19 Facts About Celts

Celts were often in conflict with the Romans, such as in the Roman–Gallic wars, the Celtiberian Wars, the conquest of Gaul and conquest of Britain.

Celts says "If the Gauls' initial impact on the Mediterranean world was primarily a military one typically involving fierce young *galatis, it would have been natural for the Greeks to apply this name for the type of Keltoi that they usually encountered".

Continental Celts are the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe and Insular Celts are the Celtic-speaking people of the British and Irish islands, and their descendants.

Celts's theory is partly based on glottochronology, the spread of ancient Celtic-looking placenames, and thesis that the Tartessian language was Celtic.

In various academic disciplines the Celts were considered a Central European Iron Age phenomenon, through the cultures of Hallstatt and La Tene.

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Greek historian Ephorus of Cyme in Asia Minor, writing in the 4th century BC, believed the Celts came from the islands off the mouth of the Rhine and were "driven from their homes by the frequency of wars and the violent rising of the sea".

Celts then became involved in fighting the various tribes in Gaul, and by 55 BC had overrun most of Gaul.

Until the end of the 19th century, traditional scholarship dealing with the Celts did acknowledge their presence in the Iberian Peninsula as a material culture relatable to the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures.

In 391 BC, Celts "who had their homes beyond the Alps streamed through the passes in great strength and seized the territory that lay between the Apennine Mountains and the Alps" according to Diodorus Siculus.

Slavery, as practised by the Celts, was very likely similar to the better documented practice in ancient Greece and Rome.

In some regards the Atlantic Celts were conservative: for example, they still used chariots in combat long after they had been reduced to ceremonial roles by the Greeks and Romans.

Posidonius' anthropological comments on the Celts had common themes, primarily primitivism, extreme ferocity, cruel sacrificial practices, and the strength and courage of their women.

Celts further claimed that "the young men will offer themselves to strangers and are insulted if the offer is refused".

Celts's claim was later repeated by Greco-Roman writers Athenaeus and Ammianus.

Celts were able to create developed musical instruments such as the carnyces, these famous war trumpets used before the battle to frighten the enemy, as the best preserved found in Tintignac in 2004 and which were decorated with a boar head or a snake head.

Celts were described by classical writers such as Strabo, Livy, Pausanias, and Florus as fighting like "wild beasts", and as hordes.

Celts seem to have had a father god, who was often a god of the tribe and of the dead ; and a mother goddess who was associated with the land, earth and fertility .

Romans said the Celts held ceremonies in sacred groves and other natural shrines, called nemetons.

The Celts had probably only created wooden cult images before the Roman conquest.