Free A Brief History of the Celts by Peter Berresford Ellis Page B

known: the anti-Celtic writings of the Romans and
Romanophiles.
    It would appear that the work of Poseidonios (
c
. 135–
c
. 50 BC ) of Apamea, Syria, was used as the major source material on the Celts of Gaul by all
our main pro-Roman writers on the Druids. Therefore, our knowledge of the Druids, in this respect, rests with only one writer. Poseidonios’ work is used by the Alexandrian Greek, Timagenes,
c.
mid-first century BC ; the Roman general, Gaius Julius Caesar (100–44 BC ); the Sicilian Greek, Diodorus Siculus (
c
.
60–
c.
21 BC ); and the Greek geographer from Pontus, Strabo (64 BC – AD 24). The scholar Alfred Klotz
believed that Poseidonios’ work had already been lost by the first century BC and that Timagenes was the intermediary who passed it on by quoting large sections of it.
Those quotations are substantially the passages used by all other writers.
    Strabo, in his
Geographia
, says:
    . . . the Druids, in addition to the science of nature, study also moral philosophy. They are believed to be the most just of men, and are therefore entrusted with the
     decision of cases affecting either individuals or the public; indeed in former times they arbitrated in war and brought to a standstill the opponents when about to draw up in line of battle;
     and murder cases have been mostly entrusted to their decision . . . These men, as well as other authorities, have pronounced that men’s souls and the universe are indestructible, although
     at times fire or water may (temporarily) prevail.
    Diodorus makes a similar statement and quotes Timagenes as the authority on the Druids. Both Strabo and Diodorus divide the Gaulish intellectual class into Bards, Vates and Druids. ‘The
Bards are singers and poets; the Vates interpreters of sacrifice and natural philosophers . . .’ We find some confirmation of this when the insular Celtic records cite the same classes of
intellectuals in Ireland –
Drui
,
Bard
and
Fili.
    We can only quote Timagenes from the quotations of other writers. In disfavour with the emperor, he burnt his works before he left Rome. However, Ammianus Marcellinus (
c
. AD 330–395), a Greek from Antioch, quotes him extensively and mentions that the Druids had an organisation, a corporate life (
sodalicis adstricti consortis
). Caesar also
says that they were a highly organised fraternity.
    All the Druids are under one leader, whom they hold in the highest respect. On his death, if any one of the rest is of outstanding merit, he succeeds to the vacant place; if
     several have equal claims, the Druids usually decide the election by voting, though sometimes they actually fight it out. On a fixed date in each year they hold a session in a consecratedspot in the country of the Carnutes, which is supposed to be the centre of Gaul.
    The Carnutes were the Celtic tribe in the region between the Seine and the Loire. The chief town of the tribe was Cennabum which is present-day Orléans.
    Diodorus gives a much more comprehensive description of the Celts of Gaul than do his contemporaries, and he dwells on their belief in the immortality of the soul. There can be little doubt
however that Strabo and Diodorus are ultimately deriving their information from a common source for they appear to be following a similar text. But Strabo’s work was a pointed attack on the
Celts which was written as a justification for the conquest of Gaul and subsequent attempts to suppress the Celtic intelligentsia and their centres of learning.
    Caesar, at least, is quite clear on who the Druids are. He calls them ‘an intellectual class’.
    The Druids officiate at the worship of the gods, regulate public and private sacrifices [rituals], and give rulings on all religious questions. Large numbers of young men
     flock to them for instruction, and they are held in great honour by the people. They act as judges in practically all disputes, whether between tribes or between individuals; when any crime is
     committed or a