Romans - the enemies of the Celts?

The relationship between Romans and Celts has never been an easy one. The Celts almost conquered Rome around 386 BC under Brennos. The Romans conquered all of Gaul around 50 BC under Caesar ... Celts often fought Romans, Celts often fought as allies of Romans.

Caesar's campaigns in particular claimed a huge number of lives and decimated the intellectual elite of the Celts (druids, bards, etc). During the campaigns, Gaulish tribes, who were considered friends of the Romans, had to supply their army, other villages were burned down by their own Gaulish commanders in order to deprive the enemy of these supplies, and countless Gauls were enslaved.

One would not expect that the Gauls loved the Romans.

Yet ... long before Caesar's campaigns, there were close ties between Romans and Celts, whether those in Gaul or further east in Noricum. The common interest was trade, each other's products. The south, for example, offered mainly wine, a beverage that the people north of the Alps valued highly and could not grow in the same quality because of the climate. The north, on the other hand, had mineral resources such as gold and iron and, above all, outstanding skills in processing them. "Noric iron", a particularly hard steel, was in great demand everywhere and was mostly used for swords and other weapons.

Those who held themselves in high esteem north of the Alps served Roman wine in Greek pots. The men in the south, on the other hand, took such a liking to the light hair of Celtic women that it became fashionable for Roman women to bleach their hair.

And even after Caesar had raged in Gaul, not everyone was hostile to him. Might the Celts have been masters at working metals, the Romans brought other skills with them. Water pipes and underfloor heating have their own persuasive power ...

So it happened that many were quite quickly willing to pretend to be Roman. While those who had been the spiritual leaders of their tribes had to fear for their lives, the conqueror certainly offered advantages to the "little man". And since the Romans did not care which gods one worshipped - every Celtic god could be romanized with an attached Latin attribute - not much changed in religion until Christianity overturned everything.

Thus Gaul had already become Roman in its behavior before Caesar's conquest and even more so afterwards. But what was the situation in Noricum or England?

Noricum had long maintained close trade relations with the Roman Empire. In 49 BC, the Noric ruler of that time (it is attributed to Voccio, but we cannot be sure that he ruled over the Norics at that time. For more on Voccio, see my blogpost on Voccio) sent a cavalry force of 300 men south to support Caesar in his civil war.

Britain also traded with the mainland since the Bronze Age - the tin for the bronze produced here in what is now Austria (i.e. Noricum) came from Cornwall as early as the Bronze Age, for example - but withstood the Romans longer than other lands. Caesar tried twice (55 and 54 BC) to conquer the island, but both times he failed at the coast.

Noricum is considered a Roman province from 15 B.C. on, its incorporation is said to have been completely peaceful (although at the same time it is said that the region was pacified during Augustus' Alpine campaigns - which has a warlike ring to it). According to traditional historiography, it should be thought of like Austria's accession to the EU and less like the annexation through Hitler's Germany. As long as we cannot travel in time, we will never know for sure.

In any case, it can be assumed that the Noric people were quite happy to adopt the Roman way of life. There are much more finds from Roman times in Austria than from pre-Roman times (Hallstatt excepted), but this may also be due to the fact that the Celts built from wood and the Romans from stone, which is clearly more archaeologist-friendly.

In Britain the conquest by the Romans did not happen until 43 AD. Claudius felt compelled to resume this ancient project of the Romans. Perhaps to improve his weak reputation. Officially, because the British commander Verica, a "friend of the Romans" asked him for help against other tribes - the same justification with which Caesar had started his campaign against Gaul at that time. (One learns from this: ask your friend for help and you will be conquered by him instead of your original enemy).

Nevertheless, "the Celtic" lasted longer in the British Isles than elsewhere. Perhaps because the Romans never penetrated all the island's territories. Perhaps because the English Channel did present a certain barrier. Or because the people on the island have always been different ...

And somehow it all seems not so different from today.