An introduction to the Celts
The Celts were a group of people that shared cultural similarities, mostly through trade networks, that were spread out from the British Isles to Galatia (central Anatolia in modern Turkey). Although an advanced culture in many ways, the ancient Celts had no written language but much has been pieced together about them from the historical accounts of neighbouring societies and from archaeological evidence.
The Celts first appeared in the written records around 400 BCE when a group of 'barbarians' with cultural traits of the Celts came from the Alps and displaced the Etruscan people from the Po valley in Northern Italy. The Etruscans asked the Roman Empire for help, who promptly sent envoys to investigate this new warrior tribe. According to Livy's 'The Early History of Rome', the Celts demanded part of the fertile valley or war would be waged, justifying this stance as they believed "to the brave belong all things".
The Roman's decided to aid the Etruscans in their plight, a decision which led to a Celtic march on Rome. For seven months they laid siege to the Roman capital until a peace was negotiated whereby the Romans agreed to pay tribute of one thousand pounds of gold to end the siege.
Roman historian Diodorus of the first century AD gave a detailed description of the Celts, much of which has been confirmed with other evidence such as archaeological finds. He stated that they were a tall, muscular race with white skin and hair that was bleached blond and combed back from their foreheads. Some were clean-shaven but the highest ranking Celts tended to have moustaches that covered their whole mouths.
Diodorus describes the way they dress as 'astonishing', wearing brightly coloured shirts, trousers and striped or chequered cloaks that were fastened at the shoulder by a broach. They fought in helmets made of bronze, some with horns and while some used breast armour made from chains, "most content themselves with the weapons nature gave them: they go naked into battle". When going into battle, they would sound horns, shout choruses in deep voices and beat their swords against their shields rhythmically.
The tribes spoke a unifying language known as 'Old Celtic', which evolved from the original Ur-language and from the Indo-European language tradition and is the closest to 'Italic', the language that Latin evolved from.
Today, the UK is the home of the surviving Celts who occupy Ireland, Scotland and Wales. While global culture has seen the end of many old world customs, some survive in tact in these places and in recent years Wales in particular has seen a major effort to re-establish various aspects of Celtic culture especially through the rejuvenation of the Welsh language.