I feel as though the Celts are an under-appreciated ethnic group these days, and so, as a member of said ethnic group, I wrote a brief missive in defense of their oft-forgotten glories.
A none-too-distant-Wednesday-past was, as you know, the day of St. Patrick - a day to celebrate the cultural traditions not only of the Irish nation (of which many of my ancestors were proudly part), but of the Celtic world at large. Few in our modern age, so tainted by the blundering, sandal-clad foot-print of Rome, can truly appreciate the glorious achievements of the Celtic people, so many of which have been erroneously attributed to later cultures. It was the Celts - not any collection of Mediterraneans – who invented the leather saddle, the aqueduct, the iron-wheeled standard-gauge chariot, and the double edged sword. In terms of science and mathematics, the Celts discovered "zero" ages before the Romans (or their cultural descendents in the middle ages for that matter), invented a calendar far surpassing the Julian or Gregorian in accuracy, perfected the practical arts of silver- and blacksmithing, and were better than any of their contemporaries at predicting solar and lunar eclipses.
The Celts were also among the most socially enlightened peoples of the ancient world, pioneering the "green" and feminist movements before the issues underpinning them were even thought to exist. (Proactive, right?) While the Romans, Greeks and Etruscans worshiped in gargantuan temples quarried at high cost from remote and otherwise-pristine wilderness areas, the Celts worshipped in airy, sacred groves - with negligible expense and environmental impact. And whereas almost all other Indo-European peoples restricted womens' rights to the spheres of the home and, to only a limited extent, the temple, Celtic women were encouraged to become druids (doctors, lawyers and/or priests, depending upon one's area of expertise) political leaders, artisans, merchants and even warriors, and were permitted to buy, sell and inherit property. The Celtic devotion to gender equality was even reflected in their pantheon, where all gods and goddesses were seen as manifestations of the supreme God and Goddess, whose relationship was thought of as equal, or even matriarchal. In the Greco-Roman pantheon, by contrast, philandering Zeus reigned supreme, and the most revered goddess was neither the intellectual Athena nor the self-asserting Artemis, but Hestia (a goddess of hearth and home whose acolytes were sworn to virginity on pain of death).
As If this isn’t enough, the Celt’s military prowess was legendary. “But Rome conquered the Celts,” says you. ”You’ve been brainwashed!” says I. To an extent I’ll admit there was conquest, but never the Irish, the Manx or the Scots, and not before the Celts sacked Rome! That’s right- Rome.
It was summer of 387BC, and a Celtic tribe, the Senones, had recently camped outside of the Roman city of Clusium for what they calimed were purposes of trade. Upon seeing the advancing Celts on the horizon, however, the townspeople locked the gates and refused the trading party entry to the market place. Offended, the Celts demanded an audience with the city governors, and were instead sent an envoy of merchants who were really Roman assassins instructed to kill the chief of the Senones, which they did. If they had hoped this would end the “Celtic Problem” the Romans were wrong. Brennus, the chief of the Senones (The murdered chief was a decoy! Ha!) did leave Clusium, but only so that he could lay siege to Rome, which fell in seven days (one for every hill) and was burned to the ground (which explains the later Roman fondness for stone architecture). Having humiliated the Romans on the battlefield and looted the entire city for seven months, Brennus demanded a further 1,000lbs of gold before he and his tribe would leave. When the Romans protested, he added the weight of his sword to the scale, and made them pay anyway, proclaiming “Vae Victis!” (woe to the conquered).
Not only did the Celts destroy Roman culture, they also saved it. (Aren’t they versatile?) It was Saint Colomba of Ireland whose dedication to monasticism and literature was the model by which almost all subsequent European scribes kept Greek and Latin manuscripts from being lost during the dark ages.
So there you have it – the Celts extinguished and rekindled the Light of the West…and so help me we will do it again if it doesn’t glow green on St. Patrick’s Day!
Erin go Bragh! Or, more accurately, Éireann go Bráth!
If you don’t know what it means, learn basic Gaelic; It’s part of being American!
A none-too-distant-Wednesday-past was, as you know, the day of St. Patrick - a day to celebrate the cultural traditions not only of the Irish nation (of which many of my ancestors were proudly part), but of the Celtic world at large. Few in our modern age, so tainted by the blundering, sandal-clad foot-print of Rome, can truly appreciate the glorious achievements of the Celtic people, so many of which have been erroneously attributed to later cultures. It was the Celts - not any collection of Mediterraneans – who invented the leather saddle, the aqueduct, the iron-wheeled standard-gauge chariot, and the double edged sword. In terms of science and mathematics, the Celts discovered "zero" ages before the Romans (or their cultural descendents in the middle ages for that matter), invented a calendar far surpassing the Julian or Gregorian in accuracy, perfected the practical arts of silver- and blacksmithing, and were better than any of their contemporaries at predicting solar and lunar eclipses.
The Celts were also among the most socially enlightened peoples of the ancient world, pioneering the "green" and feminist movements before the issues underpinning them were even thought to exist. (Proactive, right?) While the Romans, Greeks and Etruscans worshiped in gargantuan temples quarried at high cost from remote and otherwise-pristine wilderness areas, the Celts worshipped in airy, sacred groves - with negligible expense and environmental impact. And whereas almost all other Indo-European peoples restricted womens' rights to the spheres of the home and, to only a limited extent, the temple, Celtic women were encouraged to become druids (doctors, lawyers and/or priests, depending upon one's area of expertise) political leaders, artisans, merchants and even warriors, and were permitted to buy, sell and inherit property. The Celtic devotion to gender equality was even reflected in their pantheon, where all gods and goddesses were seen as manifestations of the supreme God and Goddess, whose relationship was thought of as equal, or even matriarchal. In the Greco-Roman pantheon, by contrast, philandering Zeus reigned supreme, and the most revered goddess was neither the intellectual Athena nor the self-asserting Artemis, but Hestia (a goddess of hearth and home whose acolytes were sworn to virginity on pain of death).
As If this isn’t enough, the Celt’s military prowess was legendary. “But Rome conquered the Celts,” says you. ”You’ve been brainwashed!” says I. To an extent I’ll admit there was conquest, but never the Irish, the Manx or the Scots, and not before the Celts sacked Rome! That’s right- Rome.
It was summer of 387BC, and a Celtic tribe, the Senones, had recently camped outside of the Roman city of Clusium for what they calimed were purposes of trade. Upon seeing the advancing Celts on the horizon, however, the townspeople locked the gates and refused the trading party entry to the market place. Offended, the Celts demanded an audience with the city governors, and were instead sent an envoy of merchants who were really Roman assassins instructed to kill the chief of the Senones, which they did. If they had hoped this would end the “Celtic Problem” the Romans were wrong. Brennus, the chief of the Senones (The murdered chief was a decoy! Ha!) did leave Clusium, but only so that he could lay siege to Rome, which fell in seven days (one for every hill) and was burned to the ground (which explains the later Roman fondness for stone architecture). Having humiliated the Romans on the battlefield and looted the entire city for seven months, Brennus demanded a further 1,000lbs of gold before he and his tribe would leave. When the Romans protested, he added the weight of his sword to the scale, and made them pay anyway, proclaiming “Vae Victis!” (woe to the conquered).
Not only did the Celts destroy Roman culture, they also saved it. (Aren’t they versatile?) It was Saint Colomba of Ireland whose dedication to monasticism and literature was the model by which almost all subsequent European scribes kept Greek and Latin manuscripts from being lost during the dark ages.
So there you have it – the Celts extinguished and rekindled the Light of the West…and so help me we will do it again if it doesn’t glow green on St. Patrick’s Day!
Erin go Bragh! Or, more accurately, Éireann go Bráth!
If you don’t know what it means, learn basic Gaelic; It’s part of being American!