Ancient Celts vs. Romans - Some Things to Consider

Sources:

Peter Berresford Ellis, A Brief History of the Celts

Susan A. Johnston, Icons of the Iron Age: The Celts in History

Nic Fields, Roman Republican Legionary 298–105 BC

A forum thread discussing Roman criticism of Celtic swords

Mike Loades, Swords and Swordsmen

Accurate reproductions of Celtic swords by Patrick Barta

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[TheLiam]

The Celts also had a fun sense of humor, there have been multiple findings of lead balls (ammo for slings) with celtic engravings that read things like "ouch"

[MpowerdAPE]

Also :  the Roman understanding of logistics and lines of communication....  it could be argued that every Roman soldier was a battlefield engineer in one form or another.  The battle of Alesia is a perfect example.

[jordanbonacci]

Rome: Recently voted "Best State Ever" by Everyday Patrician Magazine. Article by Cicero.

[waltermattiko]

"They had quite a bit of success, but at some point, Rome just steamrolled everything." Is the most beautifully accurate sentence I've heard.

[SoggyNelco]

This is why I really love ancient Rome, whenever they found something that was good or effective, they took it, adapted it, and made it better. Basically all their weapons, gladius was from Hispania for example. I think the entire empire's ability to adapt is what made it truly great.

[Necroskull]

With the Carthaginians, I would say that the main factor in Rome's win was unity of purpose. Hannibal, although he was a true genius, wasn't supported by his state the same way that Rome supported her armies--Rome considered the second Punic war a death struggle and drafted a massive new army after every major loss. Carthage on the other hand, if you judge by the actions of its leaders in Africa, seemed to take the war a lot less 'seriously', for lack of a better word--they had one of the greatest generals of antiquity on their side and didn't support him anywhere near as much as they should have because of internal politics.

[missjayspeechley]

For anyone into heavy metal, Eluveitie did a concept album named "Helvetios" about on the Gallic Wars (58 - 50 BC) from the viewpoint of the Helvetians.
The album tells the history from the first enounter with the romans, through the slaughter at Avaricum and on to the battle of Alesia
Definitely worth a listen

[fisklars]

make a fighting reaction of the fights in shrek movies

[mikefule]

The Roman empire, when it was expanding, was similar to the Zulu empire under Shaka. When The world was made up of separate tribes and loose alliances, and fighting was typically about local disputes, honour and feuds, and everyone needed to get back to work on the farm as soon as possible. Then one state decides to expand. They develop a full time army that trains together, under a set command structure and they work towards a long term goal. Their equipment is a little bit better, and it is more uniform in style and quality. A small improvement in equipment and a big improvement in organisation combine to give them an enormous advantage on the battlefield. Once the flow of wealth (tribute and plunder) reaches a certain point, it becomes self sustaining because the empire is richer and more powerful than anyone who might resist it. And so it carries on until either they meet someone more powerful, or they simply collapse as they become decadent and fractured.

[UsenameTakenWasTaken]

"Try that as a Roman soldier."
I can't. I can't find a Roman recruiter that will take me.

[SmileyFace]

When researching archeology it is important to know that the term "culture" is misleading. It doesn't describe a homogenous group of people, but a group of people that produced similar objects, often classified by ceramics and later also by metalworks.

[MrGameAMV]

Why is there no sound in the Intro ? :o

[Vexclorion]

As a historian, I agree with his intro.
New information comes out that contests the old, we specialize in different things and even with the same info can argue radically different perspectives.
Also as a Historian and teacher, I highly advocate Skallagrim and recommend his videos

[papacomms]

You're one of my favorite history YouTuber. I always really liked history but when I came across you're YouTube channel my interest in history exploded. I started to love history so much my teacher is going to place me in Honors history. I just want to say thank you for being a cool history YouTuber!! Keep up the good work!

[renzocoppola]

Dude, most of your videos are marked as inappropriate. Have you noticed that? It seems ius tube cesorhip got you.

[NegotiatorGladiarius]

Skal, IMHO the equipment was a bigger problem than you seem to think. There is no doubt that they had the same armour and sword models as the Romans did. Hell, the gladius hispaniensis was literally a reproduction of a celtiberian sword.

The problem is precisely that they had fewer of them. You already mention the fact that most celtic soldiers didn't actually have a maille shirt. I'd also add though that an estimated only 1 in 10 celtiberian soldiers actually had a sword. Only exactly two armies in Europe had swords for almost everyone, and those were the Romans and the Dacians.

The disparity isn't in equipment models, the difference is in the AVERAGE equipment of a soldier. Heavy shock infantry tends to handily defeat light infantry, and the average Celt was really the latter.

And let's think of the battle tactics, as per Caesar's own account. For light infantry, the scutum was their main defense, and if you could somehow deprive them of that protection, they'd be in huge trouble. And the pilum as exactly an anti-shield weapon. Essentially the whole first rank had to discard their shields after a volley of pila, and that sucks if you're light infantry. And if they somehow didn't discard the shield, the Romans just had to step on the shaft to force the shield off protecting your body.

I'd add, and this again is supported by Caesar's own accounts, getting hit by a pilum was quite a horrible experience anyway, if you didn't actually have a second layer of armour behind that shield. We have the description of pila shafts getting stuck in the ground and warriors being pushed by the rest of the formation towards that deadly point poking through the shield.

Swords were also a very big deal at the time, since basically nobody had invented a 15'th century halberd yet. If you put it in the context of fighting from behind a tower shield, and read about the kind of poking around a shield, or hooking around, and stuff like that, you couldn't really do that with a spear. There's a reason the Romans moved their Hastati (literally meaning: spearmen) away from spears and towards swords a long time before.

So basically IMHO the fact that most Celts couldn't afford one of those maille shirts, nor a sword, was a huge problem.

[anderwmarcell]

The Celts were not a monolithic culture. There were arguing and feuds between the tribes. It is also true that Rome exploited these divisions, as they did everywhere. Rome had a disciplined and well supplied army and auxiliaries drawn form the lands where they fought. The Celts did have organization but Rome's was better for war.

[Neonhelmet]

Told my wife to practice the oral tradition, I was not disappointed

[JFGraham]

Talk about slanders against the enemy:

Germans offer to help the romans get across the Rhine
*"THAT IS BENEATH THE ROMAN PEOPLE"*

[Yzaias]

Hi Skall, could you possibly do a video talking about people who use weapons in the left hand against someone using a weapon in the right hand?