In early 2015 in Yorkshire the remains
of a body were discovered in an unmarked grave They belong to a man who died in
his early twenties Beside him, laid a large sword and the heads of 5 spears. It was
an Iron Age ritual burial Graves like this have been discovered throughout
Europe and we now know that this man once shared a common culture that
stretched from Turkey to Portugal We know this because he was one of our
prehistoric ancestors: a Celt In Britain we're never far from our Celtic
past. The Celts seem to belong to a shadowy, wilder more primal time than
anything in more recent history But much about their origins, beliefs and ultimate fate remains a mystery But a story etched in vivid color, is how these
powerful tribal people battled for survival Against their archenemy: the Roman Empire From the first Celtic raiding parties
that rampaged through ancient Italy To Julius Caesar's campaign in Gaul. And the Celts last stand under the warrior queen Boudicca One of the greatest cultural conflicts that
still defines our world today and reveals Europe's most enigmatic ancient people Once the heart of Europe's greatest
empire for hundreds of years This city ruled over lands stretching from Syria to Britain Rome's power was forged on it's military strength and shrined in its laws, economy and monuments But even before this empire spread across Europe, it would be challenged by powerful barbarian forces from lands north of the Alps Warrior tribes that would fire the imagination of Romans, for centuries to come The Celts This is the Roman image of the Celt
It's called 'The dying Gaul' He's completely naked. He has tousled and uncaimd hair, a moustache, and around his neck he's wearing a torque, which is the ultimate status symbol of the elite celtic warrior In Roman eyes, this is the quintessential naked savage and more importantly, it's a naked savage who has been subdued and defeated. Here in his side he's bleeding from a mortal wound and in his agony he has dropped his sword to the ground and it slunked along side it, awaiting death It's a beautiful and very powerful and moving work of art, but it's also propaganda This is how Rome wanted it citizens to see, to perceive the celtic opponent As noble, yes. But essentially a savage A powerful, potent image to set against the idea of Rome as a disciplined, ordered, civilizing presence For 400 years the Romans and Celts would
struggle for supremacy in Europe A conflict that in the end would define them both, but while Rome would celebrate its victories in monumental architecture, the Celts would gradually fade from history One big difference between the Celts and the Romans is that the Celts left us no written records of their own Theirs was an oral tradition, not a written one unlike the Romans, who documented almost every detail of their lives in their writings, sculptures and monuments But the Celts aren't entirely invisible to us.The worlds that they left behind is there to be discovered beneath our feet. Throughout Europe, archaeologists are unearthing the world of the ancient Celts I'm in central France, in Champagne country. And here on the outskirts of Buchères in april 2013, a team of archeologists found something very exciting indeed They were investigating this area, simply because this is going to be the site of a large new warehouse And what they stumbled across, was a burial site They discovered the graves of 27 men and women, and they've been buried here in the 4th century BC This was an Iron Age cemetary
The people buried here, were Celts Finds like Buchères give us direct insight into who the Celts really were This is one of the skeletons from those graves at Buchères and in fact, this is one of the most complete skeletons that we've found, because some of the bones were in a very bad state of repair indeed Now, I've looked really carefully at these bones and I can't see any signs of injury or disease on them. But in fact, there are some marks or perhaps I should say stains just here on the left forearm bones
Now, this isn't a disease. This is where something made of copper or copper alloy has lain very close to these bones in the grave and in fact, with all these skeletons and all these graves in Buchères, it's not the human remains themselves that are the most interesting. It's what was buried with them The bodies were accompanied into
the afterlife by their possessions and they reveal a surprisingly sophisticated
culture. We've got some fibulae, some broches here some bracelets, some little pins and a couple of necklaces as well The fibulae are georgous This fibula is the pièce de resistance. It has a repeating patern running on the body of interwaven spirals and then this strange wide button just here, is actually made of coral. So that would have come from the Mediterranean. This is a very classic Celtic torque. the thing which characterizes them is this opening at the bottom with these two terminals and the whole neckring would have been twisted open in order to place it around somebody's neck. And it's
got this nice decoration stamped onto the shaft A few of the graves contained
weaponry. And these swords are absolutely beautiful They are still in their
scabbards and the degradation of the iron is meant that its sprung apart, so you could actually probably see the sword sitting inside there Now, the length of these swords is interesting. They're not quite as long as the slashing swords it would have been carried by the cavalrymen amongst the Celts. So these are designed to be carried by warriors on foot And here, this iron band is decorated. We've got these strange circles just here but if you look at them really carefully, you realize what they are These circles, which are made of coral, are the eyes of two dragons So we've got this lovely symmetrical pattern on this scabbard, which is actually very different from this one Both these styles are typical of the period, but they're very individual at the same time and you can imagine that these swords would have been very prized, personal items The picture emerging, is that the Celts where a people with individual style and technical skill who took pride in their appearance and weaponry It's a far cry from the naked savage,
depicted by Rome Over 2,500 years ago, the Celts and Romans were destined to meet as celtic influence spread south of
the Alps into northern Italy. And we know that some Celts must have come through
here: the Alpine path of Valcamonica Carved, etched in the rocks here abouts, are markings that some archaeologists believe could be the very earliest depictions of Celts As they came through these high alpine passes, they encountered a mountain people called the Camunni and it may well be the case
that it was those Camunni who made these marks on the rocks and so created the
very first indelible records of what the Celts look like and what they had. What
you've got on here, is something really quite remarkable. Most obvious perhaps is a
depiction of a four wheeled vehicle, a chariot elsewhere There's a couple of warriors, or at least figures who seem to be armed with spears and shields. But it's a fabulous, unforgettable snapshot of what
someone saw, when a new people arrived What is clear, is that the Celts who ventured south, were ready to fight This whole area is just peppered, littered with the rock carvings So, you even have got to look underneath the leaf mould, in case you're missing something Quick clear away. And look there! Right away. That's fantastic You see that figure there? A man, his head... two legs, with shoes on and he's holding a spear and then in his left... That's either a small kind of buckler type shield or it could be a trophy. Could be a man's severed head, who knows. And so it goes on. Just got to keep revealing the canvas. There's more! There's a crowd of them there. Armed with spears, and shields and swords More of them They are fantastic Everything about it seems to be either warlike and agressive, or jubilant The figures are either threatening combat, or they're celibrating victory But they are very much alive Whoever saw them and decided to commit their image to the rock, had been impressed and wanted to make sure that some aspect of an arrival, was remembered The Celtic tribes were migrating, taking new lands and moving south towards central
Italy. The ordered, structured world of Rome had a storm coming To find out what happened when the Romans first met the Celts, we have to rely on this: Livy's History of Rome. Now bear in mind that Livy -Titus Livius- was a Roman, so he's likely to be partisan and he was
writing three hundred years after the event He tells us that that first meeting between the Romans and the Celts took place in 387 BC in Clusium, a town in what's now Tuscany, a hundred miles north of Rome It's hard to believe, strolling around
this peaceful Tuscan hill town today but events unfolded here would set in train
centuries of conflict and bloodshed Livy writes that outlandish warriors in their thousands, armed with strange weapons marched to Clusium, in search of new land to conquer and riches to plunder. They were led by a Celtic tribal leader and warlord called Brennus While the Celtic hoard descended upon Clusium, the town officials sent word to Rome asking for armed protection But the request was denied Instead, Rome sent 3 of her ambassadors to negotiate a peaceful settlement It would be the first time Rome would come face to face with her greatest adversary And so begins centuries of struggle, for the heart and soul of Europe As negotiations started, the Celts demanded land. And with vastly superior numbers, they
were in no mood for compromise There was a fierce arguement. And in the heat of the moment, a Roman ambassador stabbed his spear through a celtic chieftain's heart, killing him instantly In a single stroke, the oath of neutrality, one of Rome's own accepted customs, was broken The Celts demanded that the Roman in question would be handed over to them for suitable punishment The demand was ignored. Big mistake Livy wrote: "The Celts flamed into uncontrollable anger and set forward with terrible speed, covering miles of ground The cry went up To Rome!" The Romans came face to face with the Celts in 387 BC but from modern archaeology we
know that Celtic culture goes back much further than that some of the earliest evidence comes from
a tiny village south-east of Salzburg in Austria, called Hallstatt It's a place that has given its name to
an entire Celtic period and has become synonymous with early Celtic culture. This is Hallstatt, tucked away in a fold of the Austrian Alps It's a quiet town with an even quieter
population and yet it's one of the most famous names in archaeology and the
ideal starting point for any investigation of the Celts, because it's
here that we catch the very first glimpses of Celtic material culture by
which I mean identifiable things left behind by Celts: Hallstatt culture. I had it drummed into my head when I was an archeology student. And now, 30 years after I first heard the town, I'm finally here Starting in 1846, archaeologists at Hallstatt gradually unearthed over a thousand graves out of perhaps five thousand, scattered across the Upper
Valley: an entire city of the dead Within the graves were over 20,000 artifacts
dating back as far as 800 BC Intricate brooches, gold bracelets,
vessels made of sheet bronze Iron daggers and axes... This was the earliest
evidence of a long forgotten prehistoric culture. A culture we now recognize as
Celtic. Archaeologist Hans Reschreiter has worked here for over 25 years. What was
special about the graves that were found here? -So, the number of the graves, we have more then 5,000 of them. and also the great goods we've found within the graves We have a lot of jewelry and other luxury products in the graves. Here in Hallstatt, more than 60% of the graves have a lot of great goods So the majority of people who died and were
buried in these graves, were rich enough to take stuff with them? -Yes. How do you know this wasn't a graveyard for the wealthy? How do you know the poor weren't buried somewhere else? -Traces on the skeletons, the muscles, show that also the people in the rich graves have worked their whole life. These muscles show traces of heavy workload. So what kind of activity creates that kind of build up of wear and tear on the bones? For the women for example, we see they had heavy workload on the shoulder. It seems they have carried heavy loads on one shoulder. For the men, we have no muscles on the legs, but we have a lot of muscles here on the shoulders Right, so whatever it was they were doing, required upper body strength -Yes, but not a lot moving around. What made Hallstatt unique, can still
be found buried deep inside these mountains A valuable commodity that made the
ancient people who lived here rich and Hallstatt famous On to the right, we have the first prehistoric site We are entering here. Take care, it's slippery Right. Now this tunnle is a little bit different than the one we walked up. -Oh yeah, it is Here, you see the remains of one of these huge prehistoric tunnels So you've re-excavatad a space, that was originally made 3,000 years ago And the shinings, a crystalined sand... that's the salt? -That's the salt, yes It's pure rock salt. This is the salt that the prehistoric miners were looking for And this salt is heading in this direction. So, the prehistoric miners followed the direction of the salt Salt was highly priced as a vital preservative in the ancient world and the Celts of Hallstatt mined it on a massive scale This mountain is riddled with huge excavated galleries up to 200 meters long and 20 meters high -Everything the miners left behind, is
preserved perfectly Here you see thousands of burned down tapers, to illuminate the light So the tapers from the end of flaming torches? -Yes. And this is everything that the wealth of Hallstatt society and culture was all built on. It's this. So that explains the marks on the skeletons in the graves. It's
the labor in here -Oh yes, it is. The tool handles we've found in here, are the handles of bronze picks to break these huge plates of salt -The workers that picked these plates, had marks on the male skeletons. -And we've seen that the marks on the females skeletons, are from carrying these huge plates of salt So they bare the marks of a lifetime of labor on their skeletons -So for the Hallstatt people, this was their life -This was their surrounding. It was quite normal. They were subterraneal Within this ancient mine are also very personal reminders of the people that worked here So am I right in thinking that that there is proof of a life? Oh yes, this is a prehistoric excrement. I'll be honest with you Hans. I've never expected to catch this intimate glimpse of a celtic salt miner I feel a strange sense of communion and brotherhood And in this excrement were also finds of eggs of parasites So we had proof that nearly all the miners had parasites in their stomach, so it was not a nice time more than 3,000 years ago If it's get wet, it still smells Now that's unbelievable. The Iron Age is alive and well
down here - It's preserved because of the salt in here. It's my first salted poo The salt from this mountain was of such
high quality it became a prized commodity, traded throughout the region.
The people of Hallstatt grew rich from this white gold at a time when another commodity was
starting to transform prehistoric society Iron The secrets of iron production had spread from Asia Minor, through the eastern Mediterranean into central Europe.
People had long been able to extract copper and tin to make bronze. Iron ore was more plentiful, but iron was harder to extract and to work Repeated heating and hammering yielded
a metal: hardened, durable and perfect for weaponry. The Celts became masters at it The extraordinary finds at Hallstatt reveal the Celts as wealthy, industrious and technologically sophisticated. It was the birth of a new
and very distinctive culture. One that would grow, influence and ultimately
dominate Europe. Hallstatt would become famous as the birthplace of a new
culture that thrived and spread across great sways of Europe. By 500 BC, the Celts had arrived in northern Italy. And by 387 BC, having been wronged by
Roman ambassadors at Clusium, the Celtic chieftain Brennis and his men were marching south to Rome, hungry for revenge The Roman army, having received word of the approaching Celtic horde, marched north to meet them led by general Quintus Sulpicius Sulpicius had 6 legions under his command:
approximately 24,000 soldiers Just 11 miles from Rome, he encountered
his enemy on a plain next to the river Allia. This is by no means the most
atmospheric place. Right behind me there's a high-speed rail track. The
whole area is criss-crossed with overhead power lines. But we believe that
thousands of people died here. This is the battlefield of Allia, where the Roman
army came face to face with the Celts for the very first time in pitched battle and it's worth
remembering too that the Roman commander Sulpicius had next to no knowledge of his foe. He knew nothing about their tactics or their weaponry. And furthermore he had been caught on the hop with hardly any time to prepare for what he could now see was ahead of him, and coming his way Mike Loades, an expert in ancient
military tactics, has been piecing together what happened on the
battlefield nearly two and a half thousand years ago Good to see you. Doesn't really have the feel of a battlefield. No well, it's not the prettiest It's a reminder that history happens under our feet, where we live our everyday lives. I
kinda like the ordinariness of it. What about the topography would have appealed to a
commander? Well, you got to remember that this not the Roman army of later years We're talking 387 BC. This is a fletchling Rome. It's a small force and they're fighting in a falanx. That's 10-15 rows deep, shoulder-to-shoulder
You've got that ridging, static, entrenched Roman attitude to fighting: you hold your
ground, you take your position. What I think Sulpicius was trying to do Was to force a pitched battle on this plain.
That's where he set his falanx, expecting that Brennus would bring his hordes on to
engage them. And on that hill, which probably didn't have all those trees on back then,
Sulpicius would have put his cavalry , "the equites", the elite Roman soldiers. And I think Sulpicius
was planning to either sweep down in a flanking manouvre, or come around behind the Celts. So what did go wrong for Sulpicius and his Romans? Well, the first thing is, Brennus didn't do what Sulpicius thought he was supposed to do. He didn't play the game. He didn't let his undisciplined hordes rush forward. He had control of them, and they went streaming up that hill and they drove that elite Roman
cavalry off the battlefield The Celts were much more imaginative: swirling and using the landscape and it would hit and run, and fluence. Just a different way of commanding a battlefield It sounds as if the analogy is that the Celt is the flowing stream and the Roman is the rock in river With the elite cavalry dealt with, the Celtic warriors turn their attention
to the Roman phalanxes on the plain Overrun and outmanoeuvred, the Roman legionaries fled in panic, terrified by the Celtic charge. Many were cut down in the rout, others drowned in the Allia, weighed down by their heavy bronze armour The Romans would later claim they lost 20,000 men that day. The city of Rome was left to it's fate. The Romans may have thought their enemy
had come out of nowhere, but the Celts have had connections with the
Mediterranean world for years. Hillforts are iconic features of Celtic Europe.
Iron Age castles, that were the homes of chiefs and great centers of power. Heuneberg, built
in the 6th century BC, lies nearly 250 miles west of Hallstatt in southern Germany This is Heuneburg In 600 BC, this whole place would have been covered in Iron Age buildings, and archaeologists are arguing that we shouldn't just see this as a hillfort, but that this was a city. Perhaps the first city north of the Alps The Celtic city of Heuneburg is
estimated to have had a population of 5,000 and its construction was on a
grand scale: a 5 metre high white wall surrounded the entire citadel,
punctuated by huge defensive towers which were further protected by a large
earthen ditch, six meters deep This was architecture designed to be
impregnable and to impress Dirk Krausse is the head of archaeology at Heuneburg. These walls, these are pretty magnificent, aren't they? They're much more magnificent then I expected, I think, for an Iron Age fort Yeah, because they are unique and they are
very extraordinary. Normally they built with timber and stone and earth, but here they used limestone foundation and above they built with mud-bricks and this painting is
necessary for the protection of my the mud-bricks because we have bad weather, you know, of the Alps. It's also for demonstration of power, because these walls were seen from
miles away so everyone who came here knew this is a mighty site. So this is what the walls are like underneath all that white paint. Yeah, these are the mud-bricks. They're not baked clay bricks but
they are dried in the sun. So, just how unusual is this style of building for the Iron Age? It's extraordinary. They
they didn't build with mud bricks north of the Alps. Never. Never before and never afterwards. Where
is this idea come from. For a long time, it was a mystery where this idea came from but the combination of mud bricks and of
towers which were built in the citadel wall here You'll find it only in the Phoenician culture. For example in Levante or in Sicily or on the Iberian Peninsula. So maybe an
architect came here, who learnt to build in a Phoenician context It's an example of this Mediterranean influence, I think. Centuries before you think Mediterranean influence really takes off with the Romans the landscape is also important Landry's nearby as well the Autobarn of
the Iron Age from the Baltic pottery from Italy and Greece crisscross
the continent east to west south to north links to the wider world made a vital
hub for trade and industry and help to build the foundations of a powerful
civilization the enormous wealth from the street transformed early Celtic leaders into
more than Chiefs created an elite class oligarchs iron each some even be
regarded as royalty this real mount protected the grief of a
man who died around 5:30 BC he's become known as the hot off Prince because
dispatched with him into the afterlife are some of the most remarkable fans of
the early Celtic world now hosts in the depository of the Stuttgart museum the cage prints nature and his two and it's made entirely out of sheet
bronze riveted together wonderful hammered passion stylized
warriors fighting in single combat each end of good representation of a
four-wheel chariot for my two stallions Maria holding a shield beautiful shiny bronze objects and not
this green veg agree to parents and you can see that this is at the moment
resting on these steel legs which of course not every channel this is what
originally stood on one of the eight a little bronze figurine so this is a
woman wearing a possible head and she's drilled well over and would have been
inlaid with coral and she's standing asteroid wheel she's a miniature
unicycle say they would have been on casters also discovered in the tomb were
drinkin homes bronze plates and a vast cauldron decorated with three lines that
would have contained up to 500 litres of honey meet there is the cauldron it is in the size
of it is incredibly impressive and cauldrons really are emblematic of
something which was pretty fundamental in Celtic society and that of course
with feasting this was the way that chieftains shows their power and their
wealth and kept their allies close to them just based on the side of this
cauldron of Prince must have been an important person but the greatest
luxuries of all were found on the prince himself was wrapped in layers and layers
of cloth not only that he was adorned with this cold and it is unknown
israelis beautiful when you look at it really really closely you realize that
what appears to be an abstract pattern is in fact a little repeating stamp of a
tiny rider in the hopes and then there's these two goals and feebly breaches and
you can see that the Kings being deliberately bent so this is part of a
strange creature with his funeral was buried with his britches but they're not
to be used again i living and other objects like a bronze plaque which has
been increasing again but I think what is most extraordinary
tired now she's had long since rotted away but what we have left these
wonderful plaques and write her a vegetative state having lived in luxury
he took to the grave with him and he also took everything he needed to carry
on feasting right into the afterlife from the tiny alpine village of house
that had grown one of Europe's great ancient cultures accounts may not have
fitted the classical model but they were not rich complex and structured society
a telling contrast to the room an image of a naked warrior the wild barbarian of
the dying Gaul what brand new research suggesting that
Celtic origins might be far more complex and intriguing trying to track a number of lines of
evidence material culture tribes and that we have surviving Celtic languages
in the West viewer and Wales in Scotland Ireland and Brittany but it's not to any
of those places that I've come in search of ancient Celtic language it is to the
Algarve Portugal John Cook is a philologist the study of
literary texts and he's behind a new Celtic origins that starts with a very
source ancient Greek historian Herodotus I didn't come to Portugal helps but you
think that they were here I have no doubt accounts with you as well as
saying the health live near the source of the town has seen our first references to the Celts riding in the
third century BC says that they also lived beyond the Pillars of Hercules
thats the Straits of Gibraltar and next to a people he called his scenes Celtic
name as well so we have held in health linguistically where that what we
decided that the Celts that is their homeland and then they spread out in the
Western Europe is very much a kind of afterthought well I think we need to
look at that differently we need to reexamine that whole idea is it simply
doesn't for John doesn't work is the absence of
archaeological evidence linking the Celts here to the counts of central
europe but there is evidence linking the
Iberian celts to Britain Ireland and the Atlantic coastline the clue that etched into ancient stone
tablet that date to the seventh century be the same period as the house to help water because well this is found in the
far southwest of the peninsula place called earlier which was propolis burial
ground of the Early Iron Age and can you beat it this logo Bowl the post would looks very
much like dedications we have in northwestern Spain blue ball and these
are dedications to the counter cod Mirabal probably means something like to
the chief men so we have to the gods Luke and to the chief men is the opening
of this inscription logo on I think up here I think this might be the word for
burial because we're very similar would in northern Italy and a Celtic
inscription but probably about five hundred years later it looks like a
Celtic Celtic name and looks like it has a Celtic inflected endings so it's
grammatically Celtic and its aftermath logically and it still has to you extant 293 my living people yeah that's how we know I mean that sort
of I definition this is this is how we decide something is Celtic john thinks
that this is an ancient language written down using the alphabet of the
Phoenicians Mediterranean Sea ferries you reach the
Iberian Peninsula as long ago as 900 beefy but they've been written using
that our bet if not finishing its Celtic this early Celtic has clear links to
later Celtic languages spoken in Britain and Ireland such as gallic Welsh and
Cornish and john believes that Bronze Age traders and seafarers used this
brutal Celtic as they traded silver copper and 10 up and down the Atlantic
coastline from Portugal to northern Spain Ireland and the West Country for me this is really exciting this is
new this is what we think about the counts totally on his head instead of
thinking about migration out of central europe got something really interesting
happening on this atlanta fringe something that could actually be the
origin of the counts this new theory suggests that rather than being invaded
by Celts our Celtic heritage arrived in Britain during the Bronze each using a
very different mechanism mike l thickness might have much more to do
with exchange of course and Angus then with the blood and gore of a reading
party and if that's true then britain and the far west of Europe may have had
much more influence on the spread of Celtic culture in central europe than
was previously imagined and a fascinating piece of evidence to support
all of that early Celtic sort has this elegant shape
than its switch back into big broad typically Celtic a generation ago so this was cited as
evidence of the spread of the Celts into the west from Central Europe so you'd
find them all over central Germany and France but recently archaeologists have
been finding lots of sorts like this in Britain need of Braun's just like this
one from the early 8th century the before house that it suggests that
solves made in Britain from braun's influenced the weapons technology of
fairly early age spreading from west to east from Britain
to central europe and not the other way around when it comes to the case of a Celtic
warlord like Dennis and his men they may have been carrying weapons that were
sheet by a technology at its foundations 387 beefy for the first time the Celtic
and Roman world had crashed at the Battle of alia according to the Raven
historian Livy 20,000 leading me that lost their lives that day leaving the
city of Rome at the mercy of the Celtic army under the command of Chief Brenes City the decision was taken together
with the women and children into the capital from that stronghold properly
armed and provisioned it was their intention to make a last stand for
themselves for their gods and for the Roman name the fortress was up there on
the Capitol Hill one of the Seven Hills upon which room was built the city had
never been defeated was about to face the fury of its greatest for and all too soon that might have come from iconic a
Celtic noir trumpet the Cal carried hundreds of them into
battle today however there is only one can explain in the world musician Kenny because the unusual part of the Celtic battle plan designed
to terrify the enemy the world at that time there's a much
quieter place these in turn 12 coming out of the mist in the morning screaming
like MADD quite possible to imagine you being attacked by Richard Johns entered the city of all its citizens had
either retreated to the Capitol Hill fled the streets were empty tells us that the Celts came across a
mansion belonging to room and ability and found the doors open suspect entered cautiously only thing
waiting for was a group of elderly woman's sitting motionless in an active
silent defiance Celtic Warrior reached out with his hand
and touched the beard of one of the seated figures the rumen washed out and hit him over
the head with his Irish staff it was the moment that shield the city's feet felt it was really sad and looted and
burned the imperial city to the ground the Roman he'll have no choice but to
surrender agreeing to pay the cult and run them in gold the commander couldn't just saw Perseus
who had led the army to defeat at the Battle of alia agreed to negotiate a
settlement with the Celtic warlord pro tennis agreed the sum of one thousand pounds in
wheat in gold a colossal ransom a city already ravaged just the normal two-week old was the
second time which it is serious commander objected to the scales
shouting I picked us all to the vanquished we're totally at the mercy of the Celts
Romans had learned the hard way accounts were far from the wild savages
portrayed during the course of four centuries they had developed a complex
and powerful tribal network theirs was a warrior culture shared language and
extensive trading links had expanded across Central Europe through the Alps
and sound into italy had defeated the imagined Roman Empire in the years that
followed was rebuilt and defended by a new impregnable barrier the Serbian war
it was a permanent reminder to its citizens of their defeat at the hands of
the Celts they were resolved never to city fall again for room it was a new beginning and over
the next few hundred years the Romans would collide again with the Celts and
battle for survival for land from the very heart and soul of europe three hundred years later we discover
the golden age of the Celts and their expansion to the farthest reaches of
Europe and beyond and France are always greatest military
general Julia season is challenged by awarding commanding an army of a quarter
of a million men at stake is the survival of the Celtic heartland of goal and Josh Widdicombe join the regular
among the awake on BBC two
I think that pissed them off.
The Celts dominated western Europe at that time, controlling Spain, France, much of Germany, and the British Isles. It is hard to believe!
The sack by the Celts marks a major line in the study of Roman history. We've got detailed records of most everything that happened for centuries afterwards, but anything before is shrouded in myth.