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Short description

Armed with spear, sword, and shield, the Birttonic Spearmen would fight defensively in close formations.

Description

Celtic armies were formed from among nobles, warriors and commoners. The spearmen were recruited from among the free commoners and noble-clients of a Celtic tribe, and they were the most common of Celts. They were famed for being taller than the peoples of the Mediterranean, muscular, fair-skinned and fair-haired. Most men wore flowing moustaches and short beards. For battle the Celts smeared their hair with a thick wash of lime, which bleached it and made it stiff and spiky.

There was a strong heroic ethos in Celtic society, Celtic warriors favoured single combat, and the Celts would work themselves into a battle frenzy. The Celtic army delivered a wild mass charge and ferocious fighting (Strabo, 4.198; 4.4.3; Aristotle, Eth. Nic. 3.5 b 28; Silius Italicus 3.340); if this charge failed to break through the enemy line, its momentum typically weakened. The Celts were known to suffer panic (Dio Cassius 12.50.2-3) and suffered in hot climates (Livy, 27.48). In general, Celtic tactics favoured battle in open country.

The Celtic Spearmen fought defensively in close formations, often with overlapping shields, while in attack the formation loosens up in a wild charge. They wore woollen breeches and tunic, woven or embroidered into brightly coloured and rich patterns. They also wore distinctive Gallic shoes of leather. The heavy woollen cloak or sagum was fastened at the neck with a brooch. Celtic Spearmen were equipped with sword, shield and javelin. The spear was the primary weapon, the typical Celtic shield was large, oval in shape, flat, made of leather-covered wood, very like the Italian scutum.

Known as "the Keltoi" or the "Galatae" by the Greeks, and "Celtae" or "Galli" by the Romans - they were one of the great barbarian peoples of Europe. Celtic tribes were found stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the upper Danube, and in 279-76 some Celtic tribes settled in the Balkans (Scordisci) and even Asia-Minor (Galatians).

In the middle of the fifth century BC the Celts came to be dominated by the so-called "La Tene" culture. With its epicentre in the middle Rhineland and the regions north of the Alps, the La Tene culture was typified by a warrior dominated social system and a common material culture, with active trade connections with both the Greek colonists of the Golfe du Lion (esp. Massalia) and the Etruscans of northern Italy.

In c. 400 BC tribes of La Tene Celts migrated into the Po Valley, overran the Etruscans there, and the Boii, Insubres and Cenomani permanently settled northern Italy; at this same time La Tene populations spread east, through the Danube corridor, settling Bohemia and the middle Danube. In c. 390 a Celtic horde sacked Rome itself, an event that left an indelible mark on the Roman folk memory. La Tene influences were also transmitted into the Iberian Peninsula, and are found among the Celtiberians there.

Celtic society was made up of extended families or clans, that grouped together to form territorially-based tribes. These were ruled by a king or high chief, although by the middle of the first century BC some of the more urban Celtic tribes in the Rhone Valley had come to be ruled by elected magistrates. Tribes were dominated by councils of elders and popular assemblies of all the free men of a tribe. Cattle thieving, slave raiding and vendettas ensured a constant level of low intensity warfare between Celtic clans and tribes.