23 Nov The Druids: Information About Them Obtained from Famous Latin Authors

Introduction.

The passages below are taken from abridged texts of three Latin authors published in the “Cambridge Latin Authority”, Cambridge School Classics Project, Cambridge University Press, 1996.

From Caesar:

Julius Caesar encountered the Druids during his conquest of Gaul from 58 to 49 B.C. They were priests recruited mainly from the nobility, and they were the only men powerful enough to organise opposition to Roman rule throughout the Celtic tribes.

The Power of the Druids (from “De Bello Gallico”: Book VI, Chapter 13):

The Druids are concerned with divine matters, they perform public and private sacrifices, (and) they interpret religious questions: a great number of young men flock to them for the sake of learning, and they are (held) in great honour among them. For they decide in almost all disputes, (both) public and private, and, if any crime has been committed, if murder (has been) done, if there is a dispute about inheritance or boundaries, they decide the matter, and determine the rewards and the penalties. If anyone, in either a private (capacity) or a public one, does not abide by their decree, they ban (him) from the sacrifices. Those for whom there is such a ban are reckoned among the number of the impious and the criminal; all shun them (and) avoid their approach and conversation, lest they receive any harm from contact (with them); neither is justice administered to them, when they seek (it), nor is any honour given (to them). Moreover, over all these Druids there presides one man, who has the highest authority among them. When this man is dead, either the one who among the rest excels in dignity succeeds, or, if there are many equals, they contend for primacy by a vote of the Druids, (and) sometimes even by arms. Their rule of life is thought to have been discovered in Britain, and thence to have been transferred into Gaul, and now those who wish to understand this subject more thoroughly generally travel to Britain for the purpose of studying (it).

Their education (from “De Bello Gallico”: Book VI, Chapter 14):

The Druids are accustomed to hold (themselves) aloof nor do they pay taxes together with the rest; they have a dispensation from military service and from all liabilities. Induced by such great (advantages) many come to this training of their own accord and (many) are sent by their parents and relatives. There they are said to learn by heart a number of verses; and so some remain in training for twenty years. Nor do they consider that it is proper to commit these verses to writing, although in almost all other matters they employ Greek letters. They seem to me to have established this (practice) for two reasons, because they do not wish their training to be made known to the masses, nor do they wish that those who learn (by) trusting to letters should pay less attention to memory. They wish to persuade (people of) this especially, that souls do not perish, but pass after death from one person to another, and they think by means of this (belief) to encourage men to particular bravery, the fear of death having been cast aside. Besides (this) they discuss, and pass down to the youth, many things about the stars and their movement, about the size of the universe and the earth, about the nature of things, (and) about the strength and power of the immortal gods.

Their religion (from “De Bello Gallico”: Book VI, Chapter 16):

The whole nation of the Gauls is very devoted to religious rites, and for this reason those who are smitten with the more grievous illnesses, and who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice men as victims or vow that they will sacrifice (them), and they employ Druids as the ministers for these sacrifices, because they believe that unless the life of a man is given up for the life of a man, the will of the immortal gods cannot be propitiated: and they hold established sacrifices of the same kind for the purposes of the state. Some have figures of immense size, the body (lit. limbs) of which, woven with twigs, they fill with living men; these (figures) having been set on fire, the trapped men perish in the flames. They believe that the execution of those who have been caught in theft or in robbery or in some (other) crime is more pleasing to the immortal gods; but, when the supply of this kind fails, they resort to the execution even of the innocent.

From Tacitus:

The Druids’ last stand (from “Annales”: Book XIV, Chapters 29-30):

More than a hundred years after Caesar’s visits, at the time of Boudica’s revolt in 60 A.D., the Roman governor of Britain, Suetonius Paulinus, planned to conquer the island of Anglesey, which had given sanctuary to many enemies of Roman rule and was also an important centre of Druidism. The account is given by the historian Tacitus.

(Suetonius), therefore, prepares to attack the island of Anglesey, well-supplied with inhabitants and a refuge for deserters: the infantry crossed in boats, the cavalry followed in the shallows or swimming alongside their horses. On the shore stood the opposing battle-line, thick with weapons and men, with women running about among (them); they in black clothing in the manner of the Furies, (and) with dishevelled hair, were brandishing torches; and, all around, the Druids, with their hands uplifted to heaven pouring forth imprecations, so overawed our soldiers by the strangeness of the spectacle that, as though with paralysed limbs, they exposed their immobile bodies to wounds. Then, with their general exhorting (them) and themselves urging one another (lit. themselves) not to fear a frenzied horde and (one composed) of women, they carried forward their standards and cut down those in the way and enveloped (them) in their own fire. After this, a garrison was placed over the conquered, and their groves dedicated to savage superstitions were cut down; for the Druids thought it right to make their altars wreak with the blood of captives and to consult their gods through the entrails of humans.

From Pliny the Elder: “Naturalis Historia”: Book XIV, Chapter 95):

Pliny the Elder, uncle of Pliny the letter-writer, wrote a long work on science and nature; the following extract comes from an eight-volume section on botany.

The Druids – (for) thus the Gauls call their magicians – hold nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree in which it grows, provided that it is the oak. Indeed, they choose groves of oak for their own sake, and they do not perform any religious rites without its foliage. Then they really think that whatever grows in this tree has been sent by heaven and is a sign of the tree being chosen by God himself. Yet the mistletoe is rarely found upon an oak, and, (when) discovered, is gathered with great religious awe, and especially on the sixth (day) of the (new) moon, [which amongst the Gauls makes the beginning of months and years]. Calling the moon in their own language the “all-healing”, a sacrifice and a banquet having been solemnly prepared beneath the tree, they bring forward two white bulls, the horns of which are then bound for the first time. Dressed in a white robe, the priest then climbs the tree, cuts down the mistletoe with a golden sickle, (and) this is caught in a white cloak. Then, they sacrifice the victims, praying that God will render this gift of his propitious to those to whom he has (so) granted (it). (The juice of) the mistletoe having been drunk, they think that fecundity will be granted to barren animals, and that it is an antidote against all poisons: so great is the superstition of peoples generally with regard to trivial objects.