Tara’s Exposé: Celtic Europe’s Sunset and Ireland’s Celtic Dawn

By Tom O Connor

This work stretches from deep prehistoric times up to the 12th century AD and beyond. After a short preamble from the Megalithic to the Bronze Age, scanning Tara’s Golden Age, it deals with Celtic Europe’s decline due to Roman and Germanic conquest. It follows Celtic tribes fleeing to Britain and Ireland, where they set up settlements. Ptolemy of Alexandria’s 2nd-century record debunks early Irish pseudo-history and ratifies the archaic Ulidian Tales. This work exposes the monumental hoax projecting Tara of Meath as the capital of Ireland and the seat of the High Kingship. The work draws on a compelling compilation of acclaimed authors and specialist studies that list the aforesaid as a medieval forgery. Prehistoric Tara had a much older status, an archaic Golden Age. This work tracks extensive research and archaeological analysis into British oppida, from which Celtic Belgic tribes migrated and set up similar oppida in Ireland. A concentration on the early history of these neglected areas was at the core of the early Irish historical records.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Dec 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781035820221

Tom O Connor

Tom O Connor is a missionary priest born in Galway, Ireland. He studied philosophy in Rosendaal, Holland, and Theology in London, United Kingdom. He spent 52 years in Borneo, South East Asia doing missionary work and also extensive research in Irish history. He has published two books on Irish history: “Hand of History; Burden of Pseudo History” and “Ireland’s Queen Maeve”. He has been retired since 2016 and currently lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Book preview

Prologue

Celtic Europe’s Sunset, Ireland’s Celtic

Dawn: Tara’s Expose

So-called early Irish history is a blatant travesty of the truth minted by medieval pseudo-historians. They typify Samuel Butler’s maxim that although God cannot alter history, they could. Their myth-making skills spun spurious history to advance Machiavellian agendas. History would be wonderful if it were only true (Tolstoy). History is too important to cede to those who prostitute it for political purposes.¹

The hand of history weighs heavily on Ireland, the burden of pseudo-history infinitely more so. Estyn Evans’ censure of historians for neglect of the physical environment within which our past has been lived² is trivial compared to Lyons’ rebuke: The case is much worse than Evans imagined. Not only have historians disregarded the physical evidence, but they have also not even fully explored the literary evidence. That they are inarticulate about the different cultures that collide is a symptom of a more profound ignorance.³ We cannot distinguish what happened from myths woven about certain events. We may legitimately pray for a deliverance from a false history that masquerades as the real thing.⁴ A pseudo-view of history was ‘memorialised’ by the Irish Free State’s school textbooks in 1922. Despite a historiographical revolution, blatant pseudo-history still reigns supreme.

Our megalithic monuments are among the earliest examples of true architecture any-where on earth preserving unique advanced mural art.⁵ Ireland had highly developed cultures in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Neolithic farmers grew barley and wheat, kept cows and sheep, and adorned themselves, just as interested in their appearance as we are today.⁶

In Lough Gur’s archaic archaeological site we observe the way of life of the first people to till the soil. Bone implements had domestic uses. Whorls of bone and stone were used in spinning wool for clothing. Axes for cutting trees were imported from sites where speckled (bluish) stone was available such as Tievebulliagh in Antrim and Rathlin Island and traded abroad in what was Ireland’s export drive 5000 years ago.⁷

The effectiveness of Neolithic land-clearance has been demonstrated by Ceide Fields’ archaeological site beneath a blanket bog surface at Belderg in northwest Mayo showing the high level of farm-organisation. Parallel stone walls created surprisingly large fields and indicate the presence of highly organised cultural groupings. Neolithic settlements related to the fields have also been found there.⁸

It is the oldest enclosed landscape known in Europe, a snapshot of that Irish countryside 5000 years ago before bog grew over it. Neolithic farmers who divided that landscape into fields required a sizeable community cooperating in raising millions of tons of stone into walls enclosing fields for cattle grazing and for wheat and barley. A wooden plough was unearthed there.

Clare’s Burren landscape of carboniferous fissured limestone is a stunning capsule of earth’s richest archaeologivcal sites, a profusion of megalithic tombs and a considerable conglomeration of cyclopean structures, cairns and cahers. Its vast moon-like landscape of bleak rock was once an extensive settled area shown by its numerous varied remains with a considerable number of Bronze Age people (c.3500 BC) in supporting roles. Its Ballykinvarna fort chevaux de fris defensive barrier of slanting sharp-edged stones is similar to Cahercommaun’s cliff-top fortress and Aran’s Dun Aengus. J. O’Donavan recorded numerous forts unrecorded on OS maps and the highest concentration of wedge-shaped tombs on a most impressive scale. Wedge-shaped tombs (400) are Burren’s most numerous structures, representing intensive occupation. Court cairns and portal dolmens belong to later people. From 2500–1500 BC Beaker people were associated with Burren’s cahers.⁹ Burren is one of the most dramatic areas of soil degradation and erosion in the British Isles.¹⁰ Recent dramatic findings of slashed reindeer bones slain c. 33,000 years ago change forever existing assumptions of the time-scale of human existence in Europe until now.¹¹ The Aran Isles are one of the oldest inhabited landscapes on earth.¹²

Religious beliefs inspired monuments erected as mausoleums to immortality and as celestial observatories. By 3500 BC cairn passage-graves were built on Clare’s Burren, Galway’s Cruach Magh Seola, Sligo’s Carrowmore and Carrowkeel, with wedge-shaped gallery graves on Ox Mountains overlooking Lough Arrow, on Knocknarea mountain on Meath’s Lough Crew Hills, in Boyne Valley and on Dublin-Wicklow mountains. These had elaborate burial chambers with underground passageways. Multi-period structures at Armagh’s Annaghmore, Sligo’s Creevykeel and Down’s Edenmore had additions made in the course of time.¹³

Carrowmore is Ireland’s oldest megalithic complex with passage tombs, stone circles and dolmen that once formed the largest megalithic cemetery in Europe. Knocknarea’s cairn with unrivalled views of Cuil Irra peninsula, Carrowmore, Ben Bulben, Carrowkeel and Knocknashee,¹⁴ is one of the most striking landmarks.

On Bricklieve summit are megalithic cairns grouped round Carrowkeel, Kesh Corran and Moytura necropoli. Carrowkeel’s cairns ascend stepped heights, each with a cairn as a focal point above vertical canyon limestone cliffs. They stand out in dramatic silhouette on the scintillating skyline in a truly scenic topographical background.¹⁵ Their ancient Megalithic architecture functioned as celestial observatories admitting a gleam of sun on summer solstice into their interior chambers, roofed with limestone slabs. Sacred fires flashed within these purple heather-topped cairns linking them with solar realms.

On Bricklieve’s eastern ridge is what is known as the Doonaveeragh Neolithic village, a cluster of unique hut circles. Bronze Age monuments focus on Kesh Corann’s passage-tomb, Shee Finn, crowning its summit set in a giant oval enclosure, focal point for ancient festivals at the apex of Bricklieve range. Several ancient adjoining caves adorn Kesh Corann’s limestone cliffs offering a unique incredibly evocative experience. Round Sligo’s many archaic occupied sites remain of birds, deer, bear and shellfish abound. Sligo (Sligeach: shelly place) gets its significant name from its truly massive mounds of fish shells. This tells us something very specific about our early ancestors.

5000-year-old Megalithic cairns on Carrowkeel Mt. Sligo’s Knocknarea cairn is barely visible on the distant horizon.

At Lough Crew on vernal equinox the sun’s rays illumine Cairn T chamber enhanced by multi comet-tail designs and flowing curves. Boyne Valley’s Knowth, Dowth and New-grange (Bru na Boinne’s) c.3700 BC, is earth’s greatest megalithic complex since Neo-lithic times. Its landscape was shaped by belief in solar cosmological and mythic realms,¹⁶ on a ridge above the Boyne’s half-moon-shaped natural amphitheatre. It is a monument to immortality of an advanced agrarian people who evolved a megalithic culture in astronomy, engineering, and architecture. It is vibrant with a unique message exuding a deep spiritual intimation of the eternal quest of the human spirit.¹⁷

Its architects were keen observers of celestial realms creating observatories auguring seasonal cycles. Newgrange is 800 years older than Egypt’s Pyramids and Stonehenge. Its entrance-stone is elaborately carved with intricate spirals and diamond shapes. Its 24m long inner passageway leads to a corballed chamber 20 feet high with 3 cruciform-shaped recesses. Aligned with the Winter Solstice sun, its stone basin reliquary for ancestral bones in its inner chamber captures the mystic message of the sun shining through a slit over the doorway. It admits esoteric forces of the sun’s cosmic life creeping along the passage to its inner chamber lined with stones inscribed with swirling spirals.

It was oriented so precisely that the sun’s rays lit up the passage to the chamber’s back wall for the past 5000 years.¹⁸ Its outer base of monumental stones is incised with zigzags and spell-binding hallucinatory spirals. Its crystalline wall was covered with dazzling white quartz flashing a reflected solar fire back into the sky. Multi-tonne stones were placed with mystifying exactness. If the lintel over its entrance was a flake too low or high, the sun could not shine into its central chamber womb as it still does today.

Its spectacular solstice lightshow was a vital part of their sophisticated solar-cycle calendar, similar to Brittany’s Gavinish, Orkney’s Maes Hoe and Wales’ Bryn Celli Ddu. Complex geometry marks alignments of diverse solstices aligned to important dates in Neolithic calendars, winter and summer solstices, spring, and autumn equinoxes, by sophisticated astronomers. Their feats of calculation reached a climax in France’s Coligny Calendar.¹⁹

Their passage-graves are monuments to the most capable organisers, architects and artists. The changes they procured do more than all others to create the Ireland that enters history millennia later. They offer one of the richest experiences of pre-historic Ireland. Aerial survey of Bru na Boinne UNESCO World Heritage Site shows Drone henge and other sites in a linear pattern with a long palisade within a vast ceremonial pilgrimage site.²⁰ During the 2018 drought details of stunning archaeological monuments became visible for the first time as crop-marks in the parched fields of the River Boyne flood-plain, as shown on the amazing GIS-generated terrain model shown here:

Knowth (Cnobga, shown below) is Bru na Boinne’s jewel, a multi-period site with 18 satellite tombs encircling the great 5000-year-old passagetomb. It hosts the most splendid assemblage of megalithic art in Europe. Its exquisite macehead is the most spectacular example of Neolithic art to have survived, a most precious ceremonial instrument. Knowth’s macehead exposes the high level achieved by Megalithic artists.

Neolithic and Bronze Age ancestors peer over our shoulders, tug at our sleeves. They cut ridge-spirals moving in perpetual motion on Newgrange’s entrance stone and chamber walls and multiple comet-tail designs with flowing curves on Lough-Crew’s cairn T. Aerial survey is still exposing more henges in Bru na Boinne, expanding the ceremonial sites and our understanding of these unique Neolithic complexes.

Distinctive Late Bronze Age artefacts display Ireland’s unique golden age of peace, prosperity, and refined fashion. Goldsmiths minted exquisite crescent shaped Lunalae, torques, bracelets and twisted gold sundisks, Europe’s finest. It was a resplendent era, a true Golden Age, evidenced by the fabulous collection of ornamental gold objects of an outstanding degree of artistic elegance and sophisticated craftsmanship exhibited in the National Museum. It gave Ireland the title ‘Prehistoric El dorado.’ A vast hoard of gold was found at Clare’s Mooghaun hillfort in 1854.

In 1860, a huge hoard was found near Athlone. Gold objects in an extraordinary variety of richness were carted off by foreign agents.²¹ Myriad gold items were melted down. Yet, more gold-crafted objects survive from this era of Ireland’s golden age than from any other European country.²²

Tara’s Primordial Golden Era in Irish and European History

Within Boyne’s arms Neolithic culture climaxed, hatching Tara’s golden age. Its ridge-top is dominated by Rath na Riogh enclosure, many tumuli, ring-barrows, a set of parallel ramparts and a Neolithic passage-mound. Discovery Programme’s geophysical survey mapped Tara’s sub-surface previously unknown oval-shaped temple. This huge Wood-henge ceremonial temple enclosure is dubbed ‘Ireland’s Stonehenge’ encompassing the Mound of Hostages, Rath of the Synods at its centre, and adjacent churchyard.

It is one of Tara’s most significant features denoting a massive work of construction dated to 2500 BC made from an entire oak forest. It underlines Tara’s unique pre-historic importance.²³ Little archaeological excavation has been undertaken at Tara which is the most eminent enigma of Irish prehistory. Myth and prehistory coexist in a potent symbiosis at Tara,²⁴ centre of religious and political power for 4000 years.²⁵ It is a testament to millennia of associations between diverse peoples replacing one another. Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age people had been there until 637 AD. It was then abandoned for good after the cursing of Tara by the saints.

Tara’s Mound of the Hostages (dubbed Dumha na nGiall), a c2500 BC Megalithic passage-tomb, was covered by a layer of earth. Cremated burials in urns with food vessels were placed in this earthen covering. The uncremated body of a royal youth was buried with a necklace of beads of bronze, amber and faience. Amber came from the Baltic shores; the blue faience gemstone was then made only in Egypt and the Near East.²⁶

This tells something truly unique about Tara. Tara’s Forradh is a prominent flat-topped bivallate ring-barrow with burial mounds incorporated in its larger inner bank. Its outer bank is a medieval addition conjoined with the so-called Teach Chormaic, a bivallate ring fort. The so-called Lia Fail stone that formerly fronted the Mound of Hostages now stands on Forradh’s summit. Irish artefacts of this era have been discovered not only in France and Scandinavia but as far afield as Poland.²⁷ The seas around Ireland were as bright with Late Bronze Age Argonauts as the Western Pacific is today.²⁸ The Prophet Ezekiel referred to Phoenician kings wearing royal dress of purple dye from the Isles of the Elishas (that is, from Britain and Ireland). The woad (glassen) plant for the purple dye trade was grown in Ireland. Purple dye was also produced from certain sea shells along Ireland’s west coast.

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1. Moody’s research refuted earlier assumptions.

2. T. W. Moody, (1994) ‘Irish History and Irish Mythology,’ in Interpreting Irish History: The Debate on historical revisionism, 1938-1944, ed. C. Brady, Estyn Evans, Irish Academic Press, p.71.

3. F. S. L. Lyons, (1994) ‘The Burden of Our History.’ In ‘Interpreting Irish History’, ed. C. Brady, Estyn Evans. Irish Academic Press, 88–91.

4. F. S. L. Lyons, The Burden of Our History, p.89ff.

5. Sean Duffy, (1997) ed., Atlas of Irish History, Gill & Macmillan, p. 10.

6. D. Ó Corráin, (1989) ed., The Oxford History of Ireland, Oxford University Press, p. 65–68.

7. G. F. Mitchell, (1994) ‘Prehistoric Ireland’, in The Course of Irish History, ed T. W. Moody and F. X. Martin, Mercier Press, p.35–36.

8. M. J. O Kelly, (2005) A New History of Ireland, ed. D. Ó Cróinín, Oxford University Press, p. 71 ff.

9. De Valera and Ó Nuallain, (1961) Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, Dublin Stationary Office.

10. J. G. Evans, (1975) The Environment of Early Man in the British Isles, University of Carlifornia Press, p. 97.

11. Cassidy, Lara and Garden, Ruth, article in The Irish Independent, April 18, 2021.

12. See, Robinson, Tim. Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage. Faber & Faber, 2008 (back cover).

13. M. J O Kelly, A New History of Ireland, p. 79.

14. Peter Harbison, (1997) Ancient Irish Monuments, Gill & Macmillan, p. 12.

15. M. J O Kelly, (2005) Bronze-age Ireland, in A New History of Ireland, vol. 1, ed. Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí. Oxford University Press, p. 82 ff.

16. John Waddell, (2014) Archaeology and Celtic Myth: An Exploration, Four Courts Press, p. 11ff.

17. P. A. Ó Siochain, (1967) Ireland: A Journey into Lost Time, Dubhlinn: Foilsiúcháin Éireann, p. 11–8.

18. Edward Rutturfurd, Rutturfurd, Edward. (2005) The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga, Ballantine Books, P. 4–5.

19. Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabhain, article in The Irish Times, June 23rd, 2016.

20. Harbison, Peter, (1995) Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts, Thames & Hudson, p. 72ff.

21. P. A. Ó Siochain, Ireland: A Journey into Lost Time, p. 182.

22. Sean Duffy, Atlas of Irish History, p. 130.

23. Conor Newman, Procession and Symbolism at Tara: Analysis of ’tech Midchúarta’ (The ‘Banqueting Hall’) in the Context of The Sacral Campus, The Irish Examiner, November 12, 2002.

24. James Charles Roy, (1986) The Road Wet, The Wind Close: Celtic Ireland, Gill & Macmillan, p. 55, 80.

25. Michael Jenner, (1996) Ireland through the Ages, Penguin Books, p. 9–11, 64 ff.

26. G. F. Mitchell, ‘Prehistoric Ireland’, p. 40.

27. Ian Adamson, (1994) ‘Ireland’s Golden Age,’ In The Ulster People. 1991, Pretani Press, p. 6.

28. E.G. Bowen, (1969) Saints, Seaways and Settlements in the Celtic Lands, University of Wales Press, p.53.

Chapter 1

Celtic Europe’s Sunset

3

The Celts were the first Europeans north of the Alps to emerge into recorded history. Between 900 and 600 BC at Hallstatt and La Tene in the upper Danube and Seine, upper Rhone and Rhine, lay a ‘Keltic Kulturprovinz’ where a highly cultured Celtic civilisation reached its zenith. An abundance of archaeological evidence led to interest in the Celts, first at Hallstatt in upper Austria which won prosperity from salt quarries, and later beside Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland.¹

Over 2000 graves were excavated at Hallstatt. Hallstatt and La Tene are eponymous sites denoting Early and Late Iron Age Celtic culture respectively. ‘Hall,’ a synonym of Celtic origin for German ‘salz’ (salt) pinpoints ancient salt exploitation sites, such as Hallstatt, Hallein and Hall.

The Finding of the Gundestrup Cauldron (1891) and the opening of Vix tomb (Cote-d’Or) in 1953 were major archaeology events. Waves of excavation shed new light on early Celtic settlements: at upper Danube’s Heuneburg, Manching oppidum in Bavaria, Mont Beuvray, Entremont and Roquepertuse in France, Rhine’s Hohen Asperg, Seine’s Mont Lassois and Danube’s Kelheim, aristocratic seats unexcelled in Europe.

Vendelici capital in Manching was 20 times larger than Heuneburg. Kelheim was larger still with a 10 kilometre-walled advanced city life. Heuneburg had 9 towers, 2 main gates and a large city hall. They evolved from populations resident in Europe in the Bronze Age hosting superb burial sites of the first Celtic princes. They formed spectacular urban-like settlements in which their heroes were raised to god-like status in burial rites. The most important in Germany, Switzerland and Eastern France were Hohenasperg (near Stuttgart) over the Danube and Mont Lassois (Cote-d’Or). Heuneberg’s ramparts had startling archictectural features wholly exceptional north of the Alps. They astound by the high degree of carpentry and of dress fastened by golden exquisitely ornamented pins by brilliant craftsmen.

Its tombs held decorated carriages of superb workmanship. Vaihingen’s burial chamber had oak walls draped with purple cloth. A mummified prince’s body (+550 B.C.) lay in a sublime bier resting on 8 bronze figurines on bronze wheels, a gold torque, exquisitely fashioned Celtic broaches on his scarlet cloak, gold-adorned leather shoes, engraved gold finger-rings, gold encrusted dagger and massive bronze wine vessel ornamented with sculptured lions by his side.

Decorated gold collars, a legacy of Bronze Age abstract art, were supreme symbols of princely power. The Celts believed in the soul’s immortality and afterlife. With their stunning mastery of repousse work and chasing, bronze-smiths portrayed spectacular scenes from the afterlife that lay in store for their deified-heroes: feasting, hunting, spectacles of games and other pleasures. Women took on the role of royal servants pouring drinks.²

France’s most extraordinary Celtic tomb is that of the illustrious Vix princess who died c. 450 B.C. at Mont Lassois. Beside her was the largest krater of antiquity, a great quantity of personal ornaments, numerous earrings and finger-rings. She had a golden diadem, large collar of amber beads, bronze ankle rings, lignite bracelets and a massive torque, a masterpiece of Celtic goldmanship, on her neck. She was as honoured as any prince of her time. Many similar exquisite monumental female burial chambers show that women, such as the Vix princess, were revered as much as the most famous chieftain and provide conclusive proof that among the ruling class women enjoyed all respect and honour and lived in a state of luxury.³ This aristocratic Celtic civilisation is startling in its significance centuries before Roman city states came into being.

Alas! This princely civilisation perished suddenly, most mysteriously, pre-500 BC in gaseous comet-tail conflagrations resulting in widespread Celtic wanderings.⁴ This sent out countless Celts to seek new lands, new homes.⁵ The Celts were a restless, mobile people at the time of their ascendancy, having little concern for permanent settlement.⁶

They spread out from central east Europe, home of the La Tene Celts. Huge barrow cemeteries point to a rapidly increasing density of population in central Gaul. Roman, Continental and British impact on Celtic history demands that some space be devoted to this expansion. From Romano-British and Irish Iron Age regnal lists one can trace the history and movement of various tribes and the succession of their kings.

1.1 Roman Intervention in Celtic Affairs

By 400 BC the Bituriges dominated the Celts. Ambigatos ruled a Celtic Empire so abounding in men it seemed impossible to govern so great a population.⁷ Briganten Eburoni and Eburovices spread to Britain and Ireland from the third century BC.⁸ Celtic hegemony had passed to the powerful Arverni by 200 BC.⁹ Rome jailed their king, Louernius.¹⁰ He was replaced by his son Bituitus. Ahenobarbus’ Roman legions routed 20,000 Celtic warriors led by Bituitus in 120 BC and clenched treaties with Celtic tribes as far as the Helveti and Aedui.

Rome thus gained a foothold in Celtic Gaul. Bituitus took sanctuary among the Celtic Belgae, friends of the Arverni. After years in exile he sought peace with Rome. His fatal decision was to deal with the Senate in person. He was imprisoned in the Alban Hills near Rome. To end Arvernian kingship, Rome seized all heirs to the throne. Bituitus’ son, Congentiatos (Gann for short) was held with his father to ensure he would not restore the Arvernian throne. The Romans renamed him Commius.¹¹ He was given a classical education in Roman Rhetoric, exalting his nobility.

Thereafter he fled, like his father earlier, to the Belgae where he was later befriended by Julius Caesar. Recognising his learning, political astuteness and leadership qualities, he made him king of the Atrebates and Morini and used him to prepare for his invasion of Britain. When Commius later turned against Caesar and became a persona non grata, he fled to Southeast England and later still led his followers (Gangani) to a Celtic haven in Western Ireland. The Celts, calling themselves Celtae, were first called Keltoi by the Greeks.¹² Caesar’s ‘Gallic Wars’ is an account of his wars ending Celtic independence in his 58–51 BC campaigns. He recognised 3 divisions of the Celts: Galli (Gauls), Aquitani and Belgae, differing in language, customs and laws. Caesar spoke of the Gauls in general, referring to all three.

The Tigurini led by Divico defeated the Romans near Agen. Fifty years later Divico met Caesar among the Helveti,¹³ underscoring the longevity of Celtic warriors. Gaius Marius (+86 BC) who wed Julia, Caesar’s aunt, was recalled from Africa to defend Rome.¹⁴ In 102 BC the Cimbri advanced to Italy. Marius encircled them at Aix; 120,000 Cimbri were slaughtered. The butchery was so vast that for years fields, saturated with blood, produced bumper crops.¹⁵

Germanic tribes made inroads into Belgic lands with Rome’s connivance, driving Belgic tribes west of the Rhine, its valleys dotted with Celtic place names. The Menapi crossed the Rhine in 54 BC, the last Celtic tribe to do so. Celtic Gaul was in a pincer movement between Germani from the north, Roman legions from the south.¹⁶ Instead of forming a united front, Celtic tribes threw all their resources into a struggle for dominance. Caesar’s war-diary documents political disunity of Celtic tribes in that late stage of their independence. He described his conquest of the Celtic peoples by his ‘divide and conquer’ policy.

In 58 BC, Divitiacos invited Caesar to ‘protect’ Aeduan lands from the migrating Germanic hordes. Caesar gladly obliged. Many came to the Aeduan capital to make ‘friends’ with Caesar and seek aid against Germanic invasion. Divitiacos was their spokesman, precisely what Caesar desired! He could now claim to be protector of Gaul. In North France, Belgium and Holland the confederation of Belgic Celts was dismayed by Divitiacus’ naivete in calling Rome to his aid, ignoring his Celtic kinsmen. As his brother, Dumnorix, foresaw, Caesar was bent on enslaving all of Celtic Gaul ¹⁷

1.2. Celtic Belgae Devise the ‘Belgic Defensive Sytem’

The Belgic federation of Celtic tribes was formed against Germanic encroachments. The Rhine provided no protection against Germanic incursions. Hill forts were turned into death traps by Caesar. New military strategies were needed to outwit Roman legions whose discipline could not be defeated in set battle. Guerrilla war was adopted by devising a radically new defensive system incorporating forests and marshes into a web of earthworks into which Roman legions might be lured, unaware of lurking dangers. The Celts could ambush Roman legions with guerrilla-type tactics in situations where the Roman war machine would not work. The Southern Belgae did not have time to implement this new defensive system when Caesar first invaded.

In 57 BC, Caesar’s 8 legions with Aeduan cavalry surprised the Belgae. He marched to the Somme where the Nervi and Aduatuci faced him on the opposite bank. They carried the attack to the far bank, engaging the Romans in hand-to-hand fighting. His 8 legions broke the Celtic advance. Of the 50,000 Celts who launched the attack, only 500 survived. The Northern Belgae held out due to their new defensive tactics which took Caesar by surprise. Caesar left his army there in winter quarters to complete the task in his next campaign year. In 56 BC Publius Crassus, sent to seek alliances among the Armoricans, brought disturbing news to Rome. He had received token assurances of friendship from Armorican tribes and sea-faring Veneti whose capital at Vannes bears their name. No sooner had he set off, leaving officers of the VII Legion among them than the Veneti rose up in defiance of Rome, taking these officers as prisoners.

Caesar found the Belgae revolting and Germanic tribes making incursions across the Rhine. He dispatched 3 legions to crush the Belgic revolt, 3 more to tame the Germans. With his remaining 2 legions he set off against the Celtic Veneti, the maritime power of the day, inaccessible by land, on the headlands and isles of Quiberon Bay. They had a massive fleet of some 220 ships trading along the coast of Gaul as far as Britain and Ireland, and south to the Mediterranean.

Decimus Junius Brutus commanded Caesar’s fleet equipping it with scythes fastened to long poles to cut the rigging of Venetic ships. With sails cut, Venetic vessels were easy prey to boarding parties. One by one Venetic vessels were thus subdued. Those with sails intact were immobilised by calm seas. Caesar’s oarsmen manoeuvred easily.¹⁸ Caesar massacred Venetic chiefs. Colonies of Veneti (Feini) set up seafaring communities in Britain and Ireland. The subjugation of Gaul was complete, Caesar thought. But at what a cost! Genocide!

1.3. Commius (Gann): Legend Ceases; History Begins

Outlawed in his Rome-ruled homeland, Commius was given political asylum by the Belgae. His sterling leadership qualities caught Caesar’s attention: Commius was both courageous and politic, a noble of great influence and learning. Caesar fought the Belgae. He made Commius king of the Atrebates and Morini.¹⁹ He took interest in them seeing that so many of them had fled to Britain. Caesar used Commius as negotiator to prepare for a British invasion and as intermediary in treating with the Britons. He freed Commius from tribute and restored Atrebaten and Morini rights lost by their anti-Roman stance. Commius had an astute ability to be accepted as leader of diverse Celtic tribes. He was acceptable to all, a pan-Celtic international, the first true European.

1.4. First Roman Invasion of Celtic Britain

Caesar’s plan to invade Britain was formed while fighting the Celtic Belgae. He noted that they migrated to Britain as conscious offshoots of continental tribes and retained their names. Their coinage was modelled on that of Belgic Gaul.²⁰ They aided their mainland cousins against Caesar. This was his excuse for his invasion of Britain. He distinguished the Britons of maritime parts who had crossed from Belgium (‘ex Belgio’) from those of the interior who came there generations earlier. The British Belgae drove the aboriginal Priteni and early Briganten Celts northwards, as they did in Ireland. In 57 BC the anti-Roman Belgic Bellovaci fled to Belgic areas of Britain. The Belgic Atrebates settled in Britain before and after Caesar’s campaigns in 55/54 BC.

Caesar chose 10,000 men for a ‘reconnaissance in force.’²¹ His 80 transport vessels assembled at Portus Itius (Wissant) and 18 cavalry vessels at Ambletuse. Celtic chiefs sent envoys offering to submit. Caesar sent Commius back with them to warn of the impending invasion and encourage submission. He would place Commius over them as he did over the continental Atrebates and Morini. His success depended on Commius. Caesar’s fleet anchored under the white cliffs of South Foreland at dawn 25th August, 55 BC. Celtic warriors massed on the cliff-tops led by Cassivellaunus.

Celtic war-chariots and cavalry followed the Roman fleet along the coastline, daring Caesar with dramatic war dances. When his cavalry failed to arrive, he ordered a landing at low tide. Ships ran aground 250 feet offshore. Heavily laden troops waded ashore through withering fire from Celtic bowmen, unencumbered at close range. Celtic cavalry horses pranced all over them. Expertly handled war chariots with scythes fitted unnerved the Romans and mowed them down. They raced through the shallows engaging in hand-to-hand combat before darting back onto chariots and racing away. This manner of fighting disorganised and dismayed the Romans. Caesar ordered all reserve troops on supply boats to aid those in trouble. When his artillery turned their fire on the Celts, they draw back.

By nightfall, a beachhead had been secured. Canti chiefs with Commius as their ‘hostage’ came to Caesar’s camp to open negotiations. Commius had warned them of Roman stratagems and of how easily Celtic Gaul had crumbled before them. He told Caesar he was ‘imprisoned’ by Canti chiefs to stop him warning of their resolve to fight on the beaches. He had hoped to see a massacre of Romans as they came ashore and see British Celts face Roman legions better than their Continental kinsmen!

That night Caesar’s cavalry vessels and his beached infantry vessels were destroyed by a storm. He dared not move without his cavalry. He ordered the VII Legion to reap crops ready for harvesting and plunder supplies from nearby villages. It was set upon by Celtic war-chariots lying in ambush. A dust-cloud swept up by the war-chariots alerted Caesar to the danger. He ordered his whole army to the scene of action to save his legion.

It drew from him a glowing account of the methods of chariot warfare that threw Roman ranks into confusion: They show mobility of cavalry and stability of infantry. They are so accomplished that they gallop their chariot-teams down the steepest slopes without loss of control, check and swing round in split-second movement. They dart along the yoke-pole, leap into the midst of the fray, fighting on foot, then quick as lightning dart back on the chariot ready to retreat when hard pressed by the enemy.

The Celts carried off numerous prisoners. Caesar’s much depleted army fled back to the Continent. He had seen how expert British Celtic war-chariots were. He planned a ‘full-scale conquest’ with a much larger force. He convinced the Senate to vote him a further 5 years. It did so on the strength of his ‘justificatory record’ delivered to it. During winter of 55/54 BC he quartered his troops among the Continental Belgae.²²

1.5. Second Roman Invasion of Britain

In March 54 BC, 600 specially built ships, 200 confiscated from the Celts, and 28 war-galleys transported Caesar’s massive army to Britain. The landings were unopposed. A large force had earlier gathered to meet him on the beach. Seeing the fleet’s vast size, they retired inland. Caesar ordered a night march to seek out the enemy. After a 12-mile march they sighted Celtic forces on the Great Stour’s far bank in Kent ready to defend the crossing. Withering fire drove them back. The Celts retired to a fortified position. Some entered inside, inviting the Romans to follow. Others set up ambushes along wooded approaches obstructed by felled trees harrying the Roman advance.

Caesar ordered the VII Legion to storm the palisade-topped ramparts. A fusillade kept defenders heads down while pioneer corps piled earth against the embankments to scale them. Cohorts poured over the rampart into the