Onslaught, Roman Forces, take on the Druids.

At the height of the Roman Conquest, the Druids of Celtic Britain were attacked by Roman soldiers and slaughtered.

The Romans had met the Druids before in conquered Western Europe.

While the Romans were happy to make a peaceful settlement with most tribes in present day England, they had no intention of doing the same with the Druids.

Druids could be found in Britain and Gaul (modern-day France), as well as other parts of Europe and perhaps even in the Middle East.

In 58 BC, Julius Caesar’s year as consul had come to an end, and he was appointed proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul, a place whose history is a much-debated topic among historians, both modern and ancient.

Although, Gaelic tribes have long been recorded in the region referred to as Gaul, contention arises when discussing the ethnography of Europe in ancient times

In the course of Caesar’s military campaigns in Europe, he came up against not only the continental ‘Gauls‘, but also the British, in his two expeditions against Britain in 55 and 54 BC.

Although Caeser discusses various Gaelic tribes in his book called the ‘Gallic Wars‘ – it is mainly an account of the military side of these campaigns.

Commentarii de bello gallico, de bello civili, de bello alexandrino, de bello africano, de bello hispaniensi, in Latin, Milan, third quarter 15th century

Many are familiar with the opening lines of Bellum Gallicum, “All Gaul is divided into three parts… [that] differ from each other in language, customs, and laws”.

He then describes the area of Gaul by its inhabitants -mainly the Belgae, Aquitani, and Gauls.

Some Gauls would wear blue paint as camouflage in forested areas, especially at night.

Right away, historians are confronted with a problem; Caesar describes the tribes and land of Gaul mainly by the ethnography of the people, rather than the actual geography of the area.

Belgae

For example, he states that the Belgae extend from the frontier of Gaul to the border of Italy and extended to the lower Rhine.

They consisted of German tribes that had overrun the older Celtic population, but in many ways had adopted Celtic culture.

He also claims that the Belgae are the bravest and best fighters, but since they had less contact with Rome and Roman merchants, they were considered the least civilized of the Gauls.

In book six Caesar describes both the Gauls and Germans as violent people.

In ancient Literature, Greek and Roman writers also describe the Gauls as tall, having blond or red hair, and fierce fighters -though their customs were rather savage and barbaric.

Caeser notes :the Germans are incapable of being civilized and present a threat to Rome

Some historians claim, this observation and other’s like it, in Caesar’s description of Gaul, was only to justify his campaigns and conquests.

For example, they believe the claim, “Germans are incapable of being civilized”, is most likely an attempt to justify Caesar’s two brief expeditions across the Rhine, in which, he did not engage in combat, yet declares he intimidated the Germans from crossing the Rhine.

Caesar’s description does note one or two ethnic differences of the Gauls alongside the geographic boundaries, such as “the Rhine and then to the Lepontii who live in the Alps”, yet when he describes the Germans, he stops mentioning specific geographic features and  focuses solely  on his belief that they are savage .

However, in a further examination of the ethnography of the Germans, Tacitus said  the Germans were originally a tribal name that grew to encompass European natives east of the Rhine

Historian Rhiannon Evans argues, Caesar’s description was more or less politically motivated; and states there was no actual Gaul before Caesar,instead she asserts Caesar created the idea of a loosely unified people and grouped them all under the name Gaul, in the territory known as Gaul.

While some historians argue the idea that the Gauls are completely fictitious and simply the result of a major society acting in Western Europe, Evans, attempts o disprove this notion and bring some credibility to the Gauls.

Evans begins with an attempt at the ethnography of the Gauls, by grouping various tribes and people into categories and tribes based on ethnicity, culture, and virtues

She states his “creation” of the Gauls, was to create something and someone to conquer, claiming he divided the Gauls from the Germans by the Rhine, so Caesar could claim he conquered all of Gaul.

Evans also asserts, his description of  Germans as being savage and incapable of civilization, served to show why he did not have to conquer them, whereas the Gauls had the possibility of becoming civilized.

Finally, she also states  Caesar’s creation of the Belgae was to serve as a buffer zone between Germany and Gaul, even though the Belgae displayed many of the same characteristics as the Germans, yet they remain Gauls.

Wales

A History of Rome states that there was some unity among the Gauls, however; it was never more than small confederations among a few tribes who faced political instability, due to violent nobles from other tribes, fighting each other and who focused more on domestic issues, rather than territorial expansion

The description of the Gaul’s forms of rule, by many historians shows a connection between Gaelic  society and Roman society, as they both have similar aristocratic and somewhat democratic forms of government.

However, this mentioning of Germanic aggression aids in an attempt to explain Caesar’s motives, in his campaigns and writing his Bellum Gallicum; classifying Caesar’s campaigns and conquests as motivated by equal parts personal glory and necessity to the safety of the Rome, as they argue that Caesar held in memory the Cimbric invasions and strived to prevent another such encounter with a hostile Germanic or even Gaelic tribe.

The name Druid itself is  (Welsh: derwydd; Old Irish: druí; Scottish Gaelic: draoidh  sapience “Knowing  the Oak Tree”),

It could take up to twenty years of learning to become a Druid, as they were a member of the learned class, among the ancient Celts.

Though Druids did not try to read fate from stars; they did connect the birth of people with certain trees.- similar to zodiac signs, individual trees represent the characteristics of people born in a given period.

In the early period, Druidic rites were held in clearings in the forest. Sacred buildings were used only later under Roman influence.

Following the Roman invasion of Gaul, the druid orders were suppressed by the Roman government, under the 1st century emperors Tiberius and Claudius, and disappeared from written record by the 2nd century.

In Ireland they lost their priestly functions after the coming of Christianity and survived as poets, historians, and judges (filid, senchaidi, and brithemain).

Many scholars believe that the Hindu Brahman in the East and the Celtic Druid in the West, were lateral survivals of an ancient Indo-European priesthood.

According to Julius Caesar, who is the principal source of information, the Druids took charge of public and private sacrifices, and many young men went to them for instruction.

They judged all public and private quarrels and decreed penalties. If anyone disobeyed their decree, he was barred from sacrifice, which was considered the gravest of punishments.

Disobeying the Druids‘ rulings led to excommunication—expulsion from the order—which was the most severe punishment.

The excommunicated would then be shunned by society , and be cut off from their family. 

Once a Druid was made the chief; upon his death, another was appointed.

If, however, several were equal in merit, the Druids voted, although they sometimes resorted to armed violence.

Once a year the Druids assembled at a sacred place in the territory of the Carnutes, which was believed to be the center of all Gaul, and all legal disputes were there submitted to the judgment of the Druids.

Caesar also recorded that the Druids abstained from warfare and paid no tribute. Attracted by those privileges, many joined the order voluntarily or were sent by their families.

They studied ancient verse, natural philosophy, astronomy, and the lore of the gods, some spending as much as 20 years in training.The Druids’ principal doctrine was that the soul was immortal and passed at death from one person into another.

Historians, however, are unclear as to how their immortality was actually realized. Some believe the Druids taught that the soul escaped the deceased’s body at death and immediately occupied the body of a living person.

Others declare that the Druids believed the human soul escaped the body at death to forever occupy an other world body, similar to that experienced by the deceased in life.

Druids offered human sacrifices for those who were gravely sick or in danger of death in battle.

Huge wickerwork images were filled with living men and then burned; although the Druids preferred to sacrifice criminals, they would choose innocent victims if necessary.

They were also described by later Greco-Roman writers such as Cicero, Tacitus, and Pliny the Elder, although Caesar is the chief authority, he may have received some of his facts from the Stoic philosopher Poseidonius, whose account is often confirmed by early medieval Irish sagas.

Tacitus mentioned female Druids, when describing the slaughter of the Druids by Romans on the island of Mona in Wales.

According to his description, these women were known as Banduri or Bandorai  (female Druids), who defended the island and cursed the black clad. Tacitus also observed that there was no distinction between the male and female rulers, and the female Celts were very powerful.

According to Plutarch, female Celts were nothing like Roman or Greek women.

They were active in negotiating treaties and wars, and they participated in assemblies and mediated quarrels.

According to the ‘Pomponius Mela’, virgin Druid priestesses who could predict the future lived on the island of Sena, in Brittany.

Cassius Dio mentioned a Druidess named Ganna. She went on an official trip to Rome and was received by Domitian, the son of Vespasian.

According to the description of the Battle of Moytura, two Druidesses enchanted the rocks and the trees, in order to support the Celtic army.

Archeologists have discovered several proofs for the existence of the female Druids. Many female burials have been discovered in Germany between the two rivers Rhine and Moselle.

The women who were buried there dated back to circa 4th century BC, and were buried with lots of treasures, jewelry and other precious objects.

Some of them were buried with a special torque on their chest, which were symbols of status.

Ipswich Torc

According to researchers, only a Druidess could have a high enough status to receive a burial like this. Two burials located in the Vix in Burgundy, France and Reinham in Germany were dated back to the 5th century BC, and almost certainly belonged to female Druids.

Moreover, on the Rue de Récollets, in Metz, France, there was discovered an inscription dedicated to the female Druid in honor of the god Sylvanus. It is difficult to confirm which of the noble Celtic women were really Druids, but it is believed that most of the well educated women whose graves contained luxury goods were the elite of their tribes and quite possibly Druids.

In 60 AD, Suetonius, the Roman governor and historian, attacked the Druid center, in Anglesey and wiped them out. Some of their secret places of worship have remained, but not, so far as we know, any Druids.

Tacitus Annals XIV
xxix

He [Suetonius Paulinus] prepared accordingly to attack the island of Mona, which had a considerable population of its own, while serving as a haven for refugees; and, in view of the shallow and variable channel, constructed a flotilla of boats with flat bottoms.

By this method the infantry crossed; the cavalry, who followed, did so by fording or, in deeper water, by swimming at the side of their horses.

xxx
On the beach stood the adverse array, a serried mass of arms and men, with women flitting between the ranks.

In the style of Furies, in robes of deathly black and with disheveled hair, they brandished their torches; while a circle of Druids, lifting their hands to heaven and showering imprecations, struck the troops with such an awe at the extraordinary spectacle. The soldiers seemed as though their limbs were paralysed and they exposed their bodies to wounds without an attempt at movement.

Then, reassured by their Roman general, and inciting each other never to flinch before a band of females and fanatics, they charged behind the standards, cut down all who met them, and enveloped the enemy in his own flames.

The next step was to install a garrison among the conquered population, and to demolish the groves consecrated to their savage cults: for they considered it a pious duty to slake the altars with captive blood and to consult their deities by means of human entrails.

While he was thus occupied, the sudden revolt of the province was announced to Suetonius.

As far as we know, that’s the end of their history in Britain, though there are some later Roman accounts (Pliny, Lampridius and Vopiscus) in Gaul.

In their own way, the Druids were very religious. It was this particular issue that angered the Romans as the Druids sacrificed people to their gods.

Caesar, in particular, was horrified by the practice and his writings give us a good idea of what went on in Druid ceremonies — though from his perspective only.

The Romans had once sacrificed people, but they now saw it as a barbaric practice that they could not tolerate in one of their colonies.

The Romans determined that they would stamp out the Druids.

However, they had to be careful. The Druids traveled freely, as the inhabitants were too scared to stop them.

Therefore, they were not simply in one place where the Romans could attack in force.

In AD 54, the Emperor Claudius banned the Druids.

In AD 60, the governor of England, Suetonius, decided that the only way to proceed was to attack the known heartland of the Druids–the island of Anglesey, in the hope that if the center of the Druids was destroyed, those Druids in outlying areas would die out.

Any ceremonial sites on Anglesey used by the Druids were also destroyed but many of them were in secret places and some survived.

Druids Circle

Môn, the Island of Anglesey, sacred island of the British Druids. Floating just off the northern coast of Wales, she is small by stature, yet majestic by nature, she is the Mother of all Wales and ‘Grandmother’ to the world.

                   Three Druid figures dressed in cucullus (found on a shrine on Hadrians wall). 

She is a seers dream, she is the place where magic lives and where dragons sleep, awaiting the courage of heroes.

With just under 140 miles of glorious coastline she has fed, nurtured and kept a culture steeped in magic and mystery. Her name alone invokes the past, calling to the echoes of ancestors who whisper from her serene landscape.

The Greek scholar Ptolemy, working from Alexandria in Egypt during the second century designated the Island under her Latinised name Môna in his “Guide to Geography”.  

Perhaps most significantly, is the precise nature and meaning of the word Môn; from which the Latinised Môna was derived.

 According to leading scholars at the University of Wales the name represents a relic toponym in Wales which is pre-Celtic in origin and of considerable antiquity; and perhaps the oldest recorded place name in Britain.

 Môn’s association with the Druids and Druidism, continues to this day and suggests a deeper magic to the island, a magic which may well hide within the name itself.