Celt: Overview of the Celts

[Wijitmaker]

The Celts were a ferocious tribal people with common ancestry whose culture spread from modern-day Scotland to the southern tip of Iberia, and across the Alps into the Balkans. Famous for intricate iron-working, rich and verbal lore, courage in combat, and simplicity, the Celts were among the most vibrant and powerful civilizations of the first millenium B.C.

The ultimate origin of the Celtic peoples is indeterminate, though the people of the Urnfield culture seem to be the most direct connection. Their migration across Europe began in about 500 A.D., and their culture rapidly spread across the Continent. Celts stood for centuries as one of Rome’s most fierce and hated foes, but due to their disunited political structure, the legions of Rome slowly rolled across Celtic lands, from the Iberian Peninsula to Gaul and finally into Britannia. Their culture and heritage were shattered almost universally by Roman brutality and lack of literacy, though some holdings remained in Caledonia (modern-day Scotland) and Hibernia (Ireland) until Germanic invaders such as the Anglo-Saxons finished the destruction which Rome had begun.

The Celts kept neither written records nor had a coherent national structure, so we do not know of many major figures, except by Greco-Roman sources. Some of these figures are: Deiotarus of the Galatians. Vercingetorix of the Gauls, and Boudicca of the Iceni in Britannia.. The Siege of Alesia in 52 B.C., in which Vercingetorix lost to the rapidly built fortifications and tactics of Julius Caesar, stands as the most well-known Celtic battles; Boudicca’s rampage across Britannia was halted by another renowned battle at Watling Street, in 61 A.D.

Celtic warriors were both feared and respected by their enemies for their bravery and honor in battle, often going into battle hardly clothed with only a spear and shield. Preferring close combat to ranged, which they considered cowardly, Celts would often charge in a frenzy to their opponent’s defenses, challenged the strongest of their foes to single combat, and would break formation from eagerness to battle.

In 0 A.D., the Celts will have a powerful infantry and an average cavalry both armed with some of the best-smithed weapons in Europe, with a weak navy and missile units.

- Cory McConnaughy (a.k.a. Titus Ultor)

Edited October 8, 2006 by Titus Ultor

[HistGamer]

Believe it or not, many sources and history books i have read about acient warfare boasts that the Celtic boasted some of the greatest cavalry tactics- the chariots. They are known to pepper their enemies with spears and javilins+fear factor of the chariots itself. Thei chariot are normally simple but very efficient...

[HistGamer]

Srry bout my grammar and spelling mistakes loXD