The popular image of naked barbarians rushing headlong into battle, which is depicted by ancient and neo-classical historians, and encapsulated in classical works of art such as ‘The Dying Gaul’ or ‘The Galatian Suicide’ (Fig. 1-2) may have fitted the preferred stereotype of the Celts as naked savages in the eyes of the ‘civilized’ Greco-Roman world, but archaeological evidence indicates that the real late Iron Age Celtic warrior was a very different figure.
Fig. 1 – The suicide of a Galatian chieftain after killing his wife
Together with ‘The Dying Gaul’ (below) this work formed part of a monument erected in 227 BC at Pergamon by Attalos I to commemorate his victory over the Celts. The bronze originals were arranged on a large cylindrical plinth in the centre of the square before the temple of Athena Nikephoros
Roman copy in marble (1st c. BC)
Roma, Museo Nazionale della Terme
Fig. 2 – The Dying Gaul
Capitoline Museum, Rome
CHAINMAIL
Chainmail represented an intrinsic part of the standard equipment of the Celtic warrior (at least of the aristocracy) from the 3rd c. BC onwards. According to the Roman writer, Varro (116-27 BC; De Lingua Lat. V 24; see also Diodorus Siculus History V 30), chainmail was invented by the Celts. Direct testimony to the use of chainmail by the Celts who migrated into the Balkans and Asia-Minor is provided by Roman historians. For example, at the Battle of Magnesia in December 190 BC when the Celts supported Antiochus III (the Great) against the Romans led by Consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio, of the Celtic warriors in Antiochus’ army we are informed:
“His horse was stationed on either wing consisting of the mail-clad Galatians and the Macedonian corps known as the Agena”.
(Appianus, Syr. 6)
“On the right of the phalanx Antiochus stationed 1,500 Galatian infantry and 300 cavalry clad in mail armour”.
(Livy 37,40)
The earliest finds of such defensive armor come from Celtic sites such as those at Hornu Jatov in Slovakia, and the Celtic chieftains burial at Ciumeşti, Romania, which date to the 3rd c. BC. (Rusu 1969; On the Ciumeşti chainmail see below). To these we may add recently published chainmail from Bulgaria such as that from the vicinity of the Celtic hillfort at Arkovna, (Dalgopol district, Varna region; fig 4),Yankovo (Schumen district), etc., which also date to the 3rd c. BC.