Myths & Legends of the Celtic RaceRolleston, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race
Rolleston, T. W. (Thomas William)
Celts -- Religion; Mythology, Celtic
we are told, to Rome for satisfaction for the treachery of the envoys, who
were three sons of Fabius Ambustus, the chief pontiff. The Romans refused
to listen to the claim, and elected the Fabii military tribunes for the
ensuing year. Then the Celts abandoned the siege of Clusium and marched
straight on Rome. The army showed perfect discipline. There was no
indiscriminate plundering and devastation, no city or fortress was
assailed. “We are bound for Rome” was their cry to the guards upon the
walls of the provincial towns, who watched the host in wonder and fear as
it rolled steadily to the south. At last they reached the river Allia, a
few miles from Rome, where the whole available force of the city was
ranged to meet them. The battle took place on July 18, 390, that
ill-omened _dies Alliensis_ which long perpetuated in the Roman calendar
the memory of the deepest shame the republic had ever known. The Celts
turned the flank of the Roman army, and annihilated it in one tremendous
charge. Three days later they were in Rome, and for nearly a year they
remained masters of the city, or of its ruins, till a great fine had been
exacted and full vengeance taken for the perfidy at Clusium. For nearly a
century after the treaty thus concluded there was peace between the Celts
and the Romans, and the breaking of that peace when certain Celtic tribes
allied themselves with their old enemy, the Etruscans, in the third
Samnite war was coincident with the breaking up of the Celtic Empire.(14)
Two questions must now be considered before we can leave the historical
part of this Introduction. First of all, what are the evidences for the
widespread diffusion of Celtic power in Mid-Europe during this period?
Secondly, where were the Germanic peoples, and what was their position in
regard to the Celts?
*Celtic Place-names in Europe*
To answer these questions fully would take us (for the purposes of this
volume) too deeply into philological discussions, which only the Celtic
scholar can fully appreciate. The evidence will be found fully set forth
in de Jubainville’s work, already frequently referred to. The study of
European place-names forms the basis of the argument. Take the Celtic name
_Noviomagus_ composed of two Celtic words, the adjective meaning new, and
_magos_ (Irish _magh_) a field or plain.(15) There were nine places of
this name known in antiquity. Six were in France, among them the places
now called Noyon, in Oise, Nijon, in Vosges, Nyons, in Drôme. Three
outside of France were Nimègue, in Belgium, Neumagen, in the Rhineland,
and one at Speyer, in the Palatinate.
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