A Brief History of the Celts

by Peter Berresford Ellis

  Teuta and her people were besieged in Kotor by legions commanded by Lucius Postumius who systematically reduced the rest of her cities. Teuta finally concluded a treaty with Rome, agreed to pay reparation and gave assurances of her good behaviour in the future. Rome’s victory was celebrated in 228 BC.

  The next major female Celtic figure we come across is Chiomara, wife of Ortagion of the Tolistoboii of Galatia. At the time when the Romans invaded Galatia under Gnaeus Manlius Volso in 189 BC, Chiomara was captured by the Romans. A centurion raped her. When the centurion discovered she was the wife of the Celtic king they were fighting against, greed overcame caution, or perhaps the Roman was arrogant. He sent a ransom note to Ortagion. The exchange took place on a river bank in neutral territory. When the centurion was busy picking up his gold, Chiomara turned, took a sword from those who had come to escort her to her husband, and calmly decapitated him. She then took his head in Celtic fashion to her husband. The exchange of greeting related by Plutarch is fascinating.

  ‘Woman, a fine thing [is] good faith.’

  ‘[A] better thing, only one man alive who had intercourse with me.’

  Professor David Rankin has pointed out that the recorded words ‘preserve genuine, gnomic Celtic idiom’.

  Plutarch gives information about another Celtic heroine of Galatia. Camma, probably a priestess of Brigantu, the equivalent of the goddess Artemis, was married to a chieftain named Sinatos. Sinatos was murdered by a man called Sinorix (King of Storms) and Camma was forced to marry him. It was a ritual at wedding feasts to drink from a common cup. Camma put poison in the cup and allayed Sinorix’s suspicion by drinking first, so accepting death herself so long as Sinorix drank and died as well.

  There is not much written about Celtic women rulers until after the Romans invaded Britain in AD 43. We find that in the Lancashire and Yorkshire area there was a tribal confederation called the Brigantes. It is argued that they were named after Brigantia, the Exalted One. They were ruled by a queen named Cartimandua (Sleek Pony) and Tacitus describes her as pollens nobilitate (powerful in lineage). She was, he adds, ‘flourishing in all the splendour of wealth and power’.

  Cartimandua decided to accept Roman suzerainty and become a client king. She proved her loyalty to Rome by betraying and handing over Caractacus (Caradog), the high king of southern Britain, who had made the mistake of seeking asylum with her. In fact, one of the tribes that made up the Brigantian confederation, the Setanti, had, in AD 48, supported Caractacus, presumbly against her wishes. Was this her revenge? Cartimandua was fairly secure until her husband, Venutius of the Jugantes, began to take an anti-Roman view. He was, says Tacitus, ‘since the loss of Caractacus, the first in fame and valour and military experience.’

  We can only guess at the domestic situation. Cartimandua divorced her husband and asked the Romans to send a legion to help put down Venutius’ rebellion. The legion, commanded by Cesius Nasica, was duly sent. She married her former husband’s armour-bearer and charioteer, Vellocatus, which has been seen as another form of the name Billicotas (Courteous Warrior). However, Venutius appears to have had some degree of support among the Brigantes and to have driven Cartimandua out of her kingdom. The Romans only just rescued her and her new husband.

  In AD 72 Quintus Petilius Cerialis finally caught up with Venutius near Stanwick and defeated him, smashing the powerful Brigantian confederation. Claudius Ptolemaeus, the Greek geographer (c. AD 100–178) placed the Brigantes in Ireland during his survey. This might not be a mistake, for it is possible that some elements of the Brigantes fled, like many other Britons, to seek political refuge in Ireland. In 1927 excavations carried out at Lambay Island, off the coast of Dublin, unearthed artefacts that are untypical of Irish weapons but closer to the finds in cemeteries from the Brigantian area.

  Dominating all the women of the ancient Celtic world is undoubtedly the figure of Boudicca, or Boadicea as it is Latinised. The name means ‘Victory’. We are told that her husband was Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, in what is now Norfolk. The Iceni were a rich and cultivated people, issuing their own coinage since about 10 BC. When the Romans invaded in AD 43, it seemed that Prasutagus accepted Roman overlordship and became a client king, paying a tax to Rome so long as Rome did not interfere with his kingdom.

  In AD 60/61 Prasutagus died, leaving Boudicca a widow. Nero’s policy was now one of direct rule. Perhaps because of this Prasutagus, in Roman fashion, had made a will leaving his kingdom and goods to be divided between the Roman emperor and his two daughters ‘in equal shares’. This has caused some confusion among scholars: the fact that Boudicca was subsequently accepted as ruler of the Iceni meant that she had to have a bloodline claim in her own right as well as being elected by her family to that position in accordance with Celtic law.

  The argument, however, was irrelevant because the civil administrator of the Roman province of Britain, Catus Decianus, extended Roman direct rule over the Iceni. He did so in a particularly brutish way. He marched with some troops into their kingdom, whereupon the Iceni, unsuspectingly, greeted him as an ally with traditional Celtic hospitality. Decianus then turned his troops on the people, seizing goods and leading away citizens as hostages and slaves. Boudicca protested at the ravaging of her people and she herself was stripped and whipped in public while her two teenage daughters were raped in front of her. Others of her relations were taken into slavery and the soldiers confiscated goods, chattels and personal wealth.

  Boudicca now emerges as absolute ruler and war leader of the Iceni. ‘This is not the first time that Britons have been led to battle by a woman,’ records Tacitus. Certainly other tribes came flocking to her banner. The Trinovantes, the Coritani and the Catuvellauni followed her summons. Boudicca began to march her army on the centre of Roman administration, Camulodunum, once the Trinovante capital. The Romans had rebuilt it with a great temple to Claudius, regarded as god as well as emperor.

  Catus Decianus was in London now but sent 200 legionaries to reinforce the garrison, which was comprised of retired veterans and auxiliary troops. Quintus Petilius Cerialis, then commander of the IX Hispania Legion at Lindon (Lincoln) in the land of the Coritani, was ordered to hasten south to protect the Roman capital.

  Boudicca proved to be a military strategist of exceptional merit. She managed to ambush the IX Hispania – some 6000 legionaries and 500 cavalry. The IX Hispania had a long battle record and had won their spurs in the Iberian campaigns against the Celts before being sent to Pannonia where the legion had helped in the pacification of the Balkans. Boudicca annihilated this élite force except for Petilius Cerialis, his general staff and his 500 cavalry who managed to escape back to their fortress at Lincoln. Boudicca had no time for siege work. She turned back to Camulodunum.

  She took the town and burnt it within two days, destroying the buildings raised by the Romans to mark their conquest and domination, including the great Temple of Claudius. Then she turned on Londinium (London). The population of 20,000 consisted mainly of Roman veterans, traders and civil administrators who had followed the Roman armies in their new conquest. It was the financial capital of Roman administration and a large trading port. The II Augusta Legion was ordered to march from the south and defend it but the camp marshal, Poenius Postumus, hearing of the fate of the IX Hispania, refused to march out. He was barely a day’s march from the city. After the news of the destruction of Londinium, Poenius Postumus took his own life rather than face court martial.

  Verulamium (St Albans) was at that time the third major Roman settlement in Britain, populated also by retired Roman veterans, settlers, traders and merchants. The local Celts appear to have been driven out into the surrounding countryside. Once again, Boudicca’s army smashed into the city and destroyed it.

  The only major Roman force left in Britain was the army of the Roman governor and military commander, Seutonius Paullinus, who had the XIV Gemina and XX Valeria Legions with him. He had been campaigning in what is now North Wales. He had turned and march
ed his legions back to the south-east at the news of the uprising. All depended on how he faced the British Celts, for defeat would mean that the Roman conquest would be turned back.

  Roman accounts are to be treated with some degree of scepticism. Suetonius was reported to have 10,000 men. This is reasonable enough, for two legions at maximum strength would number 12,000 men. But Boudicca is credited with 230,000 warriors at her command. Tacitus gives the result of the battle as 80,000 British dead and only 400 Romans. However the figures work out, it was a Roman victory and appears to have been fought north-west of St Albans.

  Little is known of Boudicca and her daughters after this. She did not fall into Roman hands. Tacitus believes she escaped the battlefield and then took poison rather than fall into Roman hands. Dio Cassius says she simply fell sick and died, and adds that the Britons gave her a rich burial. What a find that tomb would be if it had, somewhere, withstood the ravages of time and grave robbers. Dio Cassius says that Boudicca was also a priestess of Andrasta, goddess of battle and victory. This seems to be the same goddess as Andarte worshipped by the Vocontii of Gaul.

  We have a few more glimpses of powerful Celtic women from the period. Dio Cassius mentions Veleda, ‘a virgin prophetess among the Celts’ during the reign of Vespasian. Veleda is clearly a Celtic name deriving from the root gwel, to see, a title rather than a name and meaning ‘Seeress’. Veleda was said to arbitrate between rulers and prevent war. Dio Cassius says that her successor was a woman called Ganna whose name derives from the Celtic word for intermediary. Ganna, according to Dio Cassius, accompanied Masyos, king of the Senones, of Gaul, on an embassy to the emperor Domitian, the younger son of Vespasian (AD 81–96). Flavius Vopiscus identifies Ganna as being from the Gaulish tribe of the Tungri (whence modern Tongres, near Liège, Belgium).

  In the classical sources there are references to women as priestesses and prophetesses. Strabo mentions a priestess called Namnites at the Loire. He also says that such women were married but very independent of their husbands. Aedius Lampridius, one of the authors of Historia Augusta, written c. fourth century AD, has a Druidess foretelling the defeat of Alexander Severus before he set out on his expedition in AD 235. Flavius Vopiscus has Gaius Aurelius Diocletia (AD 283–305) as a young man residing in the land of the Tungri of Gaul and being told that he would become emperor. Vopiscus says that Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (c. AD 215–275) consulted a Gallicanas Dryades (Gaulish Druidess) to ask if his children would reign after him. The answer she gave Aurelian was in the negative.

  While historians tend to dismiss all references to Irish history prior to the Christian period and deem the personalities mentioned ‘mythological’, we find among the Irish chronicles two fascinating references to female rulers. Annals record that in 377 BC Macha Mong Ruadh became queen of Ireland and reigned for seven years. The traditions of Macha are, unfortunately, mixed with the traditions of a Celtic war goddess called Macha. Nevertheless, the historical figure and the goddess appear as two distinct entities. This might be said to be a parallel to Brigit, as an historical Christian saint, taking on the traditions of Brigit, the Celtic goddess of fertility.

  The chronicles record that Macha’s father, Aedh Ruadha, was drowned in the cataract at Béal Atha Sennaidh (Ballyshannon), Co. Donegal. He had been ‘King of Ireland’ ruling alternately with his cousins Dithorba and Cimbaeth. On her father’s death, Macha was elected ruler by the derbfhine, an electoral college formed from three generations of the royal family. Dithorba and Cimbaeth disagreed with the decision and wanted to keep the kingship to themselves. Macha promptly raised an army and defeated Dithorba, taking his five sons as hostages. She made them and the prisoners of war build the ramparts of her new fortress of Emain Macha. She came to terms with Cimbaeth and, it is recorded, married him.

  Another queen, who certainly has become a mythological character, is the famous Medb of Connacht. There are several Medbs in Irish records and they seem separate personalities but all seem to have traditions associated with a goddess of sovereignty. Medb of Connacht is recorded by the Irish chronicler, Tighernach (c. AD 1022–88), abbot of Clonmacnoise, as an historical figure who died c. AD 70. Some chroniclers say that she succeeded Tinne as ruler and married Ailill, who is stated to be the commander of the Gamhanrhide or her royal bodyguard. However, the story of the Táin Bó Cuailgne, the great mythological epic, has put the historical Medb beyond the reach of historians.

  We know something of the role of women in insular Celtic society in as much as their legal position is clearly marked out in the Brehon Laws, whose first recorded codification was in AD 438, and the Laws of Hywel Dda of Wales from the ninth century AD.

  The law text, the Bretha Cróilge, on the categories of women, includes ‘the woman who turns back the streams of war’ (ben sues srutha cochta for cula). This has been interpreted to mean a ‘war leader’. There is also a ‘hostage ruler’ (rechtaid géill) whose office has been interpreted to mean a woman who can legally take hostages or prisoners of war. The Welsh law, which brings us into medieval times, refers to the office of arglwyddes or a ‘female lord’ or ‘the chieftainess of a district in her own right’.

  What we know of Celtic law before the Christian era is based on the rather biased writings of Julius Caesar. However, he does seem to be echoing the insular Celtic concept of female property rights when he says of the Gaulish Celts:

  When a Gaul marries, he adds to the dowry that his wife brings with her a portion of his own property estimated to be of equal value. A joint account is kept of the whole amount, and the profits which it earns are put aside; and when either dies, the survivor receives both shares together with accumulated profits.

  So, unlike their Greek and Roman sisters, Celtic women could inherit property.

  However, Caesar goes overboard when he says of the British Celts:

  Wives are shared between groups of ten or twelve men, especially between brothers and between fathers and sons; but the offspring of these unions are counted as the children of the man with whom a particular woman cohabited first.

  This is a total misrepresentation of the polygamous society of the early Celts.

  The Romans seemed preoccupied with the ‘liberated’ attitude of the early Celts. Dio Cassius comments on the fact that the empress Julia Augusta criticised what she saw as a lack of morals in the way Celtic women were free to choose their husbands and lovers and did so openly without subterfuge. The object of her criticism was the wife of a north British chieftain named Argentocoxos. The encounter took place early in the third century AD. According to Dio Cassius, the wife of Argentocoxos turned to the empress and replied with dignity: ‘We Celtic women obey the demands of Nature in a more moral way than the women of Rome. We consort openly with the best men but you, of Rome, allow yourselves to be debauched in secret by the vilest.’ It is not recorded how the empress reacted.

  In both surviving codifications of Celtic law systems, women certainly enjoyed considerable rights. A girl under the age of seven years of any social class in the Irish system had the same honour price as a cleric. From seven girls were sent to be educated, just as boys were. They completed their education at the age of fourteen while boys continued to seventeen. However, the Bretha Cróilge allowed the girl to continue until the age of seventeen ‘if required’.

  Women could inherit property and remained the owner of all property brought into a marriage. They fought alongside men until Christianity abolished the practice with the introduction of the Lex Innocentium at the Synod of Birr in AD 697. In Irish and Welsh law there were nine types of marriage, which corresponded to the eight types found in the Hindu Law of Manu. Hindu law closely parallels Celtic law, and many of the same principles can be found in the Irish and Hindu texts. Divorce was permitted for a variety of reasons, and men and women had equal rights to divorce each other. One reason a woman could divorce in Irish law was if her husband snored. In Welsh law, if a wife found her husband committing adultery, she was exempt from any legal puni
shment if, in a fit of jealousy, she attacked him, his mistress or even members of their families. The exemption was limited to a period of three days from the time of learning of her husband’s affair. By that time, so the Welsh law-givers reasoned, the woman would have recovered from any shock which might cause such ‘irrational acts’. After that, the matter was deemed to be cold-blooded vengeance.

  In both law systems women were protected from rape and, indeed, from sexual harassment. In Ireland, the laws are clear that physical or even verbal harassment was punishable by a whole series of fines.

  As the Celts emerged into the Christian period, it is to be remarked upon that many of the leading Christian proselytisers among the Celts were women. Female Celtic saints are numerous and out of all proportion to females active in the early Church in other cultures. It is not the task of this book, on the ancient Celtic world, to deal with the subject, but it is perhaps right that we end with a brief glimpse of a most extraordinary Celtic woman of the fourth century AD.

  Elen Luyddog, or ‘Elen of the Hosts’, was the daughter of a British chieftain or king named Eudaf who ruled from Segontium (near Caernarfon). She became so powerful that, in many traditions, she is said to be the wife of Myrddin (Merlin) of Arthurian fame. She actually married a Romanised Celtiberian named Magnus Maximus, known in British Celtic tradition as Macsen Wledig (gwledig, a ruler). He served in the Roman army in Britain and in AD 382 defeated a combined army of Irish and Caledonians. The army in Britain, during a time of instability in Rome, declared him emperor and he took his army to Gaul to defy the emperor Gratian who was captured and slain. Theodosius, the eastern emperor in Constantinople, acknowledged him as co-emperor.