ping
So glad they gave us green beer...
"Because the Goths conquered Rome in A.D. 410, they couldn't have been so primitive."
"Because the Vandals captured Rome in A.D. 455, they couldn't have been so primitive."
"Because the Carthaginians were unable to capture Rome, they must have been pretty primitive."
After they defeated Rome all the Celts gathered in the Forum and danced without moving their upper bodies.
Being Celtic, I will tell you the Celts have always told the truth about themselves. It is the rest of the world that refuses to hear it.
Well, they were by comparison, which was sort of what the whole thing was about. They said so themselves. On the other hand, when they got tired of the smell of corpses in Rome (they stayed for three months) they gathered Roman gold and crossed the Adriatic and conquered a good bit of that area as well. Marvelous mercenaries, and would be for another five hundred years or so.
What is not yet entirely realized is the extent of international trade at the time. The fact that Spanish artifacts turned up in this dig is one example of this. If the Celts were after gold in Rome, why? Because it was pretty? No, because it was tradeworthy. What Julius Caesar would conquer in the Gallic wars three centuries later was a civilization, not a confederation of tribes, and Roman law overlaid on it would provide the basis for the Middle Ages.
Being of Celtic heritage myself I have a certain sympathy for the whole thing, except perhaps for the human sacrifice (which the Romans would still be at during the Punic Wars, and yes, two of their victims were Celtic, the others, Greek. They buried them alive. I'm sorry I took that course in Roman Civilization...) And when, in the end, they migrated to Boston and took up basketball, they started a whole new...wait, what?
The Celts were indeed sophisticated and did well for quite a while. Stronger tribes eventually drove them west. Story of humanity—biggest stick wins the day. The Germanic peoples finally won out...and held on to their ground (mostly).
They were the Galatians of St. Paul's Letters.
They also had a colony in N.E. Spain called Galacia and a colony on the Po River called Galatia in Poland.
The English have derided the Galician documents as total baloney ~ but yet, here are the people and there are the documents.
Visit the Celts all you want but beware the wicker man.
Ancient Celts include Bill Russell and Bob Cousy....
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Saw the title and almost thought this was going to be a Doc Rivers-to-the-Clips thread.
As if a society cannot be both violent and sophisticated.
Romans, Aztecs, medieval Japanese. Heck, medieval and modern Europeans.
With the ultimate example supported by Godwin's Law.