four obols a Sicilian
medimnus, barley at two, or a measure of wine for a measure of barley. The quantity of panic
and millet [for birds] produced is extraordinary; and the number of acorns grown in the oak
forests scattered about the country may be gathered from the fact that, though nowhere are
more pigs slaughtered than in Italy, for sacrifices as well as for family use, and for feeding the
army, by far the most important supply, is from these plains. The cheapness and abundance
of all articles of food may also be clearly shown from the fact that traveling men in these parts,
when stopping at inns, do not bargain for particular articles, but simply ask what the charge is
per head for the board. And for the most part the innkeepers are content to supply their
guests with every necessary at a charge rarely exceeding half an as (that is, the fourth part of
an obol) a day each. Of the numbers, stature, and personal beauty of the inhabitants, and still
more of their bravery in war, we shall be able to satisfy ourselves from the facts of their
history.
Chapter XVI.
Such parts of both slopes of the Alps as are not too rocky or too precipitous are inhabited by
different tribes; those on the north towards the Rhone by the Celts called Transalpine; those
towards the Italian plains by the Taurisci and Agones and a number of other barbarous tribes.
The name Transalpine is not tribal, but local, from the Latin prefix trans meaning "across."
The distance between the Apennines and the Adriatic averages about five hundred stadia;
and when it leaves the northern plains the chain verges to the right, and goes entirely through
the middle of the rest of Italy, as far as the Sicilian Sea. The remaining portion of this triangle,
namely the plain along the sea coast, extends as far as the town of Sena. The Padus,
celebrated by the poets under the name of Eridanus, rises in the Alps near the apex of the
triangle, and flows down to the plains with a southerly course; but after reaching the plains, it
turns to the east, and flowing through them discharges itself by two mouths into the Adriatic.
The larger part of the plain is thus cut off by it, and lies between this river and the Alps to the
head of the Adriatic. In body of water, it is second to no river in Italy, because the mountain
streams, descending from the Alps and Apennines to the plain, one and all flow into it on both
sides. Its stream is at its height and beauty about the time of the rising of the Dog Star
[Sirius], because it is then swollen by the melting snows on those mountains. It is navigable
for nearly two thousand stadia upstream, the ships entering by the mouth called Olana; for
though it is a single mainstream to begin with, it branches off into two at the country of the
Trigoboli, of which streams the northern is called the Padoa, the southern the Olana. At the
mouth of the latter, there is a harbor affording as safe anchorage as any in the Adriatic. The
whole river is called by the country folk the Bodincus (Bodencus). As to the other stories
current in Greece about this river (I mean Phaethon and his fall, and the tears of the poplars
and the black clothes of the inhabitants along this stream, which they are said to wear at this
day as mourning for Phaethon) all such tragic incidents I omit for the present, as not being
suitable to the kind of work I have in hand. But I shall return to them at some other more fitting
opportunity, particularly because Timaeus has shown a strange unknowing of this district.
Chapter XVII.
To continue my description. These plains were anciently inhabited by Etruscans,in the same
period as what are called the Phlegraean plains round Capua and Nola; which latter have
enjoyed the highest reputation, because they lay in a great many people's way and so got
17
known. In speaking then of the history of the Etruscan Empire, we should not refer to the
district occupied by them at the present time, but to these northern plains, and to what they
did when they inhabited them. Their chief intercourse was with the Celts, because they
occupied the adjoining districts; some Celts who, envying the beauty of their lands, seized
some slight pretext to gather a great host and expel the Etruscans from the valley of the
Padus, which they at once took possession of themselves. First, the country near the spring
of the Padus was occupied by the Laevi (Lai) and Lebecii (Libui?) after them the Insubres
settled in the country, the largest tribe of all; and next them, along the bank of the river, the
Cenomani. But the district along the shore of the Adriatic was held by another very ancient
tribe called Veneti, in customs and dress nearly allied to Celts, but using quite a different
language. About whom the tragic poets have written a great many wonderful tales. South of
the Padus, in the Apennine District, first beginning from the west, the Anauni, and next them
the Boii settled. Next them, on the coast of the Adriatic, the Lingones; and south of these, still
on the sea coast, the Senones. These are the most important tribes that took possession of
this part of the peninsula. They lived in open villages, and without any permanent buildings.
As they made their beds of straw or leaves, fed on meat, and followed no pursuits but those
of war and agriculture, they lived simple lives, without being acquainted with any science or
art whatever. Each man's property, moreover, consisted of cattle and gold; as they were the
only things that could be easily carried with them, when they wandered from place to place,
and changed their dwelling as their fancy directed. They made a great point, however, of
friendship: for the man who had the largest number of clients or companions in his
wanderings, was looked upon as the most formidable and powerful member of the tribe.
Chapter XVIII.
In the early times of their settlement, they did not merely subdue the territory which they
occupied, but also rendered many of the neighboring peoples subject to them, whom they
overawed by their audacity. Some time afterward they conquered the Romans in battle, and
pursuing the flying legions, in three days after the battle occupied Rome itself with the
exception of the Capitol. But a circumstance intervened which recalled them home, that is to
say an invasion of their territory by the Veneti. Accordingly they made terms with the Romans,
handed back the city, and returned to their own land; and subsequently were occupied with
domestic wars. Some of the tribes, also, who dwelt on the Alps, comparing their own barren
districts with the rich territory occupied by the others, were continually making raids upon
them, and collecting their force to attack them…
Chapter XXI.
…In the fifth year after this alarm, in the Consulship of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the Romans
divided among their citizens the territory of Picenum, from which they had ejected the
Senones when they conquered them: a “democratic” measure introduced by Gaius Flaminius,
and a policy which we must pronounce to have been the first step in the corruption of the
people, as well as the cause of the next war against the Celts. For many of the Celts, and
especially the Boii whose lands were coterminous with the Roman territory, entered upon that
war from the conviction that the object of Rome in her wars with them was no longer
supremacy and empire over them, but their total expulsion and destruction.
Chapter XXII.
Accordingly the two most extensive tribes, the Insubres and Boii, joined in the dispatch of
messengers to the tribes living about the Alps and on the Rhone, who from a word which
means "serving for pay," are called Gaesatae. To their kings Concolitanus and Aneroestes
they offered a large sum of gold on the spot; and for the future, pointed out to them the
greatness of the wealth of Rome, and all the riches of which they would become possessed, if
they took it. In these attempts to inflame their cupidity and induce them to join the expedition
against Rome they easily succeeded. For they added to the above arguments pledges of their
own alliance; and reminded them of the campaign of their own ancestors in which they had
seized Rome itself, and had been masters of all it contained, as well as the city itself, for
18
seven months; and had at last evacuated it of their own free will, and restored it to the
Romans by an act of their sovereign grace, returning unconquered, uninjured, with the booty,
to their own land. These arguments made the leaders so eager for the expedition, that there
never at any other time came from that part of the Celticum, a larger host, or one consisting of
more notable warriors. Meanwhile, the Romans, informed of what was coming, partly by the
report and partly by simple conjecture, were in such a state of constant alarm and excitement,
that they hurriedly enrolled legions, collected supplies, and sent out their forces to the frontier,
as though the enemy were already in their territory, before the Celts had stirred from their own
lands. It was this movement of the Celts that, more than anything else, helped the
Carthaginians to consolidate their power in Iberia. For the Romans, as I have said, looked
upon the Celtic threat as the more pressing one of the two, as being so near home; and were
forced to wink at what was going on in Iberia, in their anxiety to settle it satisfactorily first.
Having, therefore, put their relations with the Carthaginians on a safe footing, by the treaty
with Hasdrubal, which I spoke of a short time back, they gave an undivided attention to the
Celtic war, convinced that their well-understood interest demanded that a decisive battle
should be fought with them.
Chapter XXIII.
The Gaesatae, then, having collected their forces, crossed the Alps and descended into the
valley of the Padus with a formidable army, furnished with a variety of armor, in the eighth
year after the distribution of the lands of Picenum. The Insubres and Boii remained loyal to
the agreement they had made with them: but the Veneti and Cenomani being induced by
embassies from Rome to take the Roman side, the Celtic kings were obliged to leave a
portion of their forces behind, to guard against an invasion of their territory by those tribes.
They themselves, with their main army, consisting of fifty thousand foot, and twenty thousand
horse and chariots, struck camp and started on their march, which was to be through Etruria,
in high spirits. As soon as it was known at Rome that the Celts had crossed the Alps, one of
the consuls, Lucius Aemilius Papus, was sent with an army to Ariminum to guard against the
passage of the enemy, and one of the praetors into Etruria; for the other consul, Gaius Atilius
Regulus, happened to be in Sardinia with his legions. There was universal terror in Rome, for
the danger threatening them was believed to be great and formidable; and naturally so, for
the old fear of the Celts had never been eradicated from their minds. No one thought of
anything else, they were incessantly occupied in mustering the legions, or enrolling new ones,
and in ordering up such of the allies as were ready for service. The proper magistrates were
ordered to give in lists of all citizens of military age; that it might at once be known to what the
total of the available forces amounted. And such stores of corn, and darts, and other military
equipment were collected, as no one could remember on any former occasion. From every
side assistance was eagerly rendered; for the inhabitants of Italy, in their terror at the Celtic
invasion, no longer thought of the matter as a question of an alliance with Rome, or of the war
as undertaken to support Roman supremacy, but each people regarded it as a danger
menacing themselves and their own city and territory. The response to the Roman appeal
therefore was prompt.
Chapter XXV.
There will be another opportunity of treating the subject in greater detail; but for the present I
must return to the Celts. Having entered Etruria, they began their march through the country,
devastating it as they chose, and without any opposition; and finally directed their course
against Rome itself. But when they were encamped under the walls of Clusium, which is three
days' march from Rome, news was brought them that the Roman forces, which were on duty
in Etruria, were following on their rear and were close upon them; upon which they turned
back to meet them, eager to offer them battle. The two armies came in sight of each other
about sunset, and encamped for the night a short distance apart. But when night fell, the
Celts lighted their watch fires; and leaving their cavalry on the ground, with instructions that,
as soon as daylight made them visible to the enemy, they should follow by the same route,
they made a secret retreat along the road to Faesulae, and took up their position there; that
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they might be joined by their own cavalry, and might disconcert the attack of the enemy.
Accordingly, when at daybreak the Romans saw that the cavalry were alone, they believed
that the Celts had fled, and hastened in pursuit of the retreating horse; but when they
approached the spot where the enemy was stationed, the Celts suddenly left their position
and fell upon them. The struggle was at first maintained with fury on both sides, but the
courage and superior numbers of the Celts eventually gave them the victory. No less than six
thousand Romans fell, while the rest fled, but most of whom made their way to a certain
strongly fortified height, and there remained. The first impulse of the Celts was to besiege
them, but they were worn out by their previous night march, and all the suffering and fatigue
of the day; leaving therefore a detachment of cavalry to keep guard round the hill, they
hastened to procure rest and refreshment, resolving to besiege the fugitives next day, unless
they voluntarily surrendered.
Chapter XXVI.
But meanwhile Lucius Aemilius, who had been stationed on the coast of the Adriatic at
Ariminum, having been informed that the Celts had entered Etruria and were approaching
Rome, set off to the rescue; and after a rapid march appeared on the ground just at the
critical moment. He pitched his camp close to the enemy; and the fugitives on the hill, seeing
his watch fires, understanding what had happened, quickly recovered their courage and sent
some of their men unarmed to make their way through the forest and tell the consul what had
happened. This news left the consul as he thought no alternative but to fight. He therefore
ordered the tribunes to lead out the infantry at daybreak, while he, taking command of the
cavalry, led the way towards the hill. The Celtic chieftains too had seen his watch fires, and
understood that the enemy was come; so at once they held a council of war. The advice of
Prince Aneroestes was, "that seeing the amount of booty they had taken (an incalculable
quantity indeed of captives, cattle, and other spoils) they had better not run the risk of another
general engagement, but return home in safety; and having disposed of this booty, and freed
themselves from its encumbrance, return, if they thought good, to make another determined
attack upon Rome." Having resolved to follow the advice of Aneroestes in the present
juncture, the chiefs broke up their night council, and before daybreak struck camp, and
marched through Etruria by the road which follows the coast of the Ligurian Bay. While
Lucius, having taken off the remnant of the army from the hill, and combined it with his own
forces, determined that it would not be by any means advantageous to offer the enemy
regular battle; but that it was better to dog their footsteps, watching for favorable times and
places at which to inflict damage upon them, or wrest some of their booty from their hands.
Chapter XXVII.
Just at that time the Consul Gaius Atilius had crossed from Sardinia, and having landed at
Pisae was on his way to Rome; and therefore he and the enemy were advancing without
knowing to meet each other. When the Celts were at Telamon in Etruria, their advanced guard
fell in with that of Gaius, and the men being made prisoners they informed the consul in
answer to questions of what had taken place; and told him that both the armies were in the
neighborhood: that of the Celts, namely and that of Lucius close upon their rear. Though
somewhat disturbed at the events which he thus learned, Gaius Atilius regarded the situation
as a hopeful one, when he considered that the Celts were on the road between two hostile
armies. He therefore ordered the tribunes to marshal the legions and to advance at the
ordinary pace, and in line, as far as the breadth of the ground permitted; he himself having
surveyed a piece of rising ground which commanded the road, and under which the Celts
must march, took his cavalry with him and hurried on to seize the eminence, and so begin the
battle in person; convinced that by these means he would get the principal credit of the action
for himself. At first the Celts not knowing anything about the presence of Gaius Atilius, but
supposing from what was taking place, that the cavalry of Aemilius had passed them in the
night, and were seizing the vantage points in the van of their route, immediately detached
some cavalry and light-armed infantry to dispute the possession of this eminence. But having
shortly afterward learned the truth about the presence of Gaius Atilius from a prisoner who
was brought in, they hurriedly got their infantry into position, and drew them up so as to face
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two opposite ways, some, that is, to the front and others to the rear. For they knew that one
army was following on their rear; and they expected from the intelligence which had reached
them, and from what they saw actually occurring, that they would have to meet another on
their front.
Chapter XXVIII.
Aemilius had heard of the landing of the legions at Pisae, but had not expected them to be
already so far on their road; but the contest at the eminence proved to him that the two armies
were quite close. He accordingly dispatched his horse at once to support the struggle for the
possession of the hill, while he marshaled his foot in their usual order, and advanced to attack
the enemy who barred his way. The Celts had stationed the Alpine tribe of the Gaesatae to
face their enemies on the rear, and behind them the Insubres; on their front they had placed
the Taurisci, and the Cispadane tribe of the Boii, facing the legions of Gaius Atilius. Their
wagons and chariots they placed on the extremity of either wing, while the booty they massed
upon one of the hills that skirted the road, under the protection of a guard. The army of the
Celts was thus double-faced, and their mode of marshaling their forces was effective as well
as calculated to inspire terror. The Insubres and Boii were clothed in their breeches (Greek
anaxyrides) and light sagums (Greek sagon); but the Gaesatae from vanity and bravado
threw these garments away, and fell in front of the army naked, with nothing but their arms;
believing that, as the ground was in parts encumbered with brambles, which might possibly
catch in their clothes and impede the use of their weapons, they would be more effective in
this state. At first the only actual fighting was that for the possession of the hill: and the
numbers of the cavalry, from all three armies, who had joined in the struggle, made it a
conspicuous sight to all. In the midst of it the consul Gaius Atilius fell, fighting with reckless
bravery in the thick of the battle, and his head was brought to the king of the Celts. The
Roman cavalry, however, continued the struggle with spirit, and finally won the position and
overpowered their opponents. Then the foot also came to close quarters.
Chapter XXIX.
It was surely a peculiar and surprising battle to witness, and scarcely less so to hear
described. A battle, to begin with, in which three distinct armies were engaged, must have
presented a strange and unusual appearance, and must have been fought under strange and
unusual conditions.
Again, it must have seemed to a spectator open to question, whether the position of the Celts
were the most dangerous conceivable, from being between two attacking forces; or the most
favorable, as enabling them to meet both armies at once, while their own two divisions
afforded each other mutual support; and above all, as putting retreat out of the question, or
any hope of safety except in victory. For this is the peculiar advantage of having an army
facing in two opposite directions. The Romans, on the other hand, while encouraged by
having got their enemy between two of their own armies, were at the same time dismayed by
the ornaments and clamor of the Celtic host. For there were among them such innumerable
horns and trumpets, which were being blown simultaneously and in all parts of their army,
their cries were so loud and piercing that the noise seemed not to come merely from trumpets
and human voices, but from the whole countryside at once. Not less terrifying was the
appearance and rapid movement of the naked warriors in the van, which indicated men in the
prime of their strength and beauty. All the warriors in the front ranks were richly adorned with
gold necklaces and bracelets. These sights certainly dismayed the Romans; still the hope
they gave, of a profitable victory, redoubled their eagerness for the battle.
Chapter XXX.
When the men who were armed with the pilum advanced in front of the legions, in accordance
with the regular method of Roman warfare, and hurled their javelins in rapid and effective
volleys, the inner ranks of the Celts found their cloaks (sagon) and breeches (anaxyrides) of
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great service; but to the naked men in the front ranks this unexpected mode of attack caused
great distress and discomfiture. For the Celtic shields not being big enough to cover the man,
the larger the naked body the more certainty was there of the pilum hitting. And at last, not
being able to retaliate, because the pilum throwers were out of reach, and their weapons kept
pouring in, some of them, in the extremity of their distress and helplessness, threw
themselves with desperate courage and reckless violence upon the enemy, and thus met a
voluntary death; while others gave ground step by step towards their own comrades-in-arms,
whom they threw into confusion by this manifest acknowledgment of their panic. Thus the
courage of the Gaesatae had broken down before the preliminary attack of the pilum. But
when the throwers of it had rejoined their ranks, and the whole Roman line charged, the
Insubres, Boii, and Taurisci, received the attack, and maintained a desperate hand-to-hand
fight. Though almost cut to pieces, they held their ground with unabated courage, in spite of
the fact that man for man, as well as collectively; they were inferior to the Romans in point of
arms. The shields and swords of the latter were proved to be manifestly superior for defense
and attack, for the Celtic sword can only deliver an edge cut [in Greek: tên de Galaticên
cataphoran echin mόnon], but cannot trust. And when, besides the Roman horse charged
down from the high ground on their flank, and attacked them vigorously, the infantry of the
Celts were cut to pieces on the field, while their horse turned and fled.
Chapter XXXI.
Forty thousand of them were slain, and quite 10 000 taken prisoners, among whom was one
of their kings, Concolitanus ; the other king, Aneroestes, fled with a few followers; joined a few
of his people in escaping to a place of security; and there put an end to his own life…
Chapter XXXII.
The consuls of the next year, however, Publius Furius Philus and Caius Flaminius, once more
invaded the Celtic lands, marching through the territory of the Anamares, who live not far from
Placentia. Having secured the friendship of this tribe, they crossed into the country of the
Insubres, near the confluence of the Adua and Padus. They suffered some annoyance from
the enemy, as they were crossing the river, and as they were pitching their camp; and after
remaining for a short time, they made terms with the Insubres and left their country. After a
circuitous march of several days, they crossed the river Clusius, and came into the territory of
the Cenomani. As these people were allies of Rome, they reinforced the army with some of
their men, which then descended once more from the alpine regions into the plains belonging
to the Insubres, and began laying waste their land and plundering their houses. The Insubrian
chiefs, seeing that nothing could change the determination of the Romans to destroy them,
decided that they had better try their fortune by a great and decisive battle. They therefore
mustered all their forces, took down from the temple of Minerva the golden standards, which
are called "the irremovable ones," and having made other necessary preparations, in high
spirits and formidable array, encamped opposite to their enemies to the number of fifty
thousand. Seeing themselves thus outnumbered, the Romans at first determined to avail
themselves of the forces of the allied Celtic tribes; but when they reflected on their fickle
character, and that they were about to fight with an enemy of the same race as these auxiliary
troops, they hesitated to associate such men with themselves, at a crisis of such danger, and
in an action of such importance. However, they finally decided to do this. They themselves
stayed on the side of the river next to the enemy, and sending their Celtic contingent to the
other side, they pulled up the bridges; which at once precluded any fear of danger from them,
and left themselves no hope of safety, except in victory; the impassable river being thus in
their rear. These dispositions made, they were ready to engage.
Chapter XXXIII.
The Romans are thought to have shown uncommon skill in this battle; the tribunes instructing
the troops how they were to conduct themselves both collectively and individually. They had
learned from former engagements that Celtic tribes were always most formidable at the first
onslaught, before their courage was at all damped by a check; and that the swords with which
they were furnished, as I have mentioned before, could only give one downwards cut with any
22
effect, but that after this the edges got so turned, the blade so bent that unless they had time
to straighten them with their foot against the ground, they could not deliver a second blow.
[Note of the translator of this booklet. Archaeology does not corroborate this assertion of
Polybius who, anyway, wrote several decades after the facts. The claymore of the time –
cladio – seems only not to be adapted to the warlike free-for-all].
The tribunes accordingly gave out the spears of the Triarii, who are the last of the three ranks,
to the first ranks, or Hastati: and ordering the men to use their swords only, after their spears
were done with, they charged the Celts full in front. When the Celts had rendered their swords
useless by the first blows delivered on the spears, the Romans close with them, and rendered
them quite helpless, by preventing them from raising their hands to strike with their swords,
which is their peculiar and only stroke, because their blade has no point. The Romans, on the
contrary, having excellent points to their swords, used them not to cut but to thrust; and by
thus repeatedly hitting the breasts and faces of the enemy, they eventually killed the greater
number of them…
Chapter XXXIV.
Next year, as embassies sent by the Celts, desiring peace and making unlimited offers of
submission, had come in Rome, the new Consuls, Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Gnaeus
Cornelius Scipio Calvus, were urgent that no respite should be granted them. Thus frustrated,
they determined to try a last chance, and once more took active measures to hire thirty
thousand Gaesatae, the Celtic tribe which lives on the Rhone. Having obtained these, they
held themselves in readiness, and waited for the attack of their enemies. At the beginning of
spring, the consuls assumed command of their forces, marched them into the territory of the
Insubres ; and there encamped under the walls of the city of Acerrae, which lies between the
Padus and the Alps, and laid siege to it. The Insubres being unable to render any assistance,
because all the positions of vantage had been seized by the enemy first, and being yet very
anxious to break up the siege of Acerrae, detached a portion of their forces to effect a
diversion by crossing the Padus and themselves laying siege to Clastidium. Intelligence of
this movement being brought to the consuls, Marcus Claudius, taking with him his cavalry and
some light infantry, made a forced march to relieve the besieged inhabitants. When the Celts
heard of his approach, they raised the siege and, marching out to meet him, offered him
battle. At first they held their ground against a furious charge of cavalry which the Roman
consul launched at them; but when they presently found themselves surrounded by the
enemy on their rear and flank, unable to maintain the fight any longer, they fled before the
cavalry. Many of them were driven into the river, and were swept away by the stream, but the
larger number was cut down by their enemies. Acerrae also, richly stored with corn, fell into
the hands of the Romans: the Celts having evacuated it, and retired to Milan, which is the
commanding position in the territory of the Insubres. Gnaeus Cornelius followed them closely,
and suddenly appeared at Milan. The Celts at first did not stir; but upon his starting on his
return march to Acerrae, they sallied out and having boldly attacked his rear, killed a good
many men, and even drove a part of it into flight; until Gnaeus Cornelius recalled some of his
vanguard and urged them to stand and engage the enemy.
The Celts, encouraged by their success, held their ground for a certain time with some
gallantry, but before long turned and fled to the neighboring mountains. Gnaeus Cornelius
followed them, wasting the country as he went, and took Milan by assault. At this the chiefs of
the Insubres, despairing of safety, made a complete and absolute submission to Rome.
Chapter XXXV.
Such was the end of the Celtic war which, for the desperate determination and boldness of
the enemy, for the obstinacy of the battles fought, and for the number of those who fell and of
those who were engaged, is second to none recorded in history, but which, regarded as a
specimen of scientific strategy, is utterly contemptible. The Celts showed no power of
planning or carrying out a campaign, and in everything they did were swayed by impulse
rather than by sober calculation. As I have seen these tribes, after a short struggle, entirely
23
ejected from the valley of the Padus, with the exception of some few localities lying close to
the Alps, I thought I ought not to let their original attack upon Italy pass unrecorded, any more
than their subsequent attempts, or their final eviction; for it is the function of the historian to
record and transmit to posterity, such episodes in the drama of Fortune…
BOOK IV.
Chapter XLVI.
These Celts had left their country with Brennus, and having survived the battle at Delphi and
made their way to the Hellespont, instead of crossing to Asia, were captivated by the beauty
of the district round Byzantium, so they settled there. Then, having conquered the Thracians
and erected Tylis into a capital, they placed the Byzantines in extreme danger. In their earlier
attacks, made under the command of Comontorius their first king, the Byzantines always
bought them off by presents amounting to three thousand, or five thousand, or sometimes
even ten thousand gold pieces, on condition of their not devastating their territory: and at last
were compelled to agree to pay them a yearly tribute of eighty talents, until the time of
Cavarus, in whose reign their kingdom came to an end; and their whole tribe being in their
turn conquered by the Thracians were annihilated…
Chapter LII.
So when the Celtic king, Cavarus, came to Byzantium, and showed himself eager to put an
end to the war, and earnestly offered his friendly intervention, both Prusias and the
Byzantines consented to his proposals. And when the Rhodians were informed of the
interference of Cavarus and the consent of Prusias, being very anxious to secure their own
object also, they elected Aridices as ambassador to Byzantium, and sent Polemocles with him
in command of three triremes, wishing, as the saying is, to send the Byzantines "spear and
herald staff at once." Upon their appearance pacification was arranged, in the year of Cothon,
son of Calligiton, high priest in Byzantium. The treaty with the Rhodians was simple: "The
Byzantines will not collect toll from any ship sailing into the Euxine Pontus; and in that case
the Rhodians and their allies are at peace with the Byzantines." But that with Prusias
contained the following provisions: "There shall be peace and amity forever between Prusias
and the Byzantines; the Byzantines shall in no way attack Prusias, nor Prusias the
Byzantines. Prusias shall restore to Byzantines all lands, forts, populations, and prisoners of
war, without ransom; and besides these things, the ships taken at the beginning of the war,
and the arms seized in the fortresses; and also the timbers, stonework, and roofing belonging
to the fort called Hieron" (for Prusias, in his terror of the approach of Tiboetes, had pulled
down every fort which seemed to lie conveniently for him). "Finally, Prusias shall compel such
of the Bithynians as have any property taken from the farmers of the Byzantine district of
Mysia, to restore it to their legitimate owners."
Such were the beginning and end of the war of Rhodes and Prusias with Byzantium.
BOOK VIII (fragments).
Chapter XXIV.
Cavarus, king of the Celts in Thrace, was of a truly royal and high-minded disposition, he
gave the merchants sailing into the Euxine Pontus great protection, and rendered the
Byzantines important services in their wars with the Thracians and Bithynians...
But this king, so excellent in other respects, was corrupted by a flatterer named Sostratus,
who was a Chalcedonian...
24
25
PLUTARCH (circa 46-120).
A Greek philosopher. His "Lives of illustrious men," also called "Parallel lives,” collect fifty
biographies, of which 46 are presented in pairs: a Greek, a Roman. His Moral Essays
(Moralia) gather more than 230 treatises on the most various subjects.
PARALLEL LIVES OF ILLUSTRIOUS MEN.
11. Camillus.
…The Celts at this time were besieging Clusium, a Tuscan city. The Clusinians sent to the
Romans for succor desiring them to interpose with the barbarians by letters and
ambassadors. There were sent three of the family of the Fabii, persons of high rank and
distinction in the city. The Celts received them courteously, from respect to the name of
Rome, and, giving over the assault which was then making upon the walls, came to
conference with them. When the ambassadors asking what injury they had received from the
Clusinians that they thus invaded their city, Brennus, king of the Celts, laughed and made the
following answer. “The Clusinians do us injury, in that, being able only to till a small parcel of
ground, they possess nevertheless a great territory, and will not yield any part to us, who are
strangers, many in number and poor. This is the same wrong which you too suffered,
O Romans, formerly at the hands of the Albans, Fidenates, Ardeates, and now lately at the
hands of the Veientines, Capenates, and many of the Faliscans or Volscians; upon whom you
have considered natural to make war, if they do not yield you part of what they possess, to
make slaves of them, to waste and to spoil their country, and ruin their cities. And in so doing ,
you were neither cruel nor unjust, but simply observers of the oldest of all laws, which gives
the powerful one the possessions of the feeble ; beginning with the gods and ending with the
beasts; since each and everyone always tries to have what belongs to weaker. And cease
therefore to pity the Clusinians whom we besiege, lest you teach the Celts to be kind and
compassionate to those that are oppressed by you.”
…Heraclides Ponticus, who did not live long after these times, in his book upon the soul,
relates that a certain report came from the west that an army, proceeding from the
Hyperboreans, had taken a Greek city called Rome, seated somewhere upon the Great Sea
[the Mediterranean Sea] . But I do not wonder that so fabulous and high-flown an author as
Heraclides should embellish the truth of the story with expressions about Hyperboreans and
the Great Sea.
31. Caius Marius.
…The enemy dividing themselves into two parts, the Cimbri arranged to go against Catulus
higher up through the country of the Norici, and to force that passage; the Teutones and
Ambrones to march against Marius by the seaside through Liguria. The Cimbri were a
considerable time in doing their part; but the Teutones and Ambrones with all expedition
passing over the country between them and the Romans, soon came in sight, in numbers
beyond belief, of a terrible aspect, and uttering strange cries and shouts. Taking up a great
part of the plain with their camp, they challenged Marius to battle….
…Thus he discoursed privately with his captains and officers, but placed the soldiers by turns
upon the bulwarks to survey the enemy, and so made them familiar with their shape and
voice, which were indeed altogether extravagant and barbarous, and he caused them to
observe their arms, and way of using them, so that in a little time what at first appeared
terrible to their apprehensions, by often viewing, became familiar…
…Upon hearing the shouts, greater numbers still joining in the fight, it was not a little difficult
for Marius to contain his soldiers, who were afraid of losing the camp servants; and the most
warlike part of the enemies, who had overthrown Manlius and Caepio, (they were called
Ambrones, and were in number, one with another, above thirty thousand) taking the alarm,
26
leaped up and hurried to arms. These, though they had just been gorging themselves with
food, and were excited and disordered with drink, nevertheless did not advance with an unruly
step, or in mere senseless fury, nor were their shouts mere inarticulate cries; but clashing
their arms in concert, and keeping time as they leaped and bounded onward, they continually
repeated their own name, “Ambrones! Ambrones!” either to encourage one another, or to
strike the greatest terror into their enemies…
…After the Romans were retired from the great slaughter of the Ambrones, night came on;
but the army was not indulged, as was the custom, with songs of victory, drinking in their
tents, and mutual entertainments, and quiet sleep (what is most welcome to soldiers after
successful fighting) , they passed that night, above all others, in fears and alarm. For their
camp was without either rampart or palisade, and there remained thousands upon thousands
of their enemies yet unconquered; to whom were joined as many of the Ambrones as
escaped. There were heard from these, all through the night, wild wailing, nothing like the
sighs and groans of human beings, but a sort of wild beast like howling and roaring, joined
with threats and lamentations rising from the vast multitude, and echoed among the
neighboring hills and hollow banks of the river. The whole plain was filled with hideous noise,
insomuch that the Romans were not a little afraid, and Marius himself was apprehensive of a
confused tumultuous night engagement… …
The greatest part and most valiant of the enemies [the Cimbri] were cut in pieces; for those
that fought in the front that they might not break their ranks were fast tied to one another, with
long chains put through their belts. But as they pursued those that fled to their camp, they
witnessed a most fearful tragedy. The women, standing in black clothes on their wagons, slew
all that fled, some their husbands, some their brothers, others their fathers; and strangling
their little children with their own hands, threw them under the wheels, and the feet of the
cattle, and then killed themselves. They tell of one who hung herself from the end of the pole
of a wagon, with her children tied dangling at her heels. The men, for want of trees, tied
themselves, some to the horns of the oxen, others by the neck to their legs, that so pricking
them on, by the starting and springing of the beasts, they might be torn and trodden to pieces.
Yet for all they thus massacred themselves, above sixty thousand were taken prisoners, and
those that were slain were said to be twice as many.
41. Sertorius.
Most of the tribes voluntarily submitted themselves, won by the fame of his clemency and of
his courage, and to some extent also, he availed himself of cunning artifices of his own
devising to impose upon them and gain influence over them. Among which, certainly, that of
the hind was not the least. Spanus, a plebeian who lived in those parts, meeting by chance a
hind that had recently calved, flying from the hunters, let the doe go, and pursuing the fawn,
and took it, being wonderfully pleased with the rarity of the color, which was all milk white. And
as at that time Sertorius was living in the neighborhood, and accepted gladly any presents of
fruit, fowl, or venison, that the country afforded, and rewarded liberally those who presented
them; the man brought him his young hind, which he took and was well pleased with at first
sight. But when in time, he had made it so tame and gentle that it would come when he
called, and follow him wherever he went, and could endure the noise and tumult of the camp,
knowing well that uncivilized people are naturally prone to superstition, by little and little he
raised it into something preternatural, saying that it was given him by the goddess Artemis,
and that it revealed to him many secrets.
He also added such devices as these. If he had received at any time secret intelligence that
the enemies had made an incursion into any part of the districts under his command, or had
solicited any city to revolt, he pretended that the hind had informed him of it in his sleep, and
charged him to keep his forces in readiness. Or if he had notice that any of the commanders
under him had got a victory, he would hide the messengers and bring forth the hind crowned
with flowers, for joy of the good news that was to come, and would encourage them to rejoice
27
and sacrifice to the gods for the good account they should soon receive….
……There being a custom in Spain, that when a commander was slain in battle, those who
attended his person fought it out till they all died with him, which the inhabitants of those
countries considered as an offering or libation; there were few commanders that had any
considerable guard or number of attendants; but Sertorius was followed by many thousands
who offered themselves, and vowed to spend their blood with his. And it is told that when his
army was defeated near a city in Spain, and the enemy pressed hard upon them, the
Spaniards, with no care for themselves, but being totally solicitous to save Sertorius, took him
up on their shoulders and passed him from one to another, till they carried him into the city,
and only when they had thus placed their general in safety, provided afterward each man for
his own security…
48. Caesar.
…Though at first he appears to have met with some reverse, and the Arverni show you a
small sword hanging up in a temple, which they say was taken from Caesar. Caesar saw this
afterward himself, and smiled, but when his friends advised it should be taken down, would
not permit it, because he looked upon it as consecrated thing….
…Those who were in Alesia, having given themselves and Caesar much trouble, surrendered
at last; and Vergentorix [Vercingetorix], who was the chief spring of all the war, putting his best
armor on, and adorning his horse, rode out of the gates, and made a turnaround Caesar as
he was sitting, then quit his horse, threw off his armor, and remained seated quietly at
Caesar’s feet until he was led away to be reserved for the triumph…
MORAL WRITINGS (Moralia).
VOLUME III.
19. Virtues or Bravery of Women (in Greek Gynaecôn aretae).
VI. The Celtic women.
Before the Celts crossed over the Alps and settled in that part of Italy which is now their
home, a dire and persistent factional discord broke out among them which went on and on to
the point of civil war. The women, however, put themselves between the armed forces, and,
taking up the controversies, arbitrated and decided them with such irreproachable fairness
that a wondrous friendship of all towards all was brought about between both tribes-states
and families. As a result of this, they continued to consult with the women in regard to war and
peace, and to decide through them any disputed matters in their relations with their allies. In
their treaty with Hannibal they wrote the provision that, if the Celts complained against the
Carthaginians, the governors and generals of the Carthaginians in Spain should be the
judges; and if the Carthaginians complained against the Celts, the judges should be the Celtic
women.
XX. Camma.
There were in Celtica of Asia Minor [in Galatia] two of the most powerful of the tetrarchs,
distantly related to each other, Sinatus and Sinorix. One of these, Sinatus, had married a
maiden, Camma by name, conspicuous for her form and beauty, but even more admired for
her virtues. Not only was she modest and fond of her husband, but she was also quick-witted
and high-minded, and unusually dear to her inferiors by reason of her kindness and
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benevolence. A thing that brought her into greater prominence was the fact that she was the
priestess [of Artemis?] whom the Celts of Asia Minor [Galatians] especially reverence, and
was seen magnificently attired always in connection with the processions and sacrifices. So
Sinorix fell in love with her, and not being able to prevail upon her either by persuasion or
force as long as her husband lived, he committed a horrible deed, and treacherously killed
Sinatus. Then, without allowing much time to elapse, he commenced to woo Camma, who
was spending time in the temple me.and bearing Sinorix's lawless transgression in no pitiful
nor abject manner, but with a spirit that showed sense and bode his time. He was persistent
in his suit, and seemed not to be at all at a loss for arguments that had some plausibility, to
the effect that in all respects he had shown himself a better man than Sinatus, and had made
away with him for love of Camma and not because of any other nefarious intent.
The woman's denials at the first were not too peremptory, and later, little by little, she
appeared to be softened; for her relatives and friends also brought pressure to bear upon her,
by way of service and favor to Sinorix, who held such very great power in the country, and
they tried to persuade and coerce her. Finally, she yielded, and sent for him to come to her,
on the ground that the consenting and pledging of the wedding should take place in the
presence of the goddess. When he had come, she received him kindly and, having led him to
the altar, poured a libation from a bowl, then drank a portion herself and bade him drink the
rest: it was poisoned mixture of milk and honey. When she saw that he had drunk, she uttered
a clear cry of joy and, prostrating herself before the goddess, said: "I call you to witness, O
goddess most revered that for the sake of this day I have lived on after the murder of Sinatus,
and during all that time I have derived no comfort from life save only the hope of justice; and
now that justice is mine, I go down to my husband. But as for you, wickedest of all men, let
your relatives make ready a tomb instead of a bridal chamber and a wedding."
When the Galatian heard these words, and felt the poison already working and creating a
disturbance in his body, he mounted a chariot, as if to try shaking and jolting as a relief, but he
got out almost immediately and changed over into a litter, and in the evening he died. Camma
endured through the night, and when she learned that he had come to his end, she died
happy.
XXI. Stratonice.
Celtica of Asia Minor gave us also Stratonice the wife of Deiotarus and Chiomara the wife of
Ortiagon, women that deserve to be remembered. Stratonice, well knowing that her husband
desired children from her to succeed to the kingdom, but having no child herself, prevailed
upon him to have a child by another woman, and to connive at its being passed off as her
own. Deiotarus thought highly of the idea, and did everything in dependence upon her
judgment, and she procured a comely maiden from among the prisoners, Electra by name,
and sealed her to Deiotarus. The children that were born she brought up with loving care and
in royal state, as if they had been her own.
XXII. Khiomara.
It came to pass that Khiomara, the wife of Ortiagon, was made a prisoner of war along with
the rest of the women at the time, when the Romans, under Gnaeus Manlius, overcame in
battle the Celts in Asia. The centurion who obtained possession of her used his good fortune
as soldiers do, and dishonored her.
He was, naturally an ignorant man, with no self-control when it came to either pleasure or
money. He fell a victim, however, to his love of money, and when a very large sum in gold had
been mutually agreed upon as the price for the woman, he brought her to exchange for the
ransom, to a place where a river, flowing between, formed a boundary. When the Galatians
had crossed and given the centurion the gold and received Khiomara, she, by a nod,
indicated to one man that he should smite the Roman as he was affectionately taking leave of
her. And when the man obediently struck off the Roman's head, she picked it up and,
wrapping it in the folds of her garment, departed. When she came to her husband and threw
the head down before him, he said in amazement: "A noble thing is fidelity." "Yes," said she,
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"but it is a nobler thing that only one man is alive who has been intimate with me." Polybius
says that he had a conversation with this woman in Sardis, and that he admired her good
sense and intelligence.
VOLUME IV.
23. On the Fortune of the Romans [in Greek Peri tês Rhômaeôn Tychês].
…But if it be true, as Polybius has recorded in his second book, concerning the Celts who had
at this time seized Rome that, when news suddenly came to them that their domains at home
were in danger of being lost to them, at the hands of neighboring barbarians who had
invaded their land and were masters of it, they concluded a treaty of peace with Camillus and
withdrew ( if this be true) then there can be no contention with Fortune that she was not the
cause of Rome's preservation, by distracting the enemy, or rather, by abstracting them from
Rome quite unexpectedly.
VOLUME V.
29. On the failure, ceasing, or obsolescence, of oracles [in Greek Peri tôn ecleloepόtôn
chrêstêriôn].
…Demetrius said that among the islands lying near [Great] Britain were many isolated, having
few or no inhabitants. Some of which bore the names of deities or heroes. He himself, by the
emperor's order, had made a voyage for inquiry and observation to the nearest of these
islands which had only a few inhabitants, holy men who were all held inviolate by the [Great]
British. Shortly after his arrival there occurred a great tumult in the air, and many portents;
violent winds suddenly swept down,and lightning flashes darted to earth. When these abated,
the people of the island said that the passing of someone of the mightiest soul/minds [in
Greek megalai psychai] had befallen. "For," said they, "as a lamp when it is being lighted has
no terrors, but when it goes out is distressing to many, so the great souls/minds [Greek
megalai psychai] have kindling into life that is gentle and inoffensive, but their passing and
dissolution often, as in the present moment, fosters tempests and storms, and often infects
the air with pestilential properties." Moreover, they said that in this part of the world there is
one island where Cronus is confined, guarded while he sleeps by Briareus; for his sleep has
been devised as bondage for him, and round about him are many daemons as attendants
and servants…
VOLUME IX.
Dialog on Love (Greek Erôticόs).
Chapter 22.
"Although there are plenty of examples of this virtue of constancy, yet to you, those are the
festive votaries of the god [of love], it will not be amiss to relate the story of the Galatian
Camma.
She was a woman of most remarkable beauty, and the wife of the tetrarch Sinatus, whom
Sinorix, one of the most influential men in Galatia, and desperately in love with Camma,
murdered, as he could neither get her by force or persuasion in the lifetime of her husband.
Camma found a refuge and comfort in her grief in discharging the functions of hereditary
priestess to Artemis, and most of her time she spent in her temple ; though many kings and
potentates wooed her, she refused them all. But when Sinorix boldly proposed marriage to
her, she did not decline his offer, nor blamed him for what he had done, as though she
thought he had only murdered Sinatus out of excessive love for her, and not in sheer villainy :
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he came, therefore, with confidence, and asked her hand. She met him and greeted him and
led him to the altar of the goddess, and pledged him in a cup of poisoned mead, drinking half
of it herself and giving him the rest. When she saw that he had drunk it up, she shouted aloud
for joy, and calling upon the name of her dead husband, said : 'Till this day, dearest husband,
I have lived, deprived of you, a life of sorrow: but now take me to yourself with joy, for I have
avenged you on the worst of men, as glad to share death with him as life with you.'
Sinorix was removed out of the temple on a litter, and soon after gave up the soul. Camma
lived the rest of that day and following night. She is said to have died with a good courage
and even with gaiety."
Chapter 24.
…The love of other friends, conversing and living together, is like the touches and
interweaving of Epicurus’s atoms, subject to raptures and separations, but can never
compose such a union as proceeds from Love assisting conjugal society. For neither are the
pleasures received from any other source so great, nor the benefits conferred on others so
lasting, nor is the glory and beauty of any other friendship so noble and desirable,
as when the man and wife at lodging and bed under one roof a life of concord lead.
Moreover, it is a thing warranted by law; while Nature shows us that even the Gods
themselves stood in need of love for the sake of common procreation.
Thus the poets tell us that earth is in love with the god who pours the showers, and heaven
with the earth; and the natural philosophers are of opinion that the sun is in love with the
moon, that they copulate every month, and that the moon conceives by virtue of that
conjunction. And it would of necessity follow that the earth, which is the common mother of all
mankind, of all animals, and of all manner of plants, would one day cease and be
extinguished, should that same ardent love and desire, infused by the god, forsake matter
and matter cease to pursue and lust after the principles and motions of generation. But we
may not seem to wander too far or spend our time in trifles; you yourselves are not ignorant
that these pederasties are by many said to be the most uncertain and least durable things in
the world, and that they are derided by those that make use of them, who affirm that the love
of boys, like an egg, may be destroyed by a hair; and the lovers themselves are like the
wandering Scythians, who, having spent their spring in flowery and verdant pastures,
presently dislodge from thence, as out of an enemy’s country…
….. I say more than this, that the love of virtuous women does not decay with the wrinkles
that appear upon their faces, but remains and endures to their graves and monuments. Then
again, we shall find but few male couples of true lovers; but thousands of men and women
conjoined in wedlock, who have reciprocally and inviolably observed a total community of
affection and loyalty to the end of their lives. I shall instance only one example, which
happened in our time, during the reign of Caesar Vespasian.
Chapter 25.
Julius, who was the first that occasioned the revolt in Celtica, among many other
confederates in the rebellion, had one Sabinus, a young gentleman of no mean spirit, and for
fame and riches inferior to none. But having undertaken a very difficult enterprise, they
miscarried; and therefore expecting nothing but death by the hand of justice, some of them
killed themselves, others made their escapes as well as they could. As for Sabinus, he had all
the opportunities that could be to save himself by flying to the barbarians; but he had married
a lady, the best of women, which they called by the name of Emponen [Eponina], as much as
to say heroin. This woman, it was not in his power to leave, neither could he carry her
conveniently along with him. Having therefore in the country certain vaults or cellars
underground, where he had hidden his treasures and movables of greatest value, which were
only known to two of his freed bondmen, Sabinus dismissed all the rest of his servants, as if
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he had intended to poison himself. And taking along with him his two faithful and trusty
servants, he hid himself in one of the vaults, and sent another of his enfranchised attendants,
whose name was Martalius, to tell his wife that her husband had poisoned himself and that
the house and his corpse were both burned together, designing by the lamentation and
unfeigned grief of his wife, to make the report of his death the more easily believed, which fell
out according to his wish. For Emponen [Eponina] so soon as she heard the news, threw
herself upon the floor, and continued for three days together without meat or drink, making the
most bitter outcries, and bewailing her loss with all the marks of a real and unfeigned anguish.
Which Sabinus understanding, and fearing her sorrow might prevail with her to lay violent
hands upon herself, he ordered the same Martalius to tell her that he was yet alive and lay
hidden in such a place; however, that she should for a while continue her mourning, and be
sure so to counterfeit her grief that she should not be discovered. And indeed in all other
things the lady acted her part so well, and managed her passion to that degree, that no
woman could do it better. But having still a longing desire to see her husband, she went to
him in the night and returned so privately that nobody took any notice of her. And thus she
continued keeping him company for seven months together, that it might be said, to differ very
little from living in hell itself. When after she had so strangely disguised Sabinus with a false
head of hair, and such odd sort of habit, that it was impossible for him to be known, she
carried him to Rome along with her undiscovered to several that met him. Not being able to
obtain his pardon, she returned with him back to his den, and for many years lived with him
under ground; only between whiles she went to the city, and there showed herself in public to
several ladies, her friends and familiar acquaintance. But that which was the most incredible
of all things, she so ordered her business that none of the ladies perceived her being with
child, though she bathed at the same time with them. For such is the nature of that ointment
wherewith the women anoint their hair to make it of a red-golden color, that by its fatness and
oleosity (its oiliness) it plumps and swells up the flesh of the body, bringing it up to an
embonpoint. So that the lady, no less liberal of her ointment than diligent to chafe and rub her
body limb by limb, by the rising and swelling of her flesh in every part, well calculated,
concealed the swelling of her belly. And when she came to be delivered, she endured the
pains of her childbearing alone by herself, like a lioness, hiding herself in her den with her
husband; and there, as I may say, she bred up in private her two male whelps. For at that
time she was delivered of two boys, of which there was one who was slain in Egypt; the other,
whose name was also Sabinus, was but very lately with us at Delphi. For this reason Caesar
put the lady to death; but dearly paid for the murder, by the utter extirpation of his whole
posterity, which in a short time after was utterly cut off from the face of the earth. For during
his whole reign, there was not a more cruel and savage act committed; neither was there any
other spectacle which, in all probability, the gods and daemons more detested, or any from
which they more turned away their eyes in abomination of the sight. Finally, she abated the
compassion of the spectators by the stoutness of her behavior and the grandeur of her
utterance, than which there was nothing that more exasperated Vespasian; when, despairing
of her husband’s pardon, she did as it was challenging the emperor to exchange her life for
his, telling him withal that she accounted it a far greater pleasure to live in darkness
underground as she had done than to reign in splendor like him. Here, as my father told me,
ended the discourse concerning love.
Chapter 50.
Daphnaeus: What! Do you number wedlock and the conjunction of man and wife, than which
there is no tie more sacred in this life, among the vile and dishonest actions of the world?
Why truly, replied Protogenes, this same bond of wedlock, as being necessary for generation,
is not undeservedly perhaps extolled by our grave politicians and lawgivers, and by them
recommended to the multitude but….
……. If it is true male converse, which is altogether against nature, neither extinguishes nor is
any ways noxious to amorous affection, much more probable is it that the love of women,
which is according to nature, should reach to the consummation of affection, by virtue of that
obsequious beauty which attends it. The adequacy of the female to the male, Protogenes,
was by the Ancients expressed by the word grace [charis in Greek]. But the affection for boys
does not keep itself within bounds, like a late-born issue, clandestinely brought forth in the
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dark and out of season, it strives to expel the truly genuine and legitimate love, which is much
the more ancient. Forgive me leave to tell you, my dear friend, it is but (as it were) of
yesterday’s standing or of the day before, since young boys began to strip and show
themselves naked in the public places of exercise. That this frenzy, getting in by degrees and
crowding in there, afterward by little and little became better fledged and gathered strength of
wings in the palestra (wrestling rings) , so that now the insolence of it can no longer be so
restrained, but that still it will be affronting and adulterating conjugal love, which is the
coadjutor of Nature and helps to immortalize mortal mankind, raising up and immediately
restoring, again by generation our human nature, when it has been extinguished by death….
…….Now if it be, as Protogenes says, that no carnal conjunction attends these masculine
familiarities, how it can be love, when Venus [ in Greek Aphrodite] is absent; seeing that of all
the Goddesses, she it is that Eros is bound to obey and attend, and that he has no honor or
power but what she confers upon him? If there be an Eros without Venus, as a man may be
drunk without wine by drinking the decoctions of figs or barley, the real life of such a love must
prove fruitless and to no end, so consequently loathsome and offensive…
…At which words, as my father told me, he took Protogenes by the hand, and repeated to him
these verses:
“Words such as these the Argive courage warm;
And the affronted youth provoke to arm.”
The exorbitant language of Pisias gives us good reason to take Daphnaeus’s part, while
Pisias introduces over the head of wedlock a society void of true love, and utterly a stranger
to that same friendship which descends and is inspired from above; and which, if real
affection and adequacy of the woman to the man, be wanting, can hardly be restrained by all
the curbs and yokes of shame and fear. …
VOLUME XII.
63. On the face which appears in the orb of the Moon [in Greek Peri tou emphaenomenou
prosôpou tôi cyclôi tês selênês].
Almost before I had finished, Sulla broke in. "Hold on, Lamprias," he said, "and finish your
discourse, lest you unwittingly run my account aground, and confound the drama, which has a
different setting and a different disposition. Well, I am but the actor of the piece, but first I shall
say — if there is no objection — that its author began for our sake with a quotation from
Homer:
An island, Ogygia, lies far out at sea!
A run of five days off from [Great] Britain as you sail westward there is also an island. And
three other islands equally distant from it and from one another lie out from it in the direction
of the summer sunset. In one of these, according to the tale told by the barbarians of the
country, Cronos has been confined by Zeus, but that he, having a son [Briareus?] for the
jailer, is left sovereign lord of those islands and of the sea, which they call the Gulf of Cronos.
They add that the great mainland, by which the great ocean is encircled, while not so far from
the other islands, is about five thousand stadia from Ogygia, the voyage being made by oars,
for the sea is slow to traverse and muddy as a result of the multitude of streams. The streams
are discharged by the great landmass and produce alluvial deposits, thus giving density and
earthiness to the sea, which has been thought actually to be congealed. On the coast of the
mainland Greeks dwell about a gulf which is not smaller than the Palus Maeotis and the
mouth of the Caspian Sea. These people consider and call themselves continental and the
inhabitants of this land islanders, because the sea flows around it on all sides; and they
believe that with the peoples of Cronos there mingled at a later time those who arrived in the
train of Heracles and were left behind by him that these latter so to speak rekindled to a
strong, high flame the Hellenic spark there which was already being quenched and overcome
by the tongue, the laws, and the manners of the barbarians.
33
Therefore Heracles has the highest honors and Cronos the second. Now when at intervals of
thirty years the star of Cronos, which we call Phaenon but they, our author said, call Nycturus,
enters the sign of the Bull, they; having spent a long time in preparation for the sacrifice and
the expedition, choose by lots and send forth a sufficient number of envoys in a
correspondingly sufficient number of ships, putting aboard a large retinue and the provisions
necessary for men who are going to cross so much sea by oars, and live such a long time in a
foreign land. Now, when they have put to sea, the several voyagers meet with various
fortunes as one might expect; but those who survive the voyage first put in at the outlying
islands, which are inhabited by Greeks, the sun passes out of sight for less than an hour, over
a period of thirty days, this is the night, but it has a darkness that is slight, as a twilight
glimmering from the west. There they spend ninety days regarded with honor and friendliness
as holy men and so addressed, then winds carry them across to their island. Nor do any
others inhabit it but themselves and those who have been dispatched before them. Those
who have served the god together for a stint of thirty years are allowed to sail off home, but
most of them usually choose to settle in the spot, some out of habit, others because without
toil or trouble they have all things in abundance while they constantly employ their time in
sacrifices and celebrations or with various discourses and philosophy; for the nature of the
island is marvelous as is the softness of the circumambient air. Some when they intend to sail
away are even hindered by the deity which presents itself to them as to intimates and friends
and not in dreams only or by means of omens, but many also come upon the visions and the
voices of spirits [ or daemons in Greek language] manifest. For Cronos himself sleeps
confined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold — the sleep that Zeus has contrived like
a bond for him —, and birds flying in over the summit of the rock bring ambrosia to him, all the
island is suffused with fragrance scattered from the rock as from a fountain; and those spirits
[or daemons in Greek] mentioned before tend and serve Cronos, having been his comrades
[hetaerous in Greek language] what time he ruled as king over gods and men. Many things
they do foretell of themselves, for they are oracular; but the prophecies that are greatest and
of the greatest matters, they come down and report as dreams of Cronos, for all that Zeus
premeditates, Cronos sees in his dreams. The titanic affections and motions of his soul make
him rigidly tense, until sleep restores his repose once more and the royal and divine element
is all by itself, pure and unalloyed. Here then the stranger of whom I received the story was
conveyed, and while he served the god became at his leisure acquainted with astronomy, in
which he made as much progress as one can by practicing geometry, and with the physics,
by dealing with so much of it as is possible for the natural philosopher. Since he had a strange
desire and longing to observe the Great Island (for so, it seems, they call our part of the
world), so when the thirty years had elapsed, the relief party having arrived from home, he
saluted his friends and sailed away, lightly equipped for the rest but carrying a large viaticum
in golden beakers. Well, all his experiences and all the men whom he visited, encountering
sacred writings and being initiated in all rites — to recount all this as he reported it to us,
relating it thoroughly and in detail, is not a task for a single day; but listen to so much as is
pertinent to the present discussion. He spent a great deal of time in Carthage inasmuch as
Cronos receives great honor in our country, and he discovered certain sacred parchments
that had been secretly spirited off to safety when the earlier city was being destroyed, and
had lain unnoticed in the ground for a long time. Among the visible gods he said that one
should especially honor the moon, and so he kept exhorting me to do, inasmuch as she is
sovereign over life and death, bordering as she does upon the meadows of Hades. When I
expressed surprise at this and asked for a clearer account, he said: 'Many assertions about
the gods, Sulla, are current among the Greeks, but not all are well told….”
…“This," said Sulla, "I heard the stranger relate; he had the account, as he said himself, from
the chamberlains and servitors of Cronos. You and your companions, Lamprias, may make
what you will of the tale."
* We don’t know if Nucturus corresponds well to something among the Celts (Nucturos being
a neo-Celtic reconstruction) but thirty years is indeed the duration of a druidic century. In other
words, a generation.
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35
STRABO (- 58 + 25).
A Greek geographer. The author of a history in 43 volumes of which none arrived to us. Then
wrote geography in 17 volumes in which it is possible to read this.
BOOK II.
Chapter IV.
1. Polybius, in his account of the geography of Europe, says he passes over the ancient
geographers but examines the men who criticize them, namely, Dicaearchus, and
Eratosthenes, who has written the most recent treatise on Geography; and Pytheas, by whom
many have been misled; for after asserting that he traveled over the whole of [Great] Britain
that was accessible. Pytheas reported that the coastline of the island was more than forty
thousand stadia, and added his story about Thule and about those regions in which there was
no longer either land properly so-called, or sea, or air, but a kind of substance concreted from
all these elements, resembling a sea lung [ Greek pleumon thalattíōi ] ; a thing in which, he
says, the earth, the sea, and all the elements are held in suspension; and this is a sort of
bond to hold all together, which you can neither walk nor sail upon. Now, as for this thing that
resembles the sea lungs, he says that he saw it himself, but that all the rest he tells from
hearsay.
BOOK III.
Chapter II.
...The Carthaginians who, along with Barcas, made a campaign against Iberia found the
people in Turdetania, as the historians tell us, using silver feeding troughs and wine jars. And
one might assume that it was from their great prosperity that the people there got the
additional name of "Macraeones” [Greek Makraion] * and particularly the chieftains; and that
this is why Anacreon said as follows: "I, for my part, should neither wish the horn of
Amaltheia, nor to be king of the happy Tartessus for one hundred and fifty years"; and why
Herodotus recorded even the name of the king, whom he called Arganthonius.
* Editor’s note. Unless, of course, it would be the distant echo of a myth concerning the
islands of the Blessed or the Celtic kingdom come. The Greek term makraion means in any
case “lasting long,” “long-lived,” even “immortal.”
And as for the mysterious Celtic city or whose aristocracy was Celtic, of Tartessus, it is, of
course, the biblical Tarshish.
The only thing sure is that a king of Tarshish or Tartessus bore a name in connection with the
Celtic name of silver: This Arganthonius (circa – 670 – 550) is the last king, the only one we
find historical references. Because the fact that treasures are allotted to him over a period of
300 years, some historians suspect that it could be in fact a dynasty.
Chapter III.
5. Last of all come the Artabrians, who live in the neighborhood of the cape called Nerium,
which is the end of both the western and the northern side of Iberia. But the country round
about the cape itself is inhabited by Celtic people, kinsmen of those on the Anas; for these
people and the Turdulians made an expedition thither and then had a quarrel, it is said, after
they had crossed the Limaeas River; and when in addition to the quarrel the Celtic peoples
also suffered the loss of their chieftain, they scattered and stayed there; it was from this
circumstance that the Limaeas was also called the River of Lethe.
Chapter IV.
16.…They live on a low moral plane, that is, they have a regard, not for rational living, but
rather for satisfying their physical needs and bestial instincts, unless someone thinks those
men have regard for rational living who wash using urine which they have aged in cisterns,
and brush their teeth with it, both they and their wives, as the Cantabrians and the
36
neighboring peoples are said to do. But both this custom and that of sleeping on the ground
the Iberians share with the Celts. Some say the Callaicans have no god, but the Celtiberians
and their neighbors on the north offer sacrifices to a nameless god at the seasons of the full
moon, by night, in front of the doors of their houses, and whole households dance in chorus
and keep it up all night.
BOOK IV.
Chapter I.
7 …Between Massilia [ today Marseilles] and the outlets of the Rhodanus there is a plain,
circular , which is as far distant from the sea as a hundred stadia, and is also as much as that
in diameter. It is called Stony Plain from the fact that it is full of stones as large as you can
hold in your hand; although from beneath the stones there is a growth of wild herbage which
affords abundant pasturage for cattle. In the middle of the plain stand water and salt ponds,
and also lumps of salt.
The whole of the country which lies beyond, as well as this, is exposed to the winds, the
Melamborion [in Greek language the Black wind from north] a violent and chilly wind, which
descends upon this plain with exceptional severity; at any rate it is said that some of the
stones are swept and rolled along, and that by the blasts the people are dashed from their
vehicles and stripped of both weapons and clothing. Aristotle says that the stones, after being
vomited to the surface by some types of earthquakes [that are called "brastae,” Greek
braston] rolled together into the hollow places of the districts. But Poseidonius says that, since
it was a lake, it solidified because a violent fall of water level, and because of this was parted
into a number of stones, as are the river rocks and the pebbles on the seashore; and by
reason of the similarity of origin, the former, like the latter, are both smooth and equal in size.
And an account of the cause has been given by both men. And now the argument in both
treatises is equally plausible; for of necessity the stones that have been assembled in this
way cannot separately, one by one: either they have changed from liquid to solid or have
been detached from great masses of rock that received a succession of fractures. What was
difficult to account for, however, Aeschylus, who closely studied the accounts or else received
them from another source, removed to the domain of the myth. At any rate, Prometheus, in
Aeschylus's poem, in detailing to Heracles the route of the roads from the Caucasus to the
Hesperides says:
"And you will come to the undaunted host of the Ligurians,
Where you will not complain of the battle, I clearly know,
Impetuous fighter though thou art;
Because there it is fated that even your missiles shall fail you,
And no stone from the ground shall thou be able to take,
Since the whole district is soft ground
But Zeus, seeing you without means to fight, will have pity upon you,
And, supplying a cloud with a snow-like shower of round stones,
He will put immediately the soil under cover;
And with these stones thereupon thou will pelt,
And easily push your way through, the Ligurian host."
As if it were not better, says Poseidonius, for Zeus, to have cast the stones upon the Ligures
themselves and to have buried the whole host, than to represent Heracles as in need of so
many stones. Now, as for the number ("so many"), he needed them all if indeed the poet was
speaking with reference to a throng of enemies that was very numerous; so that in this, at
least, the poet writer of the myth is more logical than the man who revises the myth.
Furthermore, by saying "it is fated," the poet forbids one to find any improbabilities as regards
anything else in the passage of his work. For one might very well in any discussion on
37
“Providence” and “Predestination” find many instances, among the affairs of men and among
the natural occurrences, in reference to them one would agree to judge it were much better
than events do another way, than which was. For example, for Egypt to be well watered by
rains, rather than that Ethiopia should soak its soil with water; and for Paris to have met his
reversal by shipwreck on the voyage to Sparta, instead of later carrying off Helen and paying
the penalty to those whom he had wronged, after he had effected all that ruin or death of
Greeks and barbarians; a disaster which Euripides attributed to Zeus: "For Zeus, the father,
willing not only ruin for the Trojans but also sorrow for the Greeks, resolved upon all this."
10. Lying off these narrow stretches of coast, if we begin at Massilia (Marseilles), are the five
Stoechades Islands, three of them of considerable size, but two quite small; they are tilled by
Massiliotes. In early times the Massiliotes also had a garrison, which they placed there to
meet the onsets of the pirates, whence the islands were well supplied with harbors. Next,
after the Stoechades, are the islands of Planasia and Lero, which have colonial settlements.
In Lero there is also a hero temple [heroon in Greek language], namely, that in honor of Lero;
this island lies off Antipolis (Antibes)…
13….And it is further said that the Tectosages shared in the expedition to Delphi; and even
the treasures that were found among them in the city of Tolosa (Toulouse) by Caepio, a
general of the Romans, were, it is said, a part of the valuables that were taken from Delphi,
although the people, in trying to consecrate them and propitiate the god, added thereto out of
their personal properties; it was on account of having laid hands on them that Caepio ended
his life in misfortunes; for he was cast out by his native land as a temple robber, and he left
behind as his heirs female children only, who, as it turned out, became prostitutes, as
Timagenes has said, and therefore perished in disgrace. However, the account of
Poseidonius is more plausible: for he says that the treasure that was found in Tolosa
[Toulouse] amounted to about fifteen thousand talents (part of it in sacred lakes), unwrought,
that is, merely gold and silver bullion; whereas the temple at Delphi was in those times
already empty of such treasure, because it had been robbed at the time of the sacred war by
the Phocians; but even if something was left, it was divided by many among themselves;
neither is it reasonable to suppose that they reached their homeland in safety, since they
fared wretchedly after their retreat from Delphi and, because of their dissensions, were
scattered, some in one direction, others in another. But, as has been said both by
Poseidonius and several others, since the country was rich in gold, and also belonged to
people who were god-fearing and not extravagant in their ways of living, it came to have
treasures in many places in Celtica. But it was the lakes, most of all, which afforded the
treasures their inviolability, into which the people let down heavy masses of silver or even of
gold. At all events, the Romans, after they mastered the regions, sold the lakes for the public
treasury, and many of the buyers found in them hammered millstones of silver. In Tolosa
(Toulouse), the temple too was hallowed, since it was very much revered by the inhabitants of
the surrounding country, and on this account the treasures there were excessive, numerous
people had dedicated them to the gods and no one dared to lay hands on them.
Chapter II.
1…the interior and mountainous country, however, has better soil: first, next to the Pyrenees,
the country of the "Convenae" (that is, "assembled rabble"),in which are the city of Lugdunum
and the hot springs of the Onesii — most beautiful springs of most potable waters; and,
secondly, the country of the Auscii...
Chapter III.
2. Lugdunum itself, then (a city founded at the foot of a hill at the confluence of the river Arar
and the Rhodanus), is occupied by the Romans. And it is the most populous of all the cities of
Celtica except Narbo (Narbonne); for not only do people use it as a commercial center, but
38
the Roman prefects or governors [Greek hegemonon] coin their money there, both the silver
and the gold. Again, the temple that was dedicated to Caesar Augustus by all the Celts in
common is situated in front of this city at the junction of the rivers. And in it is a noteworthy
altar, bearing an inscription of the names of the tribes, sixty in number; and also images from
these tribes, one from each tribe, and also another large…. [Greek allos megas].
Chapter IV.
2 …the whole race or nation [ Greek phylon] which is now called both "Gallic" and "Galatic" is
war-mad, and both high-spirited and quick for battle, although otherwise simple and not ill-
mannered: if roused, they come together all at once for the struggle….As for their might, it
arises partly from their large physique and partly from their numbers. And on account of their
trait of simplicity and straightforwardness, they easily come together in great numbers,
because they always share in the vexation of those of their neighbors whom they think
wronged…now although they are all fighters by nature, they are better as cavalry than as
infantry; the best cavalry force the Romans have comes from these people…
3….But some of them also use bows and slings. There is also a certain wooden weapon
resembling a kind of javelin [grosphoi in Greek language]: it is hurled by hand, not by a thong,
and ranges even farther than an arrow. They use particularly for the purposes of bird hunting.
Most of them, even to the present, sleep on the ground, and eat their meals seated on beds
of straw; food they have in very great quantities, along with milk and flesh of all sorts, but
particularly the flesh of hogs, both fresh and salted... As for their houses, which are large and
dome-shaped, they make them of planks and wicker, throwing up over them quantities of
thatch...There is a procedure that takes place in their assemblies which is peculiar to them: if
a man disturbs the speaker and heckles him, the lictor or sergeant at arms approaches him
with drawn sword, and with a threat commands him to be silent; if he does not stop, the lictor
or the sergeant at arms does the same thing a second time, and also a third time, but at last
cuts off enough of his cloak [of the man’s sagum, in Greek language sagon], to make it
useless for the future. But as for their custom relating to the men and the women (I mean the
fact that their tasks have been exchanged, in a manner opposite to what obtains among us), it
is one which they share with many other barbarian peoples.
4. Among all the Gallic peoples, generally speaking, there are three sets of men who are held
in exceptional honor; the bards, the vates [Greek ouateis] and the druids. The bards are
singers and poets; the vates, diviners and natural philosophers; while the druids, in addition to
natural philosophy, also study moral philosophy. The druids are considered the most just of
men, and on this account they are entrusted with the decision, not only of the private
disputes, but of the public disputes as well; so that, in former times, they even arbitrated
cases of war and made the opponents stop when they were about to line up for the battle; but
the murder cases, in particular, had been turned over to them for judgment. Further, when
there is a big yield from these cases, there is forthcoming a big yield from the land too, as
they think. Moreover, not only the druids, but others as well, say that men's souls [psychas in
Greek language], and also the universe, are indestructible, although both fire and water will at
some time or other prevail over them.
5...Again, in addition to their witlessness, there is also that custom, barbarous and exotic,
which attends most of the northern tribes. I mean the fact that when they depart from the
battle they hang the heads of their enemies from the necks of their horses, and, when they
have brought them home, nail the spectacle to the propylaea (entrances) of their homes. At
any rate, Poseidonius says that he himself saw this spectacle in many places, and that,
although at first he loathed it, afterward, through his familiarity with it, he could bear it calmly.
The heads of enemies of high repute, however, they used to embalm in cedar oil and exhibit
to strangers but they would not deign to give them back even for a ransom of an equal weight
of gold. But the Romans put a stop to these customs, as well as to all those connected with
the sacrifices and divinations, that are opposed to our usages. They used to strike a human
being, whom they had devoted to death, with a sword, in the false ribs [is nothon pleuron or is
39
nothas — pleuras — in Greek language], and then divine from his spasms of death throes.
But they would not sacrifice without the druids. We are told of still other kinds of human
sacrifices; for example, they would shoot victims to death with arrows, or impale them in the
temples, or, having devised a colossus of straw and wood, throw into the colossus cattle and
wild animals of all sorts, even human beings, and then make a burned offering of the whole
thing.
6. In the ocean, he says, there is a small island, not very far out to sea, situated off the outlet
of the Liger River; and the island is inhabited by women of the Namnetes [in Greek language
Samnitôn], they are possessed by Dionysus and make this god propitious by appeasing him
with mystic initiations as well as other sacred performances; no man sets foot on the island,
although the women themselves, sailing from it, have intercourse with the men and then
return.
And, he says, it is a custom of theirs once a year to unroof the temple and to roof it again on
the same day before sunset, each woman bringing her load to add to the roof; but the woman
whose load falls out of her arms is rent to pieces by the rest, and they carry the pieces round
the temple with cries of (Dionysian) enthusiasm and do not cease until their frenzy ceases;
and it is always the case, he says, that someone jostles the woman who is to suffer this fate.
The following story which Artemidorus has told about the case of the crows is still more
fabulous: there is a certain harbor on the ocean coast, his story goes, which is surnamed
"Two Crows," and in this harbor are to be seen two crows, with their right wings somewhat
white; so the men who have disputes about certain things come here, put a plank on an
elevated place, and then throw on barley cakes, each man separately; the birds fly up, eat
some of the barley cakes, scatter the others; and the man whose barley cakes are scattered
wins his law suit. Now, although this story is more fabulous, his account about Demeter and
Core is more credible. He says that there is an island near [Great] Britain on which sacrifices
are performed like those sacrifices in Samothrace that have to do with Demeter and Core…
Ephorus, in his account, makes Celtica so excessive in its size that he assigns to the regions
of Celtic most of the regions, as far as Cadiz, of what we now call Iberia; further, he declares
that the people are fond of the Hellenes, and specifies many things about them that do not fit
the facts of today. The following, also, is a thing peculiar to them: they endeavor not to grow
fat or pot-bellied, and any young man who exceeds the standard measure of a certain girdle,
is punished. So much for Transalpine Celtica.
Chapter V.
4. Besides some small islands round about [Great] Britain, there is also a large island, Ierne,
which stretches parallel to (Great) Britain on the north, its breadth being greater than its
length. Concerning this island I have nothing certain to tell, except that its inhabitants are
more savage than the [Great] British, since they are man-eaters as well as herb eaters [Greek
poēphágoi ], and since, further, they count it an honorable thing, when their fathers die, to
devour them, and openly to have intercourse, not only with the other women, but also with
their mothers and sisters; but I am saying this only with the understanding that I have no
trustworthy witnesses for it; and yet, as for the matter of man-eating, that is said to be a
custom of the Scythians also, and, in cases of necessity forced by sieges, the Celts, the
Iberians, and several other peoples, are said to have practiced it.
BOOK V.
Chapter I.
9. As for the dominion of Diomedes in the neighborhood of this sea, not only the "Islands of
Diomedes" bear witness thereto, but also the historical accounts of the Daunii and Argos
40
Hippium, which I shall relate insofar as they may be historically useful; but I must disregard
most of the mythical or false stories, as, for example, the stories of Phaethon, and of the
Heliades that were changed into poplar trees near the Eridanus (the Eridanus that exists
nowhere on earth, although it is spoken of as near the Padus); and of the Electrides Islands
that lie off the Padus, and of the Meleagrides changed into guinea fowls on them; for not one
of these things is in that region, either.
Chapter II.
3. Thus much for the luster of the Tyrrheni. And still to be recorded are the achievements of
the Caeretani: they defeated in war those Galatae [ Galatas in Greek]language who had
captured Rome, having attacked them when they were in the country of the Sabini on their
way back, and also took away as booty from the Galatae, against their will, what the Romans
had willingly given them.
In addition to this, they saved all who fled to them for refuge from Rome, and the immortal
fire, and the priestesses of Vesta. The Romans, it is true, on account of the bad managers
which the city had at the time, do not seem to have remembered the favor of the Caeretani
with sufficient gratitude, for, although they...
BOOK VII.
Chapter I.
3…here, too, is the Hercynian Forest, and also the tribes of the Suevi, some of which dwell
inside the forest, as, for instance, the tribe of the Quadi [Greek Koldouoi], and here also is
Bohemia [Greek Bouíaimon] the domain of Marabodus, the place whither he caused to
migrate, not only several other peoples, but in particular the Marcomanni, his fellow
tribesmen; for after his return from Rome this man, who before had been only a private
citizen, was placed in charge of the affairs of state. As a youth he had been at Rome and had
enjoyed the favor of Augustus, so on his return he took the rulership and acquired, in addition
to the peoples aforementioned, the Lugii (a large tribe), the Zoumous (Diduni), the Butones,
the Mougilonas (Lugi Manes), the Sibinousi, and also the Semnones, a large tribe, section of
the Suevi themselves…
5. The Hercynian Forest is not only rather dense, but also has large trees, and comprises a
large crescent within regions that are fortified by nature; in the center of it, however, lies a
country (of which I have already spoken) that is capable of affording an excellent livelihood.
And near it are the sources of both the Danube [Greek Istros] and the rhine, as also the lake
between the two sources, and the marshes into which the Rhenus spreads…Tiberius had
preceded only a day's journey from the lake when he saw the sources of the Danube [Greek
Istros].
Chapter II.
As for the Cimbri, some things that are told about them are incorrect...it is ridiculous to
suppose that they departed from their homes because they were incensed on account of a
phenomenon that is natural and eternal, occurring twice every day. And the assertion that an
excessive flood tide once occurred looks like a fabrication, for when the ocean is affected in
this way it is subject to increases and diminutions, but these are regulated and periodical. And
the man who said that the Cimbri took up arms against the flood tides was not right, either;
nor yet the statement that the Celti, as training in the virtue of fearlessness, meekly abide the
destruction of their homes by the tides and then rebuild them, and that they suffer a greater
loss of life as the result of water than of war, as Ephorus says. Indeed, the regularity of the
flood tides and the fact that the part of the country subject to inundations was known should
have precluded such absurdities; for since this phenomenon occurs twice every day, it is, of
course, improbable that the Cimbri did not so much as once perceive that the reflux was
natural and harmless, and that it occurred, not in their country alone, but in every country that
41
was on the ocean.
Neither is Cleitarchus right; for he says that the horsemen, on seeing the onset of the sea,
rode away, and though in full flight came very near being cut off by the water. Now we know,
in the first place, that the invasion of the tide does not rush on with such speed as that....
Note of the author of the compilation. It is, however, still well what I was explained on the spot
as I visited Saint Michael's Mount in Normandy in 19??: the tide is coming in with the speed of
a horse at gallop.
Chapter III.
8.….….When Alexander, the son of Philip, on his expedition against the Thracians beyond the
Haemus, invaded the country of the Triballians and saw that it extended as far as the Ister
[Greek Istros] and the island of Peuce in the River, and that the parts on the far side were
held by the Getae, he went as far as that, it is said, but could not disembark upon the island
because of scarcity of boats (for Syrmus, the king of the Triballians had taken refuge there
and resisted his attempts); he did, however, cross over to the country of the Getae, took their
city, and returned at once to his homeland, after receiving gifts from the overcome tribes and
from Syrmus. Ptolemaeus, the son of Lagus, says that on this expedition the Celts who lived
about the Adriatic joined Alexander for the sake of establishing friendship and hospitality, and
that the king received them kindly and asked them when drinking, what it was that they most
feared, thinking they would say himself, but that they replied they feared no one, unless it
were that Heaven might fall on them, although indeed they added that they put above
everything else the friendship of such a man as he. All these facts are signs of the
straightforwardness of the barbarians: first, the fact that Syrmus refused to consent to the
debarkation upon the island, and yet sent gifts and made a compact of friendship; and,
secondly, that the Celts said that they feared no one, and yet valued above everything else
the friendship of great men.
BOOK XII.
Chapter III.
35… Caesar, after leading Adiatorix in triumph together with his wife and children, resolved to
put him to death together with the eldest of his sons whose name was Dyteutus; but when the
second of the brothers told the soldiers who were leading them away to execution that he was
the eldest; there was a contest between the two for a long time until the parents persuaded
Dyteutus to yield the victory to the younger; for him, they said, being more advanced in age,
would give a more suitable support for his mother and for the remaining brother. And thus,
they say, the younger was put to death with his father. The elder was consequently saved and
obtained the honor of the great priesthood of….
Chapter V.
1. The Galatians, then, are to the south of the Paphlagonians. And of these there are three
tribes; two of them, the Trocmi and the Tolistobogii, are named after their leaders, whereas
the third, the Tectosages, is named after the tribe in Celtica. This district was occupied by the
Galatians after they had wandered about for a long time, and after they had overrun the
country that was subject to the Attalic and the Bithynian kings, until by voluntary cession they
received the present Galatia, or Gallo-Graecia, as it is called. Leonorius is generally reputed
to have been the chief leader of their expedition across to Asia. The three tribes spoke the
same language and differed from each other in no respect; and each was divided into four
portions which were called tetrarchies, each tetrarchy having its own tetrarch, and also one
druid [Greek dikaste] and one military chief [Greek stratophylaks] , both subject to the
tetrarch, and two subordinate commanders [ in Greek hypo-stratophylaks]. The Council of the
twelve Tetrarchs consisted of three hundred men, who assembled at Drunemeton, as it was
called. Now the Council passed judgment upon murder cases, but the tetrarchs and the
42
druids [Greek dikastes] upon all others. Such, then, was the constitution of Galatia long ago,
but in my time the power has passed to three rulers, then to two; and then to one, Dejotarus,
and then to Amyntas, who succeeded him. But at the present time the Romans possess both
this country and the whole of the country that became subject to Amyntas, having united them
into one province.
43
CAESAR. Caius Julius Caesar (– 100 – 44).
Nobody presents! Caius Julius Caesar is, of course, one of the main contributors to the
history of the Celts. But contrary to what it is possible to believe, he does not report only what
he saw during his campaigns, he also reproduces the information of other authors having
preceded him on the subject, particularly Poseidonius.
GALLIC WAR (Commentarii de Bello Gallico).
BOOK I.
Chapter IV.
When this scheme was disclosed to the Helvetii by informers, they, according to their custom,
compelled Orgetorix to plead his cause in chains: it was the law that the penalty of being
burned by fire should await him if condemned. On the day appointed for the pleading of his
cause, Orgetorix drew together from all quarters to the court, all his vassals to the number of
ten thousand people; and led together to the same place all his dependents and debtor
bondsmen, of whom he had a great number; by means of those he rescued himself from [the
necessity of] pleading his cause.
Chapter XVI.
When he saw that he was put off too long, and that the day was close at hand on which he
ought to serve out the corn to his soldiers, having called together their chiefs, of whom he had
a great number in his camp, and among them Divitiacus and Liscus who was invested with
the chief magistracy (whom the Aedui style Vergobretus, and who is elected annually and has
power of life or death over his countrymen), Caesar…
Chapter XXIX.
In the camp of the Helvetii, lists were found, drawn up in Greek characters, and were brought
to Caesar, in which an estimate had been drawn up, name by name, of the number which had
gone forth from their country of those who were able to bear arms; and likewise the children,
the old men, and the women, separately. Of all which items the total was: of the Helvetii 263
000, of the Tulingi 36 000, of the Latobrigi 14 000, of the Rauraci 23 000, of the Boii
32000.The sum of all amounted to 368,000. Out of these, such as could bear arms amounted
to about 92,000. When the count of those who returned home was taken, as Caesar had
commanded, the number was found to be 110 000.
BOOK II.
Chapter V.
He [Caesar], addressing himself to Divitiacus, the Aeduan, with great earnestness points out
how much it concerns the republic and their common security, that the forces of the enemy
should be divided, so that it might not be necessary to engage with so large a number at one
time; that this might be affected if the Aedui would lead their forces into the territories of the
Bellovaci, and begin to lay waste their country. He dismissed him from his presence with
these instructions.
BOOK III.
Chapter XXII.
And while the attention of our men is engaged in that matter, in another part came
Adcantuannus/Adiatuanos, who held the general command, with 600 devoted followers whom
they call soldurii (the conditions of whose association are these: they enjoy all the
conveniences of life with those to whose friendship they have devoted themselves.
44
If anything calamitous happens to them, either they endure the same destiny together with
them, or commit suicide. Nor hitherto, in the memory of men, has there been found anyone
who, upon his being slain to whose friendship he had devoted himself, refused to die).
BOOK V.
Chapter VII.
…He [Dumnorix] however, when recalled, began to resist and defend himself with his hand,
and implore the support of his people, often exclaiming that "he was free and the subject of a
free state." But they surround and kill the man as they had been commanded; then the
Aeduan horsemen all return to Caesar.
Chapter XII.
They do not regard it lawful to eat the hare, and the cock, and the goose but they breed them
for amusement and pleasure.
Chapter XIV.
The most civilized of all these nations are they who inhabit Kent, which is entirely a maritime
district, nor do they differ much from the continental Celtic customs. Most of the inland
inhabitants do not sow corn, but live on milk and flesh, and are clad with skins. All the [Great]
British, indeed, dye themselves with woad, which occasions a bluish color, and thereby have
a more terrible appearance in fight. They wear their hair long, and have every part of their
body shaved except their head and upper lip. Ten and even twelve have wives common to
them, and particularly brothers among brothers, and fathers among their sons; but if there be
any issue by these wives, they are reputed to be the children of those by whom respectively
each was first espoused when a virgin.
Chapter XV.
The horse and charioteers of the enemy contended vigorously in a skirmish with our cavalry
on the march; yet so that our men were conquerors in all parts, and drove them to their woods
and hills; but, having slain a great many, they pursued too eagerly, and lost some of their
men. But the enemy, after some time had elapsed, when our men were off their guard, and
occupied in the fortification of the camp, rushed out of the woods, and making an attack upon
those who were placed on duty before the camp, fought in a determined manner; and two
cohorts being sent by Caesar to their relief, and these severally the first of two legions. When
these had taken up their position at a very small distance from each other, as our men were
disconcerted by the unusual mode of battle, the enemy broke through the middle of them
most courageously, and retreated thence in safety. That day, Q. Laberius Durus, a tribune of
the soldiers, was slain. The enemy, since more cohorts were sent against them, was
repulsed.
Chapter XVI.
In the whole of this method of fighting since the engagement took place under the eyes of all
and before the camp. It was perceived that our men, on account of the weight of their arms,
inasmuch as they could neither pursue the enemy when retreating, nor dare quit their
standards, were little suited to this kind of enemy; that the horse also fought with great
danger, because they [the Great Britons] generally retreated even designedly, and, when they
had drawn off our men a short distance from the legions, leaped from their chariots and
fought on foot in unequal [and to them advantageous] battle. But the system of cavalry
engagement is wont to produce equal danger, and indeed the same, both to those who retreat
and to those who pursue. To this was added, that they never fought in close order, but in
small parties and at great distances, and had detachments placed [in different parts], and
then the one relieved the other, and the vigorous and fresh succeeded the wearied.
Chapter XVII.
45
The following day the enemy halted on the hills, a distance from our camp, and presented
themselves in small parties, and began to challenge our horse to battle with less spirit than
the day before. But at noon, when Caesar had sent three legions, and all the cavalry, with C.
Trebonius, the lieutenant, for the purpose of foraging, they flew upon the foragers suddenly
from all quarters, with so much of impetuosity that they did not keep off [even] from the
standards and the legions.
Chapter XIX.
Cassivellaunus, as we have stated above, all hope [rising out] of battle being laid aside, the
greater part of his forces being dismissed, and about 4,000 charioteers only being left, used
to observe our marches and retire a little from the road, and conceal himself in intricate and
woody places, and in those neighborhoods in which he had discovered we were about to
march, he used to drive the cattle and the inhabitants from the fields into the woods. And
when our cavalry, for the sake of plundering and ravaging the more freely, scattered
themselves among the fields, he used to send out charioteers from the woods by all the well-
known roads and paths, and to the great danger of our horse, engage with them. This source
of fear hindered them from straggling very extensively.
Chapter XXVII.
And that he [Ambiorix] had not done that which he had done in regard to the attacking of the
camp, either by his own judgment or desire, but by the compulsion of his government; and
that his power was of that nature, that the people had as much authority over him as he over
the people.
Chapter LVI.
He proclaims an armed council, this according to the custom of the Celts in the
commencement of war, at which, by a common law, all the youth were wont to assemble in
arms, and whoever of them comes last, is killed in the sight of the whole assembly, after being
racked with every torture.
BOOK VI.
Chapter XIII.
Throughout among Celts there are two orders of those men who are of any rank and dignity,
for the commonality is held almost in the condition of slaves, and dares to undertake nothing
of himself, is admitted to no deliberation. The greater part, when they are pressed either by
debt, or the large amount of their tributes, or the oppression of the more powerful, give
themselves up in vassalage to the nobles, who possess over them the same rights without
exception as masters over their slaves. But of these two orders, one is that of the druids, the
other that of the knights. The former are engaged in things sacred, conduct the public and the
private sacrifices, and interpret all matters of religion ; to these a large number of the young
men resort for the purpose of instruction, and they [the druids] are in great honor among
them. For they determine respecting almost all controversies, public and private; if any crime
has been perpetrated, if murder has been committed, if there be any dispute about an
inheritance, or about boundaries, these same persons decide it; they decree rewards and
punishments. If anyone, either in a private or public capacity, has not submitted to their
decision, they interdict him from the sacrifices.
This among them is the heaviest punishment. Those who have been thus interdicted [from the
sacrifices] are esteemed in the number of the impious and the criminal: all shun them, and
avoid their society and conversation, lest they receive some evil from their contact; nor is
justice administered to them when seeking it, nor is any dignity bestowed on them. Over all
these druids one presides, who possesses supreme authority among them. Upon his death, if
any individual among the rest is preeminent in dignity, he succeeds; but, if there are many
equal, the election is made by the suffrages of the druids; sometimes they even contend for
the primacy with arms. These assemble at a fixed period of the year in a consecrated place in
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the territories of the Carnutes, which is reckoned the central region of the whole of continental
Celtica. Hither all who have disputes, assemble from every part, and submit to their decrees
and determinations. This institution is supposed to have been devised in [Great] Britain, and
to have been brought over from it into continental Celtica; now those who desire to gain a
more accurate knowledge of that system generally proceed thither for the purpose of studying
it.
Chapter XIV.
The druids do not go to war, nor pay tribute together with the rest; they have an exemption
from military service and a dispensation in all matters. Induced by such great advantages,
many embrace this profession of their own accord, and [many] are sent to it by their parents
and relations. They are said there to learn by heart a great number of verses; accordingly
some remain in the course of training twenty years. Nor do they regard it lawful to commit
these to writing, though in almost all other matters, in their public and private transactions,
they use Greek characters. That practice they seem to me to have adopted for two reasons;
because they neither desire their doctrines to be divulged among the mass of the people, nor
those who learn among them, to devote themselves the less to the efforts of memory, relying
on writing; since it generally occurs to most men, that, in their dependence on writing, they
relax their diligence in learning thoroughly, and their employment of the memory. They wish to
inculcate this as one of their leading tenets: that souls or spirits do not become extinct, but
pass after death from one body to another; and they think that men by this tenet are in a great
degree excited to valor, the fear of death being disregarded. They likewise discuss and impart
to the youth many elements respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the
world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty
of the immortal gods.
Chapter XVI.
The nation of all the Celts is extremely devoted to religious rites; and on that account they
who are troubled with unusually severe diseases, and they who are engaged in battles and
dangers, either sacrifice men as victims, or vow that they will sacrifice them, and employ the
druids as the performers of those sacrifices; because they think that unless the life of a man is
offered for the life of a man, the mind of the immortal gods cannot be rendered propitious, and
they have sacrifices of that kind ordained for national purposes. Other barbarians have figures
of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with living men, which being set on
fire, and the men perish enveloped in the flames. They consider that the oblation of such as
have been taken in theft, or in robbery, or any other offense, is more acceptable to the
immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse to the oblation
of even the innocent.
Chapter XVII.
They worship as their deity, Mercury in particular, and have many simulacrums [simulacra] of
him, and regard him as the inventor of all arts, they consider him the guide of their journeys
and marches, and believe him to have great influence over the acquisition of gain and
mercantile transactions. Next to him they worship Apollo, and Mars, and Jupiter, and Minerva;
respecting these deities, they have for the most part the same belief as other nations: that
Apollo averts diseases, that Minerva imparts the invention of work and art, that Jupiter
possesses the sovereignty of the heavenly powers; that Mars presides over wars. To him,
when they have determined to engage in battle, they commonly vow those things which they
shall take in war. When they have conquered, they sacrifice whatever captured animals may
have survived the conflict, and collect the other things into one place. In many tribes-states
you may see piles of these things heaped up in their consecrated spots; nor does it often
happen that any one, disregarding the sanctity of the case, dares either to secrete in his
house things captured, or take away those deposited; and the most severe punishment, with
torture, has been established for such a deed.
47
Chapter XVIII.
All the Celts assert that they are descended from Dis Pater, and say that this tradition has
been handed down by the druids. For that reason they establish the divisions of every
season, not by the number of days, but of nights; they compute birthdays and the beginnings
of months and years in such an order that the day follows the night. Among the other usages
of their life, they differ in this from almost all other nations that they do not permit their children
to approach them openly until they are grown up so as to be able to bear the service of war;
they regard it as indecorous for a son of boyish age to stand in the public in the presence of
his father.
Chapter XIX.
Whatever sums of money the husbands have received in the name of dowry from their wives,
making an estimate of it, they add the same amount out of their own estates. An account is
kept of all this money conjointly, and the profits are laid by: whichever of them shall have
survived [the other]; to that one the portion of both reverts together with the profits of the
previous time.
Husbands have power of life and death over their wives as well as over their children: and
when the father of a family, born in a more than commonly distinguished rank, has died, his
relations assemble and, if the circumstances of his death are suspicious, hold an investigation
upon the wives in the manner adopted towards slaves; if proof be obtained, put them to
severe torture, and burn them. Their funerals, considering the state of civilization among the
Celts, are magnificent and costly; and they cast into the fire all things, including living
creatures, which they suppose to have been dear to them when alive; and a little before this
period, slaves and dependents, who were ascertained to have been beloved by them, after
the regular funeral rites were completed, were burned together with them.
Chapter XX.
Those tribes-states which are considered to conduct their commonwealth more judiciously,
have it ordained by their laws, that, if any person has heard by rumor and report from his
neighbors anything concerning the commonwealth, he shall convey it to the magistrate, and
not impart it to any other; because it has been discovered that inconsiderate and
inexperienced men were often alarmed by false reports, and driven to some rash act, or else
took hasty measures in affairs of the highest importance.
The magistrates conceal those things which require to be kept unknown; they disclose to the
people whatever they determine to be expedient. It is not lawful to speak of the
commonwealth, except in the council.
Chapter XXI.
The Germanics differ much from these usages, for they have neither druid to preside over
divine offices, nor do they pay great regard to sacrifices.
They rank in the number of the gods those alone whom they behold, and by whose
instrumentality they are obviously benefited, namely, the sun, Vulcan, and the moon; they
have not heard of the other deities even by report.
Chapter XXII.
They do not pay much attention to agriculture, and a large portion of their food consists of
milk, cheese, and flesh; nor has anyone a fixed quantity of land or his own individual limits;
but the magistrates and the leading men each year apportion to the clans and families, who
have united together, as much land as, and in the place in which, they think proper, but the
year after compel them to remove elsewhere.
Chapter XXIII.
It is the greatest glory to the several tribes-states to have as wide deserts as possible around
them, their frontiers having been laid waste.
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Chapter XXIV.
There was formerly a time when the Celts excelled the Germanics in prowess, and waged
war on them offensively, and, on account of the great number of their people and the
insufficiency of their land, sent colonies over the Rhine. Accordingly the Volcae Tectosages
seized on those parts of Germania which are the most fruitful [and lie] around the Hercynian
Forest (which, I perceive, was known by report to Eratosthenes and some other Greeks, and
which they call Orcynia), and settled there.
Which nation to this time retains its position in those settlements, and has a very high
character for justice and military merit.
Chapter XXV.
The breadth of this Hercynian Forest, which has been referred to above, is to a quick traveler,
a journey of nine days. For it cannot be otherwise computed, nor are they acquainted with the
measures of roads. It begins at the frontiers of the Helvetii, Nemetes, and Rauraci, and
extends in a right line along the river Danube to the territories of the Daci and the Anartes; it
bends thence to the left in a different direction from the river, and owing to its extent touches
the confines of many nations; nor is there any person belonging to this part of Germania who
says that he either has gone to the extremity of that forest, though he had advanced a journey
of sixty days, or has heard in what place it begins. It is certain that many kinds of wild beasts
are produced in it which have not been seen in other parts.
Chapter XXVIII.
There is a third kind, consisting of those animals which are called urus. These are a little
below the elephant in size, and of the appearance, color, and shape, of a bull. Their strength
and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied.
These the inhabitants take with much pains in pits and kill them.
The young men harden themselves with this exercise, and practice themselves in this kind of
hunting, those who have slain the greatest number of them, having produced the horns in
public, to serve as evidence, receive great praise. But not even when taken very young can
they be rendered familiar to men and tamed. The size, shape, and appearance of their horns,
differ much from the horns of our oxen. These they anxiously seek after, bind at the tips with
silver, and use as cups at their most sumptuous entertainments.
Chapter XXX.
Ambiorix’s house being surrounded by a wood (as are generally the dwellings of the Celts,
who, for the purpose of avoiding heat, mostly seek the neighborhood of woods and rivers), his
attendants and friends in a narrow spot sustained for a short time the attack of our horse.
While they were fighting, one of his followers mounted him on a horse; the woods sheltered
him as he fled.
Chapter XXXI.
Catuvolcus [Cativolcus] king of one half of the Eburones, who had entered into the design
together with Ambiorix, since, being now worn out by age, he was unable to endure the
fatigue either of war or flight; having cursed Ambiorix with every imprecation, as the person
who had been the contriver of that measure, destroyed himself with the juice of the yew tree,
of which there is a great abundance in Celtica and Germania.
BOOK VII.
Chapter IV.
There in like manner, Vercingetorix the son of Celtillus, Arvernian, a young man of the highest
power, whose father had held the supremacy of entire Celtica (and had been put to death by
his fellow citizens, for this reason, because he aimed at monarchy), summoned together his
dependents…
49
Chapter XXXII.
Some noblemen of the Aedui came to him as ambassadors to entreat that in an extreme
emergency he should succor their state; that their affairs were in the utmost danger, because,
whereas single magistrates had usually been appointed in ancient times and held the power
of a king for a single year, two persons now exercised this office, and each asserted that he
was appointed according to their laws.
Chapter LXVI.
The cavalry unanimously shouts out, “That they ought to bind themselves by a most sacred
oath, that he should not be received under a roof, nor have access to his children, parents, or
wife, who shall not twice have ridden through the enemy’s army.”
Chapter LXXVII.
“If you cannot be assured by their dispatches, since every avenue is blocked up, take the
Romans as evidence that their approach is drawing near; since they, intimidated by alarm at
this, labor night and day at their works. What, therefore, is my design? To do as our ancestors
did in the war against the Cimbri and Teutones, which was by no means equally momentous.
Driven into their towns, and oppressed by similar privations, they supported life by the
corpses of those who appeared useless for war on account of their age, and did not surrender
to the enemy. If we did not have a precedent for such cruel conduct, still I should consider it
most glorious that one should be established then delivered to posterity. For in what was that
war like this? The Cimbri, after laying our Celtica waste, and inflicting great calamities, at
length departed from our country, and sought other lands; they left us our rights, laws, lands,
and liberty. But what other motive or wish have the Romans than, induced by envy, to settle in
the lands and towns of those whom they have learned, by fame, to be noble and powerful in
war, and impose on them perpetual slavery? For they never have carried on wars on any
other terms. But if you do not know these things which are going on in distant countries, look
to the neighboring Celtica, which being reduced to the form of a province, stripped of its rights
and laws, and subjected to Roman despotism, is oppressed by perpetual slavery.”
Chapter LXXXIX.
Vercingetorix, having convened a war council the following day, declares “that he had
undertaken that war, not on account of his own account, but on account of the general
freedom; and since he must yield to fortune, he offered himself to them for either purpose:
whether they should wish to atone to the Romans by his death, or surrender him alive.
BOOK VIII.
Chapter XXXVIII.
He himself visits the other tribes-states, demands a great number of hostages, and by his
encouraging language allays the apprehensions of all. When he came to the Carnutes, in
whose country he has in a former commentary mentioned that the war first broke out;
observing, that from the consciousness of their guilt, they seemed to be in the greatest terror:
to relieve the tribes-state the sooner from its fear, he demanded that Gutuatrus, the promoter
of that treason, instigator of that rebellion, should be delivered up to punishment […]
Accordingly, he was whipped to death, and his head cut off.
50
PAUSANIAS (circa 115-180).
A Greek traveler and geographer. He will compile a detailed list of the sites he visits, with the
legends about them.
Here is what can be read in his description of Greece.
BOOK I.
ATTICA.
Chapter III.
…These Galatians inhabit the most remote portion of Europe, near a great sea that is not
navigable to its extremities, and possesses ebb and flow and creatures quite unlike those of
other seas. Through their country flows the river Eridanus, on the bank of which the daughters
of Helius are supposed to lament the fate that befell their brother Phaethon. It was late before
the name “Galatians” came into vogue; for anciently they were called Celts both among
themselves and by others.
Chapter IV.
An army of them mustered and turned towards the Ionian Sea, dispossessed the Illyrian
people, all who dwelt as far as Macedonia with the Macedonians themselves, and overran
Thessaly. And when they drew near to Thermopylae, the Hellenes in general made no move
to prevent the inroad of the barbarians, since previously they had been severely defeated by
Alexander and Philip. Further, Antipater and Cassander afterward crushed the Hellenes, so
that through weakness each state thought no shame of itself taking no part in the defense of
the country.
BOOK X.
PHOCIS.
Chapter V.
Boeo, a native woman who composed hymns for the Delphians, said that the oracle was
established for the god by comers from the Hyperboreans, Olen and others; and that he was
the first to prophesy and the first to chant the hexameter oracles.
The verses of Boeo are:
“Here in truth a mindful oracle was built
By the sons of the Hyperboreans, Pegasus and divine Agyieus."
After enumerating others also of the Hyperboreans, at the end of the hymn she names Olen:
“And Olen, who became the first prophet of Phoebus,
And first fashioned a song of ancient verses.”
Chapter XV.
…The second Apollo the Delphians call Sitalcas, and he is thirty-five cubits high. The
Aetolians have statues of most of their generals, and images of Artemis, Athena and two of
Apollo, dedicated after their conclusion of the war against the Galatians. That the Celtic army
would cross from Europe to Asia to destroy the cities there was prophesied by Phaennis in
her oracles a generation before the invasion occurred:
51
“Then verily, having crossed the narrow strait of the Hellespont,
The devastating host of the Galatians shall pipe
And lawlessly they shall ravage Asia;
And much worse shall god do
To those who dwell by the shores of the sea,
For a short while.
For right soon the son of Cronos
Shall raise them a helper,
The dear son of a bull reared by Zeus,
Who on all the Galatians shall bring the day of revenge.”
And by the son of a bull she meant Attalus, king of Pergamus, who was also styled bull-
horned by an oracle.
Chapter XIX.
I have made some mention of the Galatian invasion of Hellada in my description of the
Athenian Senate Chamber. But I have resolved to give a more detailed account of the
Galatians in my description of Delphi, because the greatest of the Hellenic exploits against
the barbarians took place there. The Celts conducted their first foreign expedition under the
leadership of Cambaules. Advancing as far as Thrace, they lost heart and broke off their
march, realizing that they were too few in number to be a match for the Hellenes.
But when they decided to invade foreign territory a second time, so great was the influence of
Cambaules's veterans, who had tasted the joy of plunder and acquired a passion for robbery
and plunder, that a large force of infantry and no small number of mounted men attended the
muster. So the army was split up into three divisions by the chieftains, to each of whom was
assigned a separate land to invade.
Cerethrius was to be leader against the Thracians and the nation of the Triballi. The invaders
of Paeonia were under the command of Brennus and Akikhorios. Bolgius attacked the
Macedonians and Illyrians, and engaged in a struggle with Ptolemy, king of the Macedonians
at that time. It was this Ptolemy who, though he had taken refuge as a suppliant with
Seleucus, the son of Antiochus, treacherously murdered him, and was surnamed Thunderbolt
because of his recklessness. Ptolemy himself perished in the fighting, and the Macedonian
losses were heavy. But once more the Celts lacked courage to advance against Hellada, and
so the second expedition returned home. It was then that Brennus, both in public meetings
and also in personal talks with individual Gallic officers, strongly urged a campaign against
Hellada, enlarging on the weakness of Hellada at the time, on the wealth of the Hellenic
states, and on the even greater wealth in sanctuaries, including votive offerings and coined
silver and gold. So he induced the Galatians to march against Hellada. Among the officers he
chose to be his colleagues, was Akikhorios. The muster of foot amounted to one hundred and
fifty-two thousand, with twenty thousand four hundred horse. This was the number of
horsemen in action at any one time, but the real number was sixty-one thousand two
hundred. For to each horseman were attached two servants, who were themselves skilled
riders and, like their masters, had a horse. When the Galatian horsemen were engaged, the
servants remained behind the ranks and proved useful in the following way. Should a
horseman or his horse fall, the squire [Greek doulos] brought him a horse to mount; if the
rider was killed, the squire [Greek doulos] mounted the horse in his master's place; if both
rider and horse were killed; there was a mounted man ready. When a rider was wounded, one
squire [Greek doulos] brought back to camp the wounded man, while the other took his
vacant place in the ranks.
I believe that the Galatians in adopting these methods copied the Persian regiment of the Ten
Thousand, who were called the Immortals. There was, however, this difference. The Persians
used to wait until the battle was over before replacing casualties, while the Galatians kept
reinforcing the horsemen to their full number during the height of the action. This organization
is called in their native speech trimarkisia, for I would have you know that marka is the Celtic
name for a horse.
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Chapter XX.
This was the size of the army, and such was the intention of Brennus, when he attacked
Hellada. The spirit of the Hellenes was utterly broken, but the extremity of their terror forced
them to defend their country….
…When the Hellenes assembled at Thermopylae learned that the army of the Galatians was
already in the neighborhood of Magnesia and Phthiotis, they resolved to detach the cavalry
and a thousand light-armed troops and to send them to the Spercheius, so that even the
crossing of the river could not be effected by the barbarians without a struggle and risks. On
their arrival these forces broke down the bridges and by themselves encamped along the
bank. But Brennus himself was not utterly stupid, nor inexperienced, for a barbarian, in
devising tricks of strategy. So on that very night, he dispatched some troops to the
Spercheius, not to the places where the bridges had stood, but lower down, where the
Hellenes would not notice the crossing, and just where the river spread over the plain and
made a marsh and lake instead of a narrow, violent stream.
Hither Brennus sent some ten thousand Galatians, picking out the swimmers or the tallest
men; and the Celts as a nation are far taller than any other people. So these crossed in the
night, swimming over the river where it expands into a lake; each man used his shield, his
national buckler, as a raft; and the tallest of them were able to cross the water by wading.
The Hellenes on the Spercheius, as soon as they learned that a detachment of the barbarians
had crossed by the marsh, forthwith retreated to the main army. Brennus ordered the dwellers
round the Malian Gulf to build bridges across the Spercheius, and they proceeded to
accomplish their task with a will, for they were frightened of Brennus, and anxious for the
barbarians to go away out of their country instead of staying to devastate it further. Brennus
brought his army across over the bridges and proceeded to Heracleia. The Galatians
plundered the country, and massacred those whom they caught in the fields, but did not
capture the city. For a year previous to this, the Aetolians had forced Heracleia to join their
league; so now they defended the city which they considered to belong to them, just as much
as to the Heracleots. Brennus did not trouble himself much about Heracleia, but directed his
efforts to driving away those opposed to him at the pass, in order to invade Hellada south of
Thermopylae.
Chapter XXI.
Deserters kept Brennus informed about the forces from each city mustered at Thermopylae.
So despising the Hellenic army he advanced from Heracleia, and began the battle at sunrise
on the next day. He had no Hellenic soothsayer, and made no use of his own country's
sacrifices, if indeed the Celts have any art of divination. Whereupon the Hellenes attacked
silently and in good order. When they came to close quarters, the infantry did not rush out of
their line far enough to disturb their proper formation, while the light-armed troops remained in
position, throwing javelins, shooting arrows or slinging bullets. The cavalry on both sides
proved useless, as the ground at the pass is not only narrow, but also smooth because of the
natural rock, while most of it is slippery owing to its being covered with streams. The
Galatians were worse armed than the Hellenes, having no other defensive armor than their
national shields, while they were still more inferior in war experience. On they marched
against their enemies with the fury and passion of brutes. Slashed with an axe or sword they
kept their frenzy while they still breathed; pierced by an arrow or javelin, they did not abate of
their passion so long as life remained. Some drew out from their wounds the spears, by which
they had been hit, and threw them at the Hellenes or used them in close fighting. Meanwhile
the Athenians on the triremes, with difficulty and with danger, nevertheless coasted along
through the mud that extends far out to sea, brought their ships as close to the barbarians as
possible, and raked them with arrows and every other kind of missile.
53
The Celts were in unspeakable distress, and as in the confined space they inflicted few losses
but suffered twice or four times as many, their captains gave the signal to retire to their camp.
Retreating in confusion and without any order, many were crushed beneath the feet of their
comrades-in-arms, and many others fell into the swamp and disappeared under the mud.
Their loss in the retreat was no less than the loss that occurred while the battle raged….
…After this battle at Thermopylae, the Hellenes buried their own dead and spoiled the
barbarians, but the Galatians sent no herald to ask leave to take up the bodies, and were
indifferent whether the earth received them or whether they were devoured by wild beasts or
carrion birds. There were, in my opinion, two reasons that made them careless about the
burial of their dead: they wished to strike terror into their enemies, and through habit they
have no tender feeling for those who have gone. In the battle there fell forty of the Hellenes.
The losses of the barbarians it was impossible to discover exactly, for the number of them that
disappeared beneath the mud was great.
Chapter XXII.
On the seventh day after the battle, a regiment of Galatians attempted to go up to Oeta by
way of Heracleia. Here too a narrow path rises, just past the ruins of Trachis. There was also
at that time a sanctuary of Athena above the territory, and in it were votive offerings. So they
hoped to ascend Oeta by this path and at the same time to get possession of the offerings in
the temple in passing. This path was defended by the Phocians under Telesarchus. They
overcame the barbarians in the engagement, but Telesarchus himself fell, a man devoted, if
ever a man was, to the Hellenes. All the leaders of the barbarians except Brennus were
terrified of the Hellenes, and at the same time were despondent of the future, seeing that their
present condition showed no signs of improvement. But Brennus reasoned that if he could
compel the Aetolians to return home to Aetolia, he would find the war against Hellada prove
easier hereafter. So he detached from his army forty thousand foot and about eight hundred
horse. Over these he set in command Orestorius and Combutis, who, making their way back
by way of the bridges over the Spercheius and across Thessaly again, invaded Aetolia. The
fate of the Callians at the hands of Combutis and Orestorius is the wicked ever heard of, and
is without a parallel in the crimes of men. Every male they put to the sword, and there were
butchered old men equally with children at their mothers' breasts. The plumper of these
sucking babes the Galatians killed, drinking their blood and eating their flesh.
[First Editor’s note. None of our readers is forced to believe all what Pausanias writes.
Second editor’s note. One would think to hear journalists or media people speaking lengthily
on the weapons of mass destruction of Saddam Hussein in Iraq at the time of the second war
of the Gulf (1990-1991) or the mass rapes ordered by Gaddafi in Libya in 2011].
Women and adult maidens, if they had any spirit at all in them, anticipated their end when the
city was captured. Those who survived suffered under imperious violence, every form of
outrage, at the hands of men equally void of pity or of love. Every woman who chanced to find
a Galatian sword committed suicide. The others were soon to die of hunger and want of
sleep, the pitiless barbarians outraging them by turns, and sating their lust even on the dying
and the dead. The Aetolians had been informed by messengers what disasters had befallen
them, and at once with all speed removed their forces from Thermopylae and hastened to
Aetolia, being exasperated at the sufferings of the Callians, and still more fired with
determination to save the cities not yet captured. From all the cities at home were mobilized
the men of military age; and even those too old for service, their fighting spirit roused by the
crisis, were in the ranks, and their very women gladly served with them, being even more
enraged against the Galatians than were the men.
When the barbarians, having pillaged houses and sanctuaries, and having fired Callium, were
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returning by the same way, they were met by the Patraeans, who alone of the Achaeans were
helping the Aetolians. Being trained as hoplites, they made a frontal attack on the barbarians,
but suffered severely owing to the number and desperation of the Galatians. The Aetolians,
men and women, drawn up in ambush all along the road, kept shooting at the barbarians, and
few shots failed to find a mark among enemies protected by nothing but their national shields.
Pursued by the Galatians they easily escaped, renewing their attack with vigor when their
enemies returned from the pursuit. Although the Callians suffered so terribly that even
Homer's account of the Laestrygones and the Cyclops does not seem outside the truth, yet
they were duly and fully avenged. For out of their number of forty thousand eight hundred,
there escaped of the barbarians to the camp at Thermopylae less than one half. Meantime
the Hellenes at Thermopylae were faring as follows. There are two paths across Mount Oeta:
the one above Trachis is very steep, and for the most part precipitous; the other, through the
territory of the Aenianians, is easier for an army to cross. It was through this that on a former
occasion Hydarnes the Persian passed to attack in the rear the Hellenes under Leonidas. By
this road the Heracleots and the Aenianians promised to lead Brennus, not that they were ill-
disposed to the Hellenes cause, but because they were anxious for the Celts to go away from
their country, and not to establish themselves in it to its ruin. I think that Pindar spoke the truth
again when he said that everyone is crushed by his own misfortunes but is untouched by the
woes of others. Brennus was encouraged by the promise made by the Aenianians and
Heracleots. Leaving Akikhorius behind in charge of the main army, with instructions that it was
to attack only when the enveloping movement was complete, Brennus himself, with a
detachment of forty thousand, began his march along the pass. It so happened on that day
that the mist rolled thick down the mountain, darkening the sun, so that the Phocians who
were guarding the path found the barbarians upon them before they were aware of their
approach. Thereupon the Galatians attacked. The Phocians resisted manfully, but at last were
forced to retreat from the path. However, they succeeded in running down to their friends with
a report of what was happening before the envelopment of the army of the Hellenes was quite
complete on all sides.
Chapter XXIII.
Whereupon the Athenians with the fleet succeeded in withdrawing in time the forces of the
Hellenes from Thermopylae, which disbanded and returned to their several homes. Brennus,
without delaying any longer, began his march against Delphi without waiting for the army with
Akikhorius to join up. In terror the Delphians took refuge in the oracle. The god bade them not
to be afraid, and promised that he would himself defend his own. The Hellenes who came in
defense of the god were as follows: the Phocians, who came from all their cities; from
Amphissa four hundred hoplites; from the Aetolians a few came at once on hearing of the
advance of the barbarians, and later on Philomelus brought one thousand two hundred. The
flower of the Aetolians turned against the army of Akikhorius, and without offering battle
attacked the rear of their line of march continuously, plundering the baggage and putting the
carriers to the sword. It was chiefly for this reason that their march proved slow. Furthermore,
at Heracleia Akikhorius had left a part of his army, who were to guard the baggage of the
camp. Brennus and his army were now faced by the Hellenes who had mustered at Delphi,
and soon portents boding no good to the barbarians were sent by the god, the clearest
recorded in history.
For the whole ground occupied by the Galatian army was shaken violently most of the day,
with continuous thunder and lightning. The thunder both terrified the Galatians and prevented
them hearing their orders, while the bolts from heaven set on fire not only those whom they
struck but also their neighbors, themselves and their armor alike. Then there were seen by
the ghosts of the heroes Hyperochus, Laodocus and Pyrrhus; according to some a fourth
appeared, Phylacus, a local hero of Delphi. Among the many Phocians who were killed in the
action was Aleximachus, who in this battle excelled all the other Hellenes in devoting youth,
physical strength, and a stout heart, to slaying the barbarians. The Phocians made a statue of
Aleximachus and sent it to Delphi as an offering to Apollo. All day the barbarians were beset
by calamities and terrors of this kind. But the night was to bring upon them experiences far
more painful. For there came on a severe frost, and snow with it; and great rocks slipping
55
from Parnassus. Crags breaking away, made the barbarians their target, the crash of which
brought destruction, not on one or two at a time, but on thirty or even more, as they chanced
to be gathered in groups, keeping guard or taking rest. At sunrise the Hellenes came on from
Delphi, making a frontal attack with the exception of the Phocians, who, being more familiar
with the district, descended through the snow down the precipitous parts of Parnassus, and
surprised the Celts in their rear, shooting them down with arrows and javelins without anything
to fear from the barbarians. At the beginning of the fight the Galatians offered a spirited
resistance, especially the company attached to Brennus, which was composed of the tallest
and bravest of the Galatians, and that though they were shot at from all sides, and no less
distressed by the frost, especially the wounded men. But when Brennus himself was
wounded, he was carried fainting from the battle, and the barbarians, harassed on all sides by
the Hellenes, fell back reluctantly, putting to the sword those who, disabled by wounds or
sickness, could not go with them. They encamped where night overtook them in their retreat,
and during the night there fell on them a “panic.” For causeless terrors are said to come from
the god Pan. It was when the evening was turning to night that the confusion fell on the army.
At first only a few became mad: these imagined that they heard the trampling of horses at a
gallop, and the attack of advancing enemies; but after a little time, the delusion spread to all.
So rushing to arms they divided into two parties, killing and being killed, neither understanding
their mother tongue nor recognizing one another's form or the shape of their shields. Both
parties alike, under the present delusion, thought that their opponents were Hellenes, men
and armor, and that the language they spoke was the one of Hellenes; so that a great mutual
slaughter was wrought among the Galatians by the madness sent by the god. Those
Phoenicians who had been left behind in the fields to guard the flocks were the first to
perceive and report to the Hellenes the panic that had seized the barbarians in the night. The
Phocians were thus encouraged to attack the Celts with yet greater spirit, keeping a more
careful watch on their pens, and not letting them take from the country the necessities of life
without a struggle, so that the whole Galatian army suffered at once from a pressing shortage
of corn and other foods. Their losses in Phocis were these: in the battles were killed close to
six thousand; those who perished in the wintry storm at night and afterward in the panic terror
amounted to over ten thousand, as likewise did those who were starved to death. Athenian
scouts arrived at Delphi to gather information, after which they returned and reported what
had happened to the barbarians, and all that the god had inflicted upon them.
Whereupon the Athenians took the field, and as they marched through Boeotia, they were
joined by the Boeotians. Thus the combined armies followed the barbarians, lying in wait and
killing those who happened to be the last. Those who fled with Brennus had been joined by
the army under Akikhorius only on the previous night for the Aetolians had delayed their
march, hurling at them a merciless shower of javelins and anything else they could lay hands
on, so that only a small part of them escaped to the camp at Heracleia. There was still a hope
of saving the life of Brennus, so far as his wounds were concerned; but, they say, partly
because he feared his fellow countrymen, and still more because he was conscience-stricken
at the calamities he had brought on their heads, he took his own life by drinking [neat] wine.
After this the barbarians proceeded with difficulty as far as the Spercheius, pressed hotly by
the Aetolians. But after their arrival at the Spercheius, during the rest of the retreat, the
Thessalians and Malians kept lying in wait for them, and so took their fill of slaughter, that not
a Galatian returned home in safety. The expedition of the Celts against Hellada, and their
destruction, took place when Anaxicrates was archon at Athens, in the second year of the
hundred and twenty-fifth Olympiad, when Ladas of Aegium was the victor in the foot race. In
the following year, when Democles was archon at Athens, the Celts crossed back again to
Asia. Such was the course of the war.
Editor’s note. No Galatian returned home in safety... according to the journalists or the media
people of the time, of course!
56
57
DIODORUS SICULUS (first century Before Common Era).
Diodorus of Sicily. A historian and chronicler. The author of the work entitled "Historical
Library" or “Universal History.” Refers too, of course, other historians who preceded him. For
example, Timaeus.
THE LIBRARY OF HISTORY.
BOOK II
Chapter XLVII.
Now for our part, since we have seen fit to make mention of the regions of Asia which lie to
the north, we feel that it will not be foreign to our purpose to discuss the legendary accounts
of the Hyperboreans. Of those who have written about the ancient myths, Hecataeus and
certain others say that in the regions beyond the land of the Celts there lies in the ocean an
island no smaller than Sicily. This island, the account continues, is situated in the north and is
inhabited by the Hyperboreans, who are called by that name because their home is beyond
the point whence the north wind (Boreas) blows; and the island is both fertile and productive
of every crop, and since it has an unusually temperate climate it produces two harvests each
year. Moreover, the following legend is told concerning it: Leto was born on this island, and for
that reason Apollo is honored among them above all other gods; and the inhabitants are
looked upon as priests of Apollo, after a manner, since daily they praise this god continuously
in song and honor him exceedingly. And there is also on the island both a magnificent sacred
precinct of Apollo and a notable temple [Stonehenge?] which is adorned with many votive
offerings and is spherical .
Furthermore, a city is there which is sacred to this god, the majority of its inhabitants are
players on the cithara; these continually play on this instrument in the temple and sing hymns
of praise to the god, glorifying his deeds.
BOOK IV.
Chapter VIII.
I am not unaware that many difficulties beset those who undertake to give an account of the
ancient myths, and especially is this true with respect to the myths about Heracles. For as
regards the magnitude of the deeds which he accomplished, it is generally agreed that
Heracles has been handed down as one who surpassed all men of whom memory from the
beginning of time has brought down an account; consequently it is a difficult attainment to
report each one of his deeds in a worthy manner and to present a record which shall be on a
level with labors so great, the magnitude of which won for him the prize of immortality.
Furthermore, since in the eyes of many men the very early age and astonishing nature of the
facts which are related make the myths incredible, a writer is under the necessity either of
omitting the greatest deeds and so detracting somewhat from the fame of the god, or of
recounting them all and in so doing making the history of them incredible. For some readers
set up an unfair standard and require in the accounts of the ancient myths the same
exactness as in the events of our own time, and, using their own life as a standard they pass
judgment on those deeds the magnitude of which throw them open to doubt. They estimate
the might of Heracles by the weakness of the men of our day, with the result that the
exceeding magnitude of his deeds makes the account of them incredible. For, speaking
generally, when the histories of myths are concerned, a man should by no means scrutinize
the truth with so sharp an eye. In theaters, for instance, though we are persuaded there have
existed no centaurs who are composed of two different kinds of bodies nor any Geryones with
three bodies, we yet look with favor upon such products of the myth as these, and by our
applause we enhance the honor of the god.
58
Editor’s note. Same problem with Celtic-druidic mythology.
Chapter XIX.
Heracles, then, delivered over the kingdom of the Iberians to the noblest men among the
natives and, on his part, took his army and passing into Celtica and traversing the length and
breadth of it he put an end to the lawlessness and murdering of strangers to which the people
had become addicted; and since a great multitude of men from every tribe flocked to his army
of their own accord, he founded a great city which was named Alêsia after the "wandering"
(Alê in Greek language ) on his campaign. But he also mingled among the citizens of the city
many natives, and since these surpassed the others in the multitude, it came to pass that the
inhabitants as a whole were barbarized. The Celts up to the present time hold this city in
honor, looking upon it as the hearth and mother city of all Celtica. And for the entire period
from the days of Heracles this city remained free and was never sacked until our own time;
but at last Gaius Caesar, who has been pronounced a god because of the magnitude of his
deeds, took it by storm and made it and the other Celts subjects of the Romans. Heracles
then made his way from Celtica to Italy, and as he traversed the mountain pass through the
Alps he made a highway out of the route, which was rough and almost impassable, with the
result that it can now be crossed by armies and baggage trains. The barbarians who had
inhabited this mountain region had been accustomed to butcher and to plunder such armies
as passed through when they came to the difficult portions of the way, but he subdued them
all, slew those that were the leaders in lawlessness of this kind, and made the journey safe for
succeeding generations. And after crossing the Alps, he passed through the level plain of
what is now called Galatia and made his way through Liguria.
Chapter XL.
As for the Argonauts, since Heracles joined them in their campaign, it may be appropriate to
speak of them in this connection. This is the account which is given: Jason was the son of
Aeson…
Chapter LVII.
Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvelous that so
varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out; and some indeed, in their
desire to win favor with the Athenians, say that she took that Medus whom she bore to
Aegeus and got off to Colchis…
….Not a few both of the ancient historians and of the later ones as well, one of whom is
Timaeus, say that the Argonauts, after the seizure of the fleece, learning that the mouth of the
Pontus had already been blockaded by the fleet of Aeëtes, performed an amazing exploit
which is worthy of mention. They sailed, that is to say, up the Tanais River as far as its
sources, and at a certain place they hauled the ship overland, and following in turn another
river which flows into the ocean they sailed down it to the sea. Then they made their course
from the north to the west, keeping the land on their left, and when they had arrived near
Gadeira (Cadiz) they sailed into our sea [the Mediterranean]. The writers even offer proofs of
these things, pointing out that the Celts who dwell along the ocean venerate the Dioscuri
above any of the gods, since they have a tradition handed down from ancient times that these
gods appeared in their country coming from the ocean. Moreover, the country which skirts the
ocean bears, they say, not a few names which are derived from the Argonauts and the
Dioscuri…
BOOK V.
Chapter XXIII.
But as regards the tin of [Great] Britain, we shall rest content with what has been said, and we
shall now discuss the electron, as it is called [amber]. Directly opposite the part of Scythia
which lies above Galatia there is an island out in the open sea which is called Basileia. On
this island the waves of the sea cast up great quantities of what is known as amber, which is
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to be seen nowhere else in the inhabited world; and about it many of the ancient writers have
composed fanciful tales, such as are altogether difficult to credit and have been refuted by
later events. For many poets and historians give the story that Phaethon, the son of Helios,
while yet a youth, persuaded his father to retire in his favor from his four-horse chariot for a
single day; and when Helios yielded to the request Phaethon, as he drove the chariot, was
unable to keep control of the reins, and the horses, making light of the youth, left their
accustomed course; and first they turned aside to traverse the heavens, setting it afire and
creating what is now called the Milky Way, and after that they brought the scorching rays to
many parts of the inhabited earth and burned up not a little land. Consequently Zeus, being
indignant because of what had happened, smote Phaethon with a thunderbolt and brought
back the sun to its accustomed course. And Phaethon fell to the earth at the mouths of the
river which is now known as the Padus [Po], but in ancient times was called the Eridanus, and
his sisters vied with each other in bewailing his death and by reason of their exceeding grief
underwent a metamorphosis of their nature, becoming poplar trees. And these poplars, at the
same season each year, drip tears, and these, when they harden, from what men call amber,
which in brilliance excels all else of the same nature and is commonly used in connection with
the mourning attending the death of the young. But since the creators of this fictitious tale
have one and all erred, and have been refuted by what has transpired at later times, we must
give ear to the accounts which are truthful; for the fact is that amber is gathered on the island
we have mentioned and is brought by the natives to the opposite continent, and that it is
conveyed through the continent to the regions known to us, as we have stated.
Chapter XXIV.
Since we have set forth the facts concerning the islands which lie in the western regions, we
consider that it will not be foreign to our purpose to discuss briefly the tribes of Europe which
lie near them and which we failed to mention in our former books. Now Celtica was ruled in
ancient times, so we are told, by a renowned man who had a daughter who was of unusual
stature and far excelled in beauty all the other maidens. But she, because of her strength of
body and marvelous comeliness, was so haughty that she kept refusing every man who
wooed her in marriage, since she believed that no one of her wooers was worthy of her. Now
in the course of his campaign against the Geryones, Heracles visited Celtica and founded
there the city of Alesia; the maiden, on seeing Heracles, wondered at his prowess and his
bodily superiority and accepted his embraces with all eagerness, her parents having given
their consent. From this union she bore to Heracles a son named Galates, who far surpassed
all the youths of the tribe in quality of spirit and strength of body. And when he had attained to
man's estate and had succeeded to the throne of his fathers, he subdued a large part of the
neighboring territory and accomplished great feats in war. Becoming renowned for his
bravery, he called his subjects Galatians after himself, and these in turn gave their name to all
of Galatia.
Chapter XXVI.
……..Furthermore, since temperateness of climate is destroyed by the excessive cold, the
land produces neither wine nor oil, and as a consequence those Galatians who are deprived
of these fruits make a drink out of barley which they call zythos [a kind of beer] , and they
also drink the water with which they cleanse their honeycombs. ..
Chapter XXVII.
…..And a peculiar and striking practice is found among the upper Celts, in connection with the
sacred precincts of the gods. As for in the temples and precincts made consecrate in their
land, a great amount of gold has been deposited as a dedication to the gods, and not a native
of the country ever touches it because of religious scruples, although the Celts are an
exceedingly covetous people.
Chapter XXVIII.
The Galatians are tall of the body, with rippling muscles, and white of skin; and their hair is
60
blond, and not only naturally so, because they also make it their practice by artificial means to
increase the distinguishing color which nature has given it. For they are always washing their
hair in lime-water, and they pull it back from the forehead to the top of the head and back to
the nape , with the result that their appearance is like that of Satyrs and Pans, since the
treatment of their hair makes it so heavy and coarse that it differs in no respect from the mane
of horses…
…When they dine they all sit, not upon chairs, but upon the ground, using for cushions the
skins of wolves or of dogs. The service at the meals is performed by the youngest children,
both male and female, who are of suitable age; and near at hand are their fireplaces heaped
with coals, and on them are cauldrons and spits holding whole pieces of meat. Brave warriors
they reward with the choicest portions of the meat, in the same manner as the poet introduces
Ajax as honored by the princes after he returned victorious from his single combat with
Hector:
To Ajax then were given of the chine
Slices, full-length, unto his honor.
They invite strangers to their feasts, and do not inquire until after the meal who they are and
of what things they stand in need. It is their custom, even during the course of the meal, to
seize upon any trivial matter as an occasion for keen disputations and then to challenge one
another to single combat, without any regard for their lives; for the belief of Pythagoras
prevails among them that the souls of men are immortal and that after a prescribed number of
years they commence upon a new life, the soul entering into another body. Consequently, we
are told, at the funerals of their dead, some cast letters upon the pyre which they have written
to their deceased kinsmen, as if the dead would be able to read these letters.
Chapter XXIX.
In their journeys and when they go into battle, the Galatians use chariots drawn by two
horses, which carry the charioteer and the warrior. When they encounter the cavalry in the
fighting, they first hurl their javelins at the enemy and then step down from their chariots and
join battle with their swords. Certain of them despise death to such a degree that they enter
the perils of the battle without armor and with no more than a girdle about their loins. They
bring along to war also their free men to serve them, choosing them out from among the poor,
and these attendants they use in battle as charioteers and as shield bearers. It is also their
custom, when they are formed for the battle, to step out in front of the line and to challenge
the most valiant men from among their opponents to single combat, brandishing their
weapons in front of them to terrify their adversaries. And when any man accepts the challenge
to battle, they then break forth into a song in praise of the valiant deeds of their ancestors and
in boast of their own high achievements, reviling all the while and belittling their opponent,
and trying, in a word, by such talk to strip him of his bold spirit before the combat. When their
enemies fall, they cut off their heads and fasten them about the necks of their horses; and
turning over to their attendants the arms of their opponents, all covered with blood, they carry
them off as booty, singing a paean over them and striking up a song of victory, and these first
fruits of the battle they fasten by nails upon their houses, just as men do, in certain kinds of
hunting, with the heads of wild beasts they have mastered. The heads of their most
distinguished enemies they embalm in cedar oil and carefully preserve in a chest, and these
they exhibit to strangers, gravely maintaining that in exchange for this head someone of their
ancestors, or their father, or the man himself, refused the offer of a great sum of money. And
some men among them, we are told, boast that they have not accepted an equal weight of
gold for the head they show, displaying a barbarous sort of greatness of soul; for not to sell
that which constitutes a witness and proof of one's valor is a noble thing, but to continue to
fight against one of our own race, after he is dead, is to descend to the level of beasts.
Chapter XXXI.
The Galatians are terrifying in aspect and their voices are deep and altogether harsh; when
they meet together, they converse with few words and in riddles, hinting darkly at things for
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the most part and using one word when they mean another; and they like to talk in
superlatives, to the end that they may extol themselves and depreciate all other men [in
Greek language hyperbolê]. They are also boasters and threatening and are fond of pompous
language, and yet they have sharp wits and are not without cleverness at learning. Among
them are also to be found lyric poets whom they call bards. These men sing to the
accompaniment of instruments which are like lyres, and their songs may be either of praise or
of obloquy. Philosophers, as we may call them, and theologians, are unusually honored
among them and are called by them druids [dronidas or saronidas even sarouidas, in the
medieval Greek manuscripts]. The Galatians likewise make use of diviners, accounting them
worthy of high approbation, these men foretell the future by means of the flight and cries of
birds or of the slaughter of sacred animals, and they have the entire multitude subservient to
them. They also observe a custom which is especially astonishing and incredible in case they
are taking thought with respect to matters of great concern; for in such cases they devote to
death a human being and plunge a dagger into him in the region above the diaphragm, and
when the stricken victim has fallen, they read the future from the manner of his fall, from the
twitching of his limbs, as well as from the gushing of the blood; having learned to place
confidence in an ancient and long-continued practice of observing such matters. It is a custom
of theirs that no one should perform a sacrifice without a "philosopher"; for thank offerings
should be rendered to the gods, they say, by the hands of men who are experienced in the
nature of the divine, and who speak, as it were, the language of the gods [they are
homophonon in Greek language], it is also through the mediation of such men, they think, that
blessings likewise should be sought. Nor is it only in the exigencies of peace, but in their wars
as well, that they obey, before all others, these men and their chanting poets, and such
obedience is observed not only by their friends but also by their enemies; many times, for
instance, when two armies approach each other in battle with swords drawn and spears thrust
forward, these men step forth between them and cause them to cease, as though having cast
a spell over certain kinds of wild beasts. In this way, even among the wildest barbarians, does
passion give place before wisdom, and Ares stands in awe of the Muses.
Chapter XXXII.
…They manifest a strange impiety also with respect to their sacrifices; for their criminals they
keep prisoner for five years and then impale in honor of the gods, dedicating them together
with many other offerings of first fruits and constructing pyres of great size. Captives are also
used by them as victims for their sacrifices in honor of the gods. Certain of them likewise slay,
together with the human beings, such animals as are taken in war, or burn them or do away
with them in some other vengeful fashion. ….
Chapter XXXIV.
… Of the tribes neighboring upon the Celtiberians the most advanced is the people of the
Vaccaei, as they are called; for this people each year divides among its members the land
which it tills and making the fruits the property of all they measure out his portion to each
man, and for any cultivators who have appropriated some part for themselves they have set
the penalty as death...
BOOK XXII. Fragments.
Fragment 9.
Brennus, the king of the Galatians, accompanied by one hundred and fifty thousand infantry,
armed with long shields, and ten thousand cavalry, together with a horde of camp followers,
large numbers of traders, and two thousand wagons, invaded Macedonia and engaged in
battle. Having in this conflict lost many men he...later, he advanced into Hellada and to the
oracle at Delphi, which he wished to plunder. In the mighty battle fought there, he lost tens of
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thousands of his comrades in arms, and Brennus himself was three times wounded. Weighed
down and near to death, he assembled his host there and spoke to the Galatians. He advised
them to kill him and all the wounded, to burn their wagons, and to return home unburdened;
he advised them also to make Kikorius king. Then, after drinking deeply of undiluted wine,
Brennus slew himself. After Kikorius had given him burial, he killed the wounded and those
who were victims of cold and starvation some twenty thousand in all; and so he began the
journey homeward with the rest by the same route. In difficult terrain the Hellenes would
attack and cut off those in the rear, and carried off all their baggage. On the way to
Thermopylae, food being scarce there, they abandoned twenty thousand more men. All the
rest perished as they were going through the Dardania, and not a single man was left to
return home.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……
Brennus, the king of the Galatians, on entering a temple found no dedications of gold or silver,
and when he came only upon images of stone and wood he laughed at them, to think that
men, believing that gods have human form, should set up their images in wood and stone….
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…....
At the time of the Galatian invasion the inhabitants of Delphi, seeing that danger was at hand,
asked the god if they should remove the treasures, the children, and the women from the
shrine to the most strongly fortified of the neighboring cities. The Pythia replied to the
Delphians that the god commanded them to leave in place in the shrine the dedications and
whatever else pertained to the adornment of the gods; for the god, and with him the White
Maidens, would protect all. As there were in the sacred precinct two temples of extreme
antiquity, one of Athena Pronaia and one of Artemis, they assumed that these goddesses
were the "White Maidens" named in the oracle.
63
JUSTIN (3rd or 4th century).
A Roman historian. He is the author of an epitome or of a summary containing the most
interesting and important passages of the philippic and universal history by someone called
Trogue Pompey or Pompeius Trogus.
BOOK XXIV.
Chapter IV.
The continental Celts, when the land that had produced them was unable, from their
excessive increase of the population, to contain them, sent out three hundred thousand men,
as a sacred spring, to seek new settlements. Of these adventurers part settled in Italy, and
took and burned the city of Rome; and part penetrated into the remotest parts of Illyricum
under the direction of a flight of birds (for the continental Celts are skilled in augury beyond
other nations) making their way amid great slaughter of the barbarous tribes, and fixed their
abode in Pannonia. They were a savage, bold, and warlike nation, and were the first after
Hercules (to whom that undertaking procured great admiration for his valor, and a belief in his
immortality), to pass the unconquered heights of the Alps, and places uninhabitable from
excess of cold. After having subdued the Pannonians, they carried on various wars with their
neighbors for many years. Success encouraging them, they betook themselves, in separate
armies, some to Hellada, and some to Macedonia, laying waste all before them with the
sword. Such indeed was the terror of the Celtic name, that even kings, before they were
attacked, purchased peace from them with large sums of money. Ptolemaeus alone, the king
of Macedonia, heard of their approach without alarm, and, hurried on by the madness that
distracted him for his unnatural crimes, went out to meet them with a few undisciplined troops,
as if wars could be dispatched with as little difficulty as murders. An embassy from the
Dardanians, offering him twenty thousand armed men, for his assistance, he spurned, adding
insulting language, and saying that "the Macedonians were in a sad condition if, after having
subdued the whole east without assistance, they now required aid from the Dardanians to
defend their country; and that he had for soldiers the sons of those who had served under
Alexander the Great, and had been victorious throughout the world." His answer being
repeated to the Dardanian prince, he observed that “the famous kingdom of Macedonia would
soon fall a sacrifice to the rashness of a raw youth."
Chapter V.
The Celts under the command of Belgius, sent deputies to Ptolemaeus to sound the
disposition of the Macedonians, offering him peace if he liked to purchase it but Ptolemaeus
boasted to his courtiers that the Celts sued for peace from fear of war. Nor was his manner
less vaunting before the ambassadors than before his own adherents, saying that “he would
grant peace only on condition that they would give their chiefs as hostages, and deliver up
their arms; for he would put no trust in them until they were disarmed." The deputies bringing
back this answer, the Celts laughed, and exclaimed throughout their camp, that “he would
soon see whether they had offered peace from regard for themselves or for him." Some days
after a battle was fought, and the Macedonians were defeated and cut to pieces. Ptolemaeus,
after receiving several wounds, was taken, and his head, cut off and stuck on a lance, was
carried round the whole army to strike terror into the enemy. Flight saved a few of the
Macedonians; the rest were either taken or slain. When the news of this event was spread
through all Macedonia, the gates of the city were shut, and all places filled with mourning.
Sometimes they lamented their bereavement, from the loss of their children; sometimes they
were seized with a dread lest their cities should be destroyed; and at other times they called
64
on the names of their kings, Alexander and Philippus, as deities, to protect them; saying that
" under them, they were not only secure, but conquerors of the world”; and begging that "they
would guard their country, whose fame they had raised to heaven by the glory of their
exploits, and give assistance to the afflicted, whom the insanity and rashness of Ptolemaeus
had ruined." While all were thus in despair, Sosthenes, one of the Macedonian chiefs, thinking
that nothing would be effected by prayers, assembled such as were of age for war, repulsed
the Celts in the midst of their exultation at their victory, and saved Macedonia from
devastation. For these great services, he, though of humble extraction, was chosen before
many nobles that aspired to the throne of Macedonia. But though he was saluted as king by
the army, he made the soldiers take an oath to him, not as king, but as general.
Chapter VI.
In the meantime, Brennus, under whose command a part of the Galatians had made an
irruption into Hellada, having heard of the success of their countrymen, who, under the
leadership of Belgius, had defeated the Macedonians, and being indignant that so rich booty,
consisting of the spoils of the east, had been so lightly abandoned, assembled an army of a
hundred and fifty thousand foot and fifteen thousand horse, and suddenly invaded
Macedonia. As he was laying waste the fields and villages, Sosthenes met him with his army
of Macedonians in full array, but being few in number, and in some consternation, they were
easily overcome by the more numerous and powerful Galatians; and the defeated
Macedonians retiring within the walls of their cities, the victorious Brennus, meeting with no
opposition, ravaged the lands throughout the whole of Macedonia. Soon after, as if the spoils
of mortals were too mean for him, he turned his thoughts to the temples of the immortal gods,
saying, with a profane jest, that “the gods, being rich, ought to be liberal to men." He
suddenly, therefore, directed his march towards Delphi, regarding plunder more than religion,
and caring for gold more than for the wrath of the deities, " who," he said, " stood in no need
of riches, as being accustomed rather , to bestow them on mortals."……
Chapter VII.
Brennus, when he came within sight of the temple, deliberated for some time, whether he
should at once make an attempt upon it, or should allow his soldiers, wearied with their
march, a night to refresh themselves. The captains of the Aenianians and Thessalians, who
had joined him for a share in the booty, advised that " no delay should be made, while the
enemy was not provided for defense, and the alarm at their coming still fresh; that in the
interval of a night, the courage of the enemy would perhaps revive, and assistance come to
them; and that the approaches, which were now open, might be blocked up." But the common
soldiers, when, after a long endurance of scarcity, they found a country abounding with wine
and other provisions, had dispersed themselves over the fields, rejoicing as much at the
plenty as if they had gained a victory, having left their standards deserted, they wandered
about to seize on everything like conquerors. This conduct gave some respite to the
Delphians. At the first report that the Galatians were approaching, the country people are said
to have been prohibited by the oracle from carrying away their corn and wine from their
houses. The salutary nature of this prohibition was not understood, until, through this
abundance of wine and other provisions being thrown in the way of the Galatians, as a stop to
their progress, reinforcements from their neighbors had time to collect. The Delphians,
accordingly, supported by the strength of their allies, secured their city before the Galatians,
who were sleeping it off, because the wine on which they had seized, could be recalled to
their standards. Brennus had sixty-five thousand infantry, selected from his whole army; of the
Delphians there were not more than four thousand; in utter contempt of whom, Brennus, to
rouse the courage of his men, pointed to the vast quantity of spoil before them, declaring that
the statues, and four-horse chariots, of which a great number were visible at a distance, were
made of solid gold, and would prove greater prices when they came to be weighed than they
were in appearance.
65
Chapter VIII.
The Galatians, excited by these assertions, and stirred, at the same time, with the wine which
they had drunk the day before, rushed to battle without any fear of danger. The Delphians, on
the other hand, placing more confidence in the god than in their own strength, resisted the
enemy with contempt, and, from the top of the hill, repelled the Galatians as they climbed,
partly with pieces of rock, and partly with their weapons. Amid this contest between the two,
the priests of all the temples, as well as the priestesses themselves, with their hair loose, and
with their decorations and fillets, rushed, trembling and frantic, into the front ranks of the
combatants, exclaiming that " the god was come; that they had seen him leap down into his
temple through the opening roof; that, while they were all humbly imploring aid of the deity, a
youth of extraordinary beauty, far above that of mortals, and two armed virgins, coming from
the neighboring temples of Diana and Minerva, met them; that they had not only perceived
them with their eyes, but had also heard the sound of a bow and the rattling of arms”; and
they therefore conjured them with the strongest entreaties, " not to delay, when the gods were
leading them on, to spread slaughter among the enemy, and to share the victory with the
powers of heaven." Incited by these exhortations, they all rushed eagerly to the field of battle,
where they themselves also soon perceived the presence of the deity; for a part of the
mountain, broken off by an earthquake, overwhelmed a host of the Galatians and some of the
densest bodies of the enemy were scattered abroad, not without wounds, and fell to the earth.
A tempest then followed, which destroyed, with hail and cold, those that were suffering from
bodily injuries. The general Brennus himself, unable to endure the pain of his wounds, ended
his life with his dagger. The other general, warmongers having been thus punished, made off
from Hellada with all expedition, accompanied by ten thousand wounded men. But neither
was fortune more favorable to those who fled; for in their terror, they passed no night under
shelter, and no day without hardship and danger; and continual rains, snow congealed by the
frost, famine, fatigue, and, what the greatest evil was, the constant want of sleep, consumed
the wretched remains of the unfortunate army. The nations and people too, through whom
they marched, pursued their stragglers, if to spoil them. Hence it happened that, of so great
an army which, little before, presuming on its strength, contended even against the gods; not
a man was left to be a memorial of its destruction.
Editor’s note. As it is known that, during the following year, several thousands of participants
in the great expedition 279 Before Common Era, have founded the kingdom of Tylis in
Thrace under the command of a certain Comontoris/Comontorios, as well as the Galatian
kingdom in Asia Minor, with the assistance of the king of Bithynia Nicomedes I; and that
Romans have always been persuaded that some gold had been brought back from Delphi
(see the legend of the cursed aurum Tolosanum), we can only be a skeptic at the conclusion
of Pompeius Trogus, which seems us to be only a rhetorical expression, a formal clause or a
literary process, very similar to that frequently used by the storytellers of any country. One
would say today the journalists or the media men of the time. For example, those having
ensured the press coverage of the civil war having broken in Libya in 2011 and who have
emphasized the courage of the pregnant women making the armored tanks of the Libyan
government moving back, with their bare hands, the storming of the capital Tripoli thanks to
the democratic droppings carried out by NATO every night, of food and drugs, in order to
massively protect the civilians, the aliens who have decimated the men in uniform , only
possible explanation of all the casualties they had on the ground, it is true that they spent
more time in raping than in fighting, but it is not less true than the rebels never, never killed
anybody, than it was only a peaceful revolution, democratic, secular, feminist, as the
journalists who ensured the press coverage of it beside. In any case now in this region of the
world one understood finally what it is the democracy and the diplomacy in action or the
rejection of violence. Some had doubts about the true nature of NATO, but they understood
now that NATO it is a machine to protect the civilians, night after night and relentlessly. It
mattered that this example of frankness without hypocrisy , and of disinterestedness, is given.
To the reds, the Russians, the yellows, the Chinese, the Indians, the South Africans, the
Brazilians... The world can only be more righteous now.
66
BOOK XXVI.
Chapter II.
In the meantime, Antigonus, being harassed with wars, of varied aspect, from the Spartans
and King Ptolemaeus, and perceiving that a new enemy, an army from Gallo-Graecia, was
coming upon him, left a few troops as a semblance of a camp, to amuse his other assailants,
and proceeded with all the rest of his force against the Galatians; who, becoming aware of his
approach, as they were preparing for battle, sacrificed victims to take presages for the event;
and as, from the entrails, great slaughter and destruction of them all was portended, they
were moved, not to fear, but to fury, and thinking that the anger of the gods might be
appeased by the slaughter of their kindred, butchered their wives and children, commencing
hostilities with the murder of their own people; for such rage had possessed their savage
breasts that they did not spare even that tender age which an enemy would have spared, but
made deadly war on their own children and their children's mothers, in defense of whom wars
are wont to be undertaken. As if, therefore, they had purchased life and victory by their
barbarity, they rushed, stained as they were with the fresh blood of their relatives, into the
field of battle, but with success no better than their auspices; for, as they were fighting, the
furies, the avengers of murder, overwhelmed them sooner than the enemy, the ghosts of the
slain rising up before their eyes, and they were all cut off with utter destruction. Such was the
carnage among them that the gods seemed to have conspired with men to annihilate an army
of murderers.
Editor’s note. It was from these continental Celts, either true human sacrifices intended to get
from gods victory over the Hellenes; or, having understood that they did not have any chance
to escape healthy and safe, and that their wives as their children were thus dedicated to the
rape and slavery; a collective suicide, a dramatic tragedy, similar to that lived by the Cimbrian
women in front of the onward march of the Roman legions of Marius, having overcome their
king Boiorix, at the time of the unhappy battle of Vercellae, on July 30th of year 101 before the
common era, which put a final point at the (missed) last attempt of a more or less Celtic
immigration in the area (see the life of Caius Marius by Plutarch).
BOOK XLIII.
Chapter V.
….But after a time, when Massilia [today Marseilles] was at the height of distinction, as well
for the fame of its exploits as for the abundance of its wealth and its reputation for strength,
the neighboring people suddenly conspired to destroy the very name of Massilia, as they
would have united to put out a fire that threatened them all. Catumandus, one of their petty
princes, was unanimously chosen general, who, when he was besieging the enemy's city with
a vast army of select troops, was frightened in his sleep by the vision of a witch-looking
woman, who told him that she was a goddess, and after this he made peace with the
Massilians. Having then asked permission to enter their city and pay adoration to their gods,
and having gone into the temple of Minerva, and observed in the portico the statue of the
goddess whom he had seen in his sleep, he suddenly exclaimed that it was she who had
frightened him in the night; that it was she who had ordered him to raise the siege; then,
congratulating the Massilians that they were under the care, as he perceived, of the immortal
gods, and offering a necklace [ Latin torquis, a torc ] of gold to the goddess, he made a
league with them forever…
BOOK XLIV.
Chapter III.
67
In Portugal [Latin Lusitania], near the river Tagus, many authors have said that the mares
conceive from the effect of the wind; but such stories have had their origin in the fecundity of
the mares, and the vast number of herds of horses, which are so numerous, and of such
swiftness, in Galicia [Latin Gallaecia] and in Portugal [Latin Lusitania], that they may be
thought, not without reason, to have been the offspring of the wind. As for the Galicians, they
claim for themselves a Hellenic origin; for they say that Teucer, after the end of the Trojan war,
having incurred the hatred of his father Telamon on account of the death of his brother Ajax,
and not being admitted into his kingdom, retired to Cyprus, where he built a city called
Salamis, from the name of his native land; that, sometime after, on hearing a report of his
father's death, he returned to his country, but, being hindered from landing by Eurysaces the
son of Ajax, he sailed to the coast of Spain, and took possession of those parts where
Cartagena now stands, and, passing from thence to Galicia[ Latin Gallaecia] , and fixing his
abode there, gave name to the nation. A part of the Gallaecians are called Amphilochi….
Chapter IV.
The forests of the Tartessians, in which it is said that the Titans waged war against the gods,
the Cynetes inhabited, whose most ancient king Gargorix, was the first to collect honey. This
prince, having a grandson born to him, the offspring of an intrigue on the part of his daughter,
tried various means, through shame for her non-chastity, to have the child put to death; but
he, being preserved by some good fortune, through all calamities, came at last to the throne,
from a compassionate feeling for the many perils that he had undergone. First of all, he
ordered him to be exposed, that he might be starved, and, when he sent some days after to
look for his body, he was found nursed by the milk of various wild beasts. When he was
brought home, he caused him to be thrown down in a narrow road, along which herds of
cattle used to pass; being so cruel that he would rather have his grandchild trampled to
pieces than dispatched by an easy death. As he was unhurt also in this case, and required no
food, he threw him to hungry dogs, that had been exasperated by want of food for several
days, and afterward to swine, but as he was not only uninjured, but even fed with the teats of
some of the swine, he ordered him at last to be cast into the sea. On this occasion, as if, by
the manifest interposition of some deity, he had been carried, amid the raging tide, and flux
and reflux of the waters, not on the billows but in a vessel, he was put on shore by the
subsiding ocean; and, not long after, a hind came up, and offered the child her teats. By
constantly following this nurse, the boy acquired extraordinary swiftness of foot, and long
ranged the mountains and woods among herds of deer, with fleetness not inferior to theirs. At
last, being caught in a snare, he was presented to the king; and then, from the similitude of
his features, and certain marks which had been burned on his body in his infancy, he was
recognized as his grandson. Afterward, from admiration at his escapes from so many
misfortunes and perils, he was appointed by his grandfather to succeed him on the throne.
The name given him was Habis; and, as soon as he became king, he gave such proofs of
greatness that he seemed not to have been delivered in vain, through the power of the gods,
from so many exposures to death. He united the barbarous people by laws; he was the first
that taught them to break oxen for the plow, and to raise corn from tillage; and he obliged
them, instead of food procured from the wilds, to adopt a better diet, perhaps through a dislike
of what he had eaten in his childhood. The adventures of this prince might seem fabulous
were not the founders of Rome said to have been suckled by a wolf, and Cyrus, king of the
Persians, to have been brought up by a dog. By him the people were interdicted from servile
duties, and the commonalty was divided among seven cities. After Habis was dead, the
sovereignty was retained for many generations by his successors.
* Cynetes or Cynesians of the area of Cadiz in Spain are not Celts, but they seem to have
had a Celtic dynasty and nobility, a situation altogether comparable with that of Galatians in
Asia Minor (current area of Ankara) and which could have been that of Greece, if the
Brennus’s great expedition on Delphi in - 279 had succeeded. We can thus wonder whether
this entire story is not a Celtic myth or a fragment of Celtic mythology, considering the names
of some of the characters (Gargoris, Arganthonius).
68
69
PLINY (23-79).
Pliny the Elder. A Roman naturalist,the author of a monumental encyclopedia entitled "Natural
History,” of which here some excerpts.
BOOK III.
Chapter XI.
…There are also about twenty other small islands in this sea, which is full of shoals. Off the
coast, at the mouth of the Rhodanus, there is Metina, and near it the island which is known as
Blascon, with the three Stœchades, so called by their neighbors the Massilians [today
Marseilles], on account of their alignment; their respective names are: Prote, Mese, also
called Pomponiana, and Hypæa. After these come Sturium, Phœnice, Phila, Lero; and,
opposite to Antipolis, Lerina, where there is a remembrance of a town called Vergoanum
having once existed.
Chapter XX.
…The Padus descends from the bosom of Mount Vesulus, one of the most elevated points of
the chain of the Alps, in the territories of the Ligurian Vagienni, and rises at its source in a
manner that well merits an inspection by the curious…
Chapter XXVIII.
….The Draus runs through the Serretes, the Serrapilli, the Iasi, and the Andizetes; the Savus
through the Colapiani and the Breuci; these are the principal peoples. Besides them there are
the Arivates, the Azali, the Amantini, the Belgites, the Catari, the Cornacates, the Eravisci, the
Hercuniates, the Latovici, the Oseriates, the Varciani, and, in front of Mount Claudius, the
Scordisci, behind it the Taurisci….
BOOK IV.
Chapter XXIV.
…The inhabitants of the coasts of this fourth great Gulf of Europe, as far as Istropolis, have
been already mentioned in our account of Thrace. Passing beyond that spot, we come to the
mouths of the Ister. This river rises in Germania in the heights of Mount Abnoba, opposite to
Rauricum, a town of continental Celtica, and flows for a course of many miles beyond the Alps
and through nations innumerable, under the name of the Danube …
Chapter XXVII.
We must now leave the Euxine to describe the outer portions of Europe. After passing the
Riphæan mountains, we now have to follow the shores of the Northern Ocean on the left, until
we arrive at Gades [today Cadiz in Spain]. In this direction a great number of islands are said
to exist that have no name; among which there is one which lies opposite to Scythia,
mentioned under the name of Raunonia, and said to be at a distance of the day's sail from the
mainland; and upon which, according to Timæus, amber is thrown up by the waves in the
spring . As to the remaining parts of these shores, they are only known from reports of
doubtful authority. With reference to the Septentrional or Northern Ocean; Hecatæus calls it,
after we have passed the mouth of the river Parapanisus (Parapomisus), where it washes the
Scythian shores, the Amalchian Sea. The word “Amalchian” signifying in the language of
these races, frozen. Philemon again says that it is called Morimarusa or the "Dead Sea" by
the Cimbri, as far as the Promontory of Rubeas, beyond which it has the name of the Cronian
Sea. Xenophon of Lampsacus tells us that at a distance of three days' sail from the shores of
Scythia, there is an island of immense size called Baltia, which by Pytheas is called Basilia.
Some islands called Oönæ are said to be here, the inhabitants of which live on the eggs of
birds and oats; and others again upon which human beings are produced with the feet of
70
horses, thence called Hippopodes. Some other islands are also mentioned as those of the
Phanesii, the people of which have ears of such extraordinary size as to cover the rest of the
body, which is otherwise left naked. Leaving these, however, we come to the nation of the
Ingævones, the first in Germania; at which we begin to have some information upon which
more implicit reliance can be placed. In their country is an immense mountain called Sevo,
not less than those of the Riphæan range, and which forms an immense gulf along the shore
as far as the Promontory of the Cimbri. This gulf, which has the name of the “Codanian,” is
filled with islands; the most famous among which is Scandinavia [Latin Scatinavia], of a
magnitude as yet unascertained: the only portion of it at all known is inhabited by the nation of
the Hilleviones, who dwell in 500 villages, and call it a second world: it is generally supposed
that the island of Eningia is of not less magnitude. Some writers state that these regions, as
far as the river Vistula, are inhabited by the Sarmati, the Venedi, the Sciri, and the Hirri, and
that there is a gulf there known by the name of Cylipenus, at the mouth of which is the island
of Latris; after which comes another gulf, that of Lagnus, which borders on the Cimbri. The
Cimbrian Promontory, running out into the sea for a great distance, forms a peninsula which
bears the name of Tastris. Passing this coast, there are three and twenty islands which have
been made known by the Roman arms: the most famous of which is Burcana [today the
German island whose name is Borkum], called by our people Fabaria, from the resemblance
borne by a fruit which grows there spontaneously. There are those also called Glæsaria by
our soldiers, from their amber; but by the barbarians they are known as Austeravia and
Actania.
BOOK VII.
Chapter XLIX.
Concerning the greatest length of life, not only the differences of climate, but the multitude of
instances named, and the peculiar destiny attached to each of us from the moment of his
birth, tend to render one very uncertain in forming any general conclusion respecting the
length and duration of human life. Hesiod, who was the first to make mention of this subject,
while he states many circumstances about the age of man, which appear to me to be
fabulous, gives to the crow nine times the ordinary duration of our life, to the stag four times
the length of that of the crow, to the raven three times the length of that of the stag, besides
other particulars with reference to the Phoenix and the Nymphs of a still more fabulous
nature. The poet Anacreon gives one hundred and fifty years to Arganthonius, the king of the
Tartessii; ten more to Cinyras, the king of Cyprus, and two hundred to Ægimius. Theopompus
gives one hundred and fifty-three years to Epimenides of Cnossus...
Let us proceed, however, to what is admitted to be true. It is pretty nearly certain that
Arganthonius of Cadiz reigned eighty years, and he is supposed to have commenced his
reign when he was forty.
Chapter LIII.
Such then is the condition of us mortals: to these and the like vicissitudes of fortune are we
born; so much so, that we cannot be sure of anything, no, not even that a person is dead.
With reference to the soul/mind of man [in Latin anima] , we find, among other instances, that
the soul of Hermotimus of Clazomenæ was in the habit of leaving his body, and wandering
into distant countries, whence it brought back numerous accounts of various things, which
could not have been obtained by anyone but a person who was present. The body, in the
meantime, was left apparently lifeless. At last, however, his enemies, the Cantharidæ, as they
were called, burned the body, so that the soul/mind [in Latin anima], on its return, was
deprived of its sheath, as it were. It is also stated that in Proconnesus, the soul/mind [Latin
anima] of Aristeas was seen to fly out of his mouth, under the form of a raven; a most
fabulous story, however, which may be well ranked with the one that follows. It is told of
Epimenides of Cnossus [Greek Knossos] that when he was a boy, being fatigued by heat and
walking, he fell asleep in a cave, where he slept for fifty-seven years; and that when he
awoke, as though it had been on the following day, he was much astonished at the changes
which he saw in the appearance of everything around him: after this, old age, it is said, came
upon him in an equal number of days with the years he had slept, but his life was prolonged
71
to his hundred and fifty-seventh year.
Editor’s note.
A strange story which resembles very much that one of the seven sleepers of Ephesus. But
Christian and Muslim(Quran chapter 18) did really well in the matter.
BOOK XI.
Chapter XCVII.
The kinds of cheese that are most esteemed at Rome, where the various good things of all
nations are to be judged of by comparison, are those which come from the province of
Nemausus, and more especially the villages there of the Lesura and of the Gabalis *;but its
excellence is only very short-lived, and it must be eaten while it is fresh. The pastures of the
Alps recommend themselves by two sorts of cheese; the Dalmatic Alps send us the
Docleatian cheese, and the Centronian Alps the Vatusican**..... The cheese of this kind which
is made at Rome is considered preferable to any other; for that which is made in Continental
Celtica has a strong taste, like that of medicine.
* Not yet some Roquefort cheese if one understands well!
** Perhaps an ancestor of the Savoy tomme.
BOOK XVI.
Chapter XCV.
Upon this occasion we must not omit to mention the admiration that is lavished upon this plant
by the continental Celts. The druids—for that is the name they give to their magicians— held
nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree that bears it, supposing always that tree
to be the [oak variety quercus] robur . The [oak or quercus] robur is the tree of which are
formed their sacred groves, and they perform none of their religious rites without employing
branches of it; so much so, that it is very probable that the priests themselves may have
received their name from the Greek name for that tree. In fact, it is the notion with them that
everything that grows on it has been sent immediately from heaven, and that the mistletoe
upon it is a proof that the tree has been selected by the god himself as an object of his
especial favor. The mistletoe, however, is but rarely found upon the oak quercus robur; and
when found, is gathered with rites replete with religious awe. This is done more particularly
the day before every sixth moon [in Latin ante omnia sexta luna], the day which is the
beginning of their months and years, as also of their ages, which, with them, are but thirty
years. This day they select because the moon, though not yet in the middle of her course, has
already considerable power and influence; and they call her by a name which signifies, in
their language, the all-healing. Having made all due preparation for the sacrifice and a
banquet beneath the trees, they bring thither two white bulls, the horns of which are bound
then for the first time. Clad in a white robe the priest ascends the tree, and cuts the mistletoe
with a golden voulge [Latin falx], which is received by others in a white cloak [Latin sagum].
They then immolate the victims, offering up their prayers that god will render this gift of his
propitious to those to whom he has so granted it. It is the belief with them that the mistletoe,
taken in drink, will impart fecundity to all animals that are barren, and that it is an antidote for
all poisons. Such are the religious feelings which we find entertained towards trifling objects
among nearly all nations.
BOOK XVII.
Chapter III.
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…But as to amending one soil by the agency of another, as some people recommend, by
throwing rich earth over one that is poor and thin, or by laying a soaking light soil over one
that is humid and unctuous, it is a labor of perfect madness. What can a man possibly hope
for who cultivates such a soil as this?
Chapter IV.
The eight kinds of earth boasted of by the Gauls and Greeks.
There is another method, which has been invented both in Gaul and [ Great ] Britain, of
enriching earth by the agency of itself, * * * * that kind known as marl. This soil is looked upon
as containing a greater number of fecundating principles, and acts as a fat in relation to the
earth, just as we find glands existing in the body, which are formed by a condensation of the
fatty particles into so many kernels. This mode of proceeding, too, has not been overlooked
by the Greeks; indeed, what subject is there that they have not touched upon? They call by
the name of leucargillon a white argillaceous earth which is used in the territory of Megara,
but only where the soil is of a moist, cold nature.
It is only right that I should employ some degree of care and exactness in treating of this marl,
which tends so greatly to enrich the soil of the Gallic provinces and the British islands. There
were formerly but two varieties known, but more recently, with the progress of agricultural
knowledge, several, others have begun to be employed; there being, in fact, the white, the
red, the columbine, the argillaceous, the tufaceous, and the sandy marls. It also has one of
these two peculiarities, it is either rough or greasy to the touch; the proper mode of testing it
being by the hand. Its uses, too, are of a twofold nature—it is employed for the production of
the cereals only, or else for the enrichment of pasture land as well. The tufaceous kind is
nutritious to grain, and so is the white; if found in the vicinity of springs, it is fertile to an
immeasurable extent; but if it is rough to the touch, when laid upon the land in too large a
quantity, it is apt to burn up the soil.
The next kind is the red marl, known as acaunumarga, consisting of stones mingled with a
thin sandy earth. These stones are broken upon the land itself, and it is with considerable
difficulty during the earlier years that the stalk of the corn is cut, in consequence of the
presence of these stones; however, as it is remarkably light, it only costs for carriages one
half of the outlay required in using the other varieties. It is laid but very thinly on the surface,
and it is generally thought that it is mixed with salt. Both of these varieties, when once laid on
the land, will fertilize it for fifty years, whether for grain or for hay.
Of the marls that are found to be of an unctuous nature, the best is the white. There are
several varieties of it: the most pungent and biting being the one already mentioned. Another
kind is the white chalk that is used for cleaning silver; it is taken from a considerable depth in
the ground, the pits being sunk, in most instances, as much as one hundred feet. These pits
are narrow at the mouth, but the shafts enlarge very considerably in the interior, as is the case
in mines; it is in [Great] Britain more particularly that this chalk is employed. The good effects
of it are found to last full eighty years and there is no instance known of an agriculturist laying
it twice on the same land during his life.
A third variety of white marl is known as glisomarga; it consists of fullers' chalk mixed with an
unctuous earth, and is better for promoting the growth of hay than grain; so much so, in fact,
that between harvest and the ensuing seed time there is cut a most abundant crop of grass.
While the corn is growing, however, it will allow no other plant to grow there. Its effects will
last so long as thirty years; but if laid too thickly on the ground, it is apt to choke up the soil,
just as if it had been covered with cement [Latin signum]. The continental Celts give to the
columbine marl in their language the name of eglecopala; it is taken up in solid blocks like
stone, after which it is so loosened by the action of the sun and frost, as to split into laminæ of
extreme thinness; this kind is equally beneficial for grass and grain.
The sandy marl is employed if there is no other at hand, and on moist slimy soils, even when
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other kinds can be procured. The Ubii are the only people that we know of, who, having an
extremely fertile soil to cultivate, employ methods of enriching it; wherever the land may
happen to be, they dig to a depth of three feet, and, taking up the earth, cover the soil with it
in other places a foot in thickness; this method, however, to be beneficial, requires to be
renewed at the end of every ten years. The Ædui and the Pictones have rendered their fields
remarkably fertile by the aid of limestone, which is also found to be particularly beneficial to
the olive and the vine.
Every marl, however, requires to be laid on the land immediately after plowing, in order that
the soil may at once imbibe its properties; while at the same time, it requires a little manure as
well, as it is apt, at first, to be of too acrid a nature, at least where it is not pasture land that it
is laid upon; in addition to which, by its very freshness it may possibly injure the soil, whatever
the nature of it may be; so much so, indeed, that the land is never fertile the first year after it
has been employed. It is a matter of consideration also for what kind of soil the marl is
required; if the soil is moist, a dry marl is best suited for it; and if dry, a rich unctuous marl. If,
on the other hand, the land is of a medium quality, chalk or columbine marl is the best suited
for it.
Chapter XXV.
Cato speaks of three methods of grafting the vine. The first consists…in our time, however,
this method has been greatly improved by making use of the Continental Celtic auger which
pierces the tree without scorching it; it being the fact that everything that burns the tree
weakens its powers.
BOOK XVIII.
Chapter XXVIII.
…The continental Celts were the first to employ the bolter that is made of horsehair; while the
people of Spain make their sieves and meal dressers of flax, and the Egyptians of papyrus
and rushes.
Chapter XLVIII.
Plows are of various kinds. The coulter is the iron part that cuts up the dense earth before it is
broken into pieces, and traces beforehand by its incisions the future furrows, which the share,
reversed, is to open out with its teeth. Another kind (the common plowshare) is nothing more
than a lever, furnished with a pointed beak; while another variety, which is only used in light,
easy soils, does not present an edge projecting from the share beam throughout, but only a
small point at the extremity. In a fourth kind again, this point is larger and formed with a
cutting edge; by the agency of which implement, it both cleaves the ground, and, with the
sharp edges at the sides, cuts up the weeds by the roots. There has been invented, at a
comparatively recent period, in that part of Celtica known as Rhætia, a plow with the addition
of two small wheels, and known by the name of "plaumorati."* The extremity of the share in
this has the form of a spade: it is only used, however, for sowing in cultivated lands, and upon
soils which are nearly fallow. The broader the plowshare, the better it is for turning up the
clods of earth. Immediately after plowing, the seed is put into the ground, and then harrows
with long teeth are drawn over it. Lands which have been sown in this way require no hoeing.
* Plauarati planarati.
Chapter LXVII.
Of the scythes there are two varieties; the Italian,which is considerably shorter than the other,
and can be handled among underwood even; and the Celtic, which makes quicker work of it,
when employed on extensive domains, for there they cut the grass in the middle only, and
pass over the shorter blades. The Italian mowers cut with one hand only.
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BOOK XIX.
Chapter II.
Italy, too, holds the flax of the Peligni in high esteem, though it is only employed by fullers;
there is no kind known that is whiter than this, or which bears a closer resemblance to wool.
That grown by the Cadurci is held in high estimation for making mattresses;which, as well as
stuffing, are an invention for which we are indebted to the Continental Celts: the ancient
usage of Italy is still kept in remembrance in the word stramentum (bed stuffed with straw).
BOOK XXIV.
Chapter LXII.
Similar to savin is the herb known as "selago." Care is taken to gather it without the use of
iron, the right hand being passed for the purpose on the left side of the tunic, as though the
gatherer were in the act of committing a theft. The clothing too must be white, the feet bare
and washed clean, and a sacrifice of bread and wine must be made before gathering it: the
plant is also carried in a new napkin. The druids of continental Celtica have pretended that it
should be carried about the person as a preservative against accidents of all kinds, and that
the smoke of it is extremely good for all maladies of the eyes. The druids, also, have given the
name of "samolus" to a certain plant which grows in humid localities. This too, they say, must
be gathered fasting with the left hand, as a preservative against the maladies to which swine
and cattle are subject. The person, too, who gathers it must make pretense not to look it by
gathering it, nor must it be laid anywhere but in the troughs from which the cattle drink.
BOOK XXV.
Chapter LIX.
But among the Romans there is no plant that enjoys a more extended renown than
hierabotane, known to some people as "peristereon," and among us more generally as
"verbenaca."….There are two varieties of it: the one that is thickly covered with leaves is
thought to be the female plant; that with fewer leaves, the male… The people in the Celtic
provinces on the Continent make use of them both for soothsaying purposes, and for the
prediction of future events but it is the magicians more particularly that give utterance to such
ridiculous follies in reference to this plant. People, they tell us, if they rub themselves with it
will be sure to gain the object of their desires; and they assure us that it keeps away fevers,
conciliates friendship, and is a cure for every possible disease; they say, too, that it must be
gathered about the rising of the Dog-star—but so as not to be shone upon by the sun or
moon—and that honeycombs and honey must be first presented to the earth by way of
expiation. They tell us also that a circle must first be traced around it with iron *; after which it
must be taken up with the left hand, and raised aloft, care being taken to dry the leaves, stem,
and roots, separately in the shade. To these statements they add that if the banqueting hall
[Latin triclinium] is sprinkled with water in which it has been steeped **, merriment and hilarity
will be greatly promoted thereby. As a remedy for the stings of serpents, this plant is bruised
in wine.
*Editor’s note: to trace a circle on the ground using the point of a metal object as a voulge or a
wood hoe is still part of the rituals of some druids today.
** Still part of the rituals of some druids today.
BOOK XXVIII.
Chapter LI.
…Scrofulous sores are dispersed by applying the gall of a wild boar or of an ox, warmed for
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the purpose…soap too, is very useful for this purpose, an invention of the continental Celts for
giving a reddish tint to the hair. This substance is prepared from tallow and ashes, the best
ashes for the purpose being those of the beech and yoke- elm: there are two kinds of it, the
hard soap and the liquid, both of them much used by the people of Germania, the men, in
particular, more than the women.
BOOK XXIX.
Chapter XII.
In addition to the above, there is another kind of egg, held in high renown by the people of the
Celtic provinces on the Continent, but totally omitted by the Greek writers. In summer time,
numberless snakes rolled up on themselves and become artificially entwined together, from
the viscous slime which exudes from their mouths, and from the foam secreted by them it
results a ball: the name given to it is "snake egg" [Latin anguinum implied ovum]. The druids
tell us that the serpents eject these eggs into the air by their hissing, and that a person must
be ready to catch them in a cloak, so as not to let them touch the ground; they also say that
he must instantly take to flight on horseback, as the serpents will be sure to pursue him, until
some intervening river has placed a barrier between them. The test of its genuineness, they
say, is its floating on water, even though it is set in gold. But, as it is the way with magicians to
be dexterous and cunning in casting a veil about their frauds, they pretend that these eggs
can only be taken on a certain day of the moon; as though, indeed, it depended entirely upon
the human will to make the moon and the serpents accord as to the moment of this operation.
I myself, however, have seen one of these eggs: it was round, and about as large as an apple
of moderate size; the shell of it was formed of a cartilaginous substance, and it was
surrounded with numerous cupules, as it were, resembling those upon the arms of the polyp:
it is held in high estimation among the druids. The possession of it is marvelously vaunted as
ensuring success in law suits, and a favorable reception with princes; a notion which has
been so far belied that a Roman of equestrian rank, a native of the territory of the Vocontii,
who, during a trial, had one of these eggs in his bosom *, was slain by the god Claudius, and
for no other reason, that I know of, but because he was in possession of it. It is this entwining
of serpents with one another, and the fruitful results of this unison, that seem to me to have
given rise to the usage among foreign nations, of surrounding the caduceus with
representations of serpents, as so many symbols of peace-it must be remembered, too, that
on the caduceus, serpents are never represented as having crests.
*Editor’s note: the use to wear a snake’s egg (fossil sea urchin) as a medallion, moreover,
still exists among the druids today.
BOOK XXX.
Chapter IV.
…The Celtic provinces on the Continent, too, were pervaded by the magic art and that even
down to a period within memory; for it was the Emperor Tiberius that put down their druids,
and all that mob of false prophets and physicians. But why make further mention of these
prohibitions, with reference to an art which has now crossed the very Ocean even, and has
penetrated to the void recesses of Nature? At the present day, struck with fascination, [Great]
Britain still cultivates this art, and that, with ceremonials so august, that she might almost
seem to have been the first to communicate them to the people of Persia…
BOOK XXXI.
Chapter XVIII.
….The sources, too, of the Tambre River [Latin Tamaricus] in Cantabria, are considered to
possess certain powers of presaging future events: they are three in number, and, separated
solely by an interval of eight feet, unite in one channel, and so form a mighty stream. These
76
springs are often dry during twelve or twenty days without there being the slightest trace of
water there; while, on the other hand, a spring close at hand is flowing abundantly and without
intermission. It is considered an evil presage when people who wish to see these springs find
them dry: a circumstance which happened very recently, for example, to Lartius Licinius,
become legatus after his prætorship: for at the end of seven days after his visit he died. In
Judea there is a river that is dry every Sabbath day….
BOOK XXXIV.
Chapter XLVIII.
It was in the Celtic provinces on the Continent that the method was discovered of coating
articles of copper with white lead, so as to be scarcely distinguishable from the silver: articles
thus plated are said “tinned” [Latin incoctilia]. At a later period, the people of the town of Alesia
began to use a similar process for plating articles with silver, more particularly ornaments for
horses, beasts of burden, and yokes of oxen: the merit, however, of this invention belongs to
the Bituriges. After this, they began to ornament their vehicles called esseda *, colisata **
[vehicula in some manuscripts], and petorita*** in a similar manner; and luxury has at last
arrived at such a pitch, that not only are their decorations made of silver, but of gold even, and
what was formerly a marvel to behold on a cup, is now subjected to the wear and tear of a
carriage, and this in obedience to what they call civilization!
* Essedum: two-wheeled fast chariot.
** Colisatum: vehicle of an unknown type.
*** Petorritum: wagon with four wheels.
BOOK XXXVII.
Chapter XI. Amber.
Section 5.
Sotacus expresses a belief that amber exudes from certain stones in [Great] Britain, to which
he gives the name of "electrides." Pytheas says that the Gutones, a people of Germany,
inhabit the shores of an estuary of the Ocean called Mentonomon, their territory extending a
distance of six thousand stadia; that, at one day's sail is the Isle of Abalum, upon the shores
of which, amber is thrown up by the waves in spring, it being an excretion of the sea in a
concrete form; as, also, that the inhabitants use this amber by way of fuel, and sell it to their
neighbors, the Teutones. Timæus, too, is of the same belief, but he has given to the island the
name of Basilia.
Editor’s note. All is not clear in this story of amber island. And, first of all, only the fact that it
has two different names. Then, is it located at one (only one?) day’s sail, in the east (Baltic
Sea) or in the west (North Sea) of the Teutones country? Finally, its phonetic proximity to the
mysterious island of Avalon makes it an island more mythical than real.
77
TACITUS (55 – Circa 120).
A Roman historian. Author of histories, of annals, as well as of a work on the Germania.
Below what it can be found in his ANNALS.
BOOK III.
Chapter XLIII.
A more formidable movement broke out among the Aedui, proportioned to the greater wealth
of the tribe-state and the distance of the force which should repress it. Sacrovir with some
armed cohorts, had made himself master of Augustodunum, the capital of the tribe, with the
noblest youth of Celtica, there are devoting themselves to a liberal education, and with such
hostages he proposed to unite in his cause their parents and kinsfolk. He also distributed
among the youth arms which he had secretly manufactured. There were forty thousand, one
fifth armed like our legionaries, and the rest had spears and knives and other weapons used
in the chase. In addition were some slaves who were being trained for gladiators, clad after
the national fashion in a complete covering of steel. They were called crupellarii, and though
they were ill adapted for inflicting wounds, they were impenetrable to them. …
BOOK XII.
Chapter XXIX.
. ….For an immense host of Lugii, with other tribes, was advancing, attracted by the fame of
the opulent realm which Vannius had enriched during thirty years of plunder and of tribute.
Vannius's own native force was infantry, and his cavalry was from the Iazyges of Sarmatia; an
army which was no match for his numerous enemies. Consequently, he determined to
maintain himself in fortified positions, and protract the war.
Chapter XXX.
But the Iazyges, who could not endure a siege, dispersed themselves throughout the
surrounding country and rendered an engagement inevitable, as the Lugii and Hermunduri
had there rushed to the attack. So Vannius came down out of his fortresses, and though he
was defeated in battle, notwithstanding his reverse, he won some credit by having fought with
his own hand, and received wounds, on his breast. He then fled to the fleet which was
awaiting him on the Danube, and was soon followed by his liege men, who received grants of
land and were settled in Pannonia. Vangio and Sido divided his kingdom between them; they
were admirably loyal to us; and among their subjects, whether the cause was in themselves
or in the nature of despotism, much loved, while seeking to acquire power, and yet more
hated when they had acquired it.
BOOK XIV.
Chapter XXX.
On the shore stood the opposing army with its dense array of armed warriors, while between
the ranks dashed women, in black attire like the Furies, with hair disheveled, waving brands.
All around, the druids, lifting up their hands to heaven, and pouring forth dreadful
imprecations, scared our soldiers by the unfamiliar sight, so that, as if their limbs were
paralyzed, they stood motionless, and exposed to wounds. Then urged by their general's
appeals and mutual encouragement not to quail before a troop of frenzied women, they bore
the standards onward, smote down all resistance, and wrapped the foe in the flames of his
own brands. A force was next set over the conquered, and their groves, devoted to inhuman
superstitions, were destroyed. They deemed it indeed a duty to cover their altars with the
blood of captives and to consult their deities through human entrails. Suetonius Paulinus
while thus occupied received tidings of the sudden revolt of the province.
78
Chapter XXXIII.
… …Like ruin fell on the town of Verulamium, for the barbarians, who delighted in plunder and
were indifferent to all else, passed by the fortresses with military garrisons, and attacked
whatever offered most wealth to the spoiler, and was unsafe for defense. About seventy
thousand citizens and allies, it appeared, fell in the places which I have mentioned. For it was
not on making prisoners and selling them, or on any of the barter of war, that the enemy was
bent, but on slaughter, on the gibbet, the fire and the cross, like men soon about to pay the
penalty, and meanwhile snatching at instant vengeance.
Below what it can be read in the HISTORIES.
BOOK II.
Chapter LXI.
Amid the adventures of these illustrious men, one is ashamed to relate how a certain
Mariccus, a Boian of the lowest origin, pretending to divine inspiration, ventured to thrust
himself into fortune's game, and to challenge the arms of Rome. Calling himself the champion
of Celtica, and a god (for he had assumed this title), he had now collected eight thousand
men, and was taking possession of the neighboring villages of the Aedui, when that most
formidable tribe-state attacked him with a picked force of its native youth, to which Vitellius
attached some cohorts, and dispersed the crowd of fanatics. Mariccus was captured in the
engagement, and was soon after exposed to wild beasts, but not having been torn by them,
was believed by the senseless multitude to be invulnerable, till he was put to death in the
presence of Vitellius.
BOOK IV.
Chapter LIV.
….Rumors equally false were circulated respecting (Great) Britain. Above all, the
conflagration of the Capitol had made them believe that the end of the Roman Empire was at
hand. The Celts of the Continent, they remembered, had captured the city in former days, but,
as the abode of Jupiter was uninjured, the Empire had survived; whereas now the druids
declared, with the prophetic utterances of an idle superstition, that this fatal conflagration was
a sign of the anger of heaven, and portended universal empire for the Transalpine nations…
Chapter LXI.
Then Civilis fulfilled a vow often made by barbarians: his hair, which he had let grow long and
colored with a red dye from the day of taking up arms against Rome, he now cut short, when
the destruction of the legions had been accomplished. It was also said that he set up some of
the prisoners as marks for his little son to shoot at with a child's arrows and javelins. He
neither took the oath of allegiance to Gaul himself, nor obliged any Bat avian to do so, for he
relied on the resources of Germany, and felt that, should it be necessary to fight for the
empire with the Gauls, he should have on his side a great name and superior strength.
Munius Lupercus, major of one of the legions, was sent along with other gifts to Veleda (old
Celtic veleta= ban-file= clairvoyant) , a maiden of the tribe of the Bructeri, who possessed
extensive dominion; for by ancient usage the Germans attributed to some of their women
prophetic powers and, as the superstition grew in strength, even actual deity. The authority of
Veleda was then at its height, because she had foretold the success of the Germans and the
destruction of the legions. Lupercus, however, was murdered on the road. A few of the
centurions and tribunes, who were natives of continental Celtica, were reserved as hostages
for the maintenance of the alliance. The winter encampments of the auxiliary infantry and
cavalry and of the legions, with the sole exception of those at Mogontiacum and Vindonissa,
79
were pulled down and burned…
Chapter LXV.
The inhabitants of the Colony (Cologne) took time for deliberation, and, as the dread of the
future would not allow them to accept the offered terms, while their actual condition forbade
an open and contemptuous rejection, they replied to the following effect: "The very first
chance of freedom that presented itself we seized with more eagerness than caution that we
might unite ourselves with you and the other Germans, our kinsmen by blood. With respect to
our fortifications, as in this very moment the Roman armies are assembling, it is safer for us
to strengthen than to destroy them. All strangers from Italy or the provinces, that may have
been in our territory, have either perished in the war, or have fled to their own homes. As for
those who in former days settled here, and have been united to us by marriage, and as for
their offspring, this is their native land. We cannot think you so unjust as to wish that we
should slay our parents, our brothers, and our children. All duties and restrictions on trade we
repeal. Let there be a free passage across the river, but let it be during the daytime and for
people unarmed till the new and recent privileges assume by usage the stability of time. As
arbiters between us, we will have Civilis and Veleda; under their sanction the treaty shall be
ratified." The Tencteri were thus appeased, and ambassadors were sent with presents to
Civilis and Veleda, who settled everything to the satisfaction of the inhabitants of the Colony.
They were not, however, allowed to approach or address Veleda herself. In order to inspire
them with more respect, they were prevented from seeing her. She dwelt in a lofty tower, and
one of her relatives, chosen for the purpose, conveyed, like the messenger of a deity, the
questions and answers.
Below what it can be read in the work of Tacitus on THE ORIGIN AND THE SITUATION OF
THE GERMANICS.
Chapter I.
…The Rhine springs from a precipitous and inaccessible height of the Rhætian Alps, bends
slightly westward, and mingles with the Northern Sea. The Danube pours from the gradual
and gently rising slope of Mount Abnoba, and visits many nations….
Chapter III.
…They also have those songs of theirs ("barditus," they call it), by the recital of which they
rouse their courage, while from the note they augur the result of the approaching conflict. For,
as their line shouts, they inspire or feel alarm. It is not so much a concert of their voices, as a
cry of valor. They aim chiefly at a harsh note and a confused roar, putting their shields to their
mouth, so that, by reverberation, it may swell into a fuller and deeper sound…
Chapter VIII.
In history we find that some armies already yielding and ready to fly, have been by women
restored, through their inflexible importunity and entreaties, presenting their breasts, and
showing their impending captivity; an evil to the Germans then by far most dreadful when it
befalls their women. So that the spirit of such cities as among their hostages are enjoined to
send their damsels of quality is always engaged more effectually than that of others. They
even believe them endowed with something celestial and the spirit of prophecy. Neither do
they disdain to consult them, nor neglect the responses which they return. In the reign of the
deified Vespasian, we have seen Veleda for
a long time, and by many nations, esteemed and adored as a deity. In times past they
likewise worshiped Aurinia and several more, from no complaisance or effort of flattery, nor
as deities of their own creating.
Chapter IX.
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Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to
sacrifice to him even with human victims. Hercules and Mars they appease with more lawful
offerings. Some of the Suevi also sacrifice to Isis. Of the occasion and origin of this foreign
rite, I have discovered nothing, but that the image, which is fashioned like a liburnian-type
ship, indicates an imported worship….
Chapter X.
Augury and divination by lots no people practice more diligently. The use of the lots is simple.
A little bough is lopped off a fruit-bearing tree, and cut into small pieces; these are
distinguished by certain marks [some runes?], and thrown carelessly and at random over a
white garment. In public questions, the priest of the particular state, in private, the father of
the family, invokes the gods, and, with his eyes towards heaven, takes up each piece three
times, and finds in them a meaning according to the mark previously impressed on them. If
they prove unfavorable, there is no further consultation that day about the matter; if they
sanction it, confirmation by consultation of the auspices is still required. For they are also
familiar with the practice of consulting the notes and the flight of birds. It is peculiar to this
people to seek omens and monitions from horses. Kept at the public expense, in these same
woods and groves, are white horses, pure from the taint of earthly labor; these are yoked to a
sacred car, and accompanied by the priest and the king, or chief of the tribe, who note their
neighs and snorts. No species of augury is more trusted, not only by the people and by the
nobility, but also by the priests, who regard themselves as the ministers of the gods, and the
horses as acquainted with their will.
They also have another method of observing auspices, by which they seek to learn the result
of an important war. Having taken, by whatever means, a prisoner from the tribe with whom
they are at war, they pit him against a picked man of their own tribe, each combatant using
the weapons of their country. The victory of the one or the other is accepted as an indication
of the issue of the war.
Chapter XVIII.
Their marriage code, however, is strict, and indeed no part of their manners is more
praiseworthy. Almost alone among barbarians they are content with one wife, except a very
few among them, and these not from sensuality, but because their noble birth procures for
them many offers of alliance…
Chapter XXVIII.
. ….Accordingly the country between the Hercynian Forest and the rivers Rhine and Main,
and that which lies beyond, was occupied respectively by the Helvetii and Boii, both Celtic
tribes. The name Bohemia still survives, marking the old tradition of the place, though the
population has been changed…
Chapter XL
….. Next come the Reudigni, the Aviones, the Anglii, the Varini, the Eudoses, the Suardones,
and Nuithones who are fenced in by rivers or forests. None of these tribes have any
noteworthy feature, except their common worship of Nerthus, that is to say Mother-Earth, and
their belief that she interposes in human affairs, and visits the nations in her car. In an island
of the ocean there is a sacred grove, and within it a consecrated chariot, covered over with a
garment. Only one priest is permitted to touch it. He can perceive the presence of the
goddess in this sacred recess, and walks by her side with the utmost reverence as she is
drawn along by heifers. It is a season of rejoicing, and festivity reigns wherever she deigns to
go and be received. They do not go to battle or wear arms; every weapon is under lock;
peace and quiet are known and welcomed only at these times; till the goddess, weary of
human intercourse, is at length restored by the same priest to her temple. Afterward the car,
the vestments, and, if you like to believe it, the deity herself, are purified by a complete
lustration in a secret lake. Slaves perform the rite, who are instantly swallowed up by its
waters. Hence arises a mysterious terror and a pious unknowing concerning the nature of that
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which is seen only by men doomed to die.
Editor’s note. One can wonder whether this type of chariot covered with a tarpaulin (covinnus)
were not of the same kind as the famous scythed chariot of Cuchulain in Ireland. But without
the scythes precisely.
Chapter XLI.
Nearer to us is the tribe-state of the Hermunduri (I shall follow the course of the Danube as I
did before that of the Rhine), a people loyal to Rome. Consequently they, alone of the
Germanics, trade not merely on the banks of the river, but far inland, and in the most
flourishing colony of the province of Rætia. Everywhere they are allowed to pass without a
guard. While to the other tribes we display only our arms and our camps, to them we have
thrown open our houses and country seats, which they do not covet. It is in their lands that
the Elbe takes its rise, a famous river known to us in past days; now we only hear of it.
Chapter XLII.
The Naristi border on the Hermunduri, and then follow the Marcomanni and Quadi. The
Marcomanni stand first in strength and renown, and their very territory; from which the Boii
were driven in a former age, was won by valor. Nor are the Naristi and Quadi inferior to them.
This I may call the frontier of Germania, so far as it is completed by the Danube. The
Marcomanni and Quadi have, up to our time, been ruled by kings of their own nation,
descended from the noble stock of Maroboduus and Tudrus. They now submit even to
foreigners, but the strength and power of the monarch depend on Roman influence. He is
occasionally supported by our arms, more frequently by our money, and its authority is
nonetheless.
Chapter XLIII.
Behind them the Marsigni, Cotini, Osi, and Buri, close in the rear of the Marcomanni and
Quadi. Of these, the Marsigni and Buri, in their language and manner of life, resemble the
Suevi. The Cotini and Osi are proved by their respective Celtic and Pannonian tongues, as
well as by the fact of their enduring tribute, not to be Germanics. Tribute is imposed on them
as aliens, partly by the Sarmatæ, partly by the Quadi. The Cotini, to complete their
degradation, actually work iron mines. All these nations occupy but little of the plain country,
dwelling in forests and on mountaintops. For Suevia is divided and cut in half by a continuous
mountain range, beyond which live a multitude of tribes. The name of Lugii, spread as it is in
many states, is the most widely extended. It will be enough to mention the most powerful,
which are the Harii, the Helvecones, the Manimi, the Helisii and the Nahanarvali. Among
these last is shown a grove of immemorial sanctity. A priest wearing a dress as a woman
[Latin sacerdos muliebri ornatu: a druid?] has the charge of it. But the deities are honored in
Roman interpretation as Castor and Pollux. The force attached to the divine entity bears the
name of Alcis [elk?]. They have no images, or, indeed, any vestige of a superstition which
would be of foreign origin, but it is as brothers and as youths that the deities are worshiped.
The Harii, besides being superior in strength to the tribes just enumerated, savage as they
are, make the most of their natural ferocity by the help of art and opportunity. Their shields are
black, their bodies dyed. They choose dark nights for the battle, and, by the dread and
gloomy aspect of their ghostlike host, strike terror into the foe, who can never confront their
strange and almost infernal appearance. For in all battles, it is the eye which is first
vanquished.
Beyond the Lugii are the Goths, who are ruled by kings, a little more strictly than the other
Germanic tribes, but not as yet inconsistently with freedom. Immediately adjoining them,
further from the coast, are the Rugii and Lemovii, the badge of all these tribes being the round
shield, the short sword, and servile submission to their kings…
82
Chapter XLV.
Beyond the Suiones is another sea, sluggish and almost motionless, which, we may certainly
infer, girdles and surrounds the world, from the fact that the last radiance of the setting sun
lingers on till sunrise, with brightness sufficient to dim the light of the stars. Even the very
sound of his rising, as popular belief adds, may be heard, and the forms of his horses and the
glory round his head may be seen. Only thus far (and here rumor seems the truth) does the
world extend. At this point the Suevic Sea, on its eastern shore, washes the tribes of the
Æstii, whose rites and fashions and style of dress are those of the Suevi, while their language
is more like the [Great] British. They worship the mother of the gods, and wear as a religious
symbol the device of a wild boar. This serves as armor, and as a universal defense, rendering
the votary of the goddess safe even amid enemies. They often use clubs, iron weapons but
seldom. They are more patient in cultivating corn and other produce than might be expected
from the general indolence of the Germanics with agriculture. But they also search in the sea,
and are the only people who gather amber (which they call "glesum"), in the shallows, and
also on the shore itself. Barbarians as they are they have not investigated or discovered what
natural cause or process produces it. Nay, it even lay amid the sea's other refuse, till our
luxury gave it a name. To them it is utterly useless; they gather it in its raw state, bring it to us
in shapeless lumps, and marvel at the price which they receive. It is, however, a juice from
trees, as you may infer from the fact that there are often seen shining through it, reptiles, and
even winged insects, which, having become entangled in the fluid, are gradually enclosed in
the substance as it hardens. I am therefore inclined to think that the islands and countries of
the West, like the remote recesses of the East, where frankincense and balsam exude,
contain fruitful woods and groves; that these productions, acted on by the near rays of the
sun, glide in a liquid state into the adjacent sea, and are thrown up by the force of storms on
the opposite shores. If you test the composition of amber by applying fire, it burns like
pinewood, and sends forth a rich and fragrant flame; it is soon softened into something like
pitch or resin…
Chapter XLVI.
As to the tribes of the Peucini, Veneti, and Finni, I am in doubt whether I should class them
with the Germanics or the Sarmatæ, although indeed the Peucini called by some Bastarnæ,
are like Germanics in their language, mode of life, and in the permanence of their settlements.
They all live in filth and sloth, and by the intermarriages of the chiefs they are becoming in
some degree debased into some resemblance to the Sarmatæ. The Veneti have borrowed
largely from the Sarmatian character; in their plundering expeditions, they roam over the
whole extent of forest and mountain between the Peucini and Fenni. They are, however, to be
rather referred to the Germanics, for they have fixed habitations, carry shields, and delight in
exercise and walking, thus presenting a complete contrast to the Sarmatæ, who live in
wagons and on horseback.
83
LUCAN (39-65).
Roman poet whose only work that has been preserved, apparently, is entitled Pharsalia, an
epic about the Civil War who opposed Caesar to Pompey. What follows is thus a gigantic
poem written in hexameters dactylic (from where additional difficulty). Entitled Pharsalia or
more exactly “Marci Annaei Lucani de bello ciuili libri decem” (the Ten Books of Marcus
Annaeus Lucanus on the civil war).
BOOK I.
441.
You, too, oh Trevirian,
Rejoice that the war has left your bounds.
Ligurian tribes, now sheared, in ancient days
First of the long-haired nations, on whose necks
Once flowed the auburn locks in pride supreme;
And preferred to hairy tribes
Now you rest in peace.
444.
And you who pacify with blood accursed
Savage Teutates, Hesus's horrid shrines,
And Taranis's altars cruel as were those
Loved by Diana, goddess of the Scythians;
And you vates,
Whose martial lays formerly made immortal
The powerful souls/minds [Latin animas] of those who died in the war
And you, bards,
You start again to pour forth in safety more abundant song.
While you, druids,
Returned to sinister mysteries and barbarian rites
Some time ago abolished by the weapons.
452.
To you alone it is given the gods and celestial powers
To know or not to know;
Great trees of remote groves
Are your dwelling place
According to your masters, the shades of dead men
Seek not the quiet homes of Erebus
Or death's pale kingdoms;
But the same soul/mind [Latin idem spiritus] governs the limbs
In another world [Latin orbe alio]
And the death is only the middle of a long live;
If you know well what you sing.
Happy the peoples beneath the Great Bear
Thanks to their error; because they do not know
This supreme fear which frightens all others:
Hence the spirit [Latin mens] inclined to throw itself on iron
The strength of character [Latin anima] able to face death,
And this lack of care put to save a life which must be given back to you.
463.
BOOK III.
389.
Then did the Grecian city win renown
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Eternal, deathless, for that uncompelled
Nor fearing for herself, but free to act
She made the conqueror pause:
And he who seized all in resistless course
Found here delay:
And Fortune, hastening to lay the world
Low at her favorite's feet,
Was forced to stay for these few moments her impatient hand.
Now fell the forests far and wide, despoiled
Of all their oaks: for it was necessary that,
The interior of the rampart
Being filled of fascines covered with a layer of ground,
The two edges of it were contained by a very strong frame of timbers
For prevent the embankment not enough strengthened,
Collapse under the weight of the towers.
399.
Not far from the town stood a grove
Which from the earliest time
No hand of man had dared to violate;
Stood in the shade of a north-facing side
By its matted boughs entwined it clasped
Darkness and frozen shades.
No rustic Pans here found a home,
Nor sylvans nor even nymphs
But savage rites and barbarous worship,
Altars horrible on bleak mounds raised up;
Sacred with blood of men was every tree.
If faith be given to credulous ancient times,
No fowl has ever dared to rest upon those branches,
And no beast has made his lair beneath:
The wind never falls down in this grove
Nor lightning flashes upon it from the cloud.
Stagnant the air, unmoving,
Yet the leaves filled with mysterious trembling;
Dripped the streams from coal-black fountains;
Sinister effigies of gods [Latin simulacra],
Scarcely fashioned, appear on fallen trunks
And, pallid with decay, their rotting shapes
Struck terror.
Because the men fear less the deities
Of whom the effigies are them familiar,
So much adds to terror the fact not know the gods.
It was said that caves rumbled with earthquakes,
That the prostrate yew rose up again;
That fiery tongues of flame gleamed in the forest depths,
Yet were the trees not kindled;
And those dragons in frequent folds were coiled around the trunks.
Men flee the spot
Nor dare to worship near:
Even the priest
Or when bright Phoebus holds the height,
Or when the dark night controls the heavens,
In anxious dread draws near the grove
And fears to find its lord.
426.
Spared in the former war, still dense it rose
Where all the hills were bare,
And Caesar now its fall commanded.
85
But the brawny arms which swayed the axes trembled,
And the men, awed by the sacred grove's dark majesty,
Held back the blow they thought would be returned.
This Caesar saw, and swift within his grasp
Up rose a ponderous axe, which downwards fell
Cleaving a mighty oak that towered to heaven,
While thus he spoke: "Henceforth let no man dread
To fall this forest: all the crime is mine.
This be your creed!"
He spoke, and all obeyed,
For Caesar's ire weighed down the wrath of the gods.
Yet ceased they not to fear.
First the elm, then the knotty holly oak;
Dodona's tree, the buoyant alder,
And finally the cypress, witness of non-plebeian grief,
Laid their foliage low, admitting day;
Though scarcely through the stems
Their fall found passage.
445.
At the sight the people of the Celtica grieved;
But the garrison within the walls rejoiced
For thus men shall insult the gods
And find no punishment?
Yet fortune often protects the guilty;
On the poor alone, the gods can vent their ire.
Enough hewn down, they seize the country wagons;
And the plowman, his oxen gone which else had drawn the plow,
Mourns for his harvest of the year.
-------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMENTARIES ON LUCAN’S PHARSALIA.
There are a number of anonymous commentaries on the lines of Lucan, or scholia, which are
of the greatest interest.
The first set of comments is generally indicated under the name of Bern scholia, also known
as the Bern Comments or Annaei Lucani Commenta Bernensia (these scholia are said
Bernese because they appear on a manuscript of Lucan preserved in Bern).
It comprises two components. The second being called Adnotationes super Lucanum or
sometimes quite simply Adnotationum.
It also adds some notes to certain lines of Lucan’s Pharsalia, gathered under the Latin title of
Supplementum adnotationum super Lucanum, by Professor Giuseppe Cavajoni, of the
University at Milan.
But there is also a third series of commentaries on Lucan, the Glosule or Glossulae super
Lucanum by Arnulf of Orleans (Arnulfus aurelianensis).
Without forgetting other notes appearing in various manuscripts of the cathedral chapter in
Cologne and published in 1874 by William Wattenbach and Philip Jaffe.
And there is finally a fifth set of scholia included in the Magnae Derivationes by Hugutio of
Pisa.
86
All are very similar and differ only on some details.
Below thus, and in the waiting of the discovery of new manuscripts on the subject, the main
scholia concerning some lines of the book I of Lucan’s Pharsalia.
COMMENTA BERNENSIA AD LUCANUM.
Line 444. ET QVIBVS INMITIS pro: et a quibus placatur.
Line 445. SANGVINE DIRO TEVTATES HORRENSQVE FERIS ALTAR. E. Mercurius lingua
Gallorum teutates dicitur qui humano apud illos sanguine colebatur. Teutates Mercurius sec
apud Gallos placatur: in plenum semicupium homo in caput demittitur ut ibi suffocetur. Hesus
Mars sic placatur: Homo in arbore suspenditur usque donec per cruorem membra digesserit.
Taranis Ditis pater hoc modo aput eos placatur: in alueo ligneo aliquod homines cremantur.
Item aliter exinde in aliis inuenimus. Teutates mars 'sanguine diro' placatur, siue quod proelia
numinis eius instinctu administrantur; siue quod Galli antea soliti ut aliis deis huic quoque
homines immolare. Hesum Mercurium credunt, si quidem a mercatoribus colitur, et praesidem
bellorum et caelestum deorum maximum Tarnanin Iouem adsuetum olim humanis placari
capitibus, nunc uero gaudere pecorum.
Line 446. TARANIS NON MITIOR ARA DIANAE quia Diana humano cruore litabatur.
SCITHICAE in Scythia apud Tauricam regionem Diana humano sanguine colebatur, cuius
erat sacerdos Iphigenia.
Line 447. VOS QUOQUE QUI FORTES ANIMAS B. Q. P. L. I. L. V. vos quoque bardi. bardi
Germaniae gens quae dixit viros fortes post interitum fieri inmortales. qui nunc securi
decedente Caesare scribere vacant vel cantare.
Line 450. ET VOS BARBARICOS RITUS driades. MOREMQUE SINISTRUM contrarium
nostro.
Line 451. SACRORUM DRIADAE sine templis colebant deos in silvis. driadae gens
Germaniae.sunt autem driadae philosophi Gallorum dicti ab arboribus quod semotos lucos
incolant: hi dicunt redire animas in alium orbem. an quoniam glandibus comestis divinare
fuerunt consueti. driadae negant interire animas aut contagione inferorum
adfici. qui cum defunctis equos servosque et multam suppellectilem conburant quibus uti
possint, inde animosi in proelia exeunt nec vitae suae parcunt, tamquam eandem reperituri in
alio naturae secessu.
Line 452. ET CAELI NUMINA VOBIS apostrophe.
Line 453. AUT SOLIS NESCIRE aut illi aut nos erremus necesse est.
Line 454. VOBIS AUCTORIBUS UMBRAE N. T. E. S. DITISQ. P. P. R. P. manes esse non
dicunt sed animas in revolutione credunt posse constare.
Line 455. NON TACITAS EREBI SEDES DITISQ. P. P. R. P. S. A. O. A. prudentes dicunt
per metempsychosis animas ad alterius climatis corpora transire nec in eo orbe Verseari in
quo prius fuerint. unde et Virgilius‚ pelagine venis erroribus actus.
Line 459. FELICES ERRORE SUO quoniam hac spe acrius dimicant.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADNOTATIONES SUPER LUCANUM.
87
Line 445. TEUTATES Mercurius sic dicitur, qui a Gallis hominibus caesis placatur. ESUS Mars
sic dictus a Gallis, qui hominum cruore placatur.
Line 446. ET TARANIS ordo: et quibus placatur Taranis diro sanguine laetantur hic converti
proelia. TARANIS Iuppiter dictus a Gallis, qui sanguine litatur humano.
Line 448. IN LONGUM VATES poetae, quos vates appellant.
Line 449.SECURI BARDI Germaniae gens. SECURI bene‚ securi, quia conversa sunt proelia.
CARMINA, BARDI hi enim poetas suos habent, qui pereuntibus laudem dicere solent.
Line 450. SINISTRUM perversum.
Line 451. DRUIDAE isti enim inter nemora constituti de sacrorum genere disputare
consuerunt; ideoque‚ repetistis.
Line 452. SOLIS NOSSE DEOS quia tam intente cuncta tractatis.
Line 453 REMOTIS separatis.
Line 454. VOBIS AUCTORIBUS UMBRAE hoc enim disputant animas ad inferos non ire, sed
in alio orbe nasci.
Line 457. LONGE [sic!] CANITIS SI COGNITA VITAE longae vitae cognita, quia per longam
vitam didicistis; manifestum est enim senes esse sapientes propter aetatem.
Line 458. MORS M. E. C. P. cum ab hoc orbe ad alium orbem transeunt. QUOS DESPICIT
ARCTOS ipsos druidas dicit.
----------- ----------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------
SUPPLEMENTUM ADNOTATIONUM SUPER LUCANUM.
Line 446. ET TARANIS ETC. ordo est: Taranis ara non mitior ara Scythicae Dianae, quia
humano sanguine placabatur. Taranis deus est Gallorum, qui sanguine humano placabatur;
qui‚ Sciticae non mitior ara Dianae, dicitur, quia ad similitudinem Dianae quae in Taurica
Scitiae regione colebatur, cuius sacerdos Iphigenia erat, humano cruore litabatur.
Line 447. VOS QUOQ. ETC. quia mortuorum heroum acta carminibus perpetualiter
observantur. FORTES ANIMAS heroas.
Line 448. LAUDIBUS non vita. AEVUM saeculum.
Line 449. SECURI scilicet a Caesarianis. recedente hoste. BARDI Leodicenses. bardus
Gallice cantor appellatur, qui virorum fortium laudes canit, a gente Bardorum. Bardi autem
sunt Germaniae gens quae dixit viros fortes post interitum fieri immortales.
Line 451. DRYADAE populi. POSITIS pro depositis.
Line 452. VOBIS driadis.
Line 453. DATUM vel‚ datur. REMOTIS remotis lucis.
Line 454. LUCIS in silvis. VOBIS driadis. ipsos driadas dicit. UMBRAE id est animae.
Line 455. TACITAS petunt. EREBI Orci. DITISQ. scilicet non Plutonis.
88
Line 456. PALLIDA efexegesis est. SPIRITUS id est ipsa anima. ARTUS membra. scilicet
alios.
Line 457. ORBE ALIO quasi diceret apud antipodas. LONGAE ETC. ordo est: si media mors
longae
vitae est cognita, ut vos canitis. quia dicebant se post mortem alia membra sumpturos, quasi
semper viverent et mors nihil aliud erat nisi quod ab una vita in alteram ducebat; ideo ait: si
verum dicitis, mors nihil aliud est nisi medium aliquid longae vitae. COGNITA vera;
accusativus neutri generis.
Line 458. ARCTOS pars septentrionalis.
Line 459. FELICES scilicet sunt. TIMORUM est enim mors timor timorum.
------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GLOSULE SUPER LUCANUM.
Verse 445. Tevtates id est Mercurius, inde Tutonici a deo suo ita dicti; athanatos grece,
immortalis latine, theos deus, inde Teutaes Mercurius. IMMITIS quia sanguis sibi humanus
sacrificabatur, unde dicit DIRO dire effuso. ESVS Mars ab edendo quia multos in bello
consumit, uel quia sanguinem sibi sacrificatum consumit. HORRENSQVE FERIS dicit prodiro
sacrificio.
Line 446. ET TARANIS quasi diceret: et illi etiam uenerunt quibus placatur. THARANIS est
Iuppeter; nescio unde ita sit dictus. NON MITIOR pro sanguine humano. SCITHICE DIANE In
Scicia Diane sanguis humanus sacrificatur.
Line 447. VOS QVOQVE gaudetis O BARDI Leodicenses quorum multi fuerunt poete, qui de
probis in bello occisis tractantes, immortales eos semper faciebant per famam.
Line 449. SECVRI a bello cum deessent Romani. FVDISTIS CARMINA securitas enim studio
est congrua. DRIADE populi sunt.
Line 450. MOREMQVE SINISTRVM peruersum, coegerant eos Romani more Romano
sacrificare, sed Romanis remotis ad pristinum morem redierunt, unde dicit.
Line 451. REPETISTIS sed aut uos soli sapitis in sacrificando aut soli desipitis cum ritus
uester omnibus ritibus sit contrarius.
Line 453. NEMORA ALTA Ecce ritus eorum et mos sinister quia in tenebroso loco et deserto
litatis remoti ab hominum habitatione.
Line 454. VOBIS AVCTORIBVS id est sicut uos dicitis anime ad inferos non descendunt, sed
in orbe alterius hemisperii incorporantur iterum uel in aliqua parte orbis a uobis remota.
Line 455. TACITAS Anime enim instrumenta corporea loquendi uel audiendi non habent.
Line 456. PALLIDA quia sole carencia. IDEM id est aedem anima corpore tamen alterato.
------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ECCLESIAE METROPOLITANEAE COLONIENSIS CODICES MANUSCRIPTI.
Line 445. TEUTATES id est Mercurius, unde Teutonici. ESUS id est Mars.
Line 446. THARANIS Iuppiter. hi omnes in Teutonicis partibus colebantur a Taranu. ut feria
teutonice dicitur. SCITICE in Taurica provincia regis Thoantis, ubi Esphienigia (sic)
Agamemnonis filia sacerdos erat. hos per mores et ritus determinavit, quia loca certa
89
ignoravit.
Line 449. BARDI id est Leodicenses. qui carminibus suis reddunt inmortales animas
scribendo gesta regum.
Line 451. DRIADE sclavi sunt.
Line 457. ORBE ALIO apud antipodes. hi de metapsihei (sic) senserunt, et euntem ad corpus
in tribus elementis purgari dixerunt. in igne in perusta, in aere in temperata, in aqua in frigida.
vel alium orbem vocat alia corpora digniora vel indigne apud nos. fuit enim sentencia, animas
in comparibus stellis positas. et descensus per cancrum. in planetis vero pro diversitate
eorum hauriebant diversa. in corporibus tandem pro merito quedam cicius celum petebant,
quedam de corpore in corpus transeunt, donec firmamento consecuti resipiscant.
------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
And finally…
MAGNAE DERIVATIONES.
Line 445. Theutates, tis, deus mortis sic dictus est Mercurius quia humano sanguine
sacrificabatur, uel componitur a theos et athanatos, id est deus immortalis, unde Theutonus,
a, um, quedam gens quia fera est.
------------------------ ---------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------
These notes and comments are not all of great interest, even worse; they are sometimes
contradictory or questionable, even false! Below. However the translation of some of them.
COMMENTA BERNENSIA AD LUCANUM.
Line 451.
Driadae negant interire animas aut contagione inferorum adfici.
Druids deny that souls can die or go to hell or be affected by it.
Line 454.
Manes esse non dicunt sed animas in revolutione credunt posse constare.
They do not say that the manes exist, but believe that the souls can indefinitely achieve
revolutions (to return to their starting point to begin again a new life).
Line 455.
Prudentes dicunt per metempsychosis animas ad alterius climatis corpora transire nec in eo
orbe versari in quo prius fuerint.
They affirm that through metempsychosis the souls can go in bodies located under other
climates but do not come back live in the part of the world where they lived previously.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADNOTATIONES SUPER LUCANUM.
Line 454. Hoc enim disputant animas ad inferos non ire, sed in alio orbe nasci.
They dispute indeed the fact that the souls can go down to hell, because they think they are
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born after, into another world.
Line 458. Cum ab hoc orbe ad alium orbem transeunt.
Because from this world they pass in another one.
----------- ----------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------
SUPPLEMENTUM ADNOTATIONUM SUPER LUCANUM.
Line 457. Si media mors longae vitae est cognita, ut vos canitis. Quia dicebant se post
mortem alia membra sumpturos, quasi semper viverent et mors nihil aliud erat nisi quod ab
una vita in alteram ducebat. Ideo ait: si verum dicitis, mors nihil aliud est nisi medium aliquid
longae vitae.
If it is true that death is the middle of a long life, according to what you sing. Because they
said that after death they would seize other members, that they would live almost eternally,
and that death was nothing else than the fact of passing from a life into another. In other
words, if what they say is true, death is nothing but the middle of a long life.
Editor’s note. This “quasi semper” (viverent etc.) = almost eternally, is very curious. May we
conclude from that ancient druids believed neither in the existence of hell (disputant animas
ad inferos non ire, sed in alio orbe nasci) nor even to the eternity of the life of the souls/minds
of the late after death, but only in an almost eternity or very long life (of the souls/minds of
late)? Until the end of the cosmic cycle in progress therefore, and not for eternity?
What would then mean the belief in a cyclic and nonlinear history, clearly ?
------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GLOSULE SUPER LUCANUM.
Line 447. VOS QVOQVE gaudetis O BARDI Leodicenses quorum multi fuerunt poete, qui de
probis in bello occisis tractantes, immortales eos semper faciebant per famam.
And YOU ALSO rejoice O BARDS inhabitants of Liege (?) because many were the poets who
in dealing with men fallen bravely in the war rendered them forever immortal through their
fame.
Line 454.
Id est sicut uos dicitis anime ad inferos non descendunt, sed in orbe alterius hemisperii
incorporantur iterum uel in aliqua parte orbis a uobis remota.
i.e., according to you the souls do not go down into hell, but will again be embodied in a part
of the world located in the other hemisphere or in any part of a world unknown to you.
Editor’s note. No hell therefore but an unknown another world.
-------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ECCLESIALE METROPOLITANAE COLONIENSIS CODICES MANUSCRIPTI.
Line 457. ORBE ALIO: apud antipodes. Hi de metapsihei (sic) senserunt, et euntem ad
corpus in tribus elementis purgari dixerunt. In igne in perusta, in aere in temperata, in aqua in
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frigida. Vel alium orbem vocat alia corpora digniora vel indigne apud nos. Fuit enim sentencia,
animas in comparibus stellis positas. Et descensus per cancrum. In planetis vero pro
diversitate eorum hauriebant diversa. In corporibus tandem pro merito quedam cicius celum
petebant, quedam de corpore in corpus transeunt, donec firmamento consecuti resipiscant.
Given the importance of this gloss for certain neo-druidic circles, we will remind of the
circumstances of its discovery. What appears here is the gloss annotating one of the Latin
manuscripts published in Berlin in 1874 by Philip Jaffé and Wilhelm Wattenbach in their large
volume entitled "Ecclesiae Metropolitanae Coloniensis codices manuscripti. Descripserunt
Philippus Jaffé et Guilelmus Wattenbach. Berolini apud Weidmannos 1874".
Page 140.
ORBE ALIO: on the other side of the world. Here what they thought in connection with
metempsychosis, and they said that we must be three times over purified before entering a
(new) body. As for one’s ardor through combustion, as for one’s air through a moderated heat,
as for one’s water through cold. Or then they call "other world" going into bodies worthier or
less worthy than ours here below.
This sentence means perhaps the souls laid then in stars of the same nature as themselves.
Then went down again through the sign of Cancer. While growing rich through planets by
various elements according to their needs and their nature. Finally, after having entered new
bodies certain ones reached more quickly heaven according to their merits while others
continued to go from a body into another body until they also reach themselves the
firmament.
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ATHENAEUS (born around 170, died in the second century).
A Greek scholar and grammarian.
DEIPNOSOPHISTS OR THE BANQUET OF THE LEARNED.
BOOK III.
Chapter LXXIV.
…There is a loaf also called dipyrus, or twice baked. Eubulus says, in his Ganymede:
And nice hot twice-baked loaves.
And Alcaeus says, in his Ganymede-
A. But what are dipyri, or twice-baked loaves, are!
B. Of all loaves the most delicate. ..
Chapter LXXIX.
…And among the Greeks there is a kind of bread which is called tender, being made up with
a little milk and oil, and a fair quantity of salt and one must make the dough for this bread
loose. And-this kind of loaf is called the Cappadocian, since tender bread is made in the
greatest quantities in Cappadocia. But the Syrians call loaves of this kind lakhme and it is the
best bread made in Syria, because it can be eaten hot and it is like a flour …
BOOK IV.
Chapter XXXIV.
"But among the Galatians," says Phylarchus in his sixth book, "it is the custom to place on the
tables a great number of loaves broken plentifully, and meat just taken out of the cauldrons,
which no one touches without first waiting for the king to see whether he touches anything of
what is served up before him." But in his third book the same Phylarchus says that "Ariamnes
the Galatian, being an exceedingly rich man, gave notice that he would give all the Galatians
a banquet every year, and that he did so, managing in this manner: He divided the country,
measuring it by convenient stages along the roads; and at these stages he erected tents of
stakes and rushes and osiers, each containing about four hundred men, or somewhat more,
according as the district required, and with reference to the number that might be expected to
throng in from the villages and towns adjacent to the stage in question. And there he placed
huge cauldrons, full of every sort of meat; and he had the cauldrons made in the preceding
year before he was to give the feast, sending for artisans from other cities. And he caused
many victims to be slain - a number of oxen, and pigs, and sheep and other animals - every
day; and he caused casks of wine to be prepared, and a great quantity of ground corn. And
not only," he continues, "did all the Galatians who came from the villages and cities enjoy
themselves, but even all the strangers who happened to be passing by were not allowed to
escape by the slaves who stood around, but were pressed to come in and partake of what
had been prepared."
Chapter XXXVI.
And Poseidonius the Stoic, in the histories which be composed in a manner by no means
inconsistent with the philosophy which he professed, writing of the laws that were established
and the customs which prevailed in many nations, says - " The Celts place food before their
guests, putting grass for their seats, and they serve it up on wooden tables raised a very little
above the ground; and their food consists of a few loaves, and a good deal of meat brought
up floating in water, and roasted on the coals or on spits. They eat their meat in a clean
manner enough, but like lions, taking up whole joints in both their hands and gnawing them; if
there is any which they cannot easily tear away, they cut it off with a small sword which they
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have in a case fixed at the sheath of their battle sword. Those who live near the rivers eat
fish also, and so do those who live near the Mediterranean Sea, or near the Atlantic Ocean;
they eat it roasted with salt and vinegar and cumin seed. Cumin seeds they also throw into
their wine. But they use no oil, on account of its scarcity; and because they are not used to it,
it seems disagreeable to them. When many of them sup together, they all sit in a circle; and
the bravest sits in the middle, like the coryphaeus of a chorus; because he is superior to the
rest either in his military skill, or in birth, or in riches; and the man who gives the entertainment
sits next to him; and then on each side the rest of the guests sit in regular order, according as
each is eminent or distinguished for anything. And their armor bearers, bearing their large
oblong shields, called thureoi, stand behind; and their spear bearers sit down opposite in a
circle, and feast in the same manner as their masters. And those who act as cupbearers and
bring round the wine, bring it round in jars made either of earthenware or of silver, like
ordinary casks in shape, and the name they give them is still [Greek ambikos]. And their
platters on which they serve up the meat are also made of the same material; but some have
brazen platters, and some have wooden or plaited baskets.
And the liquor which is drunk is, among the rich, wine brought from Italy or from the country
about Marseilles; and this is drunk unmixed, but sometimes a little water is mixed with it. But
among the poorer classes what is drunk is a beer made of wheat prepared with honey, and
oftener still without any honey; they call it korma. And they all drink it out of the same cup, in
small drafts, not drinking more than a cyathus at a time but they take frequent drafts. A slave
carries the liquor round, beginning at the left hand and going on to the right; this is the way in
which they are waited on, and in which they worship the gods/ always turning towards the
right hand."
Chapter XXXVII.
And Poseidonius continuing, and relating the riches of Luernius the father of Bituitus, who
was subdued by the Romans, says: "he, aiming at becoming a leader of the populace, used
to drive in a chariot over the plains, and scatter gold and silver among the myriads of Celts
who followed him; and that he enclosed a fenced space of twelve stades square, in which he
erected casks, and filled them with expensive liquors; and that he prepared so vast a quantity
of eatables that for very many days anyone who chose was at liberty to go and enjoy what
was there prepared, being waited on without interruption or cessation. And once, when he
had issued beforehand invitations to a banquet, some poet from some barbarian tribe came
too late and met him on the way, sung a hymn in which he extolled his magnificence, and
bewailed his own misfortune in having come too late. Luernius was pleased with his ode, and
called for a bag of gold, and threw it to him as he was running by the side of his chariot. He
picked it up, and then went on singing, saying that his very chariot prints upon the earth over
which he drove produced benefits to men." Those now are the accounts of the Celts given by
Poseidonius in the twenty-third book of his history.
Chapter XL.
But Posidonius, in the twenty-third book of his Histories, says: “The Celts sometimes have
single combats at their entertainments. For being collected in arms, they go through the
exercise, and make feints at, and sometimes they even go so far as to wound one another.
And being irritated by this, if the bystanders do not stop them, they will proceed even to kill
one another. But in olden times," he continues, "there was a custom that a hind quarter of
pork was put on the table, the bravest man took it; but if anyone else laid claim to it, then the
two rose up to fight, till one of them was slain. And other men in the theater * having received
some silver or gold money, and some even for a number of earthen vessels full of wine,
having taken pledges that the gifts promised shall really be given, and having distributed them
among their nearest companions, have laid themselves down on shields, with their faces
upwards, and then allowed some bystander to cut their throats with a sword." …
* Editor’s note. By theater it is certainly necessary to understand “publicly, in the full light of
day for everyone, at the very least in the presence of witnesses.”
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BOOK VI.
Chapter XXV.
But that tribe of Celts which is called the Cordistae *, does not introduce gold into their
country either, still they
are not the less ready to plunder the territories of their neighbors, and to commit injustice and
that nation is a
remnant of the Galatians who formed the army of Brennus when he made his expedition
against the temple of Delphi. And a certain Bathanatius, acting as their leader, settled them as
a colony in the districts around the Ister, from whom they call the road by which they returned
the Bathanatian road, and even to this day they call his posterity the Bathanati.
And these men proscribe gold, and do not introduce it into their territories, as a thing on
account of which they have
suffered many calamities; but they do use silver, and for the sake of that they commit the
most enormous atrocities.
Although the proper course would be, not to banish the whole class of the thing of which they
were formerly plundered, but the impiety which could perpetrate such a sacrilege....
* Editor’s note. Probably the Scordisci of Belgrade (Singidunum) in Serbia.
Chapter XLIX
And Posidonius of Apamea, in the twenty-third book of his histories, says: "The Celts, even
when they make war,
take about with them companions to dine with them, whom they call parasites. And these men
celebrate their praises
before large companies assembled , and also to private individuals who are willing to listen to
them: they also have a kind of cantor called bards, who make them music; and these are
poets, who recite their praises with
songs. And in his thirty-fourth book, the same writer speaks of a man whose name was
Apollonius, as having been the
parasite of Antiochus surnamed Grypus, king of Syria. And Aristodemus relates that...
Chapter LIV.
....But Nicolaus of Damascus, and he was one of the Peripatetic school, in his very
voluminous history (for it consisted of a hundred and forty-four books), in the hundred and
eleventh book says that Adiatomus the king of the Sotiani * (and that is a Celtic tribe) had six
hundred picked men about him, who were called by the Celts, in their national language,
Siloduri **and by us euchoolimaioi [which word means in Greek language, “Bound under a
vow until death”]. And the king had them as companions, to live with him and to die with him;
as that is the vow which they all take. In return for which, they also share his power, and wear
the same dress, and eat the same food; and they die when he dies, as a matter of absolute
necessity if the king dies of any disease; or if he dies in war, or in any other manner. And no
one can even say that any of them has shown any fear of death, or has in the least, sought to
evade it when the king is dead."
* Editor’s note: undoubtedly Adcantuannus/Adiatuanos king of the Sotiates.
** Editor’s note: probably the soldurii evoked by Caesar about this chief.
BOOK XIII.
Mistresses of famous men.
...And Ulpianus, as if he had got some unexpected gain, while Myrtilus was still speaking,
said:
Do we say tigris in the masculine gender? for I know that Philemon says this in his play called
Neaera:
Just as Seleucus sent a tigress here,
Which we have seen, so in turn we ought now
To send Seleucus back a beast from here.
95
Let's send him a trigeranus; for that's
An animal not known much in his country.
APPIAN (95-160).
Appian of Alexandria. A Greek historian living in Rome, where he acquired knight’s rank.
ROMAN HISTORY.
THE CIVIL WARS.
BOOK IV.
Chapter XCV.
... History tells us that the city was once captured by the most savage barbarians, but the
Celts never cut off any heads, they never insulted the dead, they never begrudged their
enemies a chance to hide or fly...
Editor’s note. There was therefore no clear even relentless genocidal will among them, unlike
the Romans at certain times of their history.
Below, just in case, a last excerpt, but which seems simply to be a variant of one of the
passages devoted to the Celtic wars, mentioned above.
SAMNITE WARS.
Once a great number of the Senones, a Celtic tribe, aided the Etruscans in war against the
Romans. The latter sent ambassadors to the town of the Senones and complained that, while
they were under treaty stipulations, they were furnishing mercenaries to fight against the
Romans. Although they bore the caduceus, and wore the garments of their office, Britomaris
cut them in pieces and flung the parts away, alleging that his own father had been slain by the
Romans while he was waging war in Etruria. The consul Cornelius, learning of this
abominable deed while he was on the march, abandoned his campaign against the
Etruscans, dashed with great rapidity by way of the Sabine country and Picenum against the
towns of the Senones, and devastated them with fire and sword. He carried their women and
children into slavery, and killed all the adult youth except a son of Britomaris, whom he
reserved for awful torture, and led in his triumph.
When the Senones who were in Etruria heard of this calamity, they joined with the Etruscans
and marched against Rome. After various mishaps these Senones, having no homes to return
to, and being in a state of frenzy over their misfortunes, fell upon Domitius, by whom most of
them were destroyed. The rest slew themselves in despair. Such was the punishment meted
out to the Senones for their crime against the ambassadors.
THE CELTIC WARS.
Editor’s note. It’s in fact fragments which we only know by the quotations made by Byzantine
authors like the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus or the Suda, an encyclopedia. The
order of their sequence thus varies according to the editions.
At an early period the Celts waged war against the Romans, took Rome itself, except the
Capitol, and burned it. [The dictator] Camillus, however, overcame and expelled them. At a
later period, when they had made a second invasion, he overcame them again and enjoyed a
triumph in consequence, being then in his eightieth year.
A third army of Celts which invaded Italy was destroyed by the Romans under Titus Quintius.
Afterward the Boii, the most savage of the Celtic tribes, attacked the Romans.....
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Another Celtic force was defeated by Popillius, and after this Camillus, son of the former
Camillus, defeated the same tribe. Afterward Aemilius Papus won some trophies from the
Celts. Shortly before the consulships of Marius a most numerous and warlike horde of Celtic
tribes [the Cimbri and Teutones], most formidable in bodily strength, made incursions into
both Italy and Galatia, and defeated some of the Roman consuls, and cut their armies in
pieces. Marius was sent against them and he destroyed them all.
....
In the XCVII Olympiad, according to the Greek calendar, a considerable part of the Celts who
dwelt along the Rhine moved off in search of new land that which they occupied being
insufficient for their numbers. Having scaled the Alps, they fell upon the territory of Clusium, a
fertile part of Etruria. The Clusians had made a league with the Romans not long before, and
now applied to them for aid. So the three Fabii were sent with the Clusians as ambassadors
to the Celts to order them to vacate the country that was in alliance with Rome, and to
threaten them if they did not obey. The Celts replied that they feared no mortal man in threat
or war, that they were in need of land, and that they had not yet meddled with the affairs of
the Romans. The Fabii urged the Clusians to make an attack upon the Celts while they were
heedlessly plundering the country. They took part in the expedition themselves and slew an
immense number of the Celts whom they caught foraging. Quintus Fabius, one of the Roman
embassy, himself killed the chief of that band, stripped his body, and carried his arms back to
Clusium.
After the Fabii had slain this large number of Celts, Brennus, their king, though he had
refused to recognize the Roman embassy, for the purpose of intimidating the Romans
selected as ambassadors to them certain Celts who exceeded all the others in bodily size as
much as the Celts exceeded other peoples, and sent them to Rome to complain that the
Fabii, while serving as ambassadors, had joined in war against him, contrary to the law of
nations. He demanded that they should be given up to him for punishment unless the
Romans wished to make the crime their own. The Romans acknowledged that the Fabii had
done wrong, but having great respect for that distinguished family, they urged the Celts to
accept a pecuniary compensation from them. As the latter refused, they elected the Fabii
consul and military tribunes for that year, and then said to the Celtic ambassadors that they
could not do anything to the Fabii now because they were now holding office, but told them to
come again next year if they were still in a bad humor.
Brennus and the Celts under him considered this an insult and took it hard.
Accordingly they sent around to the other Celts asking them to make common cause of war
with them. When a large number had collected in obedience to this summons, they broke
camp and marched against Rome.
....
Meanwhile, the Celts filled themselves to repletion with wine and other luxuries, being
intemperate by nature, and inhabiting a country which yielded only cereals, and was unfruitful
and destitute of other productions. Thus their large bodies became delicate, distended with
fatness, and heavy by reason of excessive eating and drinking, and quite incapable of running
or hardship; and when any exertion was required of them they speedily became exhausted by
perspiration and shortness of breath.
Camillus showed the Celts naked to the Romans and said: "These are the creatures who
assail you with such terrible shouts in battle, and clash their arms and shake their long swords
and toss their hair. Behold their weakness of soul, their slothful and flabby bodies, and gird
yourselves to your work."
...
The Celt, furious and exhausted with loss of blood, pursued Valerius hastening in order to
grapple with him. As Valerius was all the time dodging just in front of him, the Celt fell
headlong. The Romans felicitated themselves on this second single combat with the Celts.
97
The Senones, although they had a treaty with the Romans, nevertheless furnished
mercenaries against them, wherefore the Senate sent an embassy to them to remonstrate
against this infraction of the treaty.
Britomaris, the Celt, being incensed against them on account of his father, who had been
killed by the Romans while fighting on the side of the Etruscans in this very war, slew the
ambassadors while they held the caduceus in their hands, and wore the garments of their
office. He then cut their bodies in small pieces and scattered them in the fields.
The consul Cornelius, learning of this abominable deed while he was on the march, moved
with great speed against the towns of the Senones by way of the Sabine country and
Picenum, and ravaged them all with fire and sword. He reduced the women and children to
slavery, killed all the adult males without exception, devastated the country in every possible
way, and made it uninhabitable for anybody else. He carried off Britomaris alone as a prisoner
for torture. A little later the Senones (who were serving as mercenaries), having no longer any
homes to return to, fell boldly upon the consul Domitius , and being defeated by him killed
themselves in despair. Such punishment was meted out to the Senones for their crime
against the ambassadors.
Editor’s note. Except that apparently the majority of the victims of this Roman genocide were
for nothing in the massacre of the ambassadors, which was only the result of a terrible
revenge.
The chiefs of the Salyi, a nation vanquished by the Romans, took refuge with the Allobroges.
When the Romans asked for their surrender and it was refused, they made war on the
Allobroges, under the leadership of Gnaeus Domitius. When he was passing through the
territory of the Salyi, an ambassador of Bituitus, king of the Allobroges, met him, arrayed
magnificently and followed by attendants likewise arrayed, and also by dogs; for the
barbarians of this region use dogs also as bodyguards. A musician was in the train who sang
in barbarous fashion the praises of King Bituitus, and then of the Allobroges, and then of the
ambassador himself, celebrating his birth, his bravery, and his wealth; for which reason chiefly
their illustrious ambassadors usually take such people along with them. But this one, although
he begged pardon for the chiefs of the Salyi, accomplished nothing.
THE SPANISH WARS.
The war of fire.
Chapter I.
63. Viriathus, having first laid an ambush in a dense thicket, retreated until Vetilius was
passing through the place, when he turned, and those who were in ambush sprang up. On all
sides they began killing the Romans, driving them over the cliffs and taking prisoners. Vetilius
himself was taken prisoner; and the man who captured him, not knowing who he was, but
seeing that he was old and fat, and considering him worthless, killed him. Of the 10,000
Romans, 6,000 with difficulty made their way to the city of Carpessus on the seashore (which
I think was formerly called by the Greeks Tartessus, and was ruled by King Arganthonius, who
is said to have lived one hundred and fifty years).
98
ARRIAN (circa 86-160).
A Roman historian of Greek language. Wanted to be a new Xenophon.
CYNEGETICUS OR TREATISE OF HUNTING ( ON COURSING).
Chapter XXXII.
…For all which reasons, in my opinion, a really good, high-bred dog is a great treasure, one
that falls not to the lot of a courser without the favor of some god. For such a blessing, then,
he should sacrifice to Artemis * the huntress. He should sacrifice, too, whenever successful in
his hunt, dedicate the first fruits of his spoils to the goddess, and purify his hounds and
huntsmen, as regulated by the established rites of the country.
Chapter XXXIII.
Some of the Celts have a custom of annually sacrificing to Artemis *; they institute a kitty for
the goddess, into which they pay two obols for every hare that is caught —a drachma for a
fox (because he is a crafty animal, and destroys hares, for this reason they put in a larger
amount, on the grounds that an enemy has been caught) — and four drachmae for a roe
deer, in consideration of his size, and greater value as a game.
When the year comes round, on the return of the nativity of Artemis, the treasury is opened,
and a victim purchased out of the money collected; either a sheep, or kid, or heifer, according
to the amount of the sum: and then, after having sacrificed, and presented the first offerings
of their victims to the goddess of the chase, according to their respective rites, they give
themselves up, with their hounds, to festivals and recreation, crowning the latter on this day
with garlands, as an indication of the festival being celebrated on their account.
Chapter XXXIV.
This Celtic law I follow with my fellows, because I declare no human undertaking to have a
prosperous issue without the interposition of the gods…
* Editor’s note. It is, of course, the Greek interpretation [interpretatio Graeca] of a Celtic
goddess of hunting like Arduinna or Abnoba. Hence the importance of the traditions and
customs in the ritual. Celts never having possessed hunting goddess…unique! As our master
for everybody, Henry Lizeray, says very well, a tradition, that must be interpreted.
THE ANABASIS OR THE CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER.
BOOK I.
Chapter I.
Section 3.
On the third day after the battle, Alexander reached the river Ister, which is the largest of all
the rivers in Europe, traverses a very great tract of country, and separates very warlike
nations. Most of these belong to the Celtic race, in whose territory the sources of the river
take their rise. Of these nations the remotest are the Quadi and Marcomanni; then the
Iazygians, a branch of the Sauromatians then the Getae, who hold the doctrine of immortality;
then the main body of the Sauromatians; and, lastly, the Scythians (whose land stretches) as
far as the outlets of the river, where through five mouths it discharges its water into the Euxine
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Sea….
Section 4.
…Alexander took the city and all the booty which the Getae left behind. This he gave to
Meleager and Philip to carry off. After razing the city to the ground, he offered sacrifice upon
the bank of the river, to Zeus the preserver, to Heracles, and to Ister himself, because he had
allowed him to cross and while it was still the day he brought all his men back safe to the
camp. There ambassadors came to him from Syrmus, king of the Triballians, and from the
other independent nations dwelling near the Ister. Some even arrived from the Celts who
dwelt near the Ionian Gulf. These people are of great stature, and of a haughty disposition. All
the envoys said that they had come to seek Alexander’s friendship. To all of them he gave
pledges of amity, and received pledges from them in return. He then asked the Celts what
thing in the world caused them special alarm, expecting that his own great fame had reached
the Celts and had penetrated still further, and that they would say that they feared him most of
all things. But the answer of the Celts turned out quite contrary to his expectation; for, as they
dwelt so far away from Alexander, inhabiting districts difficult of access, and as they saw he
was about to set out in another direction, they said they were afraid that the sky would some
time or other fall down upon them. These men also he sent back, calling them friends, and
ranking them as allies, only adding the remark that the Celts were braggarts.
TECHNE TAKTIKE OR ARS TACTICA IN LATIN: ON TACTICS (Translation Ann Hyland).
Chapter XXXII.
I shall now describe the cavalry exercises carried out by the Roman cavalry in their training,
since I have already given an account of the infantry exercises in the book which I wrote for
the emperor himself. This will conclude my work on tactics.
Chapter XXXIII.
I am well aware, however, that the explanation of the various terms will be difficult, even for
the Romans themselves, because many do not belong to their native tongue, but some of
them derive from the Iberians or the Celts, since they have taken over the institutions which
are themselves Celtic, Celtic cavalry being held in high regard by them in battle. For if for any
other reason the Romans merit praise, they do so especially on this account that their
devotion to their own native institutions has not been such as to prevent them from taking
over good customs from every source and making them their own.
Chapter XXXVII.
It is here that good horsemanship is especially required, so as to be able simultaneously to
throw a javelin at those riding past and to use the shield to protect the right side. When the
cavalryman rides parallel to the target, he must swivel to the right in order to throw the javelin.
And in making a complete about-turn, he must perform what is called the petrinos in the Celtic
language, which is the most difficult of all. For he must turn right round, as far as the tender
nature of his sides will allow, to face the horse's tail in order to throw backward as accurately
as possible. When he has done this, he has to turn quickly forward again and bring his shield
to cover his back, since if he turns without his protection, he will expose his unprotected back
to the enemy.
Editor’s note. To visualize these very complex maneuvers of the Celtic riders (Cantabrians
and others) refer to the three illustrations in the book by Ann Hyland, pages 120,123 and 135.
The Cantabrian flag was indeed a Celtic labarum.
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Chapter XLII.
When this voluntary display of javelin throwing is over, then the outstanding senior officers of
the company order the names of all horsemen to be called out in order, first the decurio and
after him the duplicarius and the sesquiplicarius (literally, who gets pay and a half), and then
the other members of the turma in turn. The man whose name is called must answer 'Present'
with a great shout and simultaneously gallop forward carrying three lances. The first of these
he must hurl at the target from the edge of the dug-out area, the second when level with the
tribune and while his horse is still galloping straight forward; and, if he will follow the rules laid
down by the emperor, he must hurl the third as his horse veers to the right, aiming at another
target which on the emperor's instructions they set up for this very purpose, namely to receive
the third lance. This is the most difficult throw of all, since it is made at the very moment that
the horse is turning and before it has completed the turn. A throw made in this way goes by
the name of xynema in the Celtic language. The man who is successful in this has performed
the feat called xynema (in the Celtic language), and this is not easy even with any (iron) head
to the lance.
Chapter XLIII.
The exercises do not end at this point. They advance holding their spears projecting straight
out in front, and then as though they are pursuing an enemy in flight. Others, as if acting
against another enemy, wheel their horses round and swing their shields over their heads so
that they are behind them and maneuver their spears as though to deal with another enemy's
attack. The Celts call their maneuver the toloutegon. Furthermore, they draw their swords and
make different kinds of strokes, whatever is best suited to bring down a fleeing enemy, or kill
a man already lying on the ground, or to do anything involving attack from the flanks. What is
more, they practice all kinds of ways of jumping onto their horses, all the different forms and
methods by which a man can get on his horse. They end by demonstrating how a man in full
armor can leap on his horse when it is galloping, a practice that some describe as the
"traveler.”
Chapter XLIV.
All these exercises have been understood by the Roman cavalry and have long been
practiced. The emperor indeed seeks out foreign practices with which to train them, for
example the maneuvers of the horse archers of the Parthians and Armenians, the wheeling
and evolution practiced by the lance-bearing cavalry of the Sarmatians and the Celts as the
horses charge in formation, including the many, varied methods of skirmishing that are very
useful in battle, and the native war cries that each race has, namely Celtic war cries for the
Celtic cavalry, Getic for the Getic cavalry, and Raetian for cavalry from Raetia.
Furthermore, their cavalry practices jumping across ditches and leaping over small walls. To
sum up, of the ancient exercises there is none that the Romans have omitted and not
practiced from the beginning.
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POMPONIUS MELA (First century of Common Era).
The earliest Roman geographer. Author of a description of the world known by the Greco-
Romans. His work (De situ orbis or De chorographia) is a simple compendium, of less a
hundred pages, written in a dry and not very methodical style.
ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD (IN LATIN DE CHOROGRAPHIA OR DE SITU
ORBIS).
BOOK II.
Around Our Sea. From Asia to the Pillars of Hercules.
1. That is, as I have said, the layout of Asia where it verges on Our Sea and the Tanais River.
If people travel by the Tanais into the Maeotis, Europe is situated to the right, but to the left if
sailing upriver. In Europe, constantly falling snow makes those places contiguous with the
Riphaean Mountains (which actually reach even this far) so impassable that, in addition, they
prevent those who deliberately travel here from seeing anything….
Chapter I.
Scythia.
…
8. The river that separates the peoples of Scythia from their neighbors, however, begins—its
sources in Germania are known—with a name different from the one with which it finishes. In
fact, through immense lands belonging to great nations, it is for a long time the Danube; then
with the local peoples using another name, it becomes the Ister …
BOOK III.
Chapter II.
The Continental Celtica.
16. Celtica’s second coast follows. At first its shoreline does not go out to sea at all, but after a
while, proceeding almost as far beyond Hispania as Hispania had receded, it comes to lie
opposite the lands of the Cantabri. The coast then bends in a great curve and turns its flank
so that it faces west. Then turning to face north, the coastline unfolds a second time in a long
and straight stretch up to the banks of the Rhine.
17. The land is rich, primarily in grain and fodder, and it is lovely with its vast woods. It is
conducive to good health and rarely populated with animals of a harmful kind, but it
supports—with difficulty, and not everywhere—those plants that are intolerant of the cold.
18. The peoples are crude, superstitious, and sometimes even so monstrous that they used
to believe that to the gods the best and most pleasing sacrificial victim was a human being.
Traces of their savagery remain, even though it has been banned now. Nevertheless, after
they have led their consecrated human victims to the altars, they still graze them slightly,
although they do hold back from the ultimate bloodshed. And yet, they have both their own
eloquence and their own teachers of wisdom: the druids.
19. These men claim to know the size and shape of the earth and of the universe, the
movements of the sky and of the stars, and what the gods intend. In secret, and for a long
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time (twenty years), they teach many things to the noblest males among their people, and
they do it in a cave or in secret places at the bottom of the forests. One of the precepts they
teach—obviously to make them better for war—has leaked into common knowledge, namely,
that souls/minds [Latin animas] are immortal and that there exists another life at the Manes.
Therefore they cremate and bury with the dead things that are suitable for the living. And long
ago traders’ accounts and debt registers also accompanied the dead, in order to be balanced
or honored in the other world and some individuals happily threw themselves onto the pyres
of their loved ones as if they were going to live with them!
Chapter VI.
46. In front of these shores, which we have traced all the way here from the angle of Baetica,
also lie many obscure islands that have no names…
47. In front of Lusitania are the isle of Erythia, which we are told was the home of Geryon, and
other islands without fixed names. The fields of Erythia are so fertile that as soon as grain is
planted, as soon as the seed falls to the ground and renews the crop, they produce at least
seven harvests, sometimes even more. On the Celtic coast are a number of islands that,
because they are all rich in lead, people call by one name, the Cassiterides.
48. In the Britannic Sea, opposite the coast of the Osismi, the isle of Sena belongs to a Celtic
deity and is famous for its oracle, whose priestesses, sanctified by their perpetual virginity, are
reportedly nine in number. They call the priestesses Gallizenae and think that because they
have been endowed with unique powers, they stir up the seas and the winds by their magic
charms, that they turn into whatever animals they want, that they cure what is considered
incurable among other peoples, that they know and predict the future, but that it is not
revealed except to sea voyagers and then only to those traveling to consult them.
49. Next, as to what kind of place [Great ] Britain is and what kind of people it produces,
information that is more certain and better established will be stated. The reason is that the
greatest prince has just opened to us this long-closed island, and as the conqueror of
previously unsubdued and previously unknown peoples, after having explored this country by
the war, brings back with him some examples of its proprieties, which he will show chained to
the chariot of his triumph.
50. Moreover, just as we have thought until now, [Great] Britain projects between the west
and the north in a wide angle and its point looks towards the mouths of the Rhine. It then
draws its sides back obliquely, facing continental Celtica with one side, Germania with the
other; then returning with a continuous line of straight shore on its rear side. Britain again
wedges itself into two different angles which give it a triangular shape very similar that of
Sicily. Britain is flat, huge, fertile, but more generously so for what feeds sheep than for what
sustains humans.
51. It supports forests and meadows and colossal rivers that sometimes flow to the sea,
sometimes back again, with alternating currents, and certain other rivers that produce gems
and pearls. It supports peoples and their kings, but all are uncivilized. The farther from the
sea, the more ignorant they are of other kinds of wealth, being wealthy only in sheep and
land, and, whether for beauty or for some other reason, they have their bodies dyed blue.
52. They produce, nevertheless, the causes of war and actual wars, and they take turns
harassing one another constantly, mainly because they have a strong desire to rule and a
strong drive to expand their holdings. They make war not only on horseback or on foot but
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also from two-horse chariots and cars armed in the fashion of the continental Celts, they call
them covinni, on which they use axles equipped with scythes*.
53. On the far side of [Great] Britain, Iverna [today Ireland] is more or less equal in area, but it
is oblong with equally extended lateral coastlines. Its climate is hideous for ripening seeds,
but the island is so luxuriant with grass—not only abundant but sweet—that sheep stuff
themselves in a fraction of the day, and unless they are kept from the pasture, they burst from
feeding too long. Its inhabitants are undisciplined and ignorant of every virtue, to a greater
degree than any other nation, and they are very much inexperienced in piety.
54. The thirty Orkney Islands are separated by narrow spaces between them…
57. Thule is located near the coast of the Belcae; it is very celebrated in Greek poetry and in
our own. On it—because there the sun rises far from where it will set—nights are necessarily
brief, but all winter long they are as dark as anywhere, and in summer, bright. All summer the
sun moves higher in the sky at this time, and although it is not actually seen at night, the sun
nevertheless illuminates adjacent places when its radiance is close by; but during the solstice
there is no night, because at that time the sun is now more visible and shows not only its
brilliance but most of itself too.
* Covinni. It is in a chariot of this kind that the Irishman Cuchulain will perform some of his
exploits.
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EUMENIUS (260-311).
A famous professor of rhetoric in Autun (French department of Saone-et-Loire). One can allot
to him undoubtedly at least one of the twelve panegyrics: the number IX (5 per chronological
order, pronounced in 298 for the restoration of the schools of the city), since his name
appears in full in the body text.
But three other speeches of this collection of 12 panegyrics are also allotted to him by some
authors, other specialists refusing and preferring to see in them some works of Mamertinus or
of anonymous authors. They are the panegyrics No. V of the year 311. The eight by
chronological order thus. A speech of thanks, on behalf of the inhabitants of Flavia (= Autun).
No. VI of year 310. The seventh in chronological order therefore. A panegyric in honor of
Constantine Augustus. No. VIII of year 297. The fourth in chronological order therefore in the
honor of Constantius Chlorus.
Below what one can probably also find in the first of these panegyrics of Eumenius and
concerning our subject, that which was delivered in the honor of Constantius Chlorus in 297.
PANEGYRIC ON CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS.
XI.“And assuredly it was not the case, because [Great] Britain was only one name, that its
loss was such a trifling one for Rome: a land so abundant in crops, so rich in the number of its
pastures, so overflowing with veins of ore, so lucrative in revenues, so girt with harbors, so
vast in circumference. When that Caesar to whom you owe your name landed in [Great]
Britain, first of Romans to do so, he wrote that he had discovered another world, judging it to
be of such a large size that it seemed not to be surrounded by the Ocean, but enclosing the
Ocean itself. For at that time [Great] Britain was not armed with any vessels for naval warfare,
and the Roman state, already proficient from the time of the Punic Wars and the wars in Asia,
and also recently from the war against the pirates, and the Second Mithridatic War, was as
strong in the practice of naval warfare as in that on land. In addition to that, a nation which
was then primitive and accustomed to fight, still hall-naked, only with Picts and Hiberni, easily
succumbed to Roman arms and standards; almost to the point that Caesar should have
boasted about this one thing only on that expedition: that he had sailed across the Ocean.”
Below what one can find in the second of these panegyrics probably also by Eumenius, and
concerning our subject, that which was delivered in honor of Constantine Augustus in 310.
PANEGYRIC OF CONSTANTINE AUGUSTUS.
I. I would do, most sacred Emperor, what a great number of people have been urging upon
me just now, namely, since your majesty has allotted to my modest talents this day, which is
so celebrated in this city for my speech, to derive the beginning of my discourse from that
circumstance itself, did two reasons not dissuade me from this course....
XXI. What we must always hope for, indeed, is that you prosper and succeed even beyond
your prayers, we who put all our hopes in the lap of your majesty, and wish for your presence
everywhere, as if that boon were feasible. Take for instance the short time you were away
from the frontier. In what terrifying fashion did barbarian perfidy vaunt itself. Of course all the
while they asked themselves: "When will he reach here? When will he conquer? When will he
appear again leading a just arrived army having taken the field?”
When all of a sudden upon the news of your return they were prostrated, as if thunderstruck,
so that no more than one night's anxiety should lay its claim on your pledge to save the
commonwealth.
For on the day after that news had been received and you had undertaken the labor of double
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stages on your journey, you learned that all the waves had subsided, and that the all-
pervading calm which you
had left behind had been restored.
Fortune herself so ordered this matter that the happy outcome of your affairs prompted you to
convey to the immortal gods what you had vowed at the very spot where you had turned
aside towards [the village of Grand, French department of the Vosges] the most beautiful
temple in the whole world, or rather, to the deity made manifest, as you saw. For you saw, I
believe, O Constantine, your Apollo, accompanied by the goddess Victory, offering you laurel
wreaths, each one of which carries a portent of thirty years. For this is the number of human
ages which are owed to you without fail-beyond the old age of a Nestor. And now why do I
say, "I believe?” You saw, and recognized yourself in the likeness of him to whom the divine
songs of the vates [Latin vatum carmina divina] had prophesied that rule over the whole world
was due. And this I think has now happened, since you are, Augustus Emperor, like him,
youthful, joyful, a bringer of health and very handsome. Rightly, therefore, have you honored
those most venerable shrines with such great treasures that they do not miss their old ones,
any longer. Now may all the temples be seen to beckon you to them, and particularly our
Apollo, whose boiling waters punish perjury which ought to be especially hateful to you.
Immortal gods, when will you grant that day on which this most manifestly present god, with
peace reigning everywhere, may visit those groves of Apollo as well, both sacred shrines and
steaming mouths of springs? Their bubbling waters cloudy with gentle warmth seem to wish
to smile, Constantine, at your gaze, and to insert themselves within your Iips.
You will certainly marvel at that seat of your divinity too, and its waters warmed without any
trace of soil on fire, which has no bitterness of taste or exhalation, but the purity of drafts and
smell such as you find in icy springs. And there you will grant favors, and establish privileges,
and at last restore my homeland because of your veneration of that very spot.
Below what we can find in the third of these panegyrics probably also by Eumenius, some
publishers having even mentioned his name in the title, the one delivered in 311 to thank the
Emperor for a reduction of tax in favor of the city of Autun.
SPEECH OF THANKS TO CONSTANTINE AUGUSTUS.
In the name of the inhabitants of Flavia. By Eumenius of Autun.
I. If Flavia of the Aedui, now called at last by an eternal name, most sacred Emperor, had
been able to move herself from her foundations and come hither, the entire city I feel sure
would speak in person with one voice concerning your huge and magnificent benefactions in
her favor, and would give thanks to you as her restorer or rather, to speak more
truly, as her founder, in this city above all which you have begun to make her resemble. But
since she cannot attain that (she longs in spirit for what Nature does not permit), and the
intervening distance does not allow you to hear the shouts with which she lifts your praises to
the skies, I willingly undertook, as befitted the occasion, the announcement of the joy of my
homeland, so that I might be the mouthpiece, not now of a private study of letters, but of
public thanksgiving....
III. Long ago Saguntum was united with Rome, but only when the whole of Spain, through
weariness of the Punic war, desired to change its master. Marseilles was a friend; she
congratulated herself on being protected by
the majesty of the Roman name. In Sicily the Mamertines, in Asia the people of llium,
attributed to themselves a mythical origin. Only the Aedui, not terrified by fear, nor driven by
sycophancy *, but because of frank and sincere regard, were held to be brothers of the
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Roman people and deserved to be so called. This name, more than other terms for
relationships, attests both to mutual love and equality of rank. Then, when neighboring
nations, envying that new prize of brotherhood with Rome, and stirred by hatred to the point
of destroying themselves, had called upon the Germanics to assist them as their masters, the
chief of the Aedui came to the Senate, informed it of the situation, and when invited to sit with
it, claimed less for himself than was conceded and gave his whole speech leaning on his
shield. When help was granted, he was the first to lead a Roman army and Caesar to this
side of the Rhone...
* Editor’s note. Beyond the centuries, one of the characteristics of the entourage of the
current president of the French Republic, most of the journalists and media people (who
made him be elected in 2007, even if a few months later they were no longer so much
favorably disposed towards him) and of a notable part of the [pseudo or self-styled] elites of
this country, as regards him.
The majority of our French correspondents consider that Aedui in fact have been traitors, and
that the installation in the country of a few thousands of other Celts (Helvetii, Latobici, Tulingi,
Raurici, and Boii) or of Germanics who were in the process of Celtization (the Suebii of
Ariovist), would not have had the same effect as the pitiless colonization which followed. On
the myth of the Roman peace, cf. Maurice Bouvier-Ajam and his excellent book on the
emperors.
107
HERODOTUS (– 484 – 425).
Greek historian called the Father of History. He is also considered as one of the early
explorers. The only work we know from Herodotus is entitled "The Histories,” exactly.
Below what can be found in his first, second, and fourth books.
BOOK I.
Chapter CLXIII.
The Phocaeans were the earliest of the Greeks to make long sea voyages, and it was they
who discovered the Adriatic Sea, and Tyrrhenia, and Iberia, and Tartessus, not sailing in
round freight ships but in penteconters or
fifty-oared vessels. When they came to Tartessus they made friends with the king of the
Tartessians, whose name was Arganthonius; he ruled Tartessus for eighty years and lived a
hundred and twenty. The Phocaeans won this man's friendship to such a degree that he
invited them to leave Ionia and settle in his country wherever they liked; and then, when he
could not persuade them to, and learned from them how the Median power was increasing,
he gave them money to build a wall around their city. He gave it generously: for the circuit of
the wall is of not a few stades, and all this is made of great stones well fit together.
BOOK II.
Chapter XXXIII.
…for the Nile flows from Libya and cuts Libya through in the midst, and as I conjecture,
judging of what is not known by that which is evident to the view, it starts at a distance from its
mouth equal to that of the Ister. The river Ister comes from the Keltoi and the city of Pyrene
and so runs that it divides Europe in the midst (now the Keltoi are outside the Pillars of
Heracles and border upon the Kynesians [Greek Kunēsíoisi] who dwell furthest towards the
sunset of all those who have their dwelling in Europe); and the Ister ends, having its course
through the whole of Europe, by flowing into the Euxine Sea, at the place where the Milesians
have their settlement of Istria.
BOOK IV.
Chapter XXXII.
About a Hyperborean people the Scythians report nothing, nor do any of those who dwell in
this region, unless it be the Issedonians, but, in my opinion, neither do these report anything;
for if they did the Scythians also would report it, as they do about the one-eyed people.
Hesiod, however, has spoken of Hyperboreans, and so also has Homer in the poem of the
"Epigonoi," at least if Homer was really the composer of that epic.
Chapter XXXIII.
But much more about them is reported by the people of Delos than by any others. For these
say that sacred offerings bound up in wheat straw are carried from the land of the
Hyperboreans and come to the Scythians, and then from the Scythians the neighboring
nations in succession receive them and convey them westward, finally as far as the Adriatic:
thence they are sent forward towards the South, and the people of Dodona receive them, first
of all, the Hellenes. From these they come down to the Malian Gulf and are passed over to
Euboea, where city sends them on to city till they come to Carystos. After this Andros is left
out, for the Carystians are those who bring them to Tenos, and the Tenians to Delos. Thus
they say that these sacred offerings come to Delos; but at first, they say, the Hyperboreans
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sent two maidens bearing the sacred offerings, whose names, say the Delians, were
Hyperoche and Laodike. And with them for their protection the Hyperboreans sent five men of
their nation to attend them, those namely who are now called Perphereës and have great
honors paid to them in Delos. Since, however, the Hyperboreans found that those who were
sent away did not return, they were troubled to think that it would always befall them to send
out and not to receive back; so they bore the offerings to the borders of their land bound up in
wheat straw, and laid a charge upon their neighbors, bidding them send these forward from
themselves to another nation. These things then, they say, come to Delos being thus sent
forward; and I know of my own knowledge that a thing is done which has resemblance to
these offerings, namely that the women of Thrace and Paionia, when they sacrifice to Artemis
"the Queen," do not make their offerings without wheat straw.
Chapter XXXIV.
These I know do as I have said; for those maidens from the Hyperboreans, who died in Delos:
both the girls and the boys of the Delians cut off their hair. The former before marriage cut off
a lock and having wound it round a spindle lay it upon the tomb (now the tomb is on the left
hand as one goes into the temple of Artemis, and over it grows an olive tree), and all the boys
of the Delians wind some of their hair about a green shoot of some tree, and they also place it
upon the tomb.
Chapter XXXV.
The maidens, I say, have this honor paid them by the dwellers in Delos: and the same people
say that Arge and Opis also, being maidens, came to Delos, passing from the Hyperboreans
by the same nations which have been mentioned, even before Hyperoche and Laodike.
These last, they say, came bearing for Eileithuia the tribute which they had laid upon
themselves for the speedy birth; but Arge and Opis came with the deities themselves, and
other honors have been assigned to them by the people of Delos: for the women, they say,
collect for them, naming them by their names in the hymn which Olen, a man of Lykia,
composed in their honor; and both the natives of the other islands and the Ionians have
learned from them to sing hymns naming Opis and Arge and collecting. Now this Olen came
from Lykia and also composed the other ancient hymns which are sung in Delos. And,
moreover, they say that when the thighs of the victim are consumed upon the altar, the ashes
of them are used to cast upon the grave of Opis and Arge. Now their grave is behind the
temple of Artemis, turned towards the East, close to the banqueting hall of the Keïeans.
Chapter XXXVI.
Let this suffice which has been said of the Hyperboreans; for the tale of Abaris, who is
reported to have been a Hyperborean, I do not tell, namely how he carried the arrow about all
over the earth, eating no food. If, however, there are any Hyperboreans, it follows that there
are also Hypernotians. And I laugh when I see that, though many before this have drawn
maps of the Earth, yet no one has set the matter forth in an intelligent way; seeing that they
draw Ocean flowing round the Earth, which is circular…
Chapter XLIX.
……Thus the Ister receives both these, being great rivers. From the region which is above the
Ombricans [Greek Ombrikon], the River Carpis and another river, the Alpis, also flow towards
the North Wind and run into it; for the Ister flows in fact through the whole of Europe,
beginning in the land of the Keltoi, who after the Cynetes [Greek Kúnētas] dwell furthest
towards the sun setting of all the peoples of Europe; and thus flowing through all Europe it
falls into the sea by the side of Scythia.
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DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA (perhaps) also called more surely,
for want of anything better,
DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES (first or second century).
A Greek writer. In his poem entitled “Travel around (Periegiesis) the inhabited earth”
(Oikumenes), which will be later translated into Latin by Avienus and Priscian, we can read
what follows.
PERIEGESIS TES OIKUMENES (DESCRIPTION OF THE INHABITED WORLD).
To begin my song of the earth and broad sea
And the rivers and cities and countless tribes of men.
.....
Line 74.
After this comes the Galatian stream, where the land of Marseilles lies stretched, with its
curved harbor.
Line 282.
At its furthest borders there dwell, near the Pillars,
The people of the brave-hearted Iberians,
Reaching across the length of the land,
Where lies the cold stream of the northern Ocean,
Where the [Great] Britons and the white tribes of the war-mad Germans dwell,
Running beside the mountains of the Hercynian Forest.
They say that that land is like an ox-hide.
After the Iberians are Mount Pyrene and the homes of the Celts,
Near the springs of the fair-flowing Eridanus,
Beside the streams of which once in the solitary night the Heliades cried, lamenting
Phaethon.
There the children of the Celts, seated beneath the poplars,
Milk the tears of gold-gleaming amber.
Next after this are the haunts of the Tyrrhenian land. To the east of this appears the start of
the Alp,
Through the middle of which flow down the waters of the Rhine,
Towards the furthermost wave of the northern sea.
Lines 563 to 584.
Below the Sacred Cape, which they say is the headland of Europe,
The islands of the Hebrides, the birthplace of tin,
Are inhabited by the rich people of the illustrious Iberians.
There are two other islands by the northern shores of Ocean,
The British Isles, opposite the Rhine.
For there the river pours forth its last eddy into the sea.
The size of these islands is immense and no other among all the islands is equal to the British
isles.
Nearby there is another path of islets,
Where * the wives of the noble Amnitian men on the opposite shores
Excitedly perform the sacred rites for Bacchus according to custom,
Wreathed with clusters of black-leaved ivy by night.
And the clear sound of the tumult rises.
Not so on the banks of the Thracian Apsynthus do the Bistonians call upon loud-roaring
Eiraphiotes **;
Not so beside the black-eddying Ganges do the Indians, with their children,
Lead the revelry in honor of loud-thundering Dionysus,
Not as the women in that land raise their cries of 'Euoe.”
Cutting further along Ocean's long path in your well-built ship you would to the island of
Thulis.
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Here, when the sun reaches the pole of the Bears, the ever-blazing fire pours out day and
night alike.
Line 1182.
Farewell, you countries and islands in the sea, waters of Ocean and sacred waves of the
deep, rivers and springs and wooded mountains.
Now I have run over the swell of the entire sea, and the winding path of the lands. So let me
have from the Blessed
Ones themselves an answer worthy of my hymns.
* Editor’s Note. According to Edward Well (book printed in Oxford in 1704), it would be the
French island correctly called Belle-Ile-en-Mer, but look out, this English author is one of the
worst compulsive liars who are, and his book is a delirious forgery, totally fabricated.
** Editor’s note. The French Benignus Saumaise translated it by “born from a thigh,”
according to the legend Bacchus or Dionysus was born (erraphthai) from a thigh of Jupiter or
Zeus. It’s indeed one of the seven etymologies suggested by the Ancients. Others including
an allusion to young goats and so on.
This poem of Dionysius of Alexandria (the periegesis) received such a success that it was
used in the teaching of Greek language and geography; and that thereby we kept of it a
certain number of commentaries of exegeses or developments.
The Byzantine bishop Eustathius of Thessalonica (110-1198) thus commented on this poem.
Geographi Graeci Minores Volumen Secundum
Eustathii commentarii.
LATIN COMMENTARY ON DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES.
Line of verse 74.
Sciendum autem est fluxum hunc Galatam, qui a Gallia appellatur, Galaticum nimirum seu
Gallicum mare accolas Celtogalatas, eosque perbiberi vino meraciori intemperantius
indulgere, ferri autem sic vocari a Galata quodam Apollinis filio.
It should be known that close to this Galatian stream, called thus from the name of Galatian
people, close to this Galatian sea Celtogalatians live, and these Galatians, according to what
it is said, are devoted to wine: it is also said that this name comes to them from a certain
Galates, son of Apollo (Translation given without prejudice, my seven years of Latin are a
long way off).
Line of verse 281.
Filii namque Herculis ex muliere barbara Celtus et Iber ; ex quibus gentes Celti et Iberes.
Celtus and Iber are sons of Heracles and from a barbarian woman, and it is from them these
people, the Celts and Iberians, come (Translation given without prejudice, my seven years of
Latin are a long way off).
Line of verse 288.
Circa Pyrenen, montem nimirum Pyrenaeum, habitant Celti, prope a fonte pulchre fluentia
Eridani, quem aliqui eundem esse affirmant ac Padum, quem nunc vocamus….Celtarum
autem, inquit, filii sub his populis sedentes, auricoloris electri lacrimas mulgent, h.e. tale
electrum colligunt…….Patet etiam propter aureum fulgorem istud electrum dici esse
lacrymam Heliadum ; aurum enim metallum sacrum est soli.
Around Pyrene, i.e., the Pyrenees, the Celts live, close to the spring of the Eridanus of
111
beautiful water, which, according to some ones, is the river called today Po ..... The children
of Celts, sitting beneath the poplars, squeeze the tears of amber which glares like
gold. …That means they collect amber which is like this… It is obvious that the
aforementioned amber, because of its gilded glare, is considered as the tears from Heliades
because gold is the metal devoted to sun (Translation given without prejudice, my seven
years of Latin are a long way off).
Line 294.
Post Eridanum sunt Tyrrheni, de quibus inferius. Ab his ad orientem initium Alpium, per quas
medias devolvitur Rhenus amnis Celticus, qui duplicii ostio in oceanum exit borealem, pernix
ponte haud facile jugendus,obliquus. Hic est, qui foetas spurios dicitur a legitimis discernere,
quippe qui legitime sustineat, illegitimo vero fundo oblivionis et aquarum consignet.
After the Eridan River, there is the land of the Tyrrhenians in the east of which we can see
beginning the Alps, and from the middle of which runs out water of the Rhine, Celtic river,
which, by a double mouth, is thrown in the boreal Ocean; its course is fast, sinuous, and it is
not easy to build bridges on it. It is said this river, distinguishes the bastard children from the
legitimate children; it holds the ones up, those who are legitimate; the others, who are not, it
dispatches them to the bottom of water and into oblivion (Translation given without prejudice,
my seven years of Latin are a long way off).
Line 586.
Quibus etiam quum insulas quae ibi sunt, Amnitarum comparet has forma diminutive ? vocat,
ubi, inquit, illustrium Amnitarum uxores….Ceterunt aiunt in oceano esse insulam parvam nec
longe in alto sitam, quam Amnitarum uxores, Baccho percitae incolunt. Vir in eam insulam
non descendit, sed ipsae ad virons navigant, et, posteaquam cum iis consueverunt,
revertuntur. Tum haec sacra cum aliis similibus sacris oratorie comparat, in haec verba: " Non
sic Absinthii Thraces, neque sic Indi per Gangem, nigricantium aquarum amnem, Bacchanale
festum, Libero patri peragunt ut insulares hae mulieres.....h.e. hymno Evium Bacchum
celebrant clamante Evoe Evan; hae enim sunt fanatice in Bacchum acclamationes. Nimirum
fama est Amnitarum uxores, per totam noctem tripudiantes choreas ducere, ita ut haec in re
et thraces eis et Indi cedant,tametsi et ipsi afflati sint numine Bacchi, eique orgia magno
opere celebrant”.
Comparing with these islands (British Isles) those of these waters, he says, through a
diminutive, “the small islands of the Amnites. There the wives of the brave Amnites, etc.” It is
reported indeed, that there is in the Ocean, but not completely away from shore, a small
island inhabited by women of Amnites, possessed by the spirit of Dionysus. No man puts his
foot in this island; it is the women who go to meet the men, and after having had intercourse
with them, they return themselves on their island. Then, by oratorical comparison between
these ritual practices and others which resemble them: he [Dionysus] writes that “there exist
nowhere elsewhere, women who Žneuzousi ? that is to say celebrate with more ardor Euius
Dionysus while shouting evohe to express their Dionysiac enthusiasm. It is said, indeed that
the wives of the Amnites dance in chorus during whole nights, so that on this point yield to
them even the Thracians, even the Indians, though these people, fond of Dionysus, are
entirely devoted to these sacred orgies.”
Anonymi paraphrasis. Greek paraphrase of Dionysus Periegetes.
Line 586.
Close to the islands known as Cassiterides, there is another series of very small islands,
where women of Amnites, on the other shore, i.e., opposite, celebrate, according to the rites,
the worship of Dionysus. It is during the night, and they are crowned by corymbs of ivy with
black leaves, i.e., of bunches of this shrub with their fruits in the shape of grapes; the noise of
the drums and of the cymbals which they strike resounds away. Nowhere neither the
Bistonides in Thracia, nor the Indians, carry out the festivals of the noisy Dionysus with the
ardor of these women when they sing together: Evohe Bacchus! In other words, when they
sing the sacred hymn of the Dionysia.
112
SILIUS ITALICUS (circa 28-103).
A Roman poet and politician. He is the author of the Punica, an epic in 17 songs. Below what
we can read in it.
BOOK III.
The Celts who have added to their name that of the Hiberi also came.
To these men death in battle is glorious;
And they consider it a crime to burn the body of such a warrior;
For they believe that the soul/mind goes up to the gods in heaven,
If the body is devoured on the field by the hungry vulture.
Rich Galicia sent her people, young men
Who have knowledge concerning the entrails of beasts,
The flight of birds and the lightning of heaven;
They delight, at one time, to chant [Latin ululantem] the barbarian songs of their ancestors,
At another to stamp the ground in the dance
And clash their noisy shields in time to the music.
Such is the relaxation and sport of the men,
And such their solemn rejoicings.
.....
Carteia sent to war the children of Arganthonius;
King over their ancestors,
He surpassed all mankind in length of days,
And waged war allegedly for the space of three hundred years.
Tartessus, that sees the sun to rest, sprang to arms;
And likewise Munda, doomed to produce for Italy
The suffering of the Emathian fields;
Nor did Corduba hang back, the pride a land rich in gold.
BOOK IV.
Editor’s note. It’s an episode of the battle of Ticinus fought by Hannibal against the Romans in
218 (second Punic War) but seen by the epic poet who was Silius Italicus.
The armies advance at speed,
And a mighty noise spreads over the field
When all the riders raise their horses' heads high with the bridle
And then urge them forward;
The chargers then rush on and in their stormy flight over the plain
And leave hardly a trace of their hoof-prints on the dusty surface.
A swift squadron of Boii, commanded by Crixus, takes the lead,
Dashing against the front rank of Romans,
And blocking the way with their giant bodies.
Crixus himself, proud of his ancestry,
Claimed descent from Brennus,
And the taking of the Capitol was one of his titles to fame.
Poor fool! he displayed on his shield
The Celts weighing the gold at the foot of the sacred eminence of the Tarpeian Hill.
A golden collar glittered on his snow-white neck;
His garments were striped with gold,
With gold his gauntlets were stiff,
And his helmet crest sparkled with the same metal.
Their fearful charge struck and overthrew the men of Camertum in the front rank,
And the Boii rushed over the close-packed spears like crowding waves;
113
And the accursed Senones joined them and swelled their ranks;
And men's bodies, shattered by the chests of the horses, tumble over all the plain.
...
...
The Carthaginians had no room for fighting,
Because the furious Celts filled all the field;
Not one of them hurled his weapon in vain;
Every missile was planted in the body of a foe.
And now Quirinius, to whom flight was a thing unknown,
And whose dauntless heart chose death with wounds in front,
When the battle went against them,
Showed mighty daring, while those around him trembled.
He spurred his horse with his spear point and hurled javelins with his strong arm,
Hoping to clear a passage and burst his way by the steel to Crixus.
Assured of death, he sought with might and main the glory
He could never hope to enjoy.
Teutalus, pierced in the groin, fell before him,
And the earth shook under his huge weight;
And Sarmens next, who vowed, if victorious,
To offer to you O Gradivus [Mars] his yellow locks — the hair that rivaled gold —
And the ruddy topknot on the crown of his head.
But his vow was unheard,
And the Parcae [the Fates] drew him down to the shades
Below with his locks unshorn;
The steaming blood drenched his white limbs,
And the soaked earth turned red.
But now Ligaunus, not slowed down by the javelin that met him,
Rushed on and whirled his sword full in the face of Quirinius,
Rising to his full height as he struck.
The left arm, where the tough muscles attach the limb to the shoulder,
Was cut off by the blow;
For a space it hung dying over the slackened reins,
And the quivering hand, while it felt again with feeble effort for the bridle,
Imitated unwittingly but precisely and with strength
The familiar gesture of the horseman.
Then Vosegos [Latin Vosegus] cut off his head from behind,
And carried off the helmet with the dead man's head inside it,
Fixed at the mane of his horse,
And hailed his gods with the cry of triumph
While the Celtic tribes dealt death thus over the field,
The consul summoned his troops in hot haste from their camp,
And charged foremost against the foe, borne aloft on his white steed.
....
BOOK XIII.
And Scipio replied:
“Noblest scion of ancient Clausus,
No business of my own (and I have heavy tasks to perform)
Shall take precedence of your request.
All over the world the practice is different in this matter,
And unlikeness of opinion produces various ways
Of burying the dead and disposing of their ashes.
In the land of Spain, we are told (it is an ancient custom)
The bodies of the dead are devoured by wretched vultures.
When a king dies in Hyrcania, it is the rule to let dogs have access to the corpse.
The Egyptians enclose their dead, standing in an upright position, in a coffin of stone, and
worship it and they admit bloodless specters to their banquets.
With the peoples of the Euxine-Pontus it is the custom to empty the skull by extracting the
114
brain
And to preserve the embalmed body for centuries.
The Garamantes, again, dig a hole in the sand and bury the corpse naked,
While the Nasamones in Libya commit their dead to the cruel sea for burial.
Then the Celts have a horrid practice: they frame the bones of the empty skull in gold,
And keep it for a drinking cup.
The Cecropids passed a law that the bodies of all who had fallen in battle in defense of their
country should be burned together on a single pyre.
Again, among the Scythians the dead are fastened to tree trunks and left to rot,
And time at last is the burier of their bodies."
While thus they spoke, the ghost of the Sibyl approached,
And Autonoe bade them stop their discourse:
“Here," she said, " here is the priestess, the fountain of truth.”
115
AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS (circa 330-395).
Although of Greek origin, wrote in Latin. Historian. A Member of the last great pagan writers.
Author of Rerum Libri Gestarum or Res Gestae (a Roman history).
BOOK XV
Chapter IX
Paragraph 1.
Now then, since, as the sublime poet of Mantua has sung, "A greater series of incident rises
to my view; in a more arduous task, I engage.”
I think it a proper opportunity to describe the situation and different countries of the Celtica,
lest, among the narration of fiery preparations and the various chances of battles, I should
seem, while speaking of matters not understood by everyone, to resemble those negligent
sailors, who, when tossed about by dangerous waves and storms, begin to repair their sails
and ropes which they might have attended to in calm weather.
Paragraph 2.
Ancient writers, pursuing their investigations into the earliest origin of the continental Celts,
left our knowledge of the truth very imperfect; but at a later period, Timagenes, a thorough
Greek both in diligence and language, collected from various writings facts which had been
long unknown, and guided by his faithful statements, we, dispelling all obscurity, will now give
a plain and intelligible relation of them.
Paragraph 3.
Some people affirm that the first inhabitants ever seen in these regions were called Celts,
after the name of their king, who was very popular among them, and sometimes also Galatae,
after the name of his mother. For Galatae is the Greek translation of the Roman term Galli.
Others affirm that they are Dorians, who, following a more ancient Hercules, selected for their
home the districts bordering on the ocean.
Paragraph 4.
The druids [Latin drasidae] affirm that a portion of the people was really indigenous to the soil,
but that other inhabitants poured in from very remote islands on the coast, and from the
districts across the Rhine, having been driven from their former abodes by frequent wars, and
sometimes by inroads of a tempestuous sea.
Paragraph 5.
Some again maintain that after the destruction of Troy, a few Trojans fleeing from the Greeks,
who were then scattered over the whole world, occupied these districts, which at that time
had no inhabitants at all.
Paragraph 6.
But the natives of these countries affirm this more positively than any other fact (and, indeed,
we ourselves have read it engraved on their monuments), that Hercules, the son of
Amphitryon, hastening to the destruction of those cruel tyrants, Geryones and Tauriscus, one
of whom was oppressing the continental Celtica, and the other Spain; after he had conquered
both of them, took to wife some women of noble birth in those countries, became the father of
many children; and that his sons called the districts of which they became the kings after their
own names.
116
Paragraph 7.
Also an Asiatic tribe coming from Phocaea in order to escape the cruelty of Harpalus, the
lieutenant of Cyrus the king, sought to sail to Italy. And a part of them founded Velia, in
Lucania, others settled a colony at Marseilles, in the area of Vienne; and then, in subsequent
ages, these towns increasing in strength and importance, founded other cities. But we must
avoid a variety of details which are commonly apt to weary.
Paragraph 8.
Throughout these provinces, the people gradually becoming civilized, the study of noble
sciences flourished, having been first introduced by the bards, the vates [ Latin euhagis, the
eubages] and the druids. The bards were accustomed to employ themselves in celebrating
the brave achievements of their illustrious men, in epic verso, accompanied with sweet airs on
the lyre. The vates investigated the system and sublime secrets of nature, and sought to
explain them to their followers. Among them came the druids, men of loftier genius, bound in
brotherhoods [Latin sodaliciis, see sodalis] according to the precepts and example of
Pythagoras; their minds were elevated by investigations into secret and sublime matters, and
from the contempt which they slightly entertained for human affairs they pronounced the
soul/mind [Latin animas] immortal.
Chapter XII.
Paragraph 1.
Nearly all the Celts of the Continent are of a lofty stature, fair, and of a ruddy complexion;
terrible from the sternness of their eyes, very quarrelsome, and of great pride and insolence.
A whole troop of foreigners would not be able to withstand a single continental Celt if he
called his wife to his assistance, who is usually very strong when she is in a mad rage;
especially when, swelling her neck, gnashing her teeth, and brandishing her sallow arms of
enormous size, she begins to strike blows mingled with kicks, as if they were so many
missiles sent from the string of a catapult.
Paragraph 2.
The voices of the generality are formidable and threatening, whether they are in good humor
or angry, they are all exceedingly careful of cleanliness and neatness, nor in all the country,
and most especially in Aquitania, could any man or woman, however poor, be seen either
dirty or ragged.
Paragraph 3.
The men of every age are equally inclined to war, the old man and the man in the prime of life
answer with equal zeal the call to arms, and their bodies being hardened by their cold
weather and by constant exercise; so that they are all inclined to despise dangers and terrors.
Nor has any one of this nation ever mutilated his thumb from fear of the toils of war, as men
have done in Italy, whom in their district are called unfit for service [Latin murcus plural murci].
Paragraph 4.
The nation is fond of wine, and of several kinds of liquor which resemble wine. And many
individuals of the lower orders, whose senses have become impaired by continual
intoxication, which the apothegm of Cato defined to be a kind of voluntary madness, run
about in all directions at random; so that there appears to be some point in that saying which
is found in Cicero's oration in defense of Fonteius, "that henceforth the Celts will drink their
wine more diluted with water, than formerly," even if it is almost equivalent poisoning it,
according to them *…
* Editor’s Note. Cicero behaved rather like a crooked lawyer in this case.
BOOK XXVII.
Chapter IV.
Paragraph 4.
117
Part of this region was inhabited by the Scordisci, who now live at a great distance from these
provinces: a race formerly savage and uncivilized, as ancient history proves, sacrificing their
prisoners to Bellona and Mars, and drinking with eagerness human blood out of skulls…
POSIDONIUS (– 135 – 51).
A Stoic Greek philosopher. Has visited continental Celtica personally. Of his (monumental)
work, only fragments of Book XXIII remain. This author is one of the sources of Caesar,
Strabo, Diodorus, Plutarch, and a few others.
Below is what we found for example in Athenaeus (the Deipnosophists, book IV).
And Poseidonius the Stoic, in the histories which he composed in a manner by no means
inconsistent with the philosophy which he professed, writing of the laws that were established
and the customs which prevailed in many nations, says - " The Celts place food before their
guests, putting grass for their seats, and they serve it up on wooden tables raised a very little
above the ground; and their food consists of a few loaves, and a good deal of meat brought
up floating in water, and roasted on the coals or on spits. They eat their meat in a clean
manner enough, but like lions, taking up whole joints in both their hands and gnawing them; if
there is any which they cannot easily tear away, they cut it off with a small sword which they
have in a case fixed at the sheath of their battle sword. Those who live near the rivers eat
fish also, and so do those who live near the Mediterranean Sea, or near the Atlantic Ocean;
they eat it roasted with salt and vinegar and cumin seed. Cumin seeds they also throw into
their wine.
But they use no oil, on account of its scarcity; and because they are not used to it, it seems
disagreeable to them. When many of them sup together, they all sit in a circle; and the
bravest sits in the middle, like the coryphaeus of a chorus; because he is superior to the rest
either in his military skill, or in birth, or in riches, and the man who gives the entertainment sits
next to him; and then on each side the rest of the guests sit in regular order, according as
each is eminent or distinguished for anything. And their armor bearers, bearing their large
oblong shields, called thureoi, stand behind; and their spear bearers sit down opposite in a
circle, and feast in the same manner as their masters. And those who act as cupbearers and
bring round the wine, bring it round in jars made either of earthenware or of silver, like
ordinary casks in shape, and the name they give them is still [Greek ambikos]. And their
platters on which they serve up the meat are also made of the same material; but some have
brazen platters, and some have wooden or plaited baskets. And the liquor which is drunk is,
among the rich, wine brought from Italy or from the country about Marseilles; and this is drunk
unmixed, but sometimes a little water is mixed with it. But among the poorer classes what is
drunk is a beer made of wheat prepared with honey, and oftener still without any honey; they
call it korma. And they all drink it out of the same cup, in small drafts, not drinking more than a
cyathus at a time but they take frequent drafts. A slave carries the liquor round, beginning at
the left hand and going on to the right; this is the way in which they are waited on, and in
which they worship the gods, always turning towards the right hand."
And Poseidonius continuing, and relating the riches of Luernius the father of Bituitus, who
was subdued by the Romans, says that "he, aiming at becoming a leader of the populace,
used to drive in a chariot over the plains, and scatter gold and silver among the myriads of
Celts who followed him; and that he enclosed a fenced space of twelve stades square, in
which he erected casks, and filled them with expensive liquors; and that he prepared so vast
a quantity of eatables that for very many days anyone who chose was at liberty to go and
enjoy what was there prepared, being waited on without interruption or cessation. And once,
when he had issued beforehand invitations to a banquet, some poet from some barbarian
tribe came too late and met him on the way, sung a hymn in which he extolled his
magnificence, and bewailed his own misfortune in having come too late. Luernius was
pleased with his ode, and called for a bag of gold, and threw it to him as he was running by
118
the side of his chariot. He picked it up, and then went on singing, saying that his very chariot
prints upon the earth over which he drove produced benefits to men." Those now are the
accounts of the Celts given by Poseidonius in the twenty-third book of his history.
But Posidonius, in the twenty-third book of his Histories, says: “The Celts sometimes have
single combats at their entertainments. For being collected in arms, they go through the
exercise, and make feints at, and sometimes they even go so far as to wound one another.
And being irritated by this, if the bystanders do not stop them, they will proceed even to kill
one another. But in olden times," he continues, "there was a custom that a hind quarter of
pork was put on the table, the bravest man took it; but if anyone else laid claim to it, then the
two rose up to fight, till one of them was slain. And other men in the theater * having received
some silver or gold money, and some even for a number of earthen vessels full of wine,
having taken pledges that the gifts promised shall really be given, and having distributed them
among their nearest companions, have laid themselves down on shields, with their faces
upwards, and then allowed some bystander to cut their throats with a sword." …
* Editor’s note. By theater it is certainly necessary to understand “publicly, in the full light of
day for everyone, at the very least in the presence of witnesses.”
119
DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS (- 60 + 8).
A Greek historian.
ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.
BOOK VII.
Chapter LXX.
... For I believe that it is not enough that those who write the early histories of particular lands
should relate them in a trustworthy manner as they have received them from the inhabitants
of the country, but that these accounts also require for their support numerous and
indisputable testimonies, if they are to appear credible. Among such testimonies I am
convinced that the first and the most valid of all are the ceremonies connected with the
established worship of the gods and other deities which are performed in the various states.
These both the Greeks and barbarian world have preserved for the greatest length of time
and have never thought fit to make any innovation or entrenchment, being restrained from
doing so by their fear of the divine anger. This has been the experience of the barbarians in
particular, for many reasons which this is not the proper occasion for mentioning; and no
lapse of time has thus far induced either the Egyptians, the Libyans, the Celts, the Scythians,
the Indians, or any other barbarian nation whatever to forget or transgress anything relating to
the rites of their gods; unless some of them have been subdued by a foreign power and
compelled to exchange their own institutions for those of their conquerors. Now it has not
been the fate of the Roman commonwealth ever to experience such a misfortune, but she
herself always gives laws to others. If, therefore, the Romans had been originally barbarians,
they would have been so far from forgetting their ancestral rites and the established customs
of their country, by which they had attained to so great prosperity, they ...
BOOK XIV.
Chapter I.
The country of the Celts lies in the part of Europe which extends towards the West, between
the North Pole and the equinoctial setting of the sun. Having the shape of a square, it is
bounded by the Alps, the loftiest of the European mountains, on the East, by the Pyrenees
towards the Notus, the south wind, by the sea that lies beyond the Pillars of Hercules on the
West, and by the Scythian and Thracian nations towards the Boreas, the north wind and the
river Ister, which, descending from the Alps as the largest of the rivers on this side, and
flowing through the whole continent that lies beneath the Bears, empties into the Pontic Sea.
This land, which is so large in extent that it may be called almost the fourth part of Europe and
is well watered, fertile, rich in crops and most excellent for grazing cattle, is divided in the
middle by the river Rhine, reputed to be the largest river in Europe after the Ister.
The part on this side of the Rhine, bordering upon the Scythians and Thracians, is called
Germany, and extends as far as the Hercynian Forest and the Rhipaean mountains; the other
part, on the side facing the South, as far as the Pyrenees range and embracing the Gallic
Gulf, is called Galatia, from where the name of the sea. The whole country is called by the
Hellenes by the common name Celtica (Keltikê), according to some, from a giant Celtus who
ruled there; others, however, have a legend that to Hercules and Asteropê, the daughter of
Atlas, were born with sons, Iberus and Celtus, who gave their own names to the lands which
they ruled. Others state that there is a river Celtus rising in the Pyrenees, after which the
neighboring region at first, and in time the rest of the land as well, was called Celtica.
There are also some who say that when the first Greeks came to this region their ships,
driven by a violent wind, came to land in the Gallic Gulf, and that the men upon reaching
shore called the country Celsica (Kelsikê) because of this experience of theirs; and later
120
generations, by the change of one letter, called it Celtica.
BOOK XIX.
Fragments: the war against Pyrrhus.
Chapter XIII.
When Pyrrhus, the king of the Epirots, led an army against Rome, they voted to send
ambassadors to ask him to release to them for ransom the prisoners he had taken, either
exchanging them for others or setting a price he says each man; and they chose as
ambassadors Gaius Fabricius, who while serving as consul two years earlier had conquered
the Samnites, Lucanians and Bruttians in stubborn battles and had raised the siege of Thurii;
Quintus Aemilius, who had been Fabricius's colleague and had been in command of the
Tyrrhenian war; and Publius Cornelius, who while consul three years earlier had waged war
on the whole tribe of Celts [Senones] and had slain all their young adult males.
121
CASSIUS DIO (circa 155-235).
A Roman historian of Greek language. He is best known for his Roman history in 80 books.
ROMAN HISTORY.
BOOK XL.
Chapter XXXIX.
But before this happened, Vercingetorix, filled with contempt for Caesar because of the
latter's reverses, had marched against the Allobroges. And intercepting the Roman general,
who had thereupon set out to aid them, when he was among the Sequani, he surrounded
him, but did him no harm; on the contrary, he compelled the Romans to be brave through
despair of safety, whereas he himself failed by reason of his numbers and audacity. His
defeat was due in part to the Germans who were acting as allies of the Romans; for with their
unquenchable enthusiasm and their mighty bodies which added strength to their daring, they
succeeded in breaking through the enclosing ranks. Having met with this good fortune,
Caesar did not give ground, but shut up and besieged in Alesia such of the foe as escaped.
Editor’s note. To take up position in the town of Alesia to have the Roman legions between the
hammer of a huge relief army and the anvil which had become the hill fort of Alesia was a
remarkable plan. It failed because relief army, however, apparently come within the deadlines
went back home without having fought. If there had not been treason somewhere, the fate of
the world had been changed. The country would have completed to become Hellenized freely
instead of becoming Romanized by force of arms and there would be in our language much
more words of Greek origin than of Latin origin.
BOOK LXII.
Chapter VI.
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 Boadicea [Boudouîka in the Greek text, Boudicca
in Celtic language] , raising her hand towards heaven, said: "I thank you, Andrasta, and call
upon you as woman speaking to a woman; for I rule over no burden-bearing Egyptians as did
Nitocris, nor over-trafficking Assyrians as did Semiramis (for we have by now gained thus
much learning from the Romans!), much less over the Romans themselves as did Messalina
once and afterward Agrippina and now Nero (who, though in name a man, is in fact a woman,
as is proved by his singing, lyre-playing and beautification of his person); nay, those over
whom I rule are [great] British, men that know not how to till the soil or ply a trade, but are
thoroughly versed in the art of war and hold all things in common, even children and wives, so
that the latter possess the same valor as the men. As the queen, then, of such men and of
such women, I supplicate and pray you for victory, preservation of life, and liberty against men
insolent, unjust, insatiable, impious— if, indeed, we ought to term those people men who
bathe in warm water, eat artificial dainties, drink unmixed wine, anoint themselves with myrrh,
sleep on soft couches with boys for bedfellows— boys past their prime at that— and are
slaves to a lyre player and a poor one too. Wherefore may this Mistress Domitia Nero reign
no longer over me or over you, men; let the wench sing and lord it over Romans, for they
surely deserve to be the slaves of such a woman after having submitted to her so long. But
for us, divine Mistress, be thou alone ever our leader."
122
Chapter VII.
Having finished an appeal to her people of this general tenor, Boadicea led her army against
the Romans; for these chanced to be without a leader, inasmuch as Paulinus, their
commander, had gone on an expedition to Mona, an island near [Great] Britain. This enabled
her to sack and plunder two Roman cities, and, as I have said, to wreak indescribable
slaughter. Those who were taken captive by the [Great] British were subjected to every known
form of outrage. The worst and most bestial atrocity committed by their captors was the
following. They hung up naked the noblest and most distinguished women and then cut off
their breasts and sewed them to their mouths, in order to make the victims appear to be
eating them; afterward they impaled the women on sharp skewers run lengthwise through the
entire body. All this they did to the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets, and wanton
behavior, not only in all their other sacred places, but particularly in the grove of Andrasta
[Andate in the Greek text]. This was their name for Victory, and they regarded her with most
exceptional reverence.
BOOK LXXVI.
Section 12.
Preserved in short (epitome) by John Xiphilinus (latter half of the 11th century). Byzantine
monk nephew of the Patriarch of Constantinople.
“There are two principal races of the Britons—the Caledonians and the Maeatians. The titles
of the rest have all been reduced to these two. The Maeatians live near the cross wall which
cuts the island in two, and the Caledonians are behind them. Both inhabit wild and waterless
mountains, desolate and swampy plains, holding no walls, nor cities, nor tilled fields, but living
by pasturage and hunting and a few fruit trees. The fish, which are inexhaustible and past
computing for the multitude, they do not taste. They dwell coat less and shoeless in tents,
possess their women in common, and rear all the offspring as a community. Their form of
government is mostly democratic and they are very fond of plundering.
Consequently they choose their boldest spirits as leaders. They go into battle on chariots with
small, swift horses (some ponies?) There are also infantry, very quick at running and very firm
in standing their ground. Their weapons are shields and short spears, with a bronze apple (a
small bell?) attached to the lower end , so that when the instrument is shaken it may clash
and inspire the enemy with terror. They also have daggers. They can endure hunger and cold
and any kind of wretchedness. They plunge into the swamps and exist there for many days
with only their heads above water. In the forests they support themselves upon bark and roots
and in all cases, they have ready a kind of food of which a piece the size of a bean when
eaten prevents them from being either hungry or thirsty. Of such a nature is the island of
[Great] Britain, and such are the inhabitants that the enemy's country has.”
Editor’s note. Cassius Dio probably confuses the ordinary inhabitant of these highlands of
Scotland before the word exists with the survival training of their elite warriors, whose
commandos of today would not be ashamed.
BOOK LXXVII.
Chapter XVI.
5.In this connection, a very witty remark is reported to have been made by the wife of
Argentocoxus, a Caledonian, to Julia Augusta. When the empress was jesting with her, after
the treaty, about the free intercourse of her sex with men in [Great] Britain, she replied: "We
fulfill the demands of nature in a much better way than do you Roman women; for we consort
openly with the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest."
Such was the retort of the [Great] British woman.
123
BOOK LXXVIII.
Chapter XV.
….For publishing these facts, many were treated with gross indignities. But to Antoninus no
one even of the gods gave any response that conduced to healing either his body or his mind
[psyche in the Greek text], although he paid homage to all the more prominent ones. This
showed most clearly that they regarded, not his votive offerings or his sacrifices, but only his
purposes and his deeds. He received no help from Apollo Grannus, nor yet from Aesculapius
or Serapis, in spite of his many supplications and his unwearying persistence. For even while
abroad he sent to them prayers, sacrifices and votive offerings, and many couriers ran hither
and thither every day carrying something of this kind; he also went to them himself, hoping to
prevail by appearing in person, and did all that devotees are wont to do but he obtained
nothing that contributed to health.
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CICERO (– 106 – 43).
A Roman lawyer and politicker. There are two types of Cicero’s documents concerning us. A
series of polemical texts by definition, because they are pleadings of a lawyer (and of a
crooked lawyer), advocating a client; whose objectivity may be questioned.
And two accounts about some of his personal relationships, even his friends, the Galatian
King Deiotarus and the Aeduan druid Divitiacus. A very short but fundamental passage, since
it resulted from a Cicero interview with the only ancient druid namely known with certainty, the
Aeduan Divitiacus, who was one of his contacts, probably because of the financial interests
he had in the wine trade beyond the Alps.
ORATION FOR MARCUS FONTEIUS.
Section XII.
…. . If it is proper to have a regard to the men themselves (a thing which in truth in the case of
witnesses ought to be of the greatest weight) is anyone, the most honorable man in all Celtica
to be compared, I will not say with the most honorable men of our city, but even with the
meanest of Roman citizens? Does Induciomarus know what is the meaning of testifying? Is
he affected with that awe which moves every individual among us when he is brought here?
Section XIII.
….I suppose Induciomarus, when he testified, had all these fears and all these thoughts; he,
who left out of his whole evidence that most considerate word, to which we are all habituated,
"I believe," [Latin arbitror] a word which we use when we are relating on our oath what we
know of our own knowledge, what we ourselves have seen; but said that he knew [Latin
scire], everything, he was stating...Do you think that those nations are influenced in giving
their evidence by the sanctity of an oath, and by the fear of the immortal gods, which are so
widely different from other nations in their habits and natural disposition? For other nations
undertake wars in defense of their religious feelings; they wage war against the religion of
every people; other nations when waging war beg for sanctions and pardon from the immortal
gods; they have waged war with the immortal gods themselves.
Section XIV.
These are the nations which formerly marched to such a distance from their settlements, as
far as Delphi, to attack and pillage the Pythian Apollo, and the oracle of the whole world. By
these same nations, so pious, so scrupulous in their testifying, was the Capitol besieged, and
that Jupiter, under the obligations of whose name our ancestors decided that the good faith of
all witnesses should be pledged. Lastly, can anything appear holy or solemn in the eyes of
those men, who, if ever they are so much influenced by any fear as to think it necessary to
propitiate the immortal gods, defile their altars and temples with human victims? So that they
cannot pay proper honor to religion itself without first violating it with wickedness. For who is
ignorant that, to this very day, they retain that savage and barbarous custom of sacrificing
men? What, therefore, do you suppose is the good faith, what the piety of those men; who
think that even the immortal gods can be most easily propitiated by the wickedness and
murder of men? …
CONCERNING DIVINATION.
BOOK I.
Chapter XV.
125
….I need not remind you of that most famous and worthy man, our guest friend, King
Deiotarus, who never undertook any enterprise without first taking the auspices. On one
occasion after he had set out on a journey for which he had made careful plans beforehand,
he returned home because of the warning given him by the flight of an eagle. The room in
which he would have been staying, had he continued on his road, collapsed the very next
night. This is why, as he told me himself, he had time and again abandoned a journey even
though he might have been traveling for many days. By the way, that was a very noble
utterance of his which he made after Caesar had deprived him of his tetrarchy and kingdom,
and had forced him to pay an indemnity too. 'Notwithstanding what has happened,' said he, 'I
do not regret that the auspices favored my joining Pompey. By so doing I enlisted my military
power in defense of senatorial authority, Roman liberty, and the supremacy of the empire. The
birds, at whose instance I followed the course of duty and of honor, counseled well, for I value
my good name more than riches.'
Chapter XLI.
Nor is the practice of divination disregarded even among uncivilized tribes, if indeed there are
druids in Celtica, and there are, for I knew one of them myself, Divitiacus, the Aeduan, your
guest and eulogist. He claimed to have that knowledge of nature which the Greeks call
“physiology” and he used to make predictions, sometimes by means of augury and
sometimes by means of conjecture…
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LUCIAN (circa 125-180).
Lucian of Samosata, a Syrian rhetorician and satirist of Greek language. In turn sculptor then
lawyer, he will travel throughout the whole Roman Empire. He is credited with more than 80
works.
Below is what we can read in one of them (True history, the passing of Peregrinus, the fly,
etc.).
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE [IN GREEK LANGUAGE PROLALIA] HERACLES.
Our Heracles is known among the Celts of the Continent under the local name of Ogmius;
and the appearance he presents in their pictures is truly grotesque. They make him out as old
can be, the few hairs he has left (he is quite bald in front) are dead white, and his skin is
wrinkled and tanned as black as any old salt's. You would take him for some infernal deity, for
Charon or Iapetus—anyone rather than Heracles. Such as he is, however, he has all the
proper attributes of that god: the lion's-skin hangs over his shoulders, his right hand grasps
the club, his left the strung bow, and a quiver is slung at his side; nothing is wanting to the
Heraclean equipment.
Now I thought at first that this was just a cut at the Greek gods; that in taking these liberties
with the personal appearance of Heracles, the Celts were merely exacting pictorial
vengeance for his invasion of their territory; for in his search after the herds of Geryones he
had overrun and plundered most of the peoples of the West. However, I have yet to mention
the most remarkable feature in the portrait. This ancient Heracles drags after him a vast
crowd of men, all of whom are fastened by the ears with thin chains composed of gold and
amber, looking more like beautiful necklaces than anything else. From this flimsy bondage
they make no attempt to escape, though escape must be easy.
There is not the slightest show of resistance: instead of planting their heels in the ground and
dragging back, they follow with joyful alacrity, singing their captor's praises the while; and from
the eagerness with which they hurry after him to prevent the chains from tightening, one
would say that release is the last thing they desire. Nor will I conceal from you what struck me
as the most curious circumstance of all. Heracles's right hand is occupied with the club, and
his left with the bow, how is he to hold the ends of the chains? The painter solves the difficulty
by boring a hole in the tip of the god's tongue, and making that the means of attachment; his
head is turned round, and he regards his followers with a smiling countenance.
For a long time I stood staring at this in amazement, I did not know what to make of it, and
was beginning to feel somewhat nettled, when I was addressed in admirable Greek by a Celt
who stood at my side, and who besides possessing a scholarly acquaintance with their
national science, proved to be not unfamiliar with our own. He told me, noble stranger; I see
this fresco puzzles you: let me solve the riddle. We Celts connect eloquence not with Hermes,
as you do, but with the mightier Heracles.
Nor need it surprise you to see him represented as an old man. It is the prerogative of
eloquence that it reaches perfection in old age; at least if we may believe your poets, who tell
us that…
Youth has a wandering wit
Whereas old age has wiser words to say than youth.
Thus we find that from Nestor's lips honey is distilled; and that the words of the Trojan
counselors are compared to the lily, which, if I have not forgotten my Greek, is the name of a
flower. Hence, if you consider the relation that exists between tongue and ear, you will find
nothing more natural than the way in which our Heracles, who is eloquence personified,
draws men along with their ears tied to his tongue. Nor is any slight intended by the hole
bored through that member because I recollect verses in one of your comic poets in which we
127
are told that…
There is a hole in every glib tongue's tip.
Indeed, we refer the achievements of the original Heracles, from first to last, to his wisdom
and persuasive eloquence. His shafts, as I take it, are no other than his words: swift, keen-
pointed, true-aimed to do deadly execution on the soul. And, in conclusion, he reminded me
of our own phrase: 'winged words.'
Editor’s note. Cf. Henry Lizeray, National traditions rediscovered, page 12. A tradition is to be
interpreted.
EXAMPLES OF LONGEVITY (there are some doubts about the authenticity of this booklet).
Arganthonius, king of Tartessus, lived a hundred and fifty years, according to Herodotus and
the poet Anacreon. However, some people regard this assertion as fabulous.
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AVIENUS (late fourth century).
Rufus Festus Avienus. A Roman poet. In one of his works entitled "Ora maritima” (description
of the sea coast), we can read what follows.
THE SEA COAST (ORA MARITIMA).
The River Rhone to Massilia.
Lines 622-704.
But the region Cimenice [the Cevennes Mountains in the south of France] recedes far from
the salty tide.
It spreads over a large area and is thick with forests.
But the meaning of the name is "mountain high in the back.”
Its lower hills the Rhone touches in its course and it wanders through the rocky mass
Of the mountain that looms over the sea.
The Ligurians spread themselves to the shore of the inner sea
From the citadel of Setiena and the cliff of the rock ridge [the Mount Saint-Clair of Sete?].
But the situation requires that I explain more fully to you the river Rhone.
Bear, my Probus, with my dwelling
On the rising of the river, the course of the water's wandering,
What people's land it washes.
And we will say what great advantage the river brings to the natives
And what are the divisions of its mouth.
The Alps raise their snowy ridge into the sky in the east,
And the fields of Gallic soil are cut by its rocky height.
Winds are always breathing storms.
The Rhone River flows from here
And raising itself at its source cuts through a gaping cave with savage force.
It is navigable at its first source and rising.
But that side of the ridge that rises up and gives forth the river,
The natives call the "Pillar of the Sun" [the Dammastock?].
For it rises up to the heavens with such a great height
That the midday sun is scarcely visible
Due to the constant barrier of the ridge
When it approaches the limits of north to carry the day here.
For you know that such was the view of the Epicureans.
The sun does not set, it does not sink into the waters, it is never hidden.
Rather it goes around the world; it runs through the corners of the sky,
Gives life to the land, and gives nourishment with the food of its light to all the vault of heaven,
But to certain regions in turn, the bright torch of Phoebus is denied.
A mountain is opposed to it with its high summit which,
Being prolonged from the Occident until extreme north,
Divides into two parts the extent of the world and the course of the sun.
When the sun cuts through the southern course
And the light sinks on the Atlantic axis
In order that the sun spread its fire to the furthermost Hyperboreans
And bring itself back to the Achaemenian rising [Iran today],
It bends towards other sections of the sky curved course
And passes the limit constituted by this mount.
And when he denies bright light to our view, black night rushes from the sky,
And murky darkness suddenly covers all in our area.
But clear day then enlightens those who shiver exposed to the north wind.
But again when shade of night possesses the Bear,
Our entire race passes a splendid day.
The river then flows from its source through the Tylangi [perhaps the Tulingi]
The Daliterni, the fields of the Clahilci and territory of the Læmenici [the area around
Geneva’s lake, around the Leman Lake].
These are rather harsh-sounding words and they all offend the ear at first,
But they are not to be omitted both because of your eagerness and my scholarship.
129
The river then bends ten times with the meandering of its waters.
Many report that a kind of pond then inserts itself,
A vast marsh which old custom of Greece called Accion.
And the river moves the rapid waters through the surface of the swamp.
Again narrowing itself to the form of a river,
And facing towards the Atlantic waters, our sea, and the west,
It pours forth and cuts the spreading sand with five mouths.
Here the city of Arles [Arelatus in Latin] rises up.
In a former age, it was called Theline by the Greek inhabitants.
Many considerations have compelled us to write extensively on the Rhone.
But my mind will never be inclined to assert that Europe and Libya are divided by that river.
Phileus, though an ancient author, would say that the inhabitants had thought this.
Let this barbarous ignorance be despised and derided and branded with a suitable name.
Then the length of the journey for a boat is two days and two nights.
Next is the tribe Nearchi and their city Bergine, the fierce Salyes,
The ancient citadel on the Mastrabalan lagoon,
A promontory with lofty back, which the natives call Cecylistrium.
Then there is Massilia [Marseilles] itself.
130
PROCOPIUS (circa 500- 560).
Byzantine historian whose work is a detailed account of the reign of Emperor Justinian. His
first historical work entitled “Hypér tõn polémōn lόgoi”: "Discourse on the wars" deals, in eight
books, with the campaigns of Belisarius against the Persians, the Vandals and the Goths.
Below thus what one can read in the eighth and the last book devoted by this author to the
history of the wars of the emperor Justinian.
HISTORY OF THE WARS
BOOK VIII (About the Gothic war: in Latin De Bello Gothico).
Chapter XX.
Since I have reached this point in the history, it is necessary for me to record a story which
bears a very close resemblance to mythology, a story which did not indeed seem to me at all
trustworthy, although it was constantly being published by countless people who maintained
that they had done the thing with their own hands and had heard the words with their own
ears, yet it cannot he altogether passed over, lest, in writing an account of the island of
[Great] Britain, I gain a lasting reputation for ignorance of what takes place there.
They say, then, that the soul-minds of men [Greek psyche] who die are always conveyed to
this place. And as to the manner in which this is done, I shall presently explain, having many a
time heard the people there most earnestly describe it, though I have come to the conclusion
that the tales they tell are to be attributed to some power of dreams. Along the coast of the
ocean which lies opposite the island of [Great] Britain, there are numerous villages. These are
inhabited by men who fish with nets or till the soil or carry on a sea trade with this island,
being in other respects subject to the Franks, but never making them any payment of tribute,
that burden having been remitted to them from ancient times on account, as they say, of a
certain service, which will here be described by me. The men of this place say that the
conduct of soul-minds [Greek psyche] is laid upon them in turn. So the men, who on the
following night must go to do this work relieving others in the service, as soon as darkness
comes on, retire to their own houses and sleep, awaiting him who is to assemble them for the
enterprise. And at a late hour of the night they are conscious of a knocking at their doors and
hear an indistinct voice calling them together for their task. And they with no hesitation rise
from their beds and walk to the shore, not understanding what necessity leads them to do
this, but compelled nevertheless. There they see skiffs in readiness with no man at all in
them, not their own skiffs, however, but a different kind, in which they embark and lay hold of
the oars. And they are aware that the boats are burdened with a large number of passengers
and are wet by the waves to the edge of the gun whale and the oarlocks, having not so much
as one finger's breadth above the water ; they themselves, however, see no one, but after
rowing a single hour they put in at [Great] Britain. And yet when they make the voyage in
their own skiffs, not using sails but rowing, they with difficulty make this passage in a night
and a day.
Then when they have reached the island and have been relieved of the weight of their
invisible passengers, they depart with all speed, their boats now becoming suddenly light and
rising above the waves, for they sink no further in the water than the keel itself.
For their part, they neither see any man either sitting in the boat with them or departing from
the boat, but they say that they hear a kind of voice from the island which seems to make
announcement to those who take the soul-minds [Greek psyche] in charge as each name is
called of the passengers who have come over with them, telling over the positions of honor
which they formerly held and calling out their fathers' names with their own. And if women
also happen to be among those who have been ferried over, they utter the names of the men
to whom they were married in life. This, then, is what the men of this country say takes place.
But I shall return to the previous narrative.
131
Editor’s note. John Tzetzes (1110-1180). A Byzantine grammarian and poet took over this
passage of Procopius, but with Bretannia (Brittany) instead of Brittia to indicate Great Britain.
132
APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, OR APOLLONIUS OF RHODES (circa – 295 - 215).
A Greek poet and grammarian. His major work is an epic devoted to the Argonauts.
ARGONAUTICA.
BOOK IV.
Lines 592-626.
Thus Argo cried through the darkness
And the sons of Tyndareus rose up,
They lifted their hands to the immortals
Praying for each boon:
But dejection held the rest of the great Minyan heroes.
And far on sped Argo under sail,
Entered deep into the stream of Eridanus;
Where once, smitten on the breast by the blazing bolt,
Phaethon half-consumed fell from the chariot of the sun [Greek Helios]
Into the opening of that deep lake;
And even now it belches up heavy steam clouds
From the smoldering wound.
No bird spreading its light wings can cross that water;
But in midcourse it plunges into the flame, fluttering.
And all around the maidens, the daughters of the sun [Greek Helios],
Enclosed in tall poplars,
Wretchedly wail a piteous plaint;
From their eyes they shed
On the ground bright drops of amber.
These are dried by the sun upon the sand;
But whenever the waters of the dark lake flow over the strand
Before the blast of the wailing wind,
Then they roll on in a mass into Eridanus with swelling tide.
The Celts have attached this story to them,
That these are the tears of Leto's son, Apollo,
That are borne along by the eddies,
The countless tears that he shed aforetime
When he came to the sacred race of the Hyperboreans
And left shining heaven at the chiding of his father,
Being in wrath concerning his son whom divine Coronis bare
In bright Lacereia [today the town of Larissa in Greece] near the river Amyrus.
But no desire for food or drink seized the heroes
Nor were their thoughts turned to joy.
But they were sorely afflicted all day,
Heavy and faint at heart,
With the noisome stench, hard to endure,
Which the streams of Eridanus sent forth from Phaethon still burning;
And at night they heard the piercing lament of the daughters of the Sun,
Wailing with a shrill voice; and, as they lamented,
Their tears were born on the water like drops of oil.
Lines 627-658.
Thence they entered the deep stream of Rhodanus
Which flows into Eridanus,
Where they meet there is a roar of mingling waters.
Now that river, rising from the ends of the Earth,
Where are the portals and mansions of Night,
133
On one side bursts forth upon the beach of Ocean,
At another pours into the Ionian Sea,
And on the third through seven mouths
Sends its stream to the Sardinian Sea and its limitless bay.
And from Rhodanus they entered stormy lakes,
Which spread throughout the Celtic mainland of wondrous size;
And there they would have met with an inglorious calamity;
For a certain branch of the river was bearing them towards a gulf of Ocean
Which in unknowing they were about to enter,
And never would they have returned from there in safety.
But Hera leaping forth from heaven pealed her cry from the Hercynian rock;
And all together were shaken with fear of her cry;
For terribly crashed the mighty firmament.
Backward they turned by reason of the goddess,
And noted the path by which their return was ordained.
And after a long while, they came to the beach of the surging sea
By the devising of Hera,
Passing unharmed through countless tribes of the Celts and Ligyans.
For round them the goddess poured a dread mist
Day by day as they fared on.
And so, sailing through the midmost mouth,
They reached the Stoechades islands in safety by the aid of the sons of Zeus [the Dioscuri];
Wherefore altars and sacred rites are established in their honor forever…
Scholium added to the line 616 of book IV.
The Celts have invented the following legend. These [the pieces of amber] are the tears of
Apollo, the Leto’s son, that carried the eddies [of the Eridanus]; these countless tears that he
shed once arriving among the sacred people of the Hyperboreans, after leaving the bright sky
because the threats of his father, being in wrath concerning his son whom, in the luminous
city of Larissa*, near the river Amyrus [in Thessaly], divine Coronis bare. Such is the tradition
common among these people.
* Formerly Laceria.
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TERTULLIAN (160-220).
A Christian theologian of Latin language. A Father of the Church.
Below that we can find in his book addressed to "the nations" (in Latin Ad nations).
BOOK I.
Chapter XI.
Suppose that our god, then, is an asinine person, will you at all events deny that you possess
the same characteristics with ourselves in that matter? (Not their heads only, but) entire
asses, are, to be sure, objects of adoration to you, along with their tutelary Epona; and all
herds, and cattle, and beasts you consecrate, and their stables into the bargain ! This,
perhaps, is your grievance against us, that, when surrounded by cattle worshipers of every
kind we are simply devoted to assess!
Below what we can read in his Apology (Apologeticum or Apologeticus) some time afterward.
APOLOGY
Chapter XVI.
For you, too, like some others, have dreamed that an ass's head is the object of our
worship….
And yet you will not deny that you pay divine honors to all beasts of burden, as well as to
geldings, heads and bodies both, along with their own goddess Epona. Perhaps our fault
consists in the fact that among the worshipers of cattle and beasts of all kinds we worship the
ass alone.
Editor’s note: all this absurd debate comes from the fact that for some Gnostic Christians,
ass was a positive, and even making very attractive, symbol.
Finally, below what we can read in his treatise on the soul/mind.
TREATISE ON THE SOUL/MIND (Latin De Anima).
Chapter LVII.
Magic and sorcery only apparent in their effects. God alone can raise the dead.
It is either a very fine thing to be detained in these infernal regions in the case of the Aori
[Ahoros in the text], or else a very bad thing indeed to be there, in the case of the
Biaeothanati [Biaeothanatos in the text]. I may be permitted to use the actual words and
terms with which magic rings again, that inventor of all these odd opinions…
…For, indeed, it was no less than this that was anciently permitted to the Pythonic (or
ventriloquist) spirit -even to represent the soul of Samuel, when Saul consulted the dead, after
(losing the living). God forbade, however, that we should suppose that the soul of any saint,
much less of a prophet, can be dragged out of (its resting place in Hades) by a demon. We
know that "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" -much more into a man of light-
and that at last he will "show himself to be even God," and will exhibit "great signs and
wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, he shall deceive the very elect."He hardly
hesitated on the before-mentioned occasion to affirm himself to be a prophet of God, and
especially to Saul, in whom he was then actually dwelling. You must not imagine that he who
produced the phantom was one, and he who consulted it was another; but that it was one and
the same spirit, both in the sorceress and in the apostate, which easily pretended an
apparition of that which it had already prepared them to believe as real, through whose evil
influence Saul's heart was fixed where his treasure was, and where certainly God was not.
Therefore it came about that he saw him through whose aid he believed that he was going to
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see, because he believed him through whose help he saw.
But we are met with the objection that in visions of the night dead persons are not infrequently
seen, and that for a set purpose. For instance, the Nasamones consult private oracles by
frequent and lengthened visits to the sepulchers of their relatives, as one may find in
Heraclides, or Nymphodorus, or Herodotus; and the Celts, for the same purpose, stay away
all night at the tombs of their brave chieftains, as Nicander affirms. Well, we admit apparitions
of dead persons in dreams to be not more really true than those of living persons; but we
apply the same estimate to all alike to the dead and to the living, and indeed to all the
phenomena which are seen. Now things are not true because they appear to be so, but
because they are fully proved to be so. The truth of dreams is declared from the realization,
not the aspect.
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THE PSEUDO-PLUTARCH.
An unknown author who is credited with a number of texts, which was long believed to be
written by Plutarch. The treatise on the rivers, the Greek and Roman parallel stories or
Parallela minora.
In his work devoted to the doctrines of philosophers on various topics, we can read this….
REGARDING THE NAMES OF RIVERS AND OF MOUNTAINS AND OF THE REMARKABLE
THINGS FOUND IN THEM.
Chapter VI. ARAR.
1. Arar is a river of the Celtic region, having received the name because it joined with the
Rhodanus [today the Rhone]. For it enters this in the territory of the Allobroges. Formerly it
was called Brigulus, but was renamed for a reason of this sort. Arar, for the sake of the hunt,
when he had headed to the wood to go hunting and found his brother Celtiberus slain by wild
beasts; after he had mortally wounded himself through an excess of grief, fell into the river
Brigulus, which from him was renamed Arar.
2. In it is produced a large fish, called scolopid [scolopias or clupea according to the
manuscripts, in Greek or in Latin language] by the natives. This is white during the waxing of
the moon; during the waning, it becomes completely black. When it has grown beyond
measure, it is killed by its own spines.
3. In its head is found a stone similar to a grain of salt that is most efficacious for quartan
diseases when applied to the left portions of the body during the waning moon, as
Callisthenes the Sybarite records in Gallatica XIII, from whom Timagenes the Syrian took the
subject.
4. Situated nearby is a mountain called Lugdunum [Lougdounon in the Greek text]. It was
renamed for a reason of this sort. Momorus and Atepomarus, expelled from the realm by
Seseroneus, were intending, according to an injunction, to found a city on this crest. While the
foundations were being dug, ravens, having appeared out of nowhere and fluttered about,
filled the trees all around. And Momorus, experienced in augury, named the city Lugdunum
[Lougdounun in Greek language]. For they call the raven lugus [lougos] in their dialect, and a
prominent spot a dunum [dounon in the Greek text], as Cleitophon records in Foundations
XIII.
In his Greek and Roman parallel stories or Parallela minora, we can also read what is
following.
GREEK AND ROMAN PARALLEL STORIES.
Chapter XV.
DEMONICE AND TARPEIA.
Brennus, king of the Galatians, when he was ravaging Asia, came to Ephesus and fell in love
with a maiden Demonicê. She promised to satisfy his desires and also to betray Ephesus, if
he would give her the Galatians' bracelets and feminine ornaments. But Brennus required his
soldiers to throw into the lap of the avaricious woman the gold which they were wearing. This
they did, and she was buried alive by the abundance of gold. This Cleitophon relates in the
first book of his Galatic History.
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Chapter XXIX.
ARISTONYMUS AND FULVIUS STELLUS
Aristonymus of Ephesus, the son of Demostratus, hated women and used to consort with an
ass; the ass gave birth to a very beautiful maiden, Onoscelis by name. So Aristocles in the
second book of his Strange Events.
Fulvius Stellus hated women and used to consort with a mare and in due time the mare gave
birth to a beautiful girl and they named her Epona. She is the goddess that is concerned with
the protection of horses. So Agesilaüs in the third book of his Italian History.
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VOPISCUS (end of the third century – beginning of the fourth).
Flavius Vopiscus is one of the six (fictitious) authors of the collection of biographies known as
“Historia Augusta." According to some experts, it would be a forgery written in fact by a single
author, at the end of the fourth century.
Below what we can read in his life of Aurelian.
AUGUSTAN HISTORY.
Life of Aurelian.
XLIV. Now Aurelian, indeed, is placed by many among neither the good nor the evil emperors,
for the reason that he lacked the quality of mercy, that foremost dowry of an emperor. In fact,
Verconnius Herennianus, Diocletian's prefect of the guard, used often to say — or so
Asclepiodotus bears witness — that Diocletian, in finding fault with Maximian's harshness,
frequently said that Aurelian ought to have been a general rather than an emperor. So
displeasing to Diocletian was Aurelian's excessive ferocity.
This may perhaps seem a marvelous thing but it is a fact learned by Diocletian and which he
would have entrusted to his counselor Celsinus, always according to Asclepiodotus, but
concerning there is posterity will be the judge. For he used to relate that on a certain
occasion, Aurelian consulted the druid priestesses in continental Celtica and inquired of them
whether the imperial power would remain with his descendants, but they replied, he related,
that none would have a name more illustrious in the whole empire than the descendants of
Claudius. And, in fact, Constantius is now our emperor, a man of Claudius's blood, whose
descendants, I presume, will attain to that glory which the druids foretold. And this I have put
in the Life of Aurelian for the reason that this response was made to him when he inquired in
person.
Hereafter what we can read in the lives of Carus, Carinus and Numerian.
Numerian.
XIV. I do not consider it too painstaking or yet too much in the ordinary manner to insert a
story about Diocletian Augustus that does not seem out of place here — an incident which he
regarded as an omen of his future rule. This story my grandfather related to me, having heard
it from Diocletian himself. "When Diocletian," he said, "while still serving in a minor post, was
stopping at a certain tavern in the land of the Tungri in continental Celtica, and was making up
his daily reckoning with a woman, who was a druidess, she said to him: 'Diocletian, you are
far too greedy and far too stingy,' to which Diocletian replied, it is said, not in earnest, but only
in jest, 'I shall be generous enough when I become emperor.' At this the druidess said, so he
related, 'Do not jest, Diocletian, for you will become emperor when you have slain an Aper (a
boar).' "
XV. Now Diocletian always had in his mind a desire to rule, as Maximian knew and my
grandfather also, to whom he himself told these words of the druidess. Then, however,
reticent, as was his wont, he laughed and said nothing. Nevertheless, in hunting, whenever
there was an opportunity, he always killed the boars with his very own hand.
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AUSONIUS (circa 309-394).
A Poet of Latin language.
BOOK V.
POEMS COMMEMORATING THE PROFESSORS OF BURDIGALA (TODAY BORDEAUX).
IV. ATTIUS PATERA THE RHETORICIAN
Although in years you out passed the men named earlier,
O Patera, nobility of what can be said,
As your famous word was flourishing still lately,
And that in my youth I saw you in your old age,
You shall not lack the tribute of my sad dirge,
Teacher of mighty rhetoricians.
If report does not lie,
You were Baiocassis sprung from a stock of druids,
And traced your hallowed line from the temple of Belenus;
Hence the names borne by your family:
You are called Patera;
So the mystic votaries call the servants of Apollo.
Your father and your brother were named after Phoebus,
And your own son after Delphi.
X. TO THE LATIN GRAMMARIANS, PHILOLOGISTS OF BURDIGALA (TODAY
BORDEAUX),
MACRINUS, SUCURO, CONCORDIUS, PHOEBICIUS, AMMONIUS, AND ANASTASIUS,
GRAMMARIAN AMONG THE PICTAVI (TODAY POITIERS).
…..
Nor must I leave unmentioned the old man Phoebicius,
Who, though the keeper of Belenus's temple,
Got no profit thereby.
Yet he sprang, as rumor goes,
From the stock of Armorican druids,
Obtained a chair at Burdigala (today Bordeaux)
By his son's help.
BOOK VII.
BOOK OF THE ECLOGUES.
VI. ON THE RATIONALE OF THE LIBRA OR BALANCE.
You who wonder that the vast heavenly bodies still endure,
Hung round about the lofty circle of the firmament,
And that no decay creeps in upon their mighty mass,
Hearken, that you may wonder yet the more.
Primary elements of utmost fineness and which baffle our sight,
Are in these great bodies:
They hold close together, closely linked in a group of tiny atoms;
But these so small atoms are solid particles which cannot be parted.
Hence comes it that their strength and power endure,
And that these motions are not overcome by any lapse of time.
We may compare things human with divine.
….
That is a divine balance, then, which is impaired in no single part.
Weight and number, character, tasks, and waters, all have a scale:
There is no form of regulation which you may not mark with this name.
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There is a balance of the earth, which hangs in mid-air,
And a balance of their own controls the paths of the Sun and Moon.
It is a swinging pendulum which measures out equal hours of day and night,
And a swinging pendulum also, which curbs the Caledonian tides unaided by the shore:
Do thou also preserve, divine scale, the balance of my morals.
BOOK XI.
THE ORDER OF FAMOUS CITIES.
XX. BURDIGALA (TODAY BORDEAUX).
…
Hail, fountain of source unknown,
Holy, gracious, unfailing,
Crystal-clear, azure, deep, murmurous, limpid and shady!
Hail, genie of our city, of whom we may drink health-giving drafts,
Named by the Celts Divona,
A fountain added to the roll divine!
141
POLYAENUS (second century).
Greek military writer and speaker. The author of a collection of war tricks entitled
Stratagemata (Stratagems) in eight books.
Below what can be found in his Book VII.
Chapter XXXV.
Brennus.
1. Brennus, king of the Celts, in order to persuade the Celts to undertake an expedition
against Hellada, convened an assembly of men and women, and ordered some Hellenic
prisoners to be displayed there, who were poor and feeble, with their heads shaven and
shabbily dressed. Next to them he placed some Celts, who were stout handsome men,
equipped with Gallic armor. Then he addressed the assembly: "Such as these," he said, "are
the men who march with us into battle; and such, as those you see, are the enemies with
which we have to contend.” By these means, the Celts were brought to conceive such
contempt for the Hellenes that they readily offered to serve in an expedition against them.
2. When the Celtic army marched into Hellas, Brennus saw some gold statues at Delphi. He
sent for some Delphian captives, and asked them through an interpreter if the statues were of
solid gold. When they informed him that they were only brass, covered with a thin layer of
gold, he told them that he would certainly execute any of them, who gave out such a report.
He ordered them therefore, whenever they were asked about the statues, to say the opposite,
that they were made of solid gold. Then he sent for some of his generals, and in their
presence he again asked the prisoners the same question, that he had already put to them.
They, as they had been instructed, replied that they were all real gold. He ordered the
generals to communicate this message to the army; in order that the prospect of so much
wealth might encourage them to obtain it through conquest.
Chapter L.
The Celtic women.
The Celts, who had long been troubled by civil wars, had taken up arms against each other,
and were just advancing to battle, when their wives rushed into the battlefield, threw
themselves between the two armies, and begged them to lay aside their differences. By the
insistence of the women, the battle was postponed; and in the end the disputes of the
different parties were happily and amicably resolved. Ever since then, throughout the towns
and villages of the Celts, whenever there is a debate about peace, or war, concerning either
themselves or their allies, the women are always consulted. And in their treaties with Hannibal
it was specified that if the Celts should have any accusation to make against any of the
Carthaginians, the dispute should be referred to the generals and commanders of the cavalry;
but if the Carthaginians had any accusation to make against any of the Celts, it should be
referred to the judgment of the Celtic women.
Below what one can find in his Book VIII.
Chapter 39. Camma.
Sinorix and Sinatus possessed tetrarchies in Galatia. Camma, the wife of Sinatus, was
esteemed as virtuous, and fair; she was a priestess of Artemis, which is an office of the
highest rank that a woman can hold in Galatia. Sinorix conceived a passion for her, which he
despaired of gratifying either by force or entreaties, while her husband was alive. He therefore
procured the secret assassination of Sinatus; and not long afterward, paid his addresses to
Camma, who repeatedly rejected his advances. At last, however, yielding to the pressing
solicitation of her friends and acquaintances, she pretended to consent, on these terms: "Let
Sinorix come to the temple of Artemis, and there we will make our marriage vows in the
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presence of the goddess.” On the day, Sinorix, attended by a great number of Celts in Asia
Minor, both men and women, waited on her and she accompanied him to the altar with fond
words and tenderness. There she drank to him from a golden cup, and bade him partake with
her in the drink. He received it, of course, with pleasure, as a token of bridal love, and drank it
down. But the bridal cup was a potion of strong poison. As soon as she saw that he had drunk
it, she fell down on her knees, and said with a loud voice: "I thank you, O venerable Artemis,
for granting me in this your temple a glorious revenge for my murdered husband."
And after saying this, she dropped down, then expired; and the bridegroom died with her, at
the altar of the goddess.
Editor’s note. Artemis. It is, of course, the Greek interpretation of a Celtic goddess. The Celts
arriving in this part of the world (current Turkey) thought to recognize in Artemis one of their
great goddesses and therefore worshiped her for this reason.
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THE PSEUDO-SCYMNUS (first century Before Common Era).
A Greek geographer. In fact, an anonymous author. He wrote a long geographical poem in
iambic lines of verse, which had been initially but wrongly credited to Marcianus of Heraclea,
then, but still wrongly, to Scymnus of Chios. We have of this “Periplus around the earth” (or
Periegesis) 747 lines, a large fragment and about thirty small ones.
PERIEGESIS (in Greek language) or ORBIS DESCRIPTIO (in Latin language).
Europe.
Lines 162-195.
After this town (Gadira), and two days away per sea,
There is a very flourishing market, the famous city called Tartessus,
In which by a river arrives of Celtica the tin, the gold and the copper, received in abundance.
Then is the country called Celtica, to the sea which extends near Sardo (Sardinia),
And these people are greatest in the West.
Because almost the whole land located in the boundaries of the east is inhabited by the
Indians,
The one which extends in the south, by the Ethiopes (Ethiopians) dwelling under the wind
which blows from the south.
From where comes the Zephyr (west wind) to the summer sunset, live the Celts,
And in the boreal area, the Scythians.
The Indians live consequently between the summer sunrise sun and the winter [sunrise],
The Celts in the opposite, between the equinoctial sunset and the summer sunset, as it is
said.
These four races are equal by the number of the inhabitants and the density of the
populations.
The country of the Ethiopians and that one of the Scythians are more extended,
But they are mainly deserts, because one is too burning, the other too wet.
The Celts have Hellenic uses and manners; they owe them with their usual relations with
Hellada
And with the hospitality which they often give the foreigners coming from this country.
They hold their assemblies with music, asking for this art the means of softening manners.
At the end of their country is the column said boreal, very high and projecting its point in a
surging sea.
The places close to this column are inhabited by the Celts, who have here their last
population branches,
Eneti * and those of Istri (Istrians) who on this side advance to Adria:
It is here, it is said that Ister begins its course.
Lines 386-400.
Eneti * have fifty cities located at the end itself of this gulf (the Adriatic):
They came, it is said, from the country of the Paphlagonians, and they live around the Adria.
Very at side the Eneti are the Thracians called Istri.
Then it is the Eridan River which carries this wonder which is amber,
Transparent drops secreted by poplars: it is said they are petrified tears.
Some people, indeed, add that it is here that was struck down Phaeton, formerly,
And that is for this reason the inhabitants of the country wear black clothes.
* Editor’s note. Eneti or Veneti of Venice in Italy are in no way Celtic people.
144
SAINT HIPPOLYTUS OF ROME (170-235).
A theologian, saint, and pope or antipope (according to the point of view), from 217 to 235.
Some authors attribute the monumental treatise entitled Philosophumena or Refutation of all
heresies, to another Hippolytus, bishop of Palestine. No matter!
Here what we can read in any case in these Refutations of all heresies or Philosophumena.
BOOK I.
Contents.
The following are the contents of the first book of The Refutation of all heresies.
We propose to furnish an account of the tenets of natural philosophers, and who these are, as
well as the tenets of moral philosophers, and who these are; and thirdly, the tenets of
logicians, and who these logicians are.
Among natural philosophers may be enumerated Thales, Pythagoras, Empedocles,
Heraclitus, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Archelaus, Parmenides, Leucippus,
Democritus, Xenophanes, Ecphantus, Hippo.
Among moral philosophers are Socrates, pupil of Archelaus the physicist (and) Plato the pupil
of Socrates. This (speculator) combined three systems of philosophy.
Among logicians is Aristotle, pupil of Plato. He systematized the art of dialectics. Among the
Stoic (logicians) were Chrysippus (and) Zeno.
Epicurus, however, advanced an opinion almost contrary to all philosophers. Pyrrho was an
Academic; this (speculator) taught the incomprehensibility of everything. The Brahmins
among the Indians, and the Druids among the Celts, and Hesiod (devoted themselves to
philosophic pursuits).
Chapter II.
Pythagoras, his Cosmogony, rules of his sect, discoverer of physiognomy, his philosophy of
numbers, his system of the transmigration of souls, Zoroaster (Zaratas in the Greek text) on
demons, why Pythagoras forbade the eating of broad beans, the mode of living adopted by
his disciples...
Among his followers, however, who escaped the conflagration were Lysis and Archippus, and
the servant of Pythagoras, Zamolxis, who is also said to have taught the Celtic druids to
cultivate the philosophy of Pythagoras…
Chapter XX.
The druids; heirs of their System.
And the Celtic druids investigated to the very highest point the Pythagorean philosophy, after
Zamolxis, by birth a Thracian, a servant of Pythagoras. Now after the death of Pythagoras,
Zamolxis, repairing there, became to them the originator of this philosophy. The Celts esteem
these as prophets and seers, on account of their foretelling to them certain (events), from
calculations and numbers by the Pythagorean art; on the methods of which very art also we
shall not keep silence, since also from these some have presumed to introduce Schools of
thought [Greek hairesis or heresy but the druids resort to magical rites likewise.
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TIMAGENES (first century Before Common Era).
A Greek historian, native of Alexandria. Has composed a history of Celtica which
disappeared. It remains to us only what Ammianus Marcellinus wanted to quote (see this
name).
Some people affirm that the first inhabitants ever seen in these regions were called Celts,
after the name of their king, who was very popular among them, and sometimes also Galatae,
after the name of his mother. For Galatae is the Greek translation of the Roman term Galli.
Others affirm that they are Dorians, who, following a more ancient Hercules, selected for their
home the districts bordering on the ocean.
The druids [Latin drasidae] affirm that a portion of the people was really indigenous to the soil,
but that other inhabitants poured in from very remote islands on the coast, and from the
districts across the Rhine, having been driven from their former abodes by frequent wars, and
sometimes by inroads of the tempestuous sea.
Some again maintain that after the destruction of Troy, a few Trojans fleeing from the Greeks,
who were then scattered over the whole world, occupied these districts, which at that time
had no inhabitants at all.
But the natives of these countries affirm this more positively than any other fact (and, indeed,
we ourselves have read it engraved on their monuments), that Hercules, the son of
Amphitryon, hastening to the destruction of those cruel tyrants, Geryones and Tauriscus, one
of whom was oppressing the continental Celtica, and the other Spain; after he had conquered
both of them, took to wife some women of noble birth in those countries, became the father of
many children; and that his sons called the districts of which they became the kings after their
own names.
Also an Asiatic tribe coming from Phocaea in order to escape the cruelty of Harpalus, the
lieutenant of Cyrus the king, sought to sail to Italy. And a part of them founded Velia, in
Lucania, others settled a colony at Marseilles, in the area of Vienne; and then, in subsequent
ages, these towns increasing in strength and importance, founded other cities. But we must
avoid a variety of details which are commonly apt to weary.
Throughout these provinces, the people gradually becoming civilized, the study of noble
sciences flourished, having been first introduced by the bards, the vates [Latin euhagis, the
eubages] and the druids. The bards were accustomed to employ themselves in celebrating
the brave achievements of their illustrious men, in epic verso, accompanied with sweet airs on
the lyre. The vates investigated the system and sublime secrets of nature, and sought to
explain them to their followers. Among them came the druids, men of loftier genius, bound in
brotherhoods [Latin sodaliciis, see sodalis] according to the precepts and example of
Pythagoras; their minds were elevated by investigations into secret and sublime matters, and
from the contempt which they slightly entertained for human affairs they pronounced the
soul/mind [Latin animas] immortal.
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FLORUS (70-140).
A Roman historian.
SUMMARY OF ROMAN HISTORY (EPITOME).
BOOK I.
Chapter XX.
Celtic War
The Insubrian Celts, who also dwelt near the Alps, possessed the spirit of wild beasts and
stature greater than humans, but, as experience proved — for just as their first onslaught was
mightier than that of men, so their subsequent attack was feebler than that of women — the
bodies of the Alpine races, reared in a moist climate, have a certain similarity to our own
snows, for as soon as they become heated in the fray, they immediately break into sweat and
are dissolved by light exertion, as snow is melted by the sun. As often on previous occasions,
so when Brittomarus was their leader, they swore that they would not doff their belts until they
had scaled the Capitol. And so it came to pass; for Aemilius defeated them and engirded them
on the Capitol. Soon afterward, when Ariovistus was their leader, they vowed to dedicate to
their Mars a torc made from the spoils of our soldiers. Jupiter intercepted their dedication; for
Flaminius set up in honor of Jupiter a golden trophy made from their necklaces. During the
reign of Viridomarus they had promised to offer up Roman armor to Vulcan; but their vows
turned out otherwise, for their king was slain and Marcellus hung up in the temple of Jupiter
Feretrius the spolia opima, for the second time since father Romulus had done so.
Chapter XXXIXI.
Thracian War
…Throughout the period of their advance, they [the Thracians] left no cruelty untried, as they
vented their fury on their prisoners; they sacrificed to the gods with human blood; they drank
out of human skulls; by every kind of insult inflicted by burning and fumigation, they made
death fouler; they even forced infants from their mothers' wombs by torture. The cruelest of all
the Thracians were the Scordisci, and to their strength was added cunning as well…
Chapter XLV.
Celtic war again.
….The greatest, and at the same time the last, of all the risings in Celtica, took place when a
chief formidable alike for his stature, his skill in arms, and his courage, endowed too with a
name which seemed to be intended to inspire terror, formed a league alike of the Arverni and
Bituriges, and at the same time of the Carnutes and Sequani. He at their festivals and
councils, when he found them collected in their greatest crowds in their groves, roused them
by his ferocious harangues to vindicate their ancient rights of freedom…
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VALERIUS MAXIMUS (first century).
Valerius Maximus. A Roman historian and moralist. The author of a collection of memorable
deeds and sayings in nine books.
Below what we can glean in it.
BOOK I.
Chapter I.
Respect for religion.
Neglect for religion.
Story as recorded by Julius Paris. After Brennus, the leader of the Galatians, entered the
temple of Apollo at Delphi, he took his own life by the will of the god.
Story as recorded by Nepotianus. After a series of victories, Brennus the king of the Galatians
reached Delphi itself, and human power was no longer able to offer any resistance to him.
The local farmers sought the protection of Apollo, and the god prophesied that he would be on
their side and that the shining and white girls would fight against the Galatians. Brennus and
his entire army were lost in a snowstorm.
Editor’s note. It is, of course, possible to consider that the white and shining maids in fact
were the snowflakes which stopped the attack of the Galatians on Delphi. Our readers are
free to believe it or not, and this all the more reason, let us remind of it that the same thing
was told about the attack of Persians two centuries earlier. As it was very well said by the
Induciomarus pulled to pieces in the defense pleading of the crooked lawyer who was Cicero,
to believe is a thing, to know is another one. And besides Brennos was completely right to
think that the gods have no need for material wealth, and that their role is rather to lavish
them to the men. The only sacred being able to exist on this earth is that of the spiritual
matters.
Bible and Quran are only words put down in writing on scraps of paper containing seldom the
best, some heaps of often incoherent words, moreover.
What comes to do in the Bible for example an almost atheistic book like the Ecclesiastes?
What come to do certain letters of the alphabet like Alif, Lam and Mim in the recitation of
many chapters of the Quran (30)?
What comes to do the invocation Ya-Sin (O Sin) at the beginning of its chapter 36?
What come to do the lines of verse 19, 20, 20 and 20 b in its chapter 53?
In what concerns us by no means we regard these lines of verse as satanic but simply as a
good example of tolerance or of positive secularism; recognizing all the possible and
imaginable worships openly including that of Sin therefore (on condition nevertheless that
their public worship does not disturb the law and order).
Interpreted literally, Bible and Quran are intolerable, because as regards spirituality the
freezing of the thought by the writing is always the worst of the things which can happen to it
(it can no longer evolve if it is not with the greatest difficulties, it is fossilized. Interpreted in a
symbolic or in an allegorical way, you can make say as much, to the recipe book of my
grandmother (you know the gosherd of Pont-Varin who was a few years the cook of the
village’s manor). Let us say to the Mahabharata or Buddha.
The most normal attitude regarding them is thus to respect Bible and Quran… in the exact
extent in which they respect themselves all those which do not think like them, the materialist
atheists the spiritualist atheists the agnostics the pantheists the polytheists, in short the
miscreants of all kinds to whom we flatter ourselves to belong. The positive or negative
reciprocity as regards human relations is the beginning of wisdom and the sacred, it is the
man, not any writing. Because a holy scripture cannot exist by definition. Writing is always
secular and to idolize Muhammad as well as the Quran (to convert to Islam) certainly proves
your faith but by no means your intelligence. Because faith has nothing to do with reason.
They are two different things. To convert to Islam is not an intelligence piece of evidence. And
148
for that matter we can say as much of Judaism and of Christianity. Buddhism is another thing.
BOOK II.
Chapter VI.
10. When someone has left the walls of Massilia [Marseilles] behind they run into the old
custom of the Celts. Tradition has it that the Celts will lend you money, but you will have to
pay back the loan in the other world. They do this because they are convinced that human
souls are immortal. I would call them fools if these men in their breeches did not have the
same belief as Pythagoras in his Greek cloak.
11. So the philosophy of the Celts is greedy and based on making a profit, but that of the
Cimbrians and Celtiberians is lively and brave. They jump for joy when they are at war,
because they will leave this life in a glorious and happy way, but they lament them when they
are sick, because they will die in a disgusting and miserable way. The Celtiberians even think
it is a disgrace to survive a battle when their leader dies since they promised to protect him
with their lives. You would have to praise the resoluteness of both these peoples, because the
Cimbrians and Celtiberians believe that they must bravely uphold the security of their country
and the spirit of loyalty among follow soldiers.
Editor’s note. Cimbrians and Teutones were the last of the Celtic peoples, at the very least
engaged in a process of Celtization. And the language of Celtiberians was a Celtic language.
What Valerius Maximus writes on the philosophy of the Celts of the area of Marseilles is very
surprising because that contradicted all that we can know of it (the soldurii and so on...).
Could it be that Valerius Maximus is quite simply an anti-Celt racist?
BOOK VIII.
Chapter XIII.
Arganthonius of Cadiz ruled for so many years that his reign was as long as a normal human
life. He ruled his country for eighty years, and he succeeded to the throne when he was forty
years old. The historians who record this are very reliable. Asinius Pollio, no small figure in
Roman literature, records in the third book of histories, that this prince lived a hundred and
thirty years and Pollio himself is a rather good example of a vigorous and active old age.
149
ARISTOTLE (– 384 – 322).
A Greek philosopher.
EUDEMIAN ETHICS.
BOOK III.
Chapter I.
Section 25.
Hence a man is not brave if he endures formidable things through unknowing (for instance, if
owing to madness he were to endure a flight of thunderbolts), nor if he does so owing to
passion when knowing the greatness of the danger, as the Celts take arms and march against
the waves; and in general, the courage of barbarians has an element of passion.
NICOMACHEAN ETHICS.
BOOK III.
Chapter VII.
Of those who go to excess he who exceeds in fearlessness has no name (we have said
previously that many states of character have no names), but he would be a sort of madman
or insensible person if he feared nothing, neither earthquakes nor the waves, as they say the
Celts do not; while the man who exceeds in confidence about what really is terrible is rash.
Editor’s note. May we remark here, without offending anybody, that Aristotle shows himself a
very mediocre philosopher in fact, far behind Vauvenargues for example, being satisfied in
quibbling on questions of semantics. Without omitting, with regard to the barbarians in general
and the Celts in particular, a crass ignorance bordering on the most racist contempt.
POLITICS.
BOOK VII.
Chapter XVII.
It is also useful to inure them to the cold when they are very little; for this is very serviceable
for their health; and also to inure them to the business of war; for which reason it is customary
with many of the barbarians either to dip their children in rivers when the water is cold; either
to clothe them very slightly, as among the Celts; for whatever it is necessary to accustom
children to, it is best to accustom them to it at first, but to do it by degrees; besides, boys have
naturally a habit of loving the cold, on account of the heat.
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NICHOLAS OR NICOLAUS OF DAMASCUS (first century Common Era).
Greco-Roman historian. Author of an abundant work which remains only in the state of
fragments. Here's what we can read in three of them.
COLLECTION OF REMARKABLE CUSTOMS.
Fragments preserved by Johannes Stobaeus.
A) The Celts in the neighborhood of the ocean feel it is shameful to flee a wall or a house
collapses, and when on the shore of the sea outside, the tide invades the shore, they go
ahead with their weapons, till they perish in the waters, in order that they may not seem to
fear death by taking the precaution to fly.
B) The Celts were armed when they discuss the public affairs. Among them, man is punished
more rigorously for the murder of a stranger than for that of a fellow citizen: in the first case,
death, in the second exile only. Those they honor most are the conquerors who have
expanded the national territory. The doors of their houses are never closed.
Another fragment quoted by Athenaeus in his book VI, chapter LIV of the Deipnosophists (or
Banquet of the learned).
UNIVERSAL HISTORY.
“Adiatomus * the king of the Sotiani (and that is a Celtic tribe) had six hundred picked men
about him, who were called by the Celts, in their national language, Siloduri ** and by us
euchoolimaioi [which word means in Greek, language“Bound under a vow until death”]. And
the king had them as companions, to live with him and to die with him; as that is the vow
which they all take. In return for which, they also share his power, and wear the same dress,
and eat the same food; and they die when he dies, as a matter of absolute necessity if the
king dies of any disease; or if he dies in war, or in any other manner. And no one can even
say that any of them has shown any fear of death, or has in the least, sought to evade it when
the king is dead.”
* Editor’s note: undoubtedly Adcantuannus/Adiatuanos king of the Sotiates.
** Editor’s note: probably the soldurii evoked by Caesar about this chief.
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DIO OF PRUSA (circa 40-120).
Dio of Prusa also called Chrysostom that is to say, “golden-mouthed.”
DISCOURSE 49.7.
A Refusal of the Office of Archon delivered before the Council.
Furthermore, since they cannot always be ruled by kings who are philosophers, the most
powerful nations have publicly appointed philosophers as superintendents and officers for
their kings. Thus it seems to me that the Persians appointed those whom they call Magi,
because they were acquainted with Nature and understood how the gods should be
worshiped; the Egyptians appointed the priests who had the same knowledge as the Magi,
devoting themselves to the service of the gods and knowing the how and the why of
everything; the Indians appointed Brahmans, because they excel in self-control and
righteousness and in their devotion to the divine, as a result of which they know the future
better than all other men know their immediate present; the Celts appointed those whom they
call druids, these also being devoted to the prophetic art and to wisdom in general. In all
these cases, the kings were not permitted to do or plan anything without the assistance of
these wise men, so that in truth it was they who ruled, while the kings became are servants
and the ministers of their will, though they sat on golden thrones, dwelt in great houses, and
feasted sumptuously.
DISCOURSE 79.4.
On wealth.
But what should we say of the Celts, in whose country, according to reports, a certain river
carries amber nuggets [Greek elektron/electrum] down with its waters and the amber is found
in abundance everywhere by the river banks, cast ashore like the pebbles on the beaches in
our country? Indeed, in days gone by their children at play used to toss it about, though now
they too collect and treasure it, having learned from us which fortune they can be worth.
Are you aware that all these peoples — the Celts, Indians, Iberians, Arabs, and Babylonians
— exact tribute from us, not from our land or from our flocks and herds; but from our own
folly?
152
TZETZES (circa 1110-1180).
Tzetzes John. A Byzantine grammarian and poet. Summarized the passage of Procopius in
his commentary on Lycophron. But with Bretannia (Britain) instead of Brittia. Today the Great
Britain.
“The Islands of the Blessed [the Fortunate Isles] are described by Hesiod, Homer, Euripides,
Plutarch, Dio, Procopius, Philostratus, and others, as situated in the deep-eddying Ocean,
because [Great] Britain is an island lying between Western Britain on the West and Thule on
the East. There, it is said, are the soul/minds of the dead ferried over. For on the coast of the
Ocean which surrounds the island of [Great] Britain dwell certain fisherfolk subjects of the
Franks, but not paying them any tribute, by reason, as they say, of their carrying over the
soul/minds of the dead. For they go their ways home towards evening and fall asleep, and
presently thereafter they become aware of certain people knocking at the door and hear a
voice calling them forth to their work. Thereupon they get up and go down to the shore as
compelled by some necessity they know not what, and there they find boats ready, not their
own, and apparently empty. But when they go aboard the boats and get out their oars, they
feel that the vessels are as heavy as if they were full of passengers, though they see nobody.
Then with a single stroke they arrive at the island [Great] Britain, although otherwise, when
they employ their own ships, the voyage takes them at least one whole night and a day. But
when they reach the island, again they see nobody, but they hear the voice of those who
receive the passengers out of the boats, ranking them according to the family of the father
and mother of each, and styling each one, moreover, severally by his name, with the addition
of his dignity or profession. At last, when all the boats are empty, the fishermen return home,
again at a single stroke of the oars. Hence many have inferred that the Isles of the Blessed
are there, and that the soul/minds of the dead pass over there."
MAMERTINUS (fourth century).
Claudius Mamertinus. Celtic orator probably native of Trier in Germany. He delivered at
Constantinople in 362 a famous speech in honor of the Emperor Julian the Apostate. Two
other panegyrics of the dozens come down to us shall be ascribed to him, without certainty:
the numbers 2 and 3 in chronological order (years 289 and 291).
Below is what we can read in the speech read to the birthday of the emperor Maximian
Hercules in Trier, in 291.
PANEGYRICUS GENETHLIACUS MAXIMIANO AUGUSTO (Genethliac panegyric of
Maximian Augustus).
III. “He assuredly would not allow it: I mean that heavenly founder, or father, of your race. Now
first of all, whatever is immortal does not know, how to stand still, and eternity preserves itself
by ceaseless motion.
Second, those parents of yours, who have given you both name and empire, are chiefly
employed in the perpetual performance of tasks of the highest importance. Indeed that god,
Diocletian's ancestor, besides having expelled the Titans once from their occupation of
heaven and having engaged in war soon afterward against the two-formed monsters, governs
with uninterrupted care his empire, peaceful though it is, revolves this enormous mass [or
millstone] with tireless hand, and ever-watchful preserves the arrangement and succession of
all things. For it is not true that he only bestirs himself on those occasions when he thunders
and hurls lightning bolts, but, if he has laid to rest the turbulent manifestations of the
elements, all the same he orders the Fates and exhales from his peaceful breast those
breezes which glide silently along, and hurries the sun advancing opposite to the movement
of heaven.”
153
HERODIAN (circa 175-249).
A Roman historian of Greek language. The author of a book known as the "History of the
Roman Empire” since Marcus Aurelius to Gordian III.
Below what we can read in Book VIII.
Chapter III.
8....By saying such things as these, Crispinus, who was venerable by nature and highly
skilled in speaking Latin, and had governed the Aquileians moderately, succeeded in
persuading them to remain at their assigned posts; he ordered the envoys to return
unsuccessful to Maximinus. He is said to have persevered in his prosecution of the war
because the many men in the city who were skilled at auguries and the taking of auspices
reported that the omens favored the townspeople. The Italians place particular reliance upon
the taking of auguries. Oracles, too, revealed to them that their native god promised them
victory. They call this god Belen [Belen in Greek], and worship him with special devotion,
identifying him with Apollo; whose image, some of Maximinus's soldiers said, often appeared
in the sky over the city, fighting for the Aquileians.
9. Whether the god actually appeared to some of the besiegers, or whether they simply said
that he did because they were ashamed that so large an army was unable to overcome a
mob of civilians, and it would thus seem that they had been beaten by gods, not by men, I am
unable to say, but the strangeness of the whole affair makes everything about it credible...
NAZARIUS (fourth century).
An orator and rhetorician. Delivered in 321, nine years after the event, a speech (panegyric)
celebrating the glory of Constantine and of his son. We can read there what follows
Panegyric number 4.
14... armies were seen which let it be known that they had been divinely sent. And although
heavenly things are not in the habit of coming before men's eyes, because the unmixed and
incorporeal substance of their subtle nature eludes our dull and darkened vision, yet at that
time your helpers submitted to being seen and heard, and escaped contamination by mortal
sight after they had attested your worth. But what is their appearance said to have been, the
vigor of their bodies, the size of their limbs, the eagerness of their wills? Their flashing shields
were aflame with something dreadful; their celestial weaponry was ablaze with a terrible glow;
for they had come in such a form that they were believed to be yours. This was their
discourse, this was the speech they composed in the midst of their hearers: "We seek
Constantine, we go to help Constantine."
Surely even divine beings admit self-esteem because pride touches heavenly beings as well:
and those armies come down from heaven, and those armies divinely sent were exultant,
because they were fighting for you. Your father Constantius, I believe, was their leader, who
had yielded earthly triumphs to you, greater than he, and who, now deified, was enjoying the
divine expedition.
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APULEIUS (circa 125-180).
A Latin writer born in Madaura, today M'daouroch in Algeria.
Here's what we found in one of his books: "Metamorphoses" or “the golden ass.”
BOOK III.
Chapter XXVII.
Then I being thus handled by them, and driven away, got me into a corner of the stable,
where while I remembered their insolence, and how on the morrow I should return to Lucius
by the help of a rose, when as I thought to revenge myself of my own horse, I was lucky to
see in the middle of a pillar sustaining the joists of the stable, the image[ in Latin
simulacra/simulacrum] of the goddess Epona , in a kind of creche [Latin aedicula] which was
garnished and decked roundabout with fresh roses. Then in hope of present remedy, I leaped
up with my fore feet as high as I could, stretching out my neck, and with my lips coveting to
snatch some roses. But what a misfortune, while I did go about that enterprise, for behold the
boy to whom I gave charge of my horse, came presently in, and finding me climbing upon the
pillar, ran in anger towards me and said: How long shall we suffer this stupid ass, this
gelding, this eunuch [Latin canterium], that do not only eat up the food of our beasts of
burden, but also would spoil the images of the gods?
MEMNON (1st century).
A Greek historian, author of a history of Heraclea, lost today but of which some extracts were
preserved to us by a patriarch of Constantinople called Photius, during the ninth century; with
279 other notes on various literary works. The whole is known as the library of Photius. The
note which interests us is the codex number 224 (history of Heraclea).
LIBRARY OF PHOTIUS.
Codex 224. History of Heraclea.
Read the historical work of Memnon from the ninth book to the sixteenth book...
...On these terms, Nicomedes brought the multitude of Celts over to Asia [Minor]. The Celts
had 17 great leaders, of whom the most important and distinguished were Leonnorius and
Lutarius.
At first this crossing of the Gauls to Asia seemed to cause only trouble for the inhabitants, but
in the end it inclined to their benefit. The kings tried to put an end to the democracies in the
cities, but the Celts strengthened them, by repelling the cities' oppressors. Nicomedes, after
arming the Celts, started by conquering the land of Bithynia and slaughtering the inhabitants,
with the assistance of the Heracleians. The Celts shared the rest of the loot among
themselves. After advancing over much of the country, the Celts withdraw and chose a
section of the land to keep for themselves, which is now called Galatia. They split this land
into three parts, for the tribes of the Trocmi, Tolistobogii, and Tectosages. They each founded
cities, the Trocmii at Ancyra, the Tolistobogii at Tabia, and the Tectosages at Pessinus.
155
THE ANONYMOUS VATICANUS (third century-first century Before Common Era).
Vatican paradoxographer. In Latin Paradoxographus Vaticanus or Anonymus Vaticanus. A
Greek author of whom we do not know the name but who made a collection of curious or
even frankly abnormal facts, and whose manuscript was found in the Vatican Library. Hence
his name. In his work entitled (for want of anything better) "extraordinary things"...
… The most extraordinary indeed being that even the Japanese know it...
Cf. web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/people/tiakio/cicada/vaticanus.html….
We can read what follows.
Fragment No. 17.
Among the Germans, if the child is legitimate is tested while plunging the newborn babes in
the Rhine.*
Fragment No. 24.
The Celts, in times of food shortage or plague, whip the women, they regard as the cause of
these calamities.
Fragment No. 44.
Among the Galatians, if a criminal gives a horse or a trumpet, he is exonerated. **
When they decide a war, they take the opinion of the women and follow it; in the event of
defeat, they throw out of their territory the head of the women who decided the war. ***
Editor’s note.
*Cliché! See below in the Greek anthology.
** If he gives a financial compensation? Having the value of a horse? Even of a trumpet?
*** The warmongers are thus punished! Caesar did in the same way with the unfortunate
Gutuater, which paid thus his patriotism with his life.
THE PSEUDO-PLAUTUS (5th century).
The Latin comedy called Querolus or Aulularia is not to confuse with the true Aulularia which
is of Plautus. It is in fact another text written by an unknown author. This Querolus
(complainer) or Aularia (pot) which generally is ascribed, but wrongly,to the Latin writer
Plautus, was undoubtedly written at the beginning of the fifth century. We can read in it what
follows.
QUEROLUS.
ACT I.
Scene 2.
THE LAR: Ha! Ha! He! What you request is the robbery and not the power. By Pollux I do not
know how that could be to you granted. Nevertheless I think to have found, you have what
you wish: go away on the edges of the Loire River.
QUEROLUS: Why thus?
THE LAR: Here men live while following the natural right; here there is not an imposture: the
sentences to death are delivered at the foot of the oak and are written on bones. There too
the peasants plead and private individuals judge. All is allowed! If you are rich, you will be
called Patus: so they speak in this Greece. O forests, O loneliness! who didn't claim that you
were free? And there are many other more important things than we do not say you but
nevertheless that is enough for you.
QUEROLUS: I am not rich, and I don’t care about oaks. I do not want this justice of the
forests.
156
PHILEMON (circa 361 to 263 before Common Era).
A Greek poet of the new comedy, rival of Menander, author of 97 plays of which there remain
only fragments. Below what we can find in one of them according to Athenaeus.
...And Ulpianus, as if he had got some unexpected gain, while Myrtilus was still speaking,
said:
Do we say tigris in the masculine gender? For I know that Philemon says this in his play
called Neaera:
Just as Seleucus sent a tigress here,
Which we have seen, so we in turn ought now
To send Seleucus back a beast from here.
Let's send him a trigeranus; for that's
An animal not known much in his country.
ULPIAN (170-223).
A Roman jurist and politician. He is the author most quoted in the Justinian’s Digest.
Below, therefore, an extract of the Digest of Justinian resuming his doctrine on a very specific
point of law.
THE DIGEST OR PANDECTS.
BOOK XXXII.
TITLE I.
CONCERNING LEGACIES AND TRUSTS.
11. Ulpianus, Trusts, Book II.
“Trusts [ Latin fideicommissa] can also be left in any language, not only in Latin or Greek, but
also in Carthaginian, Celtic, or the idiom of any nation whatsoever.”
It is possible to add to which the following fragment, quoted from the Tituli ex corpore Ulpiani,
which are probably not of Ulpian in spite of their title, but which date from the same time.
TITULI EX CORPORE ULPIANI.
TITLE XXII.
WHO CAN BE APPOINTED HEIRS?
6. We cannot appoint any of the gods our heirs, except those whom we are permitted to
appoint by a decree of the Senate, or by the imperial constitutions; for instance, the tarpeian
Jove, the didymaean Apollo of Miletus, the Mars of Celtica, the Trojan Minerva, Hercules of
Gades, Diana of Ephesus, the sipylenian Mother of the gods, the Nemesis worshiped at
Smyrna, and the heavenly Goddess * of the salt flats of Carthage.
* Editor’s note. Caelestis. Probably Tanit in the Roman interpretation.
157
HECATAEUS (fourth or third century Before Common Era).
Hecataeus of Abdera. A Greek philosopher and historian, author of a book on the
Hyperboreans. Quoted by Diodorus Siculus.
“In the regions beyond the land of the Celts there lies in the ocean an island no smaller than
Sicily. This island is situated in the north and is inhabited by the Hyperboreans, who are called
by that name because their home is beyond the point whence the north wind (Boreas) blows;
and the island is both fertile and productive of every crop, and since it has an unusually
temperate climate it produces two harvests each year. Leto was born on this island, and for
that reason Apollo is honored among them above all other gods; and the inhabitants are
looked upon as priests of Apollo, after a manner, since daily they praise this god continuously
in song and honor him exceedingly. And there is also on the island both a magnificent sacred
precinct of Apollo and a notable temple [Stonehenge?] which is adorned with many votive
offerings and is spherical . Furthermore, a city is there which is sacred to this god, the
majority of its inhabitants are players on the cithara; these continually play on this instrument
in the temple and sing hymns of praise to the god, glorifying his deeds.”
JULIAN (331-363).
A Roman emperor, but also a major Greek author of the fourth century.
In one of his works entitled "the Beard-Hater" or "Misopogon" in Greek, we can read this.
Therefore do not be surprised if I now feel towards you as I do, for I am more uncivilized than
he, and fiercer and more headstrong in proportion as the Celts are more so than the Romans.
He was born in Rome and was nurtured among the Roman citizens till he was on the
threshold of old age. But as for me, I had to do with Celts and Germans and the Hercynian
Forest from the moment that I was reckoned a grown man, and I have by now spent a long
time there, like some huntsman who associates with and is entangled among wild beasts.
There I met with temperaments that know not how to pay court or flatter, but only how to
behave simply and frankly to all men alike [ Greek haplos de kaì eleutheros ek tou ísou pasi
prospheresthai].
In his second panegyric in the honor of the emperor Constantius, we can read what follows.
Heroic deeds of Constantius.
…They say that the Celts also have a river which is an incorruptible judge [of the legitimacy]
of offspring, and neither can the mothers persuade that river by their laments to hide and
conceal their fault for them, nor the fathers who are afraid for their wives and sons in this trial,
but it is an arbiter that never swerves or gives a false verdict. But we are corrupted by riches,
by physical strength in its prime, by powerful ancestors, an influence which does not permit us
to see clearly the soul which…etc.
In one of his letters sent to Maximus the philosopher (epistle No. 16), we can read what
follows.
…Certainly, the Rhine does not mislead the Celts, for it sinks deep in its eddies their bastard
infants, like a fitting avenger of an adulterous bed; but all those that it recognizes to be of pure
descent it supports on the surface of the water and gives them back to the arms of the
trembling mother, thus rewarding her with the safety of her child as incorruptible evidence that
her marriage is pure and without reproach….
158
Editor's note. Some authors think it was also a question of hardening them to the cold.
MAXIMUS OF TYRE (125-185).
A Greek philosopher and rhetorician. Author of 41 essays on various topics.
Here's what we can read in one of them, the number VIII which wonders about the
representation of the gods.
DISSERTATION XXXVIII.
Whether representations [Greek agalma, see the editor’s note below] should be dedicated to
the gods?
The gods are the helpers of mankind, all indeed of all; but different gods are considered as
giving assistance to different men, accordingly to the rumor of names....
The Celts, indeed, venerate Jupiter, but the Celtic statue * of Zeus [in Greek agalma] is a lofty
oak. The Paeonians venerate the sun, but the paeonic statue of the sun is a short discus fixed
on the top of a long pole...
* Editor’s note. Taylor is wrong to translate the Greek word agalma in “statue.” Its meaning is
much more generic. It is drawn from the stem agal meaning “to decorate, to be delighted.”
See also the Greek verb agallein which means at the same time to avoid but also to honor by
offering presents. The agalma is therefore at the beginning a work of art or an invaluable
object offered to a god, and by extension an image of the god thus honored.
THE ANONYMOUS OF THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY.
(end third, early second century Before Common Era).
Poem No. 125, included in the Greek or Palatine Anthology in 13 volumes, published from
1798 to 1814 by Friedrich Christian Jacobs, according to the Palatine manuscript. Category
"declamatory and descriptive epigrams.” A more ancient epigram than the one of Propertius,
belonging to the Greek Anthology, and probably dating back to the late third or early second
century Before Common Era.
GREEK ANTHOLOGY VOLUME 3.
BOOK IX.
125. Anonymous
The brave Celts test their children in the jealous Rhine,
And none regards himself as being the child's father
Until he sees it washed by that venerated river.
At once, when the babe has glided from its mother's lap and sheds its first tears,
The father himself lifts it and places it on his shield,
Caring naught for its suffering for he does not feel for it like a father
Until he sees it judged by the bath in the river,
The test of conjugal fidelity.
The mother, suffering new pangs added to those of childbirth,
Even though she knows him to be the child's true father,
Waits in fear and trembling the pronouncement of the dubious wave.
159
SOLINUS (fourth century).
Gaius Julius Solinus. He is the author of a work entitled Collectanea rerum memorabilium or
Polyhistor, a Collection of curiosities in the various areas of the world. Below what we find
there.
Chapter XII.
[Great] Britain is surrounded by many significant islands, of which Hibernia comes closest to it
in size. The latter is inhuman in the savage rituals of its inhabitants, but, on the other hand, is
so rich in fodder that the cattle, if not removed from the fields from time to time, would happily
gorge themselves to a dangerous point; on that island there are no snakes, few birds, and an
unfriendly and warlike people. When the blood of overcome enemies had been drained, the
victors smear it on their own faces. They treat right and wrong as the same thing...
... [Great] Britain has a perimeter of 48658 times thousand paces (four thousand eight
hundred sixty-five millia passuum). In this island are many great rivers, and warm springs
adorned with sumptuous splendor for the use of mortals. Minerva is the patron goddess of
these and in her temple the eternal flames never whiten into ash, but rather, when the fire
dies away, it turns into rocky round masses.
CALLIMACHUS (– 305 – 240).
A Greek poet.
HYMN TO DELOS.
IV
“And one day hereafter you will come to fight with us a common struggle,
When the Titans of a later day rouse up against the Hellenes barbarian sword and the Celtic
Ares,
And from the furthest West rush on like snowflakes
And in number as the stars when they flock most thickly in the sky;
Villages too and the forts of the Locrians and Delphian heights and Crisaean plains
Thronged about and around,
Will behold the rich smoke of the house of their neighbor devastated by the flames,
And will not hear only a rumor to swell in the distance.
Then will be seen at the foot of the temple the ranks of the foe,
Beside my tripods the swords and cruel belts and hateful shields,
Which shall cause an evil journey to the foolish tribe of the Galatians.
Of these shields some shall be my reward;
Others, when they have seen the wearers perish amid fire,
Shall be set by the banks of Nile to be the prizes of a king who labored much.
O Ptolemy, these are the prophecies I have for you!”
160
TIMAEUS (circa – 345 – 250 before Common Era).
A Greek historian. Native of a city called Tauromenium. Author of a voluminous history in 38
volumes from which only fragments have reached us. Quoted by Diodorus (see this name).
“The Argonauts, after the seizure of the fleece, learning that the mouth of the Pontus had
already been blockaded by the fleet of Aeetes, performed an amazing exploit which is worthy
of mention. They sailed, that is to say, up the Tanais River as far as its sources, and at a
certain place they hauled the ship overland, and following in turn another river which flows
into the ocean they sailed down it to the sea. Then they made their course from the north to
the west, keeping the land on their left, and when they had arrived near Gadeira (Cadiz) they
sailed into our sea [the Mediterranean]...The Celts who dwell along the ocean venerate the
Dioscuri above any of the gods, since they have a tradition handed down from ancient times
that these gods appeared in their country coming from the ocean. The country which skirts
the ocean does not bear a few names which are derived from the Argonauts and the
Dioscuri…”
SAINT CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (150-215).
One of the Fathers of the Church. His Stromata are essentially a refutation of heresies and a
statement of true gnosis, according to him. Incorporates passages from Alexander Polyhistor
on the relationship between the druids and Pythagoras.
THE STROMATA.
BOOK I.
Chapter XV.
Alexander, in his book On the Pythagorean Symbols, relates that Pythagoras was a pupil of
Nazaratus the Assyrian
(some think that he is Ezekiel; but he is not, as will afterward be shown), and will have it that,
in addition to these, Pythagoras was a hearer of the Galatæ and the Brahmins. Clearchus the
Peripatetic says that he knew a Jew who….
Heraclitus says that, not humanly, but rather by God’s aid, the Sibyl spoke...
Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity among the barbarians,
shedding its light over the nations. And afterward it came to Greece. First in its ranks were the
prophets of the Egyptians; and the Chaldeans among the Assyrians; and the druids among
the Celts; and the Samanæans among the Bactrians; and the philosophers of the Celts; and
the magi of the Persians, who foretold the Savior’s birth, and came into the land of Judea
guided by a star.
161
JULIUS CAPITOLINUS (late third century, early fourth).
It is one of the six false authors of the collection of biographies called “Augustan History.”
According to some it would be, as we have said, a forgery written by a single author in the
late fourth century.
In all cases below what we can read in his life of the two Maximini.
Chapter XXII.
So when Maximinus found he was besieging Aquileia in vain, he sent envoys to the city. And
the people had almost yielded to them, had not Menophilus and his colleague opposed it,
saying that the god Belenus had declared through the soothsayers that Maximinus would be
conquered. Whence afterward the soldiers of Maximinus boasted, it is said that Apollo must
have fought against them, and that really victory belonged not to the Senate and Maximus but
to the gods. But, on the other hand, it is said that they advanced this theory because they
blushed, armed men as they were, to have been defeated by civilians practically unarmed.
AELIANUS (end of the second century – beginning of the third).
A Roman author of Greek language.
VARIOUS HISTORY.
BOOK XII.
Chapter XXIII.
I am informed that the Celts are of all men most addicted to engage themselves in dangers.
Such person as die gallantly in fight, they make the subjects of songs. They fight crowned,
and erect trophies, triumphing in their actions, and leaving monuments of their valor, after the
Greek manner. They esteem it so dishonorable to flee that many times they will not go out of
their houses when they are falling or burning, though they see themselves surrounded with
fire. Many also oppose themselves to inundations of the sea. There are also who taking their
arms fall upon the waves, and resist their force with naked swords, and brandishing their
lances, as if able to terrify or wound them.
IAMBLICHUS (environ 245-325).
A Neo-Platonist philosopher. The author, among other works, of commentaries on the
Pythagorean Life, in which we can read this...
Chapter XXX.
Pythagoras had a slave by the name of Zamolxis, hailing from Thrace. After hearing
Pythagoras's discourses, and obtaining his freedom, he returned to the Getae, and there, as
has already been mentioned at the beginning of this work, exhorted the citizens to fortitude,
persuading then that the soul/mind [psyche in Greek] is immortal. So much so is this that
even at present all the Galatians and Triballians [or Trallians], and many others of the
Barbarians, persuade their children that the soul/mind [psyche in Greek] cannot be destroyed,
but survives death, so that the latter is not to be feared, so that (ordinary) danger is to be met
with a firm and manly mind. For instructing the Getae in these things, and for having written
laws for them, Zamolxis was by them considered as the greatest of the gods.
162
DIOGENES LAERTIUS (early third century).
A Greek poet and doxographer.
LIVES AND OPINIONS OF EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS.
BOOK I.
Prologue.
I. There are some who say that the study of philosophy had its beginning among the
barbarians. The Persians have had their Magi, the Babylonians or Assyrians their Chaldeans,
and the Indians their Gymnosophists; and among the Celts there are the people called druids
or semnothes (Holy Ones), for which they cite as authorities the Magicus of Aristotle and
Sotion in the twenty-third book of his Succession of Philosophers.
VI. But the advocates of the theory that philosophy took its rise among the barbarians go on
to explain the different forms it assumed in different countries. As to the Gymnosophists and
druids, we are told that they uttered their teaching in riddles, bidding to reverence the gods, to
abstain from wrongdoing, and to be a man, a true one.
LAMPRIDIUS (late third century, early fourth century).
Aelius Lampridius. One of the six authors of the fictional series of biographies called “Historia
Augusta.” According to some it would be a forgery, in fact, written by a single author in the
late fourth century.
Below is what we can read in his life of Alexander Severus.
AUGUSTAN HISTORY.
LIFE OF SEVERUS ALEXANDER.
Chapter LX.
He ruled for thirteen years and nine days, and he lived for twenty-nine years, three months,
and seven days. He did everything in accordance with his mother's advice, and she was killed
with him.
The omens portending his death were as follows.....As he went to war, a druidess [Latin
mulier druias] cried out in the Celtic tongue, "Go, but do not hope for victory, and put no trust
in your soldiers!" And when he mounted a tribunal in order to make an address to the
troops....
163
PETRONIUS (circa 27-66).
A Latin writer to whom is ascribed, perhaps wrongly, the Satyricon. Here's what we can read
in the book.
THE SATYRICON.
VOLUME IV.
Encolpius, Giton and Eumolpus escape by sea.
Chapter CXXII
....There, high in the Alps, where the crags, by a Greek god once trodden,
Slope down and permit of approach, is a spot ever sacred
To Hercules's altar; the winter with frozen snow seals it
And rears to the heavens a summit eternally hoary,
As though the sky there had slipped down, no warmth from the sunbeams,
No breath from the Springtime can soften the peak's wintry rigor
Nor slacken the frost chains that bind; and its menacing shoulders
The weight of the world could sustain...
AURELIUS VICTOR (327-390).
Sextus Aurelius Victor known as Aurelius Victor. A Roman historian and politician born in
Africa.
BOOK OF THE EMPERORS (in Latin Liber de caesaribus).
Chapter IV.
Consequently Claudius, although he was a shameful slave to his stomach, foolish as well and
forgetful, of a timid disposition and rather cowardly, nevertheless, mostly because of his
permanent hesitation, made some outstanding decisions, particularly on the advice of the
nobility whom he courted through fear. Simple-minded people, you see, do what their advisers
tell them. In short, because of his good counselors, vices were suppressed by him as were
the famous superstitions of the druids [Latin Drysadarum famosae superstitiones] throughout
Celtica, the most beneficial laws possible were established, and the military matters were
dealt with....
164
VIRGIL or VERGILIUS (– 70 – 19).
Latin poet and writer. Various authors have highlighted Cisalpine Celtic influence in his work.
His Georgics is for example an ode to Celtic agriculture. Mistletoe plays an important role in
Aeneas’s descent into hell, etc.
Below is a short and very minor poem attributed to Virgil (the second epigram of the
Catalepton, against the rhetorician Annius Cimber) containing the tau gallicum.
THE CATALEPTON.
I
O Tucca, Delia often comes to you and...
II
That lover of Corinthian words or obsolete,
That rhetorician that here, in truth the perfect
Thucydides or Britannus, tyrant of attic fever
Dauber and pencil pusher of tau gallicum, of min and of psin,
And this so that it arrives to him some harm
Mixed for his brother all these things.
ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR (first century Before Common Era).
Greek prolific writer who lived in Rome in the first century before Common Era and, in one of
his many books (On Pythagorean symbols) lists a number of “barbarians" philosophies having
a more or less distant relationship with the doctrines of Pythagoras.
Clement of Alexandria (150-215) in his Stromata (essentially a refutation of heresies) I, 15,
quote him.
Below what Clement notes specifically.
“Alexander, in his book On the Pythagorean Symbols, relates that Pythagoras was a pupil of
Nazaratus the Assyrian
(some think that he is Ezekiel; but he is not, as will afterward be shown), and will have it that,
in addition to these, Pythagoras was a hearer of the Galatæ and the Brahmins."
Also quoted by Cyril of Alexandria, in his book written against Julian the Apostate.
SUETONIUS (69/75 – 130).
A Roman scholar known for his lives of the twelve Caesars (from Julius Caesar to Domitian).
We can read what follows in his life of Tiberius.
XIV.
When later, on his way to Illyricum, he visited the oracle of Geryon near Patavium, and drew a
lot which advised him to seek an answer to his inquiries by throwing golden dice into the fount
of Aponus, it came to pass that the dice which he threw showed the highest possible number
and those dice may be seen today under the water.
We can read what follows in his life of Galba.
VIII.
Not long after the lightning struck a lake of Cantabria and twelve axes were found there, an
unmistakable token of supreme power.
165
PARTHENIUS (first century Before Common Era).
A Greek poet. Author of a collection of 36 love romances, unlucky in prose.
Hereafter the number XXX.
LOVE STORIES.
THE STORY OF CELTINE (the number XXX).
Hercules, it is told, after he had taken the cattle of Geryones from Erythea, was wandering
through the country of the Celts and came to the house of Bretannus, who had a daughter
called Celtine. Celtine fell in love with Hercules and hid away the cattle, refusing to give them
back to him unless he would first content her. Hercules was indeed very anxious to bring the
heifers safe home, but he was far more struck by the girl’s exceeding beauty, and consented
to her wishes; and then, when the time had come round, a son called Celtus was born to
them, from whom the Celtic race derived their name.
PROPERTIUS (– 47 +16).
A Latin poet. Author of four books of elegies.
In one of them, dedicated to the temple of Feretrian Jupiter, we can read what follows.
BOOK IV.
10.
The Temple of Feretrian Jupiter
...
Claudius also threw the enemy back when they’d crossed the Rhine,
At that time when the Belgic shield of the giant chieftain Virdomarus was brought here.
He boasted he was born of the Rhine itself,
Agile at throwing javelins from unswerving chariot wheels.
Hurling them, he advanced, in striped breeches, in front of the host:
The engraved torque fell from his severed throat.
Now triple spoils are stored in the temple.
CELSUS (second century).
Greek philosopher, author of a book analyzing Christianity, entitled “the true word," written
around 178. This book has been censored or destroyed by the Christians, but many
fragments nevertheless reached us.
Here is one, quoted by Origen in his Against Celsus, book I, chapter XVI.
“He [Celsus] styles the Galactophagi of Homer, and the druids of the Celts, and the Getæ,
most learned and ancient tribes, on account of the resemblance between their traditions and
those of the Jews, although I do not know whether any of their histories survive; but the
Hebrews alone, as far as in him lies, he deprives of the honor both of antiquity and
learning...”.
166
PHILOSTRATUS (circa 170 –247).
Philostratus known as the Athenian. A Sophist and biographer, author of the Life of Apollonius
of Tyana. We can read in the book No VII of this life of Apollonius of Tyana, what follows.
Chapter IV.
And the result was that while the Senate had all its most distinguished members cut off,
philosophy was reduced to cowering in a corner, to such an extent that some of its votaries
disguised themselves by changing their dress and ran away to take refuge among the
western Celts, while others fled to the deserts of Libya and Scythia, and others again stooped
to compose orations in which his crimes were palliated.
PHILOSTRATUS OF LEMNOS (third century. Son-in-law of the previous one).
Here what we find in his work entitled Eikones in Greek language (what means images or
pictures).
BOOK I.
Chapter XXVIII.
…..These pigments, it is said, the barbarians living by Oceanus compound of red-hot bronze,
and they combine, and grow hard, and preserve what is painted with them.
NICANDER (second century Before Common Era).
Nicander of Colophon. A Greek grammarian, poet and physician. The author of numerous
works of which only two have been preserved for us.
Quoted by Tertullian.
TREATISE ON THE SOUL/MIND (Latin De Anima).
Chapter LVII.
Magic and sorcery only apparent in their effects. God alone can raise the dead.
....
[The Nasamones consult private oracles by frequent and lengthened visits to the sepulchers
of their relatives, as one may find in Heraclides, or Nymphodorus, or Herodotus; and]
the Celts, for the same purpose, stay away all night at the tombs of their brave chieftains, as
Nicander affirms.
167
ARETAEUS (first century).
Known as "the Cappadocian.” We have from him a work in eight books. Here's what we found
in that which deals with chronic diseases.
ON THE THERAPEUTICS OF CHRONIC DISEASE
BOOK II.
Chapter XIII.
Cure of elephas.
There are many other medicines . . . . . . of the Celts....... those alkaline substances made into
balls, with which they cleanse their clothes, called soap, with which it is a very excellent thing
to cleanse the body in the bath. And purslane and houseleek with vinegar....are also very
efficient.
CLAUDIAN (370-408).
A Roman poet, but whose first language was Greek.
In his first invective against Rufinus, we find the following mention.
TRASHING RUFINUS (first poem).
BOOK I.
Lines 129-134
There is a place where Celtica stretches her furthermost shore spread out before the waves
of Ocean:
It is there that Ulysses is said to have called up the silent ghosts with a libation of blood.
There is heard the mournful weeping of the spirits of the dead as they flit by with faint sound
of wings,
And the inhabitants see the pale ghosts pass
And the shades of the dead.
168
JUVENAL (late first century, early second).
Latin satirical poet.
In one of his satires, we can read what follows...
BOOK III.
Satire 8.
Line 156.
Meanwhile, though he slays woolly victims and tawny steers
After Numa's fashion,
He swears by no other deity before Jove's altar
Than Epona, and the images painted on the reeking stables.
Scholia and glosses according to Johannes Zwicker (Fontes historiae religionis celticae,
Berlin, 1934).
Hippona was the goddess of the mares and of the stablemen: ippos = horse.
Epona is the goddess of the women.
Note: Ypona therefore had a temple in Rome, in which, like in the stables or in all places in
which there were mares, was a painting representing herself.
HESIOD (eighth century Before Common Era).
A Greek poet. Mainly known for his rewriting of the myths in the works entitled "Theogony"
and "the Works and Days."
Below is what we read in his Theogony.
Lines 335-342
And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deep-swirling Po [in Greek
Eridanos] , Strymon, and Meander, and the fair stream of Danube [ Greek Istros].....Also she
brought forth a holy company of Daughters who with the lord Apollo and the Rivers had
youths in their keeping.
EPHORUS (fourth century Before Common Era).
A Greek orator and historian. Wrote circa - 340 a universal history of the Greeks. Quoted by
Diodorus Siculus and Strabo.
“Most part of the regions we call Iberia, as far as Gades, is inhabited by Celts. They are fond
of the Hellenes. They endeavor not to grow fat or pot-bellied, and any young man who
exceeds the standard measure of a certain girdle, is punished. It is a thing peculiar to them.”
Editor’s Note. We do not know from where Ephorus had his information.
169
CELSUS (circa – 25 + 50).
Aulus Cornelius Celsus. A medical doctor of antiquity.
TREATISE ON MEDICINE.
BOOK VII.
Chapter VII.
15.
...Even more efficacious is the African method; they burn the crown of the scalp through down
to the bone so that it may cast off a scale. But there is nothing better than the practice in
Transalpine; there they pick out blood vessels in the temples and crown of the head [and they
are cauterized].
HESYCHIUS (sixth century).
A Greek grammarian of Alexandria. His GLOSSARY contains words given as Celtic. This
dictionary has about 50,000 entries, it is obvious that we cannot reproduce it completely here.
Anyway, only sixty words are given as Galatians or Celtic.Some examples.
Abanas: apes.
Braccai: goatskins, among the Celts (breeches, trousers, pants).
Embrocation: kind of fermented drink.
Kurtiai: kind of shield.
Legousmata or leiousmata: kind of breastplate or armor.
Etc. Etc.
CATO THE ELDER (– 234 –149).
A writer and Roman Statesman. In one of the fragments remaining us of his works, it is
possible to read the following remark.
ORIGINS.
BOOK II.
Fragment No. 34.
Generally Celtica seeks in the most industrious way two things: the art of the war and to
speak subtly [Latin argute loqui].
170
MACROBIUS. A Latin author born circa 370 at Sicca in Africa.
Flavius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius. Known primarily for two of his writings, the
Saturnalia and the commentary on the dream of Scipio.
Below what one can read in chapter XIX of the first book of his Saturnalia.
SATURNALIA.
BOOK I.
Chapter XIX.
"The Accitani, a people of Spain, worship with the greatest respect a simulacrum of Mars
which is adorned with rays, calling it Neton.”
171
SUPPLEMENT.
172
GREGORY OF TOURS (539-594).
A bishop. A historian of the Church. Main works: History of the Franks. Seven books of the
miracles. The seven books of the miracles are composed of the following texts: Glory of the
martyrs, miracles of St Julian,four books of miracles of St Martin and finally the book entitled
“glory of the confessors” the only one which somewhat interests us in fact.
Below what we can find in his history of the Franks.
BOOK I.
Chapter XXXII.
Valerian and Gallienus received the Roman imperial power in the twenty-seventh place, and
set on foot a cruel persecution of the Christians. At that time Cornelius brought fame to Rome
by his happy death, and Cyprian to Carthage. In their time also Chrocus the famous king of
the Alemanni raised an army and overran the Continental Celtica. This Chrocus is said to
have been very arrogant. And when he had committed a great many crimes, he gathered the
tribe of the Alemanni, as we have stated, by the advice, it is said, of his wicked mother, and
overran the whole of the continental Celtica, and destroyed from their foundations all the
temples which had been built in ancient times. And coming in Auvergne he set on fire,
overthrew and destroyed that shrine which they call Vasso Galatæ in the Celtic tongue. It had
been built and made strong with wonderful skill. And its wall was double, for on the inside it
was built of small stone and on the outside of squared blocks. The wall had a thickness of
thirty feet. It was adorned on the inside with marble and mosaics. The pavement of the temple
was also of marble and its roof above was of lead.
BOOK IV.
Chapter XXXI.
Now a great prodigy appeared in the Continental Celtica at the citadel of Tauredunum [close
to the mountain of Grammont in Switzerland] situated on the river Rhone. After a sort of
cracking had continued for more than sixty days, an entire side of the mountain was finally
torn away and separated from the remainder, together with men, churches, property and
houses, and fell into the river. The course of the river was blocked and the water flowed
back....
In a church of Auvergne while the morning watches were being observed at a certain festival,
a bird of the kind we call lark 1) entered, flapping its wings above the lights, and so swiftly
extinguished them all that one would think they had been taken by the hand of a single man
and plunged into water. The bird passed under the veil into the sanctuary and attempted to
put out the light there but it was prevented from doing so by the sextons and killed...
Editor’s note.
1) Aves coredallus, quam alaudam vocamus, in the Latin text. Alauda seems to be regarded
as an undoubtedly Latin word by Gregory, if not, his explanation has no sense.
BOOK IX.
Chapter XXVIII.
Queen Brunhilda did manufacture a shield of a marvelous size, with gold and invaluable
stones. She also did make two wooden dishes vulgarly called basins 1), also decorated with
precious stones and gold, and sent them to the king of Spain by Ebrigisilus, who went several
times as ambassador in this country.
173
Note of the editor.
1) Bacchinon in the “Latin” of this poor “peasant” who was Gregory (he claims himself to be
only such a man in the foreword of his book written on the glory of the confessors).
Below what we can read in his work, “the seven books of the miracles.”
THE BOOK OF THE MIRACLES.
BOOK VII.
ON THE GLORY OF THE CONFESSORS.
Incipit.
But because I do not possess the arts of rhetoric or the skill of grammar, I am afraid that when
I have begun to write educated men will criticize me: 'ignorant peasant, why do you think to
place your name among [those of other] great writers? Do you think that this work is to be
accepted by experts?
Familiarity with style does not support you, nor does any knowledge of literature assist you.
You have no useful foundation in literature and you do not know how to distinguish nouns,
because often you confuse feminine with masculine, neuter with feminine, and masculine with
neuter nouns. Often you do not use in the proper place those prepositions that the authority of
distinguished experts fixed for observation; for you substitute accusatives for ablatives and
again ablatives for accusatives. Do you think it proper for a lumbering ox to play at some
game in the exercise room of a palestra or a sluggish donkey to dash among the ranks of the
real tennis players in swift flight? Or can a raven indeed conceal his blackness with the wings
of white doves?’
....But I will nevertheless respond to these criticisms and say: 'I am working for you and my
rusticity as regards literature will thus provide to your know-how an occasion to be exerted.
For I think that these writings will offer you one benefit: what I describe unskillfully and briefly
in an obscure style, you will amplify in verse standing clearly and sumptuously on longer
pages.'
Chapter l.
While I was living in the Arverne territory, a trustworthy man talked with me; I know that he
told the truth because I knew that what he said had certainly happened. He said that he gave
orders that a drink be brewed for the reapers from grain soaked and boiled in water. [The
historian] Orosius wrote that this brew was called 'caelia' [or ‘caeria’] 1) because of the
cooking. The man delayed in the city. When the drink had been prepared and stored in a
container the servants, as is characteristic, drank most of it and left only a little for the
intentions of the lord...The lord of the estate arrived and inspected the quality and the quantity
of the drink but he found only a little bit. The lord was embarrassed because he determined
that no more than five measures were left. Thinking that this had been done to shame him so
that there would not be enough drink for the workers, he was uncertain what to do or where to
turn. Finally, with the inspiration of the Lord he turned to a little container and piously recited
over its mouth the names of the holy angels that the sacred readings taught. He prayed that
their power deign to transform this pittance into an abundance, so that the workers would not
lack something to drink. [What happened next is] extraordinary to report! Throughout the
174
entire day drinkers never lacked [drink] drawn from this container. Until nightfall ended work,
drink was served in abundance to everyone.
1) A kind of beer. See Spanish cerveza. But the Celts of this country had not waited to find
angels names in unspecified holy scriptures to believe, a little naively perhaps, that a cauldron
of abundance can refresh everyone endlessly.
Chapter II.
In the fourth year of his exile, the most blessed Hilary returned to his own city and, after
completing his good work, migrated to the Lord. Many miracles are said to be shown at his
blessed tomb, which the book of his life has recorded. Two lepers were also cleansed in the
same place.
In the Gabalitan territory [in the country of Gevaudan, French department of Lozere] there
was a mountain named after Hilary that contained a large lake. At a fixed time a crowd of
rustics went there and, as if offering libations to the lake, threw [into it] linen cloths and
material that served men as clothing. Some [threw] fleeces of wool; many [threw] cheese and
wax and bread as well as various objects, each according to his own means. That I think
would take too long to enumerate. They came with their wagons; they brought food and drink,
sacrificed animals, and feasted for three days. But before they were due to leave on the fourth
day, a violent storm approached them with thunder and lightning. The heavy rainfall and
hailstones fell with such force that each person thought he would not escape. Every year this
happened this way, but these ignorant people were tied up in their mistake. Much later a
priest from the city became bishop 1) went to the place. He preached to the crowds that they
should cease this behavior lest they be consumed by the wrath of heaven. But their coarse
rusticity rejected his preaching. Then, with the inspiration of the Deity this priest of God built a
basilica in honor of the blessed Hilary of Poitiers at a distance from the banks of the lake. He
placed relics of Hilary in the church and said to the people: 'Do not, my sons, do not sin
before God! For there is [to be] no religious piety to a lake. Do not stain your soul/mind
[animas in Gregory’s Latin] with these empty rituals, but rather acknowledge God and direct
your devotion to his friends. Worship also St Hilary, a priest of God whose relics are located
here. For he can serve as your intercessor [for] the mercy of the Lord.'
The men were stung in their hearts and converted. They left the lake and brought everything
they usually threw into it to the holy basilica. So they were freed from the mistake that had
bound them. Next the storm was banned from the place. After the relics of the blessed
confessor were placed there, the storm never again threatened this festival of God.
1) Perhaps St Hilary called Cheli Chely or Illier, bishop of Mende in the sixth century. In any
case perfect example of an appropriation or hijacking made by Christianity, in order to enrich
its churches and its priests. The offerings are no longer thrown in the lake and therefore lost
for everybody, but benefit the local clergy from now on.
Chapter LXXII.
In Autun there is a cemetery that the Celtic language calls..... because the bodies of many
men have been buried there. The mystery of psalms being chanted in an occult way is a
constant indication that among these [graves] there are the tombs of certain souls that were
faithful and worthy of God. As they give the thanks that they owe to omnipotent God in the
proclamation of their voices, they have often appeared to many people...
Chapter LXXV.
After his death the blessed Simplicius was placed in charge of this church. Simplicius was
descended from a noble ancestry, was very wealthy in the riches of this world, and was
married to a very noble wife. Although this world concealed [the fact], their completely chaste
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life was known to God, even if unknown to men. ...But the raging jealousy of a demon incites
disgraceful wars against the saints of God, and the woman whom he could not destroy by her
own impulse he tried to disgrace with deceitful words. Why say more? On Christmas Day the
citizens were aroused in a scandal and quickly rushed to the blessed virgin. They said: 'It is
unbelievable that a woman united with a man cannot be defiled, for a man joined to the limbs
of a woman cannot refrain from intercourse....
...The most holy virgin was provoked by these words and went to the Episcopal pontiff, who
was distinguished with a similar chastity. After repeating the words that she had heard in front
of all the people she summoned a girl who held, as was customary, a foot warmer filled with
charcoal to ward off the winter. Stretching out her cloak, she placed burning coals in it. After
holding them for almost one hour, she summoned the bishop and said: 'Take the fire that is
[more] gentle than usual and that will not harm your garments, so that these flames may
demonstrate that the flames of wantonness have been extinguished in us.’ The Episcopal
pontiff took the fire, but his garment was not harmed by it. Because of this miracle the people
who were then without faith believed in God, and within seven days more than a thousand
men were reborn by the renewal of their baptism [in Latin innovatione sacri lavacri]. ...
Editor’s note. I hope you will allow, to the modest follower of Jean Toland I am, to consider
that this pseudo-miracle is not clearer than certain speeches or than some low and vulgar
polemical of our current president [of the French Republic] and that it seems everything is not
told to us in this case. The attitude attributed to the Devil or to the crowd is indeed not very
logical. All happens as if the crowd of Christians in Autun had reproached them not their
chastity, but to be hypocritical; i.e., to have let believe in a chastity which they did not live
every day. In what, moreover, having intercourse “between consenting adults” as it is said,
can be a stain?? It is not more a stain than to drink water glass when one has thirst! Now, if it
is only a question of keeping all its energy for a vaster task, then here it is another thing! For
more details see the excellent plea of Jean Toland for a Christian religion without mysteries
and his book on the Christianity, the Jews, the Gentiles and the Mahometans, translated by
the baron Paul Henry Thiry d'Holbach (a German philosopher). All these polemics between
Christians, who obviously like much the mysteries or the not very clear things, are really a
dismaying puerility!
Chapter LXXVI.
Some say that there was a representation 1) of Berecynthia 2) in this city, just as the history
of the suffering of the martyrdom of St Symphorianus relates. In accordance with the pitiful
custom of pagans, the people brought it on a wagon for the preservation of their fields and
vineyards. The aforementioned bishop Simplicius was present, and not far away he watched
them singing and dancing before this statue. He groaned because of the silliness of the
people and prayed God with these words: “Lord, I ask you, illuminate the eyes of these
people so that they may realize that this simulacrum of Berecynthia is nothing.” He made the
sign of the cross against 4). The representation of the goddess crashed immediately to the
ground 4), and the oxen that drew the wagon on which the statue was carried were fixed to
the ground and could not be moved. The huge horde was stunned, and the entire crowd cried
out that the goddess was offended 4). Victims were sacrificed, and although the oxen were
goaded, they could not be moved. Then four hundred men from that silly mass of people
gathered together and said to one another: 'If there is any power of a deity in the statue, let it
be raised on its own and let it order the oxen which are stuck to the ground to advance. If it
cannot be moved, it is, of course, obvious that there is no deity in it.' Then they approached
and sacrificed one of their cattle; but when they saw that their goddess could not be moved at
all, they abandoned the error of paganism, sought out the bishop of the place, and converted
to the unity of the church, after they acknowledged the greatness of the true God and were
consecrated by holy baptism.
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Editor’s note.
1) Simulacrum in Latin.
2) Or at least of the great Celtic goddess concealed behind this name by the Greco-Roman
interpretation first, then by the Christian one, of this worship.
3) Carpentum in the text.
4) This case can be summarized as follows: Christian Taliban overflowing of racist hatred
sabotaged the peaceful ceremony of worship other than theirs, which had done anything to
them. And what is more, in matter of processions, the Catholics have no longer anything to
envy the pagans, since. See the Sanch procession in Perpignan in the south of France or in
the North of Catalonia in 1976. Therefore let us hope for them that their religious
demonstrations will be better treated by their brethren in the true God (Reformed or
straightforwardly already Muslim).
Chapter LXXVIII.
Remigius, I note, was bishop of Rheims. Some say that he was a bishop 70 or more years
and that through his prayer he brought it about that the corpse of a dead girl was revived. He
often offered the grace of cures to sick people, and very often he was an avenger against
invaders. Not far from the church was a field that has fertile soil; the inhabitants call such
fields orchards 1) .This field had been given to the holy church. One of the citizens scorned
the man who had donated this field to the holy shrine and occupied it. Although this man had
been repeatedly dunned by the bishop and the abbot of the region that he return what he had
unjustly occupied, he disregarded the words that he heard and defended the property he had
plundered with stubborn purpose...so the man had an apoplectic stroke and fell to the ground.
1) Olca in the “Latin” of this “peasant” who was Gregory according to him (false
modesty?)The moral of this edifying story is clear in spite of its nauseating hypocrisy when we
read it until the end: don’t infringe on the church property!
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SAINT ELIGIUS (588-660).
Bishop of Noyon and Tournai.
In his life written by saint Ouen we can read the following sermon.
THE LIFE OF SAINT ELIGIUS BY SAINT OUEN OF ROUEN.
BOOK II
Chapter XVI.
I ask you dearest brothers and admonish you with great humility to command your intent spirit
to listen to what I wish to suggest to you for your salvation.
– lacuna –
Before all else, I denounce and contest that you shall observe no sacrilegious pagan
customs. For no cause or infirmity should you consult magicians, diviners, sorcerers or
caragios [incantators], or presume to question them because any man who commits such evil
will immediately lose the sacrament of baptism. Do not observe auguries or violent sneezing
or pay attention to any little birds singing along the road. If you are distracted on the road or at
any other work, make the sign of the cross and say your Sunday prayers with faith and
devotion and nothing inimical can hurt you. No Christian should be concerned about which
day he leaves home or which day he returns because God has made all days.
No influence attaches to the first work of the day or the [phase of the] moon; nothing ominous
or ridiculous is to do about the Calends of January. Do not make figures of vetulas, or little
deer, or iotticos [plays of carnival], or set tables at night or exchange New Years' gifts or
supply superfluous drinks.
No Christian believes impurity or sits in incantations, because the work is diabolic. No
Christian on the feast of Saint John or the solemnity of any other saint performs solestitia
[solstice rites?] or dancing or leaping or diabolical chants. No Christian should presume to
invoke the name of a demon, not Neptune or Orcus or Diana or Minerva or Geniscus or
believe in these inept beings in any way.
No one should observe Jove's day [Thursday] in idleness without holy festivities not in May or
any other time, not days of larvae or mice or any day but Sunday. No Christian should make
or render any devotion to the gods of the trivium, where three roads meet, to the fana or the
rocks, or springs or groves or corners. None should presume to hang any phylacteries from
the neck of neither man nor beast, even if they are made by priests and it is said that they
contain holy things and divine scripture because there is no remedy of Christ in these things
but only the devil's poison. None should presume to make lustrations or incantations with
herbs, or to pass cattle through a hollow tree or ditch because this is to consecrate them to
the devil. No woman should presume to hang amber from her neck or call upon Minerva or
other ill-starred beings in their weaving or dyeing but in all works give thanks only to Christ
and confide in the power of his name with all your hearts. None should presume to shout
when the moon is obscured, for by God's order eclipses happen at certain times. Nor should
they fear the new moon or abandon work because of it. For God made the moon for this, to
mark time and temper the darkness of the night, not impede work nor make men mad as the
foolish imagine, who believe lunatics are invaded by demons from the moon. None should call
the sun or moon lord or swear by them because they are God's creatures and they serve the
needs of men by God's order. No one should tell fate or fortune or horoscopes by them as
those do who believe that a person must be what he was born to be. For God wills all men to
be saved and come to the knowledge of truth and dispenses wisdom to all as he disposed it
before the constitution of the world. Above all, should any infirmity occur, do not seek
incantators or diviners or sorcerers or magicians, do not use diabolic phylacteries through
springs and groves or crossroads. But let the invalid confide solely in the mercy of God and
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take the body and blood of Christ with faith and devotion and ask the church faithfully for
blessings and oil, with which he might anoint his body in the name of Christ and, according to
the apostle, "The prayer of faith will save the infirm and the Lord will relieve him." And he will
not only receive health for the body but for the soul and what the Lord promised in the Gospel
will be fulfilled saying: "For whatever you shall ask, you will receive through believing prayer."
Before everything, wherever you are, at home or on the road or at table, let no foul and lustful
language drop from your mouth because the Lord announced in the Gospel: "For all the idle
words which men speak while on earth, they will give an account on the judgment day."
Diabolical games and dancing or chants of the Gentiles will be forbidden. No Christian will do
them because he thus makes himself a pagan.
Nor is it right that diabolical canticles should proceed from a Christian mouth where the
sacrament of Christ is placed, which it becomes always to praise God. Therefore, brothers,
spurn all inventions of the enemy with all your heart and flee this sacrilege with all horror.
Venerate no creature beyond God and his saints. Shun springs and arbors which they call
sacred. You are forbidden to make the crook which they place on the crossroads and
wherever you find one you should burn it with fire. For you must believe that you can be
saved by no other art than the invocation and cross of Christ. For how will it be if groves
where these miserable men make their devotions, are felled and the wood from them given to
the furnace?
See how foolish man is, to offer honor to insensible, dead trees and despise the precepts of
God Almighty. Do not believe that the sky or the stars or the earth or any creature should be
adored beyond God for he created and disposes of them all. Heaven is high indeed, and the
earth vast, and the sea immense and the stars beautiful, but more immense and more
beautiful by necessity is he who created them. For if the things seen are so incomprehensible,
that is none of the variety of fruits of the earth, the beauty of flowers, the diversity of fruits, the
types of animals, some on earth, some in water, some in the air, the prudence of bees, the
breath of the wind, the dewy clouds and clashing thunder, the turning of the seasons, the
alternation of day and night, can be comprehended by the human mind. If all this is so, as we
see, and we cannot comprehend them at any point, what should we think of those heavenly
things which we cannot see? What of that artisan at whose nod all this was created and at
whose will all is governed?
Therefore, fear him, brothers, above all; adore him among all; love him over all; hold to his
mercy and never despair of his clemency.
- lacuna -
This summation of so many of the man's familiar admonitions must be enough to narrate. It
does not represent anything he said in a particular day in order but is a digest of the precepts
which he taught the people at all times.
And at the end, he inferred saying: "For this, brothers, if you take care, you will have your
reward…"
- lacuna -
But enough has been said about this. Now let us proceed as we proposed to his virtues.
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SULPICIUS OR SULPITIUS SEVERUS
(born in 363, died early fifth century).
A Christian historian of Latin language. Wrote a Life of St Martin of Tours and dialogs about
his miracles, where we can read this.
LIFE OF SAINT MARTIN.
Chapter XIII.
Martin escapes from a falling pine tree.
Again, when in a certain village he had demolished a very ancient temple, and had set about
cutting down a pine tree, which stood close to the temple, the chief priest of that place, and a
crowd of other heathens began to oppose him. And these people, though, under the influence
of the Lord, they had been quiet while the temple was being overthrown, could not patiently
allow the tree to be cut down. Martin carefully instructed them that there was nothing sacred
in the trunk of a tree, and urged them rather to honor God whom he himself served. He added
that there was a moral necessity why that tree should be cut down, because it had been
dedicated to a demon. Then one of them who was bolder than the others says, “If you have
any trust in your god, whom you say you worship, we ourselves will cut down this tree, and be
it your part to receive it when falling; for if, as you declare, your Lord is with you, you will
escape all injury.” Then Martin, courageously trusting in the Lord, promises that he would do
what had been asked. Upon this, all that crowd of heathen agreed to the condition named; for
they held the loss of their tree a small matter, if only they got the enemy of their religion buried
beneath its fall. Accordingly, since that pine tree was hanging over in one direction, so that
there was no doubt to what side it would fall on being cut, Martin, having been bound, is, in
accordance with the decision of these pagans, placed in that spot where, as no one doubted,
the tree was about to fall. They began, therefore, to cut down their own tree, with great glee
and joyfulness, while there was at some distance a great multitude of wondering spectators.
And now the pine tree began to totter, and to threaten its own ruin by falling. The monks at a
distance grew pale, and, terrified by the danger ever coming nearer, had lost all hope and
confidence, expecting only the death of Martin. But he, trusting in the Lord, and waiting
courageously, when now the falling pine had uttered its expiring crash, while it was now
falling, while it was just rushing upon him, simply holding up his hand against it, he put in its
way the sign of salvation. Then, indeed, after the manner of a spinning top (one might have
thought it driven back), it swept round to the opposite side, to such a degree that it almost
crushed the rustics, who had taken their places there in what was deemed a safe spot. Then
truly, a shout being raised to heaven, the heathen were amazed by the miracle, while the
monks wept for joy; and the name of Christ was in common extolled by all. The well-known
result was that on that day salvation came to that region. For there was hardly one of those
immense multitudes of heathens who did not express a desire for the imposition of hands,
and abandoning his impious errors, made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus. Certainly,
before the times of Martin, very few, nay, almost none, in those regions had received the
name of Christ; but through his virtues and example that name has prevailed to such an
extent that now there is no place thereabouts which is not filled either with very crowded
churches or monasteries. For wherever he destroyed heathen temples, there he used
immediately to build either churches or monasteries.
Chapter XXII.
Martin preaches repentance even to the Devil.
Now, the devil, while he tried to impose upon the holy man by a thousand injurious arts, often
thrust himself upon him in a visible form, but in very various shapes. For sometimes he
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presented himself to his view changed into the person of Jupiter, often into that of Mercury
and Minerva. Often, too, were heard words of reproach, in which the crowd of demons
assailed Martin with scurrilous expressions. But knowing that all were false and groundless,
he was not affected by the charges brought against him. Moreover, some of the brethren bore
witness that they had heard a demon reproaching Martin in abusive terms, and asking why he
had taken back, on their subsequent repentance, certain of the brethren who had, some time
previously, lost their baptism by falling into various errors. The demon set forth the crimes of
each of them; but they added that Martin, resisting the devil firmly, answered him, that by-past
sins are cleansed away by the leading of a better life, and that through the mercy of God,
those are to be absolved from their sins who have given up their evil ways. The devil saying in
opposition to this that such guilty men as those referred to did not come within the pardon,
and that no mercy was extended by the Lord to those who had once fallen away, Martin is
said to have cried out in words to the following effect: “If thou, thyself, wretched being, would
but desist from attacking mankind, and even, at this period, when the day of judgment is at
hand, would only repent of your deeds, I, with a true confidence in the Lord, would promise
you the mercy of Christ.”
O what a holy boldness with respect to the loving kindness of the Lord, in which; although he
could not assert authority, Martin nevertheless showed the feelings dwelling within him! And
since our discourse has here sprung up concerning the devil and his devices, it does not
seem away from the point, although the matter does not bear immediately upon Martin, to
relate what took place; both because the virtues of Martin do, to some extent, appear in the
transaction, and the incident, which was worthy of a miracle, will properly be put on record,
with the view of furnishing a caution, should anything of a similar character subsequently
occur.
DIALOG I: CONCERNING THE VIRTUES OF THE MONKS OF THE EAST.
Chapter XXVII.
……“Certainly,” replied Postumianus, “speak in Celtic, if you prefer it, provided only you speak
of Martin. But for my part, I believe, that, even though you were dumb, words would not be
wanting to you, in which you might speak of Martin with eloquent lips, just as the tongue of
Zacharias was loosed at the naming of John. But as you are, in fact, an orator, you craftily,
like an orator, begin by begging us to excuse your lack of skillfulness, because you really
excel in eloquence. But it is not fitting either that a monk should show such cunning, or that a
Celt should be so artful. But to work rather, and set forth what you have still got to say, for we
have wasted too much time already in dealing with other matters…
DIALOG II: CONCERNING THE VIRTUES OF SAINT MARTIN.
Chapter XIII.
…..Moreover, he was in the habit of rebuking the demons by their special names, according
as they severally came to him. He found Mercury a cause of special annoyance, while he said
that Jupiter was stupid and doltish. I am aware that these things seemed incredible even to
many who dwelt in the same monastery; and far less can I expect that all who simply hear of
them will believe them. For unless Martin had lived such an amazing life, and displayed such
excellence, he would by no means be regarded among us as having been endowed with such
a great glory. And yet it is not at all wonderful that human infirmity doubted concerning the
works of Martin, when we see that many at the present day do not even believe the Gospels.
But we have ourselves had personal knowledge and experience, that angels often appeared
and spoke familiarly with Martin.
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SAINT AUGUSTINE (354-430).
A Christian theologian of late antiquity. One of the principal Fathers of the Church, one of its
33 doctors. In one of his books, entitled The City of God against the pagans, we can read this.
BOOK VIII.
Chapter IX.
CONCERNING THAT PHILOSOPHY WHICH HAS COME NEAREST TO THE CHRISTIAN
FAITH.
Whatever philosophers, therefore, thought concerning the supreme God, that He is both the
maker of all created things, the light by which things are known, and the good in reference to
which things are to be done; that we have in Him the first principle of nature, the truth of
doctrine, and the happiness of life; whether these philosophers may be more suitably called
Platonists, or whether they may give some other name to their sect; whether, we say that only
the chief men of the Ionic school, such as Plato himself, and they who have well understood
him, have thought thus; or whether we also include the Italic School, on account of
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, and all who may have held like opinions; and, lastly,
whether also we include all who have been held wise men and philosophers among all
nations who are discovered to have seen and taught this, be they Atlantic Libyans, Egyptians,
Indians, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians, Celts, Spaniards, or of other nations; we prefer
these to all other philosophers, and confess that they approach nearest to us.
BOOK XV.
Chapter XXIII.
Whether we are to believe that angels, who are of a spiritual substance, fell in love with the
beauty of women, and sought them in marriage, and that from this connection giants were
born.
In the third book of this work, we made a passing reference to this question, but did not
decide whether angels, inasmuch as they are spirits, could have bodily intercourse with
women. For it is written, "Who makes His angels spirits," that is, He makes those who are by
nature spirits His angels by appointing them to the duty of bearing His messages. For the
Greek word aggelos, which in Latin appears as "angelus," means a messenger. But whether
the Psalmist speaks of their bodies when he adds, "and His ministers a flaming fire," or
means that God's ministers ought to blaze with love as with a spiritual fire, is doubtful.
However, the same trustworthy Scripture testifies that angels have appeared to men in such
bodies as could not only be seen, but also touched. There is, too, a very general rumor, which
many have verified by their own experience, or which trustworthy persons who have heard
the experience of others corroborate that sylvans and fauns, who are commonly called
"incubi," had often made wicked assaults upon women, and satisfied their lust upon them;
and that certain devils, called duses by the Celts, are constantly attempting and effecting this
impurity, is so generally affirmed that it were impudent to deny it. From these assertions,
indeed, I dare not determine whether there be some spirits embodied in an aerial substance
(for this element, even when agitated by a fan, is sensibly felt by the body), and who are
capable of lust and of mingling sensibly with women; but certainly I could by no means
believe that God's holy angels could at that time have so fallen, nor can I think that it is of
them the Apostle Peter said, "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them
down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment."
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SAINT JEROME (347-420).
Best known for his Latin translation of the Bible. One of the Fathers of the Church.
“Every translator betrays” my Roman pen-friends, repeat me, in Italian language. ”Mais que
dirai-je d’aucuns, vraiment plus dignes d’être appelés traditeurs que traducteurs ? Vu qu’ils
trahissent ceux qu’ils entreprennent d’exposer, les frustrant ainsi de leur gloire... ” (remarque
encore Joachim du Bellay). This Jerome, translator himself, having become a patron saint of
the translators, is it possible to consider him as a man who had treason in the blood? Let us
observe more precisely than, apparently, he loves neither the Western Celts nor the Eastern
ones (the Galatians). Racism? He was not yet denounced for that in the French courts, but it
can't be far off. While waiting, it is up to each one therefore to judge on actual evidence the
level of racism of this follower of the love religion preached by the god of Abraham. Normal,
weak, average, high, hysterical, ignorant of many things, based on unworthy gossip or
comments, sordid contempt of others and of all that is not his people ...?
In one of his rather polemical books, written against a certain Jovinianus, we can read this.
AGAINST JOVINIANUS.
BOOK II.
Chapter VII.
...The Sarmatians, the Quadi, the Vandals, and countless other races, delight in the flesh of
horses and wolves. Why should I speak of other nations when I myself, a youth on a visit to
Celtica, heard that the Attacoti, a British tribe, eat human flesh, and that although they find
herds of swine, droves of large or small cattle in the woods, it is their custom to cut off the
buttocks of the shepherds and the breasts of their women, and to regard them as the greatest
delicacies? The Scots have no wives of their own ; as though they read Plato's Republic and
took Cato for their leader, no man among them has his own wife, but like beasts they indulge
their lust to their hearts' content .
LETTER 69. TO OCEANUS.
3 “...Like the Scots and the Atacotti and the people of Plato's republic who have a community
of wives and no discrimination of children...”
The commentary written by Saint Jerome to the letter addressed by Saul of Tarsus to the
Galatians is developed in three books, each one having its foreword.
Here what we can read in the preface to the second book.
COMMENTARIES ON GALATIANS.
BOOK II.
Prologue.
My task would be long if, after the Apostle and the Holy Scriptures, I tried to announce the
defects or the virtues of each nation. At all events, we are arrived at the demonstration of this
proposal; namely that Galatians were always pointed out by their madness and their bad
naturalness.
Anyone who has seen by how many schisms Ancyra [today Ankara in Turkey], the metropolis
of Galatia, is rent and torn, and by how many differences and false doctrines the place is
debauched, knows this as well as I do. I say nothing of Cataphrygians, Ophites, Borborites
[Barbelognostics], and Manicheans; for these are familiar names of human woe. Who ever
heard of Passaloryncitæ, and Ascodrobi, and Artotyritæ, and other portents—I can hardly call
them names—in any part of the Roman Empire? The traces of the ancient foolishness remain
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to this day. One remark I must make, and so fulfill the promise with which I started. While the
Galatians, in common with the whole East, speak Greek, their own language is almost
identical with that of the Treviri [today Trier in Germany] and if through contact with the Greek
they have acquired a few corruptions, it is a matter of no moment. The Africans have to some
extent changed the Phoenician language, and Latin itself is daily undergoing changes through
differences of place and time.
* Editor’s note. In order to fill these gaps of the holy man, see our later works on the history of
Christianity.We know much more than him on this subject. It is true that he is unaware of so
many things, the poor one! N.B. The life of Saint Euthymius written by Cyril of Scythopolis
(today Bet Shean in Israel) besides mentions still a monk contemporary of the saint, therefore
living in the 6th century, named Procopius, native of Galatia, and who sometimes still spoke in
Galatian. This is the paragraph LV (page 77 of the edition of Eduard Schwartz, Kyrillos von
Skythopolis, Leipzig, 1939).
The exact phrase is "His tongue was bound, he could no longer speak to us. If he was forced
to do so, he spoke in the language of the Galatians.”
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OROSIUS (circa 375-418).
A Christian apologist. Links Christianity and Roman Empire.
In the book IV of his History against the pagans, we find what follows.
BOOK IV.
Chapter XIII.
In the consulship of L. Aemilius Catulus and C. Atilius Regulus, the Senate became panic-
stricken by a rebellion of Cisalpine Celtica. At the same time, they also heard of the approach
of a huge army from Further Celtica. This army was composed largely of the Gaesati, which
was the name not of a tribe but of Celtic mercenaries. The consuls, terror struck, assembled
the military forces of all Italy and...
In the book V of his History against the pagans, we find what follows.
BOOK V.
Chapter XVI.
Among these many wretched forms of death, it is reported that two chieftains rushed upon
each other with drawn swords. The kings Lugius and Boiorix fell on the battlefield; Claodicus
and Caesorix were captured. In these two battles three hundred and forty thousand Celts
were slain, and one hundred and forty thousand were captured. This does not include the
countless number of women who, in a fit of feminine frenzy but with manly strength, put
themselves and their little children to death.
New editor’s note on this terrible human drama which occurred in - 101 near Vercellae, today
Vercelli in Italy. Let us remind that the Celtic or Celtized people that were these unhappy
Ambrones, Cimbri or Teutones , had been driven to despair by the famine or the food
shortage prevailing in their native country, the Denmark, and that these migrants simply
sought to settle elsewhere. The selfishness natural in mankind had as a result that it ended in
drama. This massive arrival of the Ambrones of the Cimbri and of the Teutones was
undoubtedly the penultimate large wave of Celtic immigration, the last being that of the
Helvetii in - 58. Of the Helvetii, Latobici, Tulingi, Rauraci and Boii. A mass immigration whose
failure turned to the disaster since it will lead finally to the intervention of the Roman legions of
Julius Caesar, therefore to hundreds of thousands of dead, million men and women enslaved,
not forgetting the loss of all cultural even political independence. In short the colonization of
the country!
Chapter XXIII.
In the meantime, Claudius was assigned by lot to the Macedonian War. At that time the
various tribes, which were hedged in by the Rhodopaean Mountains, were most cruelly
devastating Macedonia. Among other brutalities, dreadful to speak of and to hear, which these
tribes inflicted upon captives, I may mention this. When they needed a cup, they were wont to
seize and use greedily and without any feeling of repulsion, in place of real cups, human
skulls, still dripping with blood and covered with hair, whose inner cavities were daubed with
brain matter badly scooped out. The bloodiest and most inhuman of these hordes were the
Scordisci.
185
STEPHEN THE AFRICAN: Latin
STEPHANUS AFRICANUS (sixth century).
Priest of the city of Auxerre in Burgundy (French department of the Yonne). Wrote a Life of St
Amator, Bishop of Auxerre (Amateur, or Amatre) in which we can read this.
LIFE OF SAINT AMATOR BISHOP OF AUXERRE.
Chapter IV.
24. When these things were happening, one Germanus by name, born of a noble seed, was
governing the territory of Auxerre under his own control. He was accustomed to give himself
up to usual activities of young people rather than to pay attention to the Christian religion.
Therefore, constantly devoted to the chase, he very often used to take a quantity of wild
beasts by traps and the activity of his skill. Now there was a pine tree in the middle of the city,
of a most pleasing delightfulness. On its branches Germanus used to hang the heads of the
beasts caught by him, to win applause for his great hunting.
Amator, the distinguished bishop of the same city, often used to urge him with the following
utterances: "I beg you, most illustrious gentleman, stop pursuing this foolishness, which is
odious to Christians and worthy of imitation by pagans. This is an act of idolatrous worship,
not of dignified Christian tradition." And although the worthy man of God continued
unceasingly, nevertheless Germanus was by no means willing to agree or to obey his advice.
The man of the Lord again and again exhorted him not only to stop this evil custom which he
had taken up, but also to destroy the tree itself, lest it be an object of resentment to
Christians. But Germanus was to no degree willing to lend a kindly ear to Amator's advice.
Around the time of this attempt at persuasion, one day the aforementioned Germanus
departed from the city to his own estates. Then the blessed Amator, waiting for the
opportunity, cut down the accursed tree with its roots. Lest it serves as a reminder to the
unbelievers, he at once ordered the tree to be burned with fire. What hung down and served
as a reminder of his deeds or of a trophy of his hunt, as it was, he ordered thrown far from the
city walls.
Editor’s note: reference of the text: Acta Sanctarum celebrated on May 1st, Vita Sancti
Amatoris Episcopi Autissiodorensis (Antwerp 1680). And with the hope that never again
religious fanatic, Christian or Muslim, of this kind, will come to waste us life in this way! It is
harassing, and it’s even a disorder regarding the law. God save the non-believers in all these
silly things (the devil and so on…) that we are (the Increduli); from all these holy men or from
all these true believers. Long life to secularism!
186
SAINT SYMPHORIAN OF AUTUN (dead circa 178).
His family was among the earliest Christians in the city of Autun (French department of
Saone-et-Loire). It is not so much the words of the young Symphorian which are more
important than the ones of her mother. We find indeed in one of the variants of the accounts
of his life, what follows.
Acts of Saint Symphorian.
"My son, my son, Symphorian, do not lose sight of the god 1) for whom you die, have him
always in your mind. My dear son, take courage, death is not to be feared when it does only
that to lead us to life. Look at the Heaven, and that your eyes follow your heart, throw them on
him who reigns in heaven. Today man doesn’t take away your life, man only exchanges it for
a better one to you. Today, my son, by a happy change, you'll go to the heavenly life .”
Editor’s note. All that seems quite strange. According to Voltaire they are only legends or tall
stories. But which still remembers Voltaire today in the shade of the mosques which grow like
mushrooms in the country of the Age of Enlightenment and of the strict Secularism type Law
of 1905?
1) Mater illum vice gallica monuit dicens: "Nate, nate, Synforiane, mento beto to Devo." "Nate,
nate, Synforiane, memento beto to divo" or "Nati, nati Synforiane, mentem obeto dotiuo.
According to some variants of the acts of the Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian. Cf. the
legendary kept at the university national library of Turin in Italy under the number 517 (D.V.3).
MINUCIUS FELIX (second or third century).
A Latin writer converted to Christianity. He is the author of Octavius, a philosophical dialog in
which he tries to show that Christian belief can be reconciled with classical culture. Minucius
Felix is ranked among the Fathers of the Church.
OCTAVIUS.
Chapter XXVIII.
Thence arises what you say that you hear that an ass's head is esteemed among us a divine
thing. Who is such a fool as to worship this? Who is so much more foolish as to believe that it
is an object of worship? Unless that you even consecrate whole assess in your stables,
together with your Epona, and religiously devote [or devours?] Those same assess with Isis.
Also you offer up and worship the heads of oxen and of rams, and you dedicate gods also
mingled of a goat and a man, and gods with the faces of dogs and lions.
Editor’s note. There is not a very much in-depth knowledge of other communities that his
one… in all that! And above all applications of the old well-known principle since mists of time:
the double standard , and the straw in the eye of the neighbor…! Once again let us repeat it,
the representation of Jesus with a head of ass on the cross, emanated from the Christian
Gnostic circles and was by no means pejorative, the ass being for them a symbol of wisdom.
What time wasted to battle on non-problems! 2000 years lost for the human intelligence,
which could have applied to major and more relevant reflections! Same problem with Islam
today!
187
FULGENTIUS (late fifth century, early sixth).
Fulgentius the mythographer. A Christian Latin writer of North Africa. Sometimes confused
with St Fulgentius of Ruspe, what is possible.
The Expositio sermonum antiquorum (Explanation of Obsolete Words) is a small glossary in
which Fulgentius explains the meaning of some Latin words. Here what he writes in this
booklet regarding the word “semones.”
11) What semones are. By semones they meant gods whom they did not consider worthy of
heaven because of their lack of merit, such as Priapus, Epona, and Vertumnus, but whom
they did not wish to consider entirely terrestrial because of the veneration shown for their
favor, as Varro says in the book of mystagogues [in Greek language kind of mystic guides]:
“By the winged power of speech I can raise a true god from a minor deity consigned to the
lower world.”
CLAUDIUS MARIUS VICTOR (dead in 446).
A professor of rhetoric and poet. Presumably Christian. In the variant of one of his poems
about Genesis, entitled in Greek Alethia, we can find the following passage.
ALETHIA.
BOOK III.
Lines 205-209.
Later the false (god) Apollo imposed himself to the people. But constrained to change
residence he was made a medical doctor of the Leuci and now, exceeding the Celtic
campaigns and widespread in the Germanic nations, he requests them by his harmful frauds
and misleads these barbarian (spirits).
Editor’s note. Reference of the text (because this passage is not in all the manuscripts).
Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum. Vol. XVI. Poetae christiani minores. Pars I.
Claudii Marii Victoris. Alethias. Liber tertius. Published in 1888 on behalf of the
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften of Vienna in Austria.
PRUDENTIUS (348 circa 410).
A Latin lyric poet, Christian activist. We can find in one of his poems entitled "apotheosis" and
dealing with the nature of God or the Trinity, the words below.
APOTHEOSIS.
Lines 197-199.
“No man gives a seat of power above the stars
To the goddesses Cloaca or Epona
Though he pays an offering of strong-smelling incense
And dig unholy hands into the sacred meal and the entrails.”
188
ADDENDUM.
TROGUE POMPEY OR POMPEIUS TROGUS (first century).
A Gallo-Roman historian, author of a Philippic (and Universal) History, later shortened by
Justin. See the name.
As secretary and interpreter of Julius Caesar, Trogue Pompey seems well to be the very
prototype of the traitor to his country and to his language, servile towards the dominant power
of the time, to which he wants absolutely to be assimilated, the Roman Empire; thus
disavowing without shame the entire line of descent, of his ancestors, who had to spin in their
grave. A quirk, alas, well established in this country which is no longer the France that we
love, the one of Lafayette, even the one of Napoleon, but that of Nicolas Sarközy of Nagy-
Bocsa and of all the petty second-rate people or upstarts low and vulgar as him, who
appropriated the State. What a decline! What a fall! Especially compared to an Obama!
189
TABLE OF THE AUTHORS QUOTED IN THIS BOOK
(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER).
Aelianus Page 161
Alexander Polyhistor Page 164
Ammianus Marcellinus Page 115
Anonymous of the Greek Anthology Page 158
Anonymous vaticanus Page 155
Apollonius Rhodus Page 132
Appian Page 095
Apuleius Page 154
Aretaeus Page 167
Aristotle Page 149
Arrian Page 092
Athenaeus Page 092
Aurelius Victor Page 163
Ausonius Page 139
Avienus Page 128
Caesar Page 043
Callimachus Page 159
Cassius Dio Page 121
Cato Page 169
Celsus (the medical doctor) Page 169
Celsus (the philosopher) Page 165
Cicero Page 124
Claudian Page 167
Claudius Marius Victor Page 187
Dio of Prusa Page 151
Diodorus Siculus Page 057
Diogenes Laertius Page 162
Dionysius of Alexandria Page 109
Dionysius of Halicarnassus Page 119
Ephorus Page 168
Eumenius Page 104
Florus Page 148
Fulgentius Page 187
Gregory of Tours Page 172
Hecataeus Page 157
Herodian Page 153
Herodotus Page 107
Hesiod Page 168
Hesychius Page 169
Iamblichus Page 161
190
Julian Page 157
Julius Capitolinus Page 161
Justin Page 063
Juvenal Page 168
Lampridius Page 162
Livy Page 002
Lucan Page 083
Lucian Page 126
Macrobius Page 170
Mamertinus Page 152
Maximus of Tyre Page 158
Memnon Page 154
Minucius Felix Page 186
Nazarius Page 153
Nicander Page 166
Nicholas of Damascus Page 150
Orosius Page 184
Parthenius Page 165
Pausanias Page 050
Petronius Page 163
Philemon Page 156
Philostratus Page 166
Philostratus of Lemnos Page 166
Pliny Page 069
Plutarch Page 025
Polyaenus Page 141
Polybius Page 015
Pomponius Mela Page 101
Posidonius Page 117
Procopius Page 130
Propertius Page 165
Prudentius Page 187
Pseudo-Plautus Page 155
Pseudo-Plutarch Page 136
Pseudo Scymnus Page 143
Saint Augustine Page 181
Saint Clement of Alexandria Page 160
Saint Eligius Page 177
Saint Hippolytus of Rome Page 144
Saint Jerome Page 182
Saint Symphorian Page 186
Silius Italicus Page 112
Solinus Page 155
Stephen the African Page 185
191
Strabo Page 035
Suetonius Page 164
Sulpicius Severus Page 179
Tacitus Page 077
Tertullian Page 134
Timaeus Page 160
Timagenes Page 145
Trogue Pompey Page 189
Tzetzes Page 152
Ulpian Page 156
Valerius Maximus Page 147
Virgil Page 164
Vopiscus Page 138
192
CONTENTS DEALT IN THIS BOOK.
Livy Page 002
Polybius Page 015
Plutarch Page 025
Strabo Page 035
Caesar Page 043
Pausanias Page 050
Diodorus of Sicily Page 057
Justin Page 063
Pliny Page 069
Tacitus Page 077
Lucan Page 083
Athenaeus Page 092
Appian Page 095
Arrian Page 098
Pomponius Mela Page 101
Eumenius Page 104
Herodotus Page 107
Dionysius of Alexandria Page 109
Silius Italicus Page 112
Ammianus Marcellinus Page 115
Posidonius Page 117
Dionysius of Halicarnassus Page 119
Cassius Dio Page121
Cicero Page 124
Lucian Page 126
Avienus Page 128
Procopius Page 130
Apollonius Rhodus Page 132
Tertullian Page 134
The Pseudo-Plutarch Page 136
Vopiscus Page 138
Ausonius Page 139
Polyaenus Page 141
The Pseudo-Scymnus Page 143
Saint Hippolytus of Rome Page 144
Timagenes Page 145
Florus Page 146
Valerius Maximus Page 147
Aristotle Page 149
Nicholas of Damascus Page 150
Dio of Prusa Page 151
193
Tzetzes Page 152
Mamertinus Page 152
Herodian Page 153
Nazarius Page 153
Apuleius Page 154
Memnon Page 154
The anonymous vaticanus Page 155
The Pseudo-Plautus Page 155
Philemon Page 156
Ulpian Page 156
Hecataeus Page 157
Julian Page 157
Maximus of Tyre Page 158
The anonymous of the Greek Anthology Page 158
Solinus Page 159
Callimachus Page 159
Timaeus Page 160
Saint Clement of Alexandria Page 160
Julius Capitolinus Page 161
Aelianus Page 161
Iamblichus Page 161
Diogenes Laertius Page 162
Lampridius Page 162
Petronius Page 163
Aurelius Victor Page 163
Virgil Page 164
Alexander Polyhistor Page 164
Suetonius Page 164
Parthenius Page 165
Propertius Page 165
Celsus (the philosopher) Page 165
Philostratus Page 166
Philostratus of Lemnos Page 166
Nicander Page 166
Aretaeus Page 167
Claudian Page 167
Juvenal Page 168
Hesiod Page 168
Ephorus Page 168
Celsus (the medical doctor) Page 169
Hesychius Page 169
Cato the Elder Page 169
Macrobius Page 170
194
SUPPLEMENT.
Gregory of Tours Page 172
Saint Eligius Page 177
Sulpicius Severus Page 179
Saint Augustine Page 181
Saint Jerome Page 182
Orosius Page 184
Stephen the African Page 185
Saint Symphorian Page 186
Minucius Felix Page 186
Fulgentius Page 187
Claudius Marius Victor Page 187
Prudentius Page 187
ADDENDUM
Trogue Pompey Page 188
INDEX Page 189
BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR ;
1 Quotations from the ancient authors speaking about Celts or druids.
2. Various preliminary general information about Celts.
3. History of the pact with gods volume 1.
4. Druidism Bible: history of the pact with gods volume 2.
5. History of the peace with gods volume 3.
6. History of the peace with gods volume 4.
7. History of the peace with gods volume 5.
8. From Fenians to Culdees or “The Great Science which enlightens” volume 1.
9. Irish apocryphal texts.
10. From Fenians to Culdees or “The Great Science which enlightens” volume 2.
11. From Fenians to Culdees or “The Great Science which enlightens” volume 3.
12. The hundred paths of paganism. Science and philosophy volume 1 (druidic mythology).
13. The hundred paths of paganism. Science and philosophy volume 2 (druidic mythology).
14. The hundred ways of paganism. Science and philosophy volume 3 (druidic mythology).
15. The Greater Camminus: elements of druidic theology: volume 1.
16. The Greater Camminus: elements of druidic theology: volume 2.
17. The druidic pleroma: angels jinns or demons volume 1.
18. The druidic pleroma angels jinns or demons volume 2
19. Mystagogy or sacred theater of ancients Celts.
20. Celtic poems.
21. The genius of the Celtic paganism volume 1.
22. The Roland’s complex .
23. At the base of the lantern of the dead.
24. The secrets of the old druid of the Menapian forest.
25. The genius of Celtic paganism volume 2 (liberty reciprocity simplicity).
26. Rhetoric : the treason of intellectuals.
27. Small dictionary of druidic theology volume 1.
28. From the ancient philosophers to the Irish druid.
29. Judaism Christianity and Islam: first part.
195
30. Judaism Christianity and Islam : second part volume 1.
31. Judaism Christianity and Islam : second part volume 2.
32. Judaism Christianity and Islam : second part volume 3.
33. Third part volume 1: what is Islam? Short historical review of the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and
SHAR.FIQ.MAD.
34. Third part volume 2: What is Islam? First approaches to the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and
SHAR.FIQ.MAD.
35. Third part volume 3: What is Islam? The true 5 pillars of the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and
SHAR.FIQ.MAD.
36. Third part volume 4: What is Islam? Sounding the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and
SHAR.FIQ.MAD.
37. Couiro anmenion or small dictionary of druidic theology volume 2.
196
Peter DeLaCrau. Born on January 13, 1952, in St. Louis (Missouri) from a family of
woodsmen or Canadian trappers who had left Prairie du Rocher (or Fort de Chartres in
Illinois) in 1765. Peter DeLaCrau is therefore born the same year as the Howard Hawks
movie entitled “the Big Sky.” Consequently father of French origin, mother of Irish origin: half-
Irish, half- French. Married to Mary-Helen ROBERTS on March 12, 1988, in Paris-
Aubervilliers (French department of Seine-Saint-Denis). Hence three children. John Wolf born
May 11, 1989. Alex born April 10, 1990. Millicent born August 31, 1993. Deceased on
September 28, 2012, in La Rochelle (France).
Peter DELACRAU is not a philosopher by profession, except taking this term in its original
meaning of amateur searching wisdom and knowledge. And he is neither a god neither a
demigod nor the messenger of any god or demigod (and certainly not a messiah).
But he has become in a few years one of the most lucid and of the most critical observers of
the French neo-druidic or neo-pagan world.
He was also some time assistant treasurer of a rather traditionalist French Druidic group of
which he could get archives and texts or publications.
But his constant criticism both domestic and foreign French policy, and his political positions
(at the end of his life he had become an admirer of Howard Zinn Paul Krugman and Michael
Moore); had earned him, moreover, some vexations on behalf of the French authorities which
did everything, including in his professional or private life, in the last years of his life, to
silence him.
Peter DeLaCrau has apparently completely missed the return to the home land of his distant
ancestors.
It is true unfortunately that France today is no longer the France of Versailles or of Lafayette
or even of Napoleon (who has really been a great nation in those days).
Peter DeLaCrau having spent most of his life (the last one) in France, of which he became
one of the best specialists, even one of the rare thoroughgoing observers of the contemporary
French society quite simply; his three children, John-Wolf, Alex and Millicent (of Cuers:
French Riviera) pray his readers to excuse the countless misspellings or grammatical errors
that pepper his writings. At the end of his life, Peter DeLaCrau mixed a little both languages
(English but also French).
Those were therefore the notes found on the hard disk of the computer of our father, or in his
papers.
Our father has certainly left us a considerable work, nobody will say otherwise, but some of
the words frequently coming from his pen, now and then are not always very clear. After many
consultations between us, at any rate, above what we have been able to understand from
them.
Signed: the three children of Peter DeLaCrau: John-Wolf, Alex and Millicent. Of Cuers.
