Celtic Warfare

We are fortunate that there are many contemporary references to the Celts. From these classical sources many interesting facts about these ancient people emerge. While I was researching for this reply, I found some very interesting accounts of Celtic warfare, description dating from the actual period.

Here is a wonderful description of Celtic armour from he Roman, Diodorus Siculus:

"Their armour includes man-sized shield decorated in individual fashion. Some of these have projecting bronze animals of fine workmanship which serve for defence as well as decoration. On their heads they wear bronze helmets which possess large projecting figures lending the appearance of enormous stature to the wearer. In some cases horns form one piece with the helmet, while in other cases it is relief figures of the foreparts of birds or quadrupeds. Their trumpets are again of a peculiar barbaric kind; they blow into them and produce a harsh sound which suits the tumult of war. Some have iron breast-plates of chain- mail, while others fight naked, and for them the breast-plate given by Nature suffices. Instead of the short sword they carry long swords held by iron or bronze chains and hanging along their right flank. Some wear gold-plated or silver-plated belts round their tunics. The spears which they brandish in battle, and which they call "lanciae", have iron heads a cubit or more in length and a little less than palms in breadth; for their swords are as long as the javelins of other peoples, and their javelins have points longer than swords."

Isn`t that a wonderful description. Here is another one Polybius (200-120 BC) of Celtic warfare and the noise and tumult of battle:

"A din arose from countless horns and war-trumpets, and such a loud clamour of war-cries broke from the whole army in concert that not only the trumpets and soldiers but even the surrounding countryside itself reverberated with echo's and seemed to be giving voice. Terrifying, too, were the appearance and movements of the powerful naked men at the front, all in the prime of life. The men in the front lines were decked out with collars and bracelets of gold. The Romans then had a double incentive to fight, on one hand horrified by what they saw before them, but also eager to win the spoils."

Here is another extract by Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC), in which he describes the Celtic practice of head hunting in warfare:

"When (the Celts) kill enemies in battle they cut off their heads and attach them to the necks of their horses. They leave the other bloody remains to their servants to carry off as plunder, and sing hymns of praise and victory songs, and finally nail these first-fruits to their houses, as people do with wild animals after certain kinds of hunting. They soak the heads of their most illustrious enemies in cedar oil and keep them off to strangers, each priding himself that for one or other of the heads a forebear, or his father, or he himself had refused to take a large sum of money. Some are said to boast that they have even refused its weight in gold for one of these heads, thereby displaying a barbaric sort of magnanimity, for there is nothing noble in refusing to sell the proofs of one's valour."

The Celts also loved to fight using single combat rather than in armies. Here the custom was to deride the enemy. I Celtic myths it was common for two Celtic heros who while spoiling for a fight, would revile each other, toss insults at their opponent, and extol their own virtues as masters of the art of battle, and praising their own ancestors and family. This is vividly described by Diodorus Siculus:

"And when some one accepts their challenge to battle they proudly recite the deeds of valour of their ancestors and proclaim their own valorous quality at the same time abusing and making little of their opponent and generally attempting to rob him beforehand of his fighting spirit."