Irish History-The Celts
To the Greeks they were the "Keltar" to the Germans they were the "Keltan" to the French, the "Celtes" and to almost everyone they had a reputation as a people who relished warfare and would strut before their enemies before the battle began, hurling insults and threats, bragging about their deadliness and their prowess with a sword and spear. They ran in to battle naked, rushing their enemies while they screamed and waved their gigantic swords. A Roman wrote "They cut off the heads of their enemy and attach them to the necks of their horse, singing in triumph they then nail those same heads to the walls of their cottages or embalm them in cedar or honey and then preserve them carefully in a chest displaying them proudly to visitors"
Despite the Celts reputation as an unruly mob of bloodthirsty murders and raiders, theirs was a rigid society, full of elaborate and wonderful traditions that passed down the ages of unknown time through the oral tradition.
They dressed in loud colorful customs, woven in geometric designs and adorned themselves in bronze bracelets and neck toques, having perfected bronze and metal work for almost every facets of their daily lives which in turn helped to spread their influence across central Europe.
The Celts were prodigious eaters and drinkers and a good meal was considered a direct sign of status and extremely important to being considered a good host, something that was (and remains) a source of great pride and importance to them.
They were fond of meats, usually pork, Ox, beef and game. boiled in large bronze cauldrons (as opposed to frying the meat in open pits as was the custom of the day in most other places) and then washed down every meal with massive quantities of mead, a sort of beer, drunk from large heavy bronze cups.
If a King were wealthy enough a feast could (and very often did) go on for days or even weeks. The guests and host sat on animals' skins and ate from a small table that sat inches from the ground, with the place of honor being reserved for their guest of honor. Next came the host, nobleman, the richest cattleman, the bravest warrior and so fourth.
During the meals, highly trained musicians played or Poets told of the great deeds of the Host (or if the host had no great deeds to speak of, then the poet recited the great deeds of his ancestors)
When the meal was finished, the thankful guest would abide by the customs of the day and fall back on the floor (usually inebriated) and "wallow their with his bedfellows on either side" or on lesser occasions, the meal was followed by a board game called Fidchell, or wrestling matches.
When they went to war, they went for slaves, expanded farm lands and other booty of war. War was also considered an exercise in manliness for the tribes younger men.
If the Celts seemed to be larger then life, its because they almost were. A skeleton of a Celtic warrior found in Italy, measured six feet five inches tall and weighing in at 230 pounds, a big man by modern standards but certainly a giant by ancient standards. The Blonde haired, blue eyed Celtic warrior of legend may have existed, but they were probably an elite ruling class thinly spread out over the entire population.
But for all their warring ways, the Celts power and influence in Europe was expanded more by their constant search for good farm land and wider grazing plots for their cattle.
In or around 390 B. C, the Celts wandered in to sunny Italy and sacked Rome the following year and then withdrew from the area, never establishing a foothold in the region.
To the east, they pushed as far as what is today Bulgaria. It was here that they came in face to face contact with Alexander the Great in 355 B. C Alexander marched out to the boarder of his Greek Empire and asked the Celts what they feared the most. "We fear only that the sky will fall on our heads" was the reply.
Alexander considered the answer and decided to make a peace pact with the Celts rather then to try and drive them off of his Kingdoms boarders. The Celts held to their word and didn't attack the Greeks until Alexander's death. When they did attack they did twice, first being fought to a draw and then sacking Macedonia in 279 B. C
From there they marched in to the Asian minor and established the Celtic kingdom of Galatia, dominating the area with there own legal tender, gold coins with the sacred symbol of the birds head emblazed on the rear of the coin, but for the most part these coins were not widely accepted or used by the Celts themselves, instead they were used for dealing and trading with outsiders to the tribe. Among the Celts the preferred exchange rate was slaves or heads of cattle, a practice that was carried on in Ireland well in to the 12th century. So important were slaves, that a man value (women.s value was determined by her marriage) was determined by numbers of female slaves called Cumal. As an example, ten Cumal was equal to one warrior.
To some small extent, the ancient Celts did give a few lastings effects to the outside world. They introduced soap to the Greeks and the Romans, they shoed their horses with great care and introduced the seamless wheel that in turn would give the standard size of four feet eight and a half inches in wheel size that is still used on railroads today.
They measured their time in nights that had passed, and divided their months by the dark and the light half of the moon.
From their legends arose the stories of King Arthur and the Holy Grail. Firm believers in life after death and reincarnation (they saw no difference between life and death) they also left the world with the odd legacy of not paying off a debt they could not afford in this life, instead carrying that debt with them when they were reincarnated in to their next life.
A few Greek and later Roman writers tried to sort the various Celtic tribes in to nations as early as 500 B.C, but most attempts at this failed and the official count by the Romans, was that their were no less then 60 tribes with the Celtic lands and all of these tribes were then dubbed the Celtic race.
However, the Celts never saw themselves as a single race but rather as a group of tribes who would join together when needed, who generally shared the same religious beliefs, spoke more or less the same language and often times ended up on the same sides in battle with outside invading forces. This complete lack of unity made it impossible for the outsider to distinguish the Celt from his non Celtic neighbor whom they were content to live in peace with.