Celtic warfare
The Celtic warfare describes the way in which the members of the ethnic group of the Celts fought their armed conflicts. It encompasses the practical craft of war as well as its methods, tactics and strategy .
The Celtic warrior
Armament
Celts used a variety of weapons, probably due to their warrior culture. Ranged weapons were javelins and slings . The stones of the slingshot were mostly taken from rivers, as these pebbles were well formed by the grinding process on the bottom of the water. It must be said that javelins were not necessarily the primary weapons of a warrior, many melee troops only carried additional throwing weapons. Bows can be identified as hunting weapons, but not in combat. Young warriors mostly fought with primitive javelins and slings, while the lances were carried by Celtic champions . One example of this was the Gaesati . In late antiquity , the Picts were already using light crossbows .
Lances , hatchets , clubs and swords could be mentioned as close combat weapons . The swords were initially short swords ( Kopis ), later long swords ( Spathae ). They varied greatly in quality. There were true masterpieces, but some ancient historians tell of swords made of iron, which were bent or blunted after heavy blows from a warrior. Celtic lances had relatively broad tips. Some great swords have been found in England . So far they have been listed as ritual objects, but military use is also conceivable. It can be assumed that the swords were made in Gaul or Hibernia (Ireland), as the British Celts were probably not able to do so.
Armor
Early La-Tene Celts did not wear armor, only nobles sometimes had pectorals . Leather armor , light bronze breastplates , chain mail and shed shirts appeared later . The Ceannlann armor should also be mentioned as a special form. These "fish scales" (translated into German) consisted of metal scales sewn onto linen, the lines being sewn onto a chain mail again from the inside. The Romans referred to the Celts as the inventors of the chain mail, but bronze breastplates were influenced by Mycenaean armor. Helmets were also rare, they were mostly only used by nobles. Important forms are the Montefortino helmet and the coluus. Belgian helmets had a typical, cone-like shape with a long, square and straight neck shield. Feathers or ponytails could be attached to the helmet. Some helmets had horns or mimicked horns. Shields were used very often. Round shields were mostly used by light infantrymen or cavaliers . Heavy infantrymen carried long shields, mostly square, oval or hexagonal. The warrior of a chariot crew probably wore an infantry shield. The Celtic warrior usually wore so-called Braccae trousers and a light coat.
Standards
The Celts carried various banners into battle, later the Sarmatian Draco was taken over for a short time by auxiliary troops fighting in Roman service . Bull horns and the so-called carnyxes gave signals or were intended to inspire the fighters.
Military organization
cavalry
At first horses were only used as draft animals in chariots. Each chariot consisted of two crew members: a charioteer and a noble warrior or champion. The chariots were often referred to by ancient historians as a mixture of infantry and cavalry. The chariot would drive into the fray, from where the warrior would jump out of the vehicle and fight. Caesar describes that the charioteers acted extremely agile on the moving cart, so they would sometimes climb far forward on the yoke in order to steer the horses better.
The actual cavalry came up later, especially in Britain the primitive chariots survived for a long time. The riders were mostly light cavalrymen. They fought by rushing towards the enemy, covering them with a hail of javelins, and then attacking them with lances and swords.
tactics
The normal Celtic swordsman was arguably a heavy infantryman. Although he wore no armor, he fought as a line unit. The center of Celtic tactics was the onslaught of this massive mass of warriors. The wild frontal attack, called "Furor Celtica" by the Romans, was supposed to defeat the enemy quickly. However, sometimes the Celts fought very defensively. They could form a shield wall in case of danger . Caesar describes a Celtic phalanx in the fight against Helvetic tribes . Another theory is that Caesar means with “phalanx” the above-mentioned shield wall. The Romans used their pila to hook the overlapping shields into one another. In addition to these open fighting methods, the Celts also used guerrillas . They knew how to attack their opponents from the woods or to disturb them with skirmishers.
Warrior cult
The Celts had a warrior culture. Fighters were revered as heroes, and courage on the battlefield was an important virtue. The elite Celtic fighters acted as role models, which other warriors should inspire with their courage.
The Celts severed the heads of their killed enemies and collected them (see: Celtic head cult ). It was a ritual act that is often found in other cultures. An example of this is scalping , as practiced by some Indian tribes. The head was considered by the Celts to be the seat of the soul, emotions and life. Whoever captured a head attained the strength of the slain enemy. Such trophies were tied to the horse or attached to the belt.
In battle, the Celts loved display. There are legends of a Celtic ruler who drove into battle with a silver chariot . Of course silver is very soft and therefore rather unsuitable for a chariot, but according to history, the enemy troops fled at the mere sight of it. Warriors often painted themselves with woad ( Woad Raider ) or formed chants to intimidate their enemies. This served to unsettle the enemy and bring him to defeat. Similar threatening gestures can be found in other warrior peoples and animals often use threatening gestures to prevent a deadly fight. The transition from ritual object to weapon of war is therefore unclear. A Celt, for example, would go to war with a horned helmet, this helmet decoration is a hindrance, but it is intended to intimidate the enemy and serve the warrior's self-expression. A helmet was also found, which is crowned by a metal raven. When the bearer runs with it, the raven flaps its wings. This is a reference to Celtic mythology . There the death goddess Morrígan fetches the souls of the fallen warriors in the form of a raven.
Celts as mercenaries
Celts often fought as mercenaries , Hannibal had a guard from Gaesatae . The ancient Ptolemies and the empire of Pontus established Celts ( Galatians ), these were sometimes even elevated to clergy .
The heirs of the Celts continued the mercenary tradition into the Middle Ages : Welsh archers and Irish kerns often found their way into English armies. France profited from the conflict between England and Scotland . The Scots regularly sent mercenaries to take action against the common enemy. The French formed the "Compagnie des Gendarmes Ecossois", which were armed with bows and swords . Gaelic riders, so-called "hobbilare" often fought for France and England.
swell
literature
- Barry Cunliffe: The Ancient Celts. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1997, ISBN 0-19-815010-5 .
- Peter Berresford Ellis: The Celtic Empire - The first millennium of Celtic history. Constable Publishings, London 1990, ISBN 0-09-468670-X .
- Adrian Goldsworthy : The Wars of the Romans. Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89488-136-4 .
- Paul Jacobsthal : Early Celtic Art. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1969. (2003, ISBN 0-19-817170-6 ).
- Plantagenet Somerset Fry: Roman Britain. David & Charles PLC, 1984, ISBN 0-7153-8267-5 .
- Peter Wilcox: Rome's Enemies - Gallic and British Celts. Osprey Publishing, London 1985, ISBN 0-85045-606-1 .
