Having now watched all three episodes, I must say that this was an incredibly excellent documentary about the Celts, showing both the beauty of the ancient culture but also its dark side, unbiased but informative. Neil Oliver and Alice Roberts were excellent presenters and the experts they interviewed, archaeologists, historians and military re-enactors were all experts in their fields of work. Little known aspects of the Celtic culture, from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Turkey and Portugal combined with the better known parts in Britain and Ireland were shown to prove the diversity of Celtic tradition, religion and heritage. Not many historical documentaries are as good as this and if a couple of mistakes crept in, so what, in the main the information was spot on and up to date. 😘
@@JamesSmith-fz7qk I know, but thanks nonetheless. Tony Robinson's Roman documentaries are brilliant, as of course are his excavations with Time Team - in particular his Roman episodes. Television at its best.
I cried watching this. For my ancestors to lose the battle for their own home, with such a massive advantage in numbers is such a sad outcome. So much of our history and culture lost to those years where Boudica's rebellion and the Isle of Mon were both destroyed.
Absolutely. Boudica seems to be her favorite hero. She did one on the top ten enemies of Rome and chose her and did not choose Arminius who we know DID win! She lost. Hate seeing narratives pushed as in many of her others. The first two were OK this not so much. Boudica is NOT new nor something people have not heard of in the academic field. Its not new. Thanks for refer on MoonOwl Grove ill check his out!
Evan Hughes this last episode. Felt with the end story of the celts and as such is sorting out the legends with a shortage of hard facts. Boudicca was real yet very little is known of her exploits because the Celts had no written language. All information of this age was oral legends passed thru generations.
My people come from Co Wexford, my great granny was from Co Armagh. My, great granny was very very dark in looks. Eyes dark brown and jet black hair and wore big gold earrings. Lived till '97 years of age. Was considered very different for the times lived in. "The Battle of Vinegar Hill" was a devastating time for my ancestors, it's on wikipedia. The end. Thank you for doing these documentaries, much appreciated.
The ancient Scots who fled Spain went to Ireland queen Scota was a daughter of a pharaoh . Egypt was the land of ham or harm, her husband was a Greek Prince some of them would have darker complexions.
“Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilization, when it was but a part of their slavery.” Tacitus. De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae. 98 AD.
Eh, the bath was probably more necessary hygiene. More bathing means less death due to communal disease and bacterial infection, y'know. Can't go wrong with basic plumbing and a lower death toll.
People nowadays are so obsessed with bathrooms. That's because they eat so much, I guess. The number/size/luxury of the bathrooms sell the house. When we moved the outhouse indoors, we lost touch with Mother Nature. It used to be, you literally could not stay shut up in your house 24/7. You at least had to go to outhouse occasionally. It is really only a couple of generations that indoor plumbing has been the standard everywhere. Yes, of course it's a must in a big city. But people won't even go camping because they don't want to use an outhouse and possibly have a slightly uncomfortable experience?! Talk about soft!
Great series, thoroughly enjoyed it. Pity about the synch, I kind of expected a bit about the Picts or Hadrians Wall as well a bit more on the remaining outposts of celts.
I want to learn Gaelic. I grew up in Northumberland with an Scots-Irish mother and Northumbrian father. The closet I got was Scottish dancing in primary school, lol
I did too, cousin. There are language schools all over Scotland, Ireland, the US and Canada that teach it. There are teachers of both Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic on italki.com. Go n'eiri an t'adh leatsa!
Greetings from Turkey. Celts migrated to Anatolia in 278 BC and established a kingdom in Central Anatolia. Although the Celts preserved their language and culture for a long time, after a certain time they took Greek names and most of them became Greek. This situation continued until the 1000s AD. A French traveler who came to Anatolia during the Battle of Manzikert noticed that there was a tribe similar to them in Central Anatolia and wrote to the sources. In other words, although the majority of the Celts became Greek, they preserved a certain part of their culture. When the Turks came to Anatolia, this people is not mentioned at all. They probably became Muslims and became Turkish. The last place where the Celts settled in Anatolia is the city of Yozgat in Turkey. Among the Turks in Turkey, there are 3 regions with the most blond hair: 1) Thrace (Balkan) region 2) East Black Sea region 3) the city of Yozgat The reason why blond hair is common among Yozgat Turks is related to the Celts. In addition, this city has the highest rate of red hair in Turkey. So the Celts didn't go anywhere and they still live in Anatolia. It is said that 15% of the people in Turkey are Celtic.
I love all the episodes in this series, but as Evan Hughes remarked, the quality of this one is lacking. I can endure almost any technical lapse if the content is worth it BUT... when the audio and video are out of sync, it drives me CRAZY! Please correct this if you can.
40:00 Ritual King killing was also a practice of the Vikings, and probably came from the Phoenicians and those from the East. Inanna and Dumuzi were a very old Sumerian origin narrative for this. The religions of these people are connected somewhere. I wonder where I can get more info on that calendar...
It doesn't seem to have any further astronomical detail, except possibly some position-of-the-moon shorthand. I'll check tomorrow. But I'm determined to find the links for this transfer of religious myths from the east all the way up to the Vikings. I know it's there. I just need to find it...
@@DarkMoonDroid Ireland and Britain were connected to the near East by maritime trade routes. The land-centric worldview of the Romans has obscured this.
Seems like Roman propaganda - either they reduced their losses, omitted having allies (such as other Celtic tribes), or over exaggerated the opposing army's size. I wouldn't doubt the 8k legionnaires could have suffered so few losses on an army 2x-3x their size because of superior armor and tactics, but not on an army over 10x their size.
@@randzopyr1038 As is often said, history is written by the victors. The Celts have also come to be found to have had roads, and Celt foundations have been found to be under the remains of many a Roman city which it seems had been purposely built over. Seems the Romans wanted to erase them from history as much as possible. Makes sense if you think about all the times they were defeated by them over the years. Can't be unbeatable if there exists a people who managed to defeat you even in the seat of your power.
kraigthorne one feels sad about modern men. They act as if any woman of strength is a threat, when they are an asset. You should have watched the shows not just read the title.
The story was written by Tacitus, a generation after the Celtic rebellion. He knew the basic facts of the rebellion from an older relative who had been there, and he had almost certainly read any official Roman reports about it he could find. He knew the makings of a great story when he saw it. He knew how the Romans generally made local rulers into “client kings,” and how Romans divided and conquered tribes which had fought each other in the recent past, and how they seduced local elites with the promise of retention of limited local power and status, while threatening them with rape, death, and enslavement of their children if they did not submit. I think Tacitus wanted to (slightly) shame his fellow Romans for using excessive brutality & humiliation to control conquered peoples, demonstrating how this caused rebellions, while still telling the true story of Roman military dominance. About four centuries later, the Roman army abandoned the Britons to their fate when the Germanic tribes invaded Britain. By that point, the tradition of individual men & women being trained in at least self-defensive combat was well & truly stamped out. Romano-Britons were by then dependent on a professional army (whose predecessors had conquered their Celtic ancestors) to defend them from other attackers.
Boudicca is my hero...there is fiction written by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana Paxson, "The Ravens of Avalon" where it talks about her, with a fictional twist on some things (like her life before marrying Prasutagus) and even including Cathubodva (a goddess) as an influence over her. The biggest thing for me though was the fact she was a mother and wreaked vengeance for her country and her daughters.
I am admittedly not a military expert, but why didn't Bouddica's troops instead try to burn the Romans out or starve the Romans out? No flame wars. Just please address the question. I am interested to know.
+Nicolas Beaulieu-Drolet True, Vercingetorix was the real last stand of the Celts. That's when they still had a chance and were not completely cornered and humiliated.
I don’t think that the Celtic forces ever fought that way. They were warriors, not soldiers trained to be under the command of a single general. Boudicca, if she existed as described by Tacitus, certainly had not ever been trained in the command of large forces in the field - and these Celtic tribes were in a very loose confederation. I suspect Tacitus crafted an “after the fact” story a generation later, to tell a good yarn and emphasize a moral point or two along the way. He knew the basic facts of the rebellion from an older relative who had been there. He wanted to (slightly) shame his fellow Romans for unnecessarily brutalizing conquered people, and he pointed out that excessive humiliation of conquered people is dangerous and provokes backlash rebellions. (Think of post-WWI Germany for a modern analogy.) But Tacitus would also want to tell the tale of a vastly outnumbered, highly disciplined Roman legion winning at the end of the day. It seems that this narration leaves out another part of the rebellion that Tacitus does record - that another Roman legion was destroyed while on march through a forest, before the Celts fought Paulinus. This was also the fate suffered by 3 legions of Roman soldiers under the command of Varus in Germania. There, the German forces had temporarily unified under the command of Armenius/Hector, a German man from a prominent family who had been taken hostage as a child and raised in Rome. Armenius had become a successful officer in the Roman army, and he knew that the Romans were unbeatable in warfare on open terrain, so he choose the battlefield to favor the individualistic fighting style of the German warriors. This show also fails to mention that Paulinus got to Londinium with an advanced party, saw the situation, and he abandoned the people of Londinium to their doom to go back north and choose a battlefield where his forces could (and did) win. It is a great advantage in war to be the one who chooses the battlefield.
Brought to mind the following chorus... I'm digging in the dirt Stay with me I need support I'm digging in the dirt To find the places I got hurt To open up the places I got hurt -Peter Gabriel www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/petergabriel/digginginthedirt.html
Many of the ancient cultures lived by the lunar cycle. And astrological signs. I have problems believing any of the Roman Historical writings because if something didn’t follow their beliefs, they tended to declare the act pagan or immoral. It seems that since most of the kings, lead their people into battle, that having a king die in war is quite normal.
I sort of wish the Celts were never conquered so we could see what an ancient European society would look like today, but I always say that Roman expansion is what allowed Europe to be the great power it is now. So I guess it was for the best.
+ Freedom Writer -- I don't think the Celts were "conquered." Sure, they lost a few big battles (Alesia the most significant one), but the Romans did too and remained. I think the Celts (in Italy, Spain, Austria, etc.) were for the most part willingly absorbed into "Rome," with whom they shared familial, cultural, artistic and linguistic similarities and ties. In my mind, the collapse of the Roman Empire resulted in the loss of the Celtic world's greatest ally and protector.
Well of course you could ultimately say that the Celts suddenly disappeared because of a mix of assimilation as well as Roman conquest, but when thinking about how the majority of Celts would have survived had they not assimilated and were still attacking Romans, I believe that in terms of combat, the Celts were strong; but ultimately the Romans would have won either way.
I really enjoyed this series - very well done all three episodes. But at around 40:00 doesn't Prof. Kelly look and sound like the Irish actor Pat Shortt of Killinascully fame?
Thats a big assumption that jewelry was hidden during revolt, it was and still is common practice to hide valuables, when not being worn, in holes or anywhere. Witnesses old man who moved back to Ga from Detroit, 5yrs later he came into local bank, he had $5000 in cash, all molded and stuck together, he had buried it in yard just to forget where till the day before and it dawned on him where.
She could have been one of the worlds greatest heroins, but instead of taking hostages and negotiating a peace with the Romans when she had the upper hand she murdered more innocent men women and children in Britain than Caesar did when he invaded Britain. Then she lead her whole army into the worst defeat the Celts have ever known. The only thing that is responsible for more death in Britain than Boudica was the black death.
What makes her a hero to Britain is that she united the tribes against the might of Rome . Do you think that you can honestly tell me that you would not kill to defend your land , your culture , your very existence ? ? ? One more thing , I am painfully aware of the historical irony of how centuries later the Brits would treat the American Indians the way the Romans treated the Iceni and other British Tribes !
The British Celts of the first century BC hardly "invented" chariot warfare, it had been used in the Near East and Egypt thousands of years beforehand, as we know, and by both sides during the Trojan War, circa 1250 BC.
Very sad that Alice had to play the feminist card about Boudicca. Although in this case the accolades are deserved and Boudiccas rage is very easy to understand due to Roman treachery and brutality.
None of these classifications existed in this time. Longsword is a general term used for a sword that is longer than the short sword of the time period, Longsword term wasnt used until the late middle ages and was the sword used during the Crusades by the Crusaders.
The Celts also invented soap and bacon. So not all about warfare. Also wondering if you ran into any evidence of Celtic migration into North Africa. When I was traveling in Morocco, I was told that the Berbers were thought to be a Celtic people, and their appearance certainly made that easy to believe. Find anything on that?
Bart, doe dit aub eens opnieuw, de audio klopt niet met het beeld en dit maakt het praktisch onmogelijk om te bekijken, wel wederom prachtige BBC docu, en énorm interessant onderwerp. een aspirant leerkracht geschiedenis
This neoCeltic language (in the comment) - is not compatible - with the film. Joke. Greetings from Munich. Did one not get enough information - well this was a great help - over the many books (English) one has read on the subject - very lively and geographically interesting. Fare thee well.
prople judgeing these people by todays standards are foolish in those days it was killed or be killed rule or be ruled .nothing we know today would be the way it was then.
I noticed that too. The audio is almost a second delayed. I wonder if that isn't a problem with UA-cam as I cannot imagine the editors making this mistake.
They don't mention the Teutoburg Forest where are the Northern Europeans destroyed several Roman Legions stopping the Romans from taking over the land that is now mostly Germany.
I watched all three episodes of this documentary. Their content was gripping and the original production excellent.. But I cannot give the youtube uploader any credit for that as it was pirated from UK television. The quality of the piracy was atrocious - screen artifacts from the grabbing software used and you couldn't even get the aspect ratio right when reprocessing the video for upload to youtube. Surely you can do better and have a little pride in what you do? I am grateful to those who pirate to make good TV productions available to the world but most do a very much better job.
Wow. It's amazing how far minds can travel in order to support MISOGYNY! Way to go, world. Fact or just myth, this comment thread reveals much about how far we have come since then (not very).
There is no comment thread attached to your post, so I am at a loss to know what you are talking about. Here is a thought for you. In every nation where there is freedom there are equal rights for women. Also the more brutal and corrupt a country is the less human rights women have.
Boudicca would not have received a proper burial as an enemy of the Romans, they would have seen to it that she was as humiliated in death as she was in life before her rebellion. She'd likely have been just tossed into a mass grave, if she was buried at all. They'd have mad example of those that battled them that day. It is likely her body would never be found with any finery to show whom she was. If they had allowed such she might have been seen as a martyr of her peoples at the time and brought future rebellion even in death. Thus they would have tried to utterly erase her as much as possible. Remember, this was a time when Rome wanted itself to seem unconquerable and unbeatable, so the defeats she left them would have been severe blows to their pride. After all, they hadn't simply been defeated in multiple battles, but had been defeated by a mere woman, whom they would have seen as little better than a second class citizen at best, property at worst. They were nearly beaten by what they saw as in all ways a lesser.
40:00 claiming the body is a king seems like a stretch, they say that based on his hands... yet they could have manicured the guys hand in prep of the ritual...
what are they talking about??? Romans described celtic politics and studied their way of gouverning, so they described early on that women had alot of rights, like discussing with men and deciding on important tribal problems. Not everything the Romans wrote about foreign cultures was propaganda.
I know that The Bible says the three wise men were from the east and they followed the star to Bethlehem to witness the birth of the King of Kings, but I just can't get out of my mind that surely a star gazing druid concerned about the Romans, was one of them.
Having now watched all three episodes, I must say that this was an incredibly excellent documentary about the Celts, showing both the beauty of the ancient culture but also its dark side, unbiased but informative. Neil Oliver and Alice Roberts were excellent presenters and the experts they interviewed, archaeologists, historians and military re-enactors were all experts in their fields of work. Little known aspects of the Celtic culture, from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Turkey and Portugal combined with the better known parts in Britain and Ireland were shown to prove the diversity of Celtic tradition, religion and heritage. Not many historical documentaries are as good as this and if a couple of mistakes crept in, so what, in the main the information was spot on and up to date. 😘
I make a point of watching any series by DrAlice and/or Neil Oliver. Always informative and quality viewing
Check out Tony Robinson documentaries and Time Team, they are really good too.
@@JamesSmith-fz7qk
I know, but thanks nonetheless. Tony Robinson's Roman documentaries are brilliant, as of course are his excavations with Time Team - in particular his Roman episodes. Television at its best.
This is a documentary I have watched more than once. I find it very interesting!!!.
I want a complete tour with these 2 narrators as my tour guides!!!!!
Excellent, a teaming of two of the greats of modern historical archeology. Well done.
very proud to be of Celtic Blood..excellent documentaries!
+Diane Graves Are you from Central europe ?
Racist
glad to see some up to date documentaries on the Celts, facinating
Experts: Two armlets, Paulinus
Me: Two omelettes, poor Linus :o
After watching this can't help but saying "Fucking Romans!", with a Scottish accent.
Alba Gu Brath!
🦄⚔️🏴⚔️🦄
Thanks for the awesome and informative Celtic history video.
@robertolang9684 Well that's an interesting comment. If Boudicca wasn't Celtic, what would you say she was?
I cried watching this. For my ancestors to lose the battle for their own home, with such a massive advantage in numbers is such a sad outcome. So much of our history and culture lost to those years where Boudica's rebellion and the Isle of Mon were both destroyed.
I really enjoyed these documentaries, thank you :-)
Amazing the skill to make the art and jewelry.
Celt's are for sure some of the best close range fighters in the ancient and middle ages
If only this episode was of a quality equal to the first two... Thanks for putting them up here though!
i agree, the moonowl
grove upload of this video actually has the audio and video synced up.
Absolutely. Boudica seems to be her favorite hero. She did one on the top ten enemies of Rome and chose her and did not choose Arminius who we know DID win! She lost. Hate seeing narratives pushed as in many of her others. The first two were OK this not so much. Boudica is NOT new nor something people have not heard of in the academic field. Its not new. Thanks for refer on MoonOwl Grove ill check his out!
Evan Hughes this last episode. Felt with the end story of the celts and as such is sorting out the legends with a shortage of hard facts. Boudicca was real yet very little is known of her exploits because the Celts had no written language. All information of this age was oral legends passed thru generations.
I'm pretty sure Evan was talking about the upload quality, not the quality of the documentary itself
@@SNP-1999 could you put a link of it? I can’t find it.
My people come from Co Wexford, my great granny was from Co Armagh.
My, great granny was very very dark in looks. Eyes dark brown and jet black hair and wore big gold earrings.
Lived till '97 years of age. Was considered very different for the times lived in.
"The Battle of Vinegar Hill" was a devastating time for my ancestors, it's on wikipedia.
The end.
Thank you for doing these documentaries, much appreciated.
The ancient Scots who fled Spain went to Ireland queen Scota was a daughter of a pharaoh . Egypt was the land of ham or harm, her husband was a Greek Prince some of them would have darker complexions.
Watching from NSW Australia.
Thank you BV for the upload.
excellent! I like this narrator, a Scot, he makes it interesting and dramatic. Love the BBC documentaries.
If u like him so much, why don't you marry him?
Superb documentary!!! Thank you.
Boy, did I learn a ton with this series!!
Great story teller with a perfect accent. Well done.
Amazing storytelling by everyone who participated
Thank you for posting this!
“Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilization, when it was but a part of their slavery.” Tacitus. De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae. 98 AD.
True then, true now. I remember reading that in Ancient History class over 50 years ago. Speaking of ancient history LOL
Eh, the bath was probably more necessary hygiene. More bathing means less death due to communal disease and bacterial infection, y'know. Can't go wrong with basic plumbing and a lower death toll.
People nowadays are so obsessed with bathrooms. That's because they eat so much, I guess. The number/size/luxury of the bathrooms sell the house. When we moved the outhouse indoors, we lost touch with Mother Nature. It used to be, you literally could not stay shut up in your house 24/7. You at least had to go to outhouse occasionally. It is really only a couple of generations that indoor plumbing has been the standard everywhere. Yes, of course it's a must in a big city. But people won't even go camping because they don't want to use an outhouse and possibly have a slightly uncomfortable experience?! Talk about soft!
Great series, thoroughly enjoyed it. Pity about the synch, I kind of expected a bit about the Picts or Hadrians Wall as well a bit more on the remaining outposts of celts.
That could easily have been a forth program
Great series! Thanks for posting :)
Great program, first class.
I want to learn Gaelic. I grew up in Northumberland with an Scots-Irish mother and Northumbrian father. The closet I got was Scottish dancing in primary school, lol
I did too, cousin. There are language schools all over Scotland, Ireland, the US and Canada that teach it. There are teachers of both Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic on italki.com. Go n'eiri an t'adh leatsa!
Superb documentary, thank you.
The two narrators never meet!
Love to see more information on my beloved Celtic family
Greetings from Turkey. Celts migrated to Anatolia in 278 BC and established a kingdom in Central Anatolia. Although the Celts preserved their language and culture for a long time, after a certain time they took Greek names and most of them became Greek. This situation continued until the 1000s AD. A French traveler who came to Anatolia during the Battle of Manzikert noticed that there was a tribe similar to them in Central Anatolia and wrote to the sources. In other words, although the majority of the Celts became Greek, they preserved a certain part of their culture. When the Turks came to Anatolia, this people is not mentioned at all. They probably became Muslims and became Turkish.
The last place where the Celts settled in Anatolia is the city of Yozgat in Turkey. Among the Turks in Turkey, there are 3 regions with the most blond hair: 1) Thrace (Balkan) region 2) East Black Sea region 3) the city of Yozgat The reason why blond hair is common among Yozgat Turks is related to the Celts. In addition, this city has the highest rate of red hair in Turkey. So the Celts didn't go anywhere and they still live in Anatolia. It is said that 15% of the people in Turkey are Celtic.
Very interesting
he was the "summer king" or the horned god for the season. feasted as a king. treated as a king. then sacrificed.
Well presented.
Last battle? What about Calgacus in 83 AD?
great documentary overall
Look forward to watching this great documentary in the correct ratio
I can't but think watching this that Alice Roberts would make a for a beautiful and talented Boudica 😀
We are still alive and thanks to the English we are spread around the world.
Genes doesn't make you a celt. |
I love all the episodes in this series, but as Evan Hughes remarked, the quality of this one is lacking. I can endure almost any technical lapse if the content is worth it BUT... when the audio and video are out of sync, it drives me CRAZY! Please correct this if you can.
40:00
Ritual King killing was also a practice of the Vikings, and probably came from the Phoenicians and those from the East. Inanna and Dumuzi were a very old Sumerian origin narrative for this.
The religions of these people are connected somewhere.
I wonder where I can get more info on that calendar...
It doesn't seem to have any further astronomical detail, except possibly some position-of-the-moon shorthand. I'll check tomorrow.
But I'm determined to find the links for this transfer of religious myths from the east all the way up to the Vikings. I know it's there. I just need to find it...
@@DarkMoonDroid Ireland and Britain were connected to the near East by maritime trade routes. The land-centric worldview of the Romans has obscured this.
I really enjoyed this series. too bad the audio slipped out of sync on the last one😒
80K Celts died....... That's...insane In a short time that is truly insane. .
Seems like Roman propaganda - either they reduced their losses, omitted having allies (such as other Celtic tribes), or over exaggerated the opposing army's size.
I wouldn't doubt the 8k legionnaires could have suffered so few losses on an army 2x-3x their size because of superior armor and tactics, but not on an army over 10x their size.
@@randzopyr1038 As is often said, history is written by the victors. The Celts have also come to be found to have had roads, and Celt foundations have been found to be under the remains of many a Roman city which it seems had been purposely built over. Seems the Romans wanted to erase them from history as much as possible. Makes sense if you think about all the times they were defeated by them over the years. Can't be unbeatable if there exists a people who managed to defeat you even in the seat of your power.
Bodicca my favourite Celt.
good one. kim jong, I mean karigthorn. ;)
kraigthorne one feels sad about modern men. They act as if any woman of strength is a threat, when they are an asset. You should have watched the shows not just read the title.
The story was written by Tacitus, a generation after the Celtic rebellion. He knew the basic facts of the rebellion from an older relative who had been there, and he had almost certainly read any official Roman reports about it he could find.
He knew the makings of a great story when he saw it. He knew how the Romans generally made local rulers into “client kings,” and how Romans divided and conquered tribes which had fought each other in the recent past, and how they seduced local elites with the promise of retention of limited local power and status, while threatening them with rape, death, and enslavement of their children if they did not submit.
I think Tacitus wanted to (slightly) shame his fellow Romans for using excessive brutality & humiliation to control conquered peoples, demonstrating how this caused rebellions, while still telling the true story of Roman military dominance.
About four centuries later, the Roman army abandoned the Britons to their fate when the Germanic tribes invaded Britain. By that point, the tradition of individual men & women being trained in at least self-defensive combat was well & truly stamped out. Romano-Britons were by then dependent on a professional army (whose predecessors had conquered their Celtic ancestors) to defend them from other attackers.
Same!
Boudicca is my hero...there is fiction written by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana Paxson, "The Ravens of Avalon" where it talks about her, with a fictional twist on some things (like her life before marrying Prasutagus) and even including Cathubodva (a goddess) as an influence over her. The biggest thing for me though was the fact she was a mother and wreaked vengeance for her country and her daughters.
"I'd like to be the King of all Londinium and wear a shiny hat."
I am admittedly not a military expert, but why didn't Bouddica's troops instead try to burn the Romans out or starve the Romans out? No flame wars. Just please address the question. I am interested to know.
+Nicolas Beaulieu-Drolet True, Vercingetorix was the real last stand of the Celts. That's when they still had a chance and were not completely cornered and humiliated.
that's because you're ignorant
I don’t think that the Celtic forces ever fought that way. They were warriors, not soldiers trained to be under the command of a single general. Boudicca, if she existed as described by Tacitus, certainly had not ever been trained in the command of large forces in the field - and these Celtic tribes were in a very loose confederation.
I suspect Tacitus crafted an “after the fact” story a generation later, to tell a good yarn and emphasize a moral point or two along the way. He knew the basic facts of the rebellion from an older relative who had been there. He wanted to (slightly) shame his fellow Romans for unnecessarily brutalizing conquered people, and he pointed out that excessive humiliation of conquered people is dangerous and provokes backlash rebellions. (Think of post-WWI Germany for a modern analogy.)
But Tacitus would also want to tell the tale of a vastly outnumbered, highly disciplined Roman legion winning at the end of the day.
It seems that this narration leaves out another part of the rebellion that Tacitus does record - that another Roman legion was destroyed while on march through a forest, before the Celts fought Paulinus. This was also the fate suffered by 3 legions of Roman soldiers under the command of Varus in Germania. There, the German forces had temporarily unified under the command of Armenius/Hector, a German man from a prominent family who had been taken hostage as a child and raised in Rome. Armenius had become a successful officer in the Roman army, and he knew that the Romans were unbeatable in warfare on open terrain, so he choose the battlefield to favor the individualistic fighting style of the German warriors.
This show also fails to mention that Paulinus got to Londinium with an advanced party, saw the situation, and he abandoned the people of Londinium to their doom to go back north and choose a battlefield where his forces could (and did) win.
It is a great advantage in war to be the one who chooses the battlefield.
Tina at last an excellent comment! Thank you.
What a great History of Britain. Strength cannot wins over brain.
What about the celt iberians,galleician and anatolian celts
Brought to mind the following chorus...
I'm digging in the dirt
Stay with me I need support
I'm digging in the dirt
To find the places I got hurt
To open up the places I got hurt -Peter Gabriel
www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/petergabriel/digginginthedirt.html
Many of the ancient cultures lived by the lunar cycle. And astrological signs. I have problems believing any of the Roman Historical writings because if something didn’t follow their beliefs, they tended to declare the act pagan or immoral. It seems that since most of the kings, lead their people into battle, that having a king die in war is quite normal.
I want to see the celts the was they cgi the Pharoes to see how they looked in life.
I wish we could see how the world would have been different
I sort of wish the Celts were never conquered so we could see what an ancient European society would look like today, but I always say that Roman expansion is what allowed Europe to be the great power it is now. So I guess it was for the best.
+ Freedom Writer -- I don't think the Celts were "conquered." Sure, they lost a few big battles (Alesia the most significant one), but the Romans did too and remained. I think the Celts (in Italy, Spain, Austria, etc.) were for the most part willingly absorbed into "Rome," with whom they shared familial, cultural, artistic and linguistic similarities and ties. In my mind, the collapse of the Roman Empire resulted in the loss of the Celtic world's greatest ally and protector.
Well of course you could ultimately say that the Celts suddenly disappeared because of a mix of assimilation as well as Roman conquest, but when thinking about how the majority of Celts would have survived had they not assimilated and were still attacking Romans, I believe that in terms of combat, the Celts were strong; but ultimately the Romans would have won either way.
The Romans used Celtic Calvary over the centuries in their wars against other nation's.
Greetings from Morocco , wana know more about the Keltc ( Celts ) ,
Be careful. You might offend the blonde haired/blue eyed folk that dont know about Celtic history in Northern Africa.
Azir Massnsen anything by Neil Oliver is excellent and he has other documentaries on the Celts.
The vandals.........
Watching that sword slice thru the pig carcass made me very hungry for a bacon sammich.
I really enjoyed this series - very well done all three episodes. But at around 40:00 doesn't Prof. Kelly look and sound like the Irish actor Pat Shortt of Killinascully fame?
BRAVE 2: Merida will become Queen.
Fantastic
The Celtic craftsmanship was so wonderful! Obviously they were helped by aliens. Seriously though I wish I had a Torque to where, they are badass!
If only these two understood mythology or at least would have read Joseph Campbell this documentary would be even more interesting.
Thats a big assumption that jewelry was hidden during revolt, it was and still is common practice to hide valuables, when not being worn, in holes or anywhere. Witnesses old man who moved back to Ga from Detroit, 5yrs later he came into local bank, he had $5000 in cash, all molded and stuck together, he had buried it in yard just to forget where till the day before and it dawned on him where.
Red hair, thats where Dr. Alice got her hair, Boudicia, it was a interesting color on Time Team.
she gets her red hair out of a bottle, as they say
In "The Eye of the World," soon after Bel Tine, winter returns the day after the Green Man is burned to death. (34:40)
I mean...chariots were used by other civilizations before the Celts, so the Celts didn't exactly invent chariots.
I learned fairly recently that I am one of Boudica's descendants for me that makes her all the more admirable to me !
She could have been one of the worlds greatest heroins, but instead of taking hostages and negotiating a peace with the Romans when she had the upper hand she murdered more innocent men women and children in Britain than Caesar did when he invaded Britain. Then she lead her whole army into the worst defeat the Celts have ever known.
The only thing that is responsible for more death in Britain than Boudica was the black death.
What makes her a hero to Britain is that she united the tribes against the might of Rome . Do you think that you can honestly tell me that you would not kill to defend your land , your culture , your very existence ? ? ? One more thing , I am painfully aware of the historical irony of how centuries later the Brits would treat the American Indians the way the Romans treated the Iceni and other British Tribes !
The chances that you have her as an ancestor is quite large but a direct ancestor? not a chance.
so Williams harrowing of the north was smaller? fascinating..... idiot..
+Dragonmancer1............Lol...not bloody likely but thanks for the laugh.
Shame that sound and video are not in sync.
Heartbreaking.
The British Celts of the first century BC hardly "invented" chariot warfare, it had been used in the Near East and Egypt thousands of years beforehand, as we know, and by both sides during the Trojan War, circa 1250 BC.
What is the name of the women who hosted these 3 series?
I notice parallels between Budica and Hamas.
Very sad that Alice had to play the feminist card about Boudicca. Although in this case the accolades are deserved and Boudiccas rage is very easy to understand due to Roman treachery and brutality.
The audio doesn't line up with the video :-(
BRYNWON lol it’s Godzilla!!!
Celtic longsword? Those are arming swords. Longswords are use with 2 hands.
You mean a Claymore...
None of these classifications existed in this time. Longsword is a general term used for a sword that is longer than the short sword of the time period, Longsword term wasnt used until the late middle ages and was the sword used during the Crusades by the Crusaders.
The Celts also invented soap and bacon. So not all about warfare. Also wondering if you ran into any evidence of Celtic migration into North Africa. When I was traveling in Morocco, I was told that the Berbers were thought to be a Celtic people, and their appearance certainly made that easy to believe. Find anything on that?
+REAL TRUTH you are delusional
you are insane
Bart, doe dit aub eens opnieuw, de audio klopt niet met het beeld en dit maakt het praktisch onmogelijk om te bekijken, wel wederom prachtige BBC docu, en énorm interessant onderwerp.
een aspirant leerkracht geschiedenis
This neoCeltic language (in the comment) - is not compatible - with the film. Joke.
Greetings from Munich.
Did one not get enough information - well this was a great help - over the many books (English) one has read on the subject - very lively and geographically interesting. Fare thee well.
prople judgeing these people by todays standards are foolish in those days it was killed or be killed rule or be ruled .nothing we know today would be the way it was then.
The world has not changed one bit
Too bad the video and audio are not synchronized
Video and audio are out of sync.
I noticed that too. The audio is almost a second delayed. I wonder if that isn't a problem with UA-cam as I cannot imagine the editors making this mistake.
antipodesman::: it's still delayed the, the sound. But rounted it, the sound, thru my home theatre and it fixed it, with a 30 me delay.
No mention of Viriathus and the Lusitani defeating Rome in many battles?
sound and video are out of synch
Golden Bough?
They don't mention the Teutoburg Forest where are the Northern Europeans destroyed several Roman Legions stopping the Romans from taking over the land that is now mostly Germany.
YES
Is it possible that Tacitus miscalculated or miscounted? 100,000 warriors seems a mite exaggerated to mme. And, no, I have not read Tacitus!
Who disliked this?
Wouldn't that mercury gilding technique have produced toxic jewelry?
No, it would have evaporated almost entirely from the jewelry. Of course, some would remain, but not nearly as much as the original paste.
Love Bodocca
I watched all three episodes of this documentary. Their content was gripping and the original production excellent.. But I cannot give the youtube uploader any credit for that as it was pirated from UK television.
The quality of the piracy was atrocious - screen artifacts from the grabbing software used and you couldn't even get the aspect ratio right when reprocessing the video for upload to youtube.
Surely you can do better and have a little pride in what you do?
I am grateful to those who pirate to make good TV productions available to the world but most do a very much better job.
Bachelors' wives and maidens' children are well taught
Gorgeous
i guess the concept of Negotiations was a futuristic idea...
51:48 they're having so much fun...
Wow. It's amazing how far minds can travel in order to support MISOGYNY! Way to go, world. Fact or just myth, this comment thread reveals much about how far we have come since then (not very).
There is no comment thread attached to your post, so I am at a loss to know what you are talking about.
Here is a thought for you. In every nation where there is freedom there are equal rights for women. Also the more brutal and corrupt a country is the less human rights women have.
Boudicca would not have received a proper burial as an enemy of the Romans, they would have seen to it that she was as humiliated in death as she was in life before her rebellion. She'd likely have been just tossed into a mass grave, if she was buried at all. They'd have mad example of those that battled them that day. It is likely her body would never be found with any finery to show whom she was. If they had allowed such she might have been seen as a martyr of her peoples at the time and brought future rebellion even in death. Thus they would have tried to utterly erase her as much as possible. Remember, this was a time when Rome wanted itself to seem unconquerable and unbeatable, so the defeats she left them would have been severe blows to their pride. After all, they hadn't simply been defeated in multiple battles, but had been defeated by a mere woman, whom they would have seen as little better than a second class citizen at best, property at worst. They were nearly beaten by what they saw as in all ways a lesser.
Child please. Boudica didn't defeat anyone. She watched the battles from the safety of her chariot with her daughters.
40:00 claiming the body is a king seems like a stretch, they say that based on his hands... yet they could have manicured the guys hand in prep of the ritual...
Why did they sacrifice their kings?? Can't get my head around it.
Read the golden Bough
Now we got guns
what are they talking about??? Romans described celtic politics and studied their way of gouverning, so they described early on that women had alot of rights, like discussing with men and deciding on important tribal problems. Not everything the Romans wrote about foreign cultures was propaganda.
This episode seems to have fallen into the same trap of telling mostly the Roman side of the story.
morrigan
You should perhaps consult the relation of some Celtic historian on the subject .Di You not think so ?
I know that The Bible says the three wise men were from the east and they followed the star to Bethlehem to witness the birth of the King of Kings, but I just can't get out of my mind that surely a star gazing druid concerned about the Romans, was one of them.
Boudicca looks like she might need some vitamins, poor girl.