Celtic Commentaries: Caesar and the Druids

As every Latin student knows, Julius Caesar was not just a conqueror.  He was also an author.  Because of this, we have his firsthand (third-person) account of ancient Druids.

How factual Caesar’s reporting was is debatable.  No history text is completely objective, and Caesar was a master at weaving politics into his literary works.  Nevertheless, Book 6 (Chapters 13 and 14)

of the Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War) contains Caesar’s descriptions of Druids (circa 50s BCE).

According to Caesar, the Druids of that time engaged in things sacred, conducted public and private sacrifices, instructed young men, judged crimes, decreed rewards and punishments, settled inheritance and boundary disputes, banished the impious, memorized a great number of verses (which were never written down) within their twenty years of training, taught science, and respected “the nature of things” - as well as “the majesty of the immortal gods.”

These Druids were not just one of the crowd.  Caesar wrote:  They do not go to war, nor pay tribute together with the rest; they have an exemption from military service, and a dispensation in all matters.  If this is sounding idyllic, bear in mind that Caesar also wrote of their involvement with human sacrifice.  Some say this was just Caesar’s propaganda, and that engaging in human sacrifice does not go together with exemption from war.  However, since life is far from logically consistent, this last point remains moot.

Within their ranks, these Druids had their own system of government - complete with some voting privileges.

One Druid presided over the rest with “supreme authority” (Caesar’s phrase, not suprisingly).  Upon the death of this supreme Druid - if any others were “pre-eminent in dignity” (another Caesarism), that one takes over.  Otherwise, they either vote someone in or “contend for the presidency with arms” (quite an either/or). 

Caesar also stated that “one of their leading tenets” was this:  Souls do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to another…

Resources

http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.6.6.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentarii_de_Bello_Gallico

Copyright March 16, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved