The Celts were a group of peoples that occupied lands stretching from the
British Isles to Galatia. The Celts had many dealings with other cultures
that bordered the lands occupied by these peoples, and even though there
is no written record of the Celts stemming from their own documents, we can
piece together a fair picture of them from archaeological evidence as well
as historical accounts from other cultures.
The first historical recorded encounter of a people displaying the cultural
traits associated with the Celts comes from northern Italy around 400 BC,
when a previously unknown group of barbarians came down from the Alps and
displaced the Etruscans from the fertile Po valley, a displacement that helped
to push the Etruscans from history's limelight. The next encounter with the
Celts came with the still young Roman Empire, directly to the south of the
Po. The Romans in fact had sent three envoys to the beige Etruscans to study
this new force. We know from Livy's The Early History of Rome that this first
encounter with Rome was quite civilized:
[The Celts told the Roman envoys that] this was indeed the first time they
had heard of them, but they assumed the Romans must be a courageous people
because it was to them that the [Etruscans] had turned to in their hour of
need. And since the Romans had tried to help with an embassy and not with
arms, they themselves would not reject the offer of peace, provided the
[Etruscans] ceded part of their superfluous agricultural land; that was what
they, the Celts, wanted.... If it were not given, they would launch an attack
before the Romans eyes, so that the Romans could report back how superior
the Gauls were in battle to all others....The Romans then asked whether it
was right to demand land from its owners on pain of war, indeed what were
the Celts going in Etruria in the first place? The latter defiantly retorted
that their right lay in their arms: To the brave belong all things.
The Roman envoys then preceded to break their good faith and helped the Etruscans
in their fight; in fact, one of the envoys, Quintas Fabius killed one of
the Celtic tribal leaders. The Celts then sent their own envoys to Rome in
protest and demand the Romans hand over all members of the Fabian family,
to which all three of the original Roman envoys belonged, be given over to
the Celts, a move completely in line with current Roman protocol. This of
course presented problems for the Roman senate, since the Fabian family was
quite powerful in Rome. Indeed, Livy says that:
The party structure would allow no resolution to be made against such nobleman
as justice would have required. The Senate...therefore passed examination
of the Celts request to the popular assembly, in which power and influence
naturally counted for more. So it happened that those who ought to have been
punished were instead appointed for the coming year military tribunes with
consular powers (the highest that could be granted).
The Celts saw this as a mortal insult and a host marched south to Rome. The
Celts tore through the countryside and several battalions of Roman soldiers
to lay seige to the Capitol of the Roman Empire. Seven months of seige led
to negotiations whereby the Celts promised to leave their seige for a tribute
of one thousand pounds of gold, which the historian Pliny tells was very
difficult for the entire city to muster. When the gold was being weighed,
the Romans claimed the Celts were cheating with faulty weights. It was then
that the Celts leader, Brennus, threw his sword into the balance and and
uttered the words vae victis "woe to the Defeated". Rome never withstood
another more humiliating defeat and the Celts made an initial step of magnificent
proportions into history.
Other Roman historians tell us more of the Celts. Diodorus notes that:
Their aspect is terrifying...They are very tall in stature, with rippling
muscles under clear white skin. Their hair is blond, but not naturally so:
they bleach it, to this day, artificially, washing it in lime and combing
it back from their foreheads. They look like wood-demons, their hair thick
and shaggy like a horse's mane. Some of them are clean shaven, but others
- especially those of high rank, shave their cheeks but leave a moustache
that covers the whole mouth and, when they eat and drink, acts like a sieve,
trapping particles of food...The way they dress is astonishing: they wear
brightly coloured and embroidered shirts, with trousers called bracae and
cloaks fastened at the shoulder with a brooch, heavy in winter, light in
summer. These cloaks are striped or checkered in design, with the separate
checks close together and in various colours.
[The Celts] wear bronze helmets with figures picked out on them, even horns,
which made them look even taller than they already are...while others cover
themselves with breast-armour made out of chains. But most content themselves
with the weapons nature gave them: they go naked into battle...Weird, discordant
horns were sounded, [they shouted in chorus with their] deep and harsh voices,
they beat their swords rhythmically against their shields.
Diodorus also describes how the Celts cut off their enemies heads and nailed
them over the doors of their huts, as Diodorus states:
In exactly the same way as hunters do with their skulls of the animals they
have slain...they preserved the heads of their most high-ranking victims
in cedar oil, keeping them carefully in wooden boxes.
Diodorus Siculus, History.
What is a Celt and who are the Glasgow Celtics?
The people who made up the various tribes of concern were called Galli by
the Romans and Galatai or Keltoi by the Greeks, terms meaning barbarian.
It is from the greek Keltoi that Celt is derived. Since no soft c exists
in greek, Celt and Celtic and all permutations should be pronounced with
a hard k sound.
It is interesting to note that when the British Empire was distinguishing
itself as better and separate from the rest of humanity, it was decided that
British Latin should have different pronunciation from other spoken Latin.
Therefore, one of these distinguishing pronunciational differences was to
make many of the previously hard k sounds move to a soft s sound, hence the
Glasgow and Boston Celtics. It is the view of many today that this soft c
pronunciation should be reserved for sports teams since there is obviously
nothing to link them with the original noble savagery and furor associated
with the Celts.
The Six Celtic Languages
There was a unifying language spoken by the Celts, called not surprisingly,
old Celtic. Philogists have shown the descendence of Celtic from the original
Ur-language and from the Indo-European language tradition. In fact, the form
of old Celtic was the closest cousin to Italic, the precursor of Latin.
The original wave of Celtic immigrants to the British Isles are called the
q-Celts and spoke Goidelic. It is not known exactly when this immigration
occurred but it may be placed some time in the window of 2000 to 1200 BC.
The label q-Celtic stems from the differences between this early Celtic tongue
and Italic. Some of the differences between Italic and Celtic included that
lack of a p in Celtic and an a in place of an the Italic o.
At a later date, a second wave of immigrants took to the British Isles, a
wave of Celts referred to as the p-Celts speaking Brythonic. Goidelic led
to the formation of the three Gaelic languages spoken in Ireland, Man and
later Scotland. Brythonic gave rise to two British Isles languages, Welsh
and Cornish, as well as surviving on the Continent in the form of Breton,
spoken in Brittany.
The label q-Celtic stems from the differences between this early Celtic tongue
and the latter formed p-Celtic. The differences between the two Celtic branches
are simple in theoretical form. Take for example the word ekvos in Indo-European,
meaning horse. In q-Celtic this was rendered as equos while in p-Celtic it
became epos, the q sound being replaced with a p sound. Another example is
the Latin qui who. In q-Celtic this rendered as cia while in p-Celtic it
rendered as pwy. It should also be noted that there are still words common
to the two Celtic subgroups.
As an aside, take note that when the Irish expansion into Pictish Britain
occurred (see below), several colonies were established in present day Wales.
The local inhabitants called the Irish arrivals gwyddel savages from which
comes geídil and goidel and thus the Goidelic tongue.
The Irish and the Scots Are From the Same Tribe
Ireland used to be divided up into five parts, the five fifths. There was
a northern fifth, Ulster, a western fifth, Connaught, a southern fifth, Munster,
an eastern fifth, Leinster and a middle fifth, Mide. Click here to see a
map of the five fifths.
The Ulster Cycle is a set of stories which are grounded in the five fifths.
Indeed, they are primarily concerned with Cú Chulainn, the Ulster
hero and his king, Conor Mac Nessa in their wars against the king and queen
of Connaught, Ailill and Maeve. These figures play a prominent role in the
what may be the greatest story of the Ulster Cycle, the Táin Bó
Cúailnge, The Cattle Raid of Cooley.
Sometime after 300 AD, Ulster became steadily less important in status among
the five farthings and the ruling family of Mide, the Uí Néill
Sons of Niall started to take over large parts of Connaught and most of Ulster.
A similar move was made in Muster by the ruling family of Munster, the Eoganachta
family. Thus was Ireland divided almost entirely into two halves.
The people of Ulster were pushed to a small coastal strip bordering the Irish
Sea. The kingdom changed it's name to Dál Riata. Yet eventually Dál
Riata fell under the rule and influence of the Uí Néill. This
family, not content with the boundry presented by the sea, launched colonies
across the Irish Sea into then Pictish Britain. Thus was Scotland founded,
for it was these Uí Néill that the Romans called Scotti, not
the original Picts.
Indeed, it was this Irish Expansion which led to Christianity in Scotland
in 563 AD. St. Columba, the patron saint of Scotland, was a member of a powerful
family in Dál Riata and in order to keep his ties in Ireland he settled
on an island that was close to both Scotland and Ireland, Iona. Of course,
even more bizarre is the fact that St. Patrick, the man responsible for bringing
Christianity to Ireland in the first place, was from Wales.
This information is used with the gracious permission of the author listed
below.
Written by Greg Tczap (Demon Lord - demon@bayside.net)
http://www.bayside.net/users/demon
Who were the
Celts
Copyright 1997, All Rights Reserved.
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