Warfare

At Ciumesti in Romania, a burial of the third century bc contained greaves, chain mail, and a helmet consisting of a cap of iron crowned with the bronze figure of a bird of prey. The wings are movable so that, as the warrior rode or ran at the enemy, his helmet produced a frightening cacophony and motion (Zirra 1991). That this helmet type was also used in the western LT zone to make “the wearer look even taller and more fearsome” is suggested by Poseidonios (Diod. 5.30). Mounted warriors, worked in repousse on the controversial Gundestrup cauldron, wear similar helmets. The innovative mail shirt is only one of several types of “Celtic” body armour found in burial and depositional contexts, depicted in art and described in the literature. The “Celtic” warrior of the third to first centuries was armed with a sword suspended on a chain, at least one spear with a wicked head, and an ovoid shield of wood and leather with a central boss or umbo. The terrifying appearance of “Celtic” warriors did not depend on their armour, however; some warriors such as the Gaesa-tae at the battle of Telamon in 225 bc famously rushed into battle naked save for their sword belts and jewelry (Polyb. 2.28). The Gaesatae were not a civitas, but rather a sort of shock troop of specialized itinerant mercenaries. The armies of the north Italian civitates wore trousers and light cloaks; the northern Gauls also wore shirts. The expert use of the chariot to transport the warrior into the midst of battle continued in Britain after it was superseded on the continent by the cavalry (Caes. BG 4.33; Diod. 5.29.1). Both the Gauls and the Celtiberi were revered and feared as horsemen. The Romans paid them the highest compliment in learning and imitating their exercises (Arr. Tact. 33-34). “Celtic” contingents formed the most effective of the Roman cavalry (Strabo 4.4.2).

The most potent weapon of the “Celtic” military was the headlong, furious charge. What made it the more terrifying was its cacophony, a combination of shouting and war-cries, horns and trumpets (Polyb. 2.29, cf. Diod. 5.30). As an alternative to the headlong charge, a Celtic army might assemble before the enemy. One warrior would challenge a champion from the other side to single combat (Diod. 5.29.2). In Livy’s colorful tale of the single combat of T. Manlius Torquatus, the gigantic Gaul prances about, sticks his tongue out and taunts the ranked Roman army. Manlius, the embodiment of republican Roman virtue, evoking his ancestor who had expelled the Gauls from Rome, slips his Spanish sword under the blundering Gaul’s shield and guts the brute. He then dons the dead Gaul’s bloodied torc in triumph (7.9-10, Gell. 9.13.4-19, cf. Dio 7.35). This tale illustrates neatly the popular Roman trope that the Gauls are frightening, over-life-size and hubristic, but easily defeated by the smaller, cleverer, better-armed and better-strategizing Romans.