On Tuesday the world will celebrate the most famous of the Irish holidays. Most will wear green, party with green beer and feast on corned beef and cabbage. The airways will be filled with the exotic music of Enya, Clannad, and the many other Irish musicians that produce the unique flowing sound that screams Ireland. Most everyone is aware of where Ireland is today, and what the country encompasses, but from where did this spirited, talented and renown people evolve?
Several Celtic burial sites have been excavated that reveal something of these hardy people. A rich princely grave was found in Hochdorf in Baden-Wurttemberg. This Celtic chieftain was found with a gold band around his neck, a gold armlet, a belt and shoes embellished with gold and an exquisite gold dagger. The couch he rested on was made of bronze, embossed with ritual dance figures, some of them wielding swords. Another Celtic settlement was unearthed at La Tene on the edge of Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland. The settlement was typical of a rich civilization which probably lasted from about 500 B.C. until the first century B.C. Some of the weapons that were found there related the Celtic genius for sophisticated curvilinear design and fantastic abstraction on natural themes. These Celtic swords were some of the most elegant weapons of any age. The sword often had a human head on the pommel, and sophisticated carving on the handle. Further attesting to the imagination and creative genius of these early Celts, the scabbard for these early swords was brilliantly decorated with dragons, bird pairs, triskele and other geometric designs, floral and animal motifs.
These were the swords that carried the Celts north into Britain and Belgium. In 390 Celts from Gaul invaded Italy and sacked Rome, the capital of the fledgling Roman Republic. The Greek historian Polybius, described the Celts at the battle of Telamon in 225 BC, says: ‘Very terrifying too were the appearance and the gestures of the naked warriors in front, all in the prime of life, and finely built men, and all in the leading companies richly adorned with gold torques and armlets.’ Another Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus spoke of the fighting style of the Celts, ‘they would raise their swords aloft and smite after the manner of wild boars, throwing the whole weight of their bodies into the blow like hewers of wood or men digging with mattocks, and again they would deliver crosswise blows aimed at no target, as if they intended to cut to pieces the entire bodies of their adversaries, protective armour and all……’ Celtic society was heroic and tribal, and the exploits of these great warriors were celebrated in poetry and song, echoes of which survive in epics, such as the Ulster Cycle, Tain Bo Cuailgne (The Cattle Raid of Cooley).
The Celts annihilated the Roman army of the Latin League. The complete defeat of the Latins forced the Romans to adapt or go under. The Celts with their superior swords and better conditioning led to the major changes that Rome made that resulted in the Empire. They copied the short sword of the Celts( gladius), developed the pilium (pole arm) and scutum (body shield). Some historians have asserted that the Celts were paid to leave Rome. Had the Celts not willingly left the Republic, then perhaps the Tiber would run green tomorrow.