In the 6th and 5th centuries BC, European lands north of the Alps were for the first time properly urbanized. The area stretching around Rhine and Moselle rivers was a host to large settlements that rose on plateaus and were surrounded with mighty ramparts. These were centers of prehistoric life, from political to religious aspects. Outside these planned and organized cities, developed farmlands, villages and suburbs. Diverse infrastructure types were homes to stratified society, led by the ruling class that was buried in rich tumuli. The most exquisite among them were buried with large, four-wheeled wagons or carriages, and other treasures of local and foreign origin, the latter brought from the Mediterranean civilisations. These people beyond the alps were referred by contemporary Greek authors as Celts.
There are many problems with the term “Celtic”. When it comes to art, language and even people, there is no such thing as singularly Celtic. Celtic identity has always been a mixture of local and foreign, a developing idea and a reinvention. Individual elements and even habits linked communities across Europe, but there was no singular art style, nor culture, nor people.
Even to this day we cannot be really sure what the people we call Celts today, actually called themselves at the time of the Iron Age. They left us no written historical records of their own. The word Celt, however, is not of Greek or Latin origin, suggesting that the early writers adopted an indigenous term for these groups of people. With time, the term became more and more muddled, until it became a general term for barbaric people of western Europe, also called Gauls, in order to distinguish them from the barbarians of the east, who were all considered Scythians. To what extent these people considered themselves to be ethnically related, is impossible to say today.
Hecataeus of Millet, a Greek historian wrote around 500 BC that Celts lived along the Atlantic coast, beyond the Pillars of Hercules — what we know today as Gibraltar, and that the river Istros, what we know today as Danube, runs through the center of Europe from its spring in Celtic lands. Half a century later, Herodotus would note that Celts could be found near the source of the Danube and that they are second most westerly dwellers in Europe.
Celts would depict their rulers and gods wearing torques and, in turn, this is how ancient Greeks and Romans would then depict Celts. Romans saw Celtic warriors as fearless and blood-thirsty. Greek historian Polybius describes the tribes of Insubri and Boii going to battle against Rome, dressed in light coats and trousers, while the Gaesati warriors faced their enemy naked, wearing nothing but their weapons.
The perception of Celts by Greeks and Romans were based on first-hand accounts, as well as stereotypes developed through centuries. As such, the relation and ratio between truth and prejudice is difficult to discern even today.
But in general, they were barbarians: cruel foreigners, savage strangers of outlandish customs like cannibalism, and human sacrifice.
To Plato, they were warlike people with a good stomach for a drink.
To Aristotle, they were hardy northerners, who exposed their children to harsh climates, with little clothing, in order to toughen them. More, excessive obesity among men was punished. They were warlike, ferocious and fearless to the point of irrationality. They had a strict code of hospitality, especially to strangers. To ancient writers, the Celtic culture was the antithesis to the Greek and Roman civilization, and stood as a worthy enemy against them.
But there were some exceptions, like Poseidonius, a Syrian Greek, who approves of their bravery, honor and hospitality. For their warring tendencies and impetuous nature, he says the Celts are straightforward people and not of an evil character. At worst, they are reminiscent of boisterous schoolchildren. He also praised their artistic ornaments.
Romans would note their internal rivalries and use that as one of the justifications for invasions of Gaul and the rise of one of the most famous people in history: Julius Caesar.
He would write of his encounters with the locals, while on his conquest of Gaul, around 50 BC. He says that Gaul is divided into three parts, only one of which Celtic, that one being located between the rivers Seine and Garonne. These tribes referred to themselves as Celts in their own language, but were called Gauls in Latin.
Diodorus of Sicily would remark a similar thing:
The peoples who dwell in the interior above Massalia, those on the slopes of the Alps, and those on this side the Pyrenees mountains are called Celts, whereas the peoples who are established above this land of Celtica in the parts which stretch to the north, both along the ocean and along the Hercynian Mountain, and all the peoples who come after these, as far as Scythia, are known as Gauls; the Romans, however, include all these nations together under a single name, calling them one and all Gauls.
Diodorus would also reflect the dual visage of Celts that characterized Roman perception of them. He writes:
The Gauls are tall, with rippling muscles, and white of skin, and their hair is blond, and not only naturally so, but 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 of the neck, 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. Some of them shave the beard, but others let it grow a little; and the nobles shave their cheeks, but they let the mustache grow until it covers the mouth. They are also boasters and threateners and are fond of pompous language, and yet they have sharp wits and are not without cleverness at learning.
It would appear then, that to Romans, celts were barbarians and savages. And yet, even they could recognize virtues worthy of respect in them.
