Looking at the wider picture, this information about the Druids gives out a statement on just how dominating the Druids were in society. Basically, the Druids were the lawmakers and very much equivalent to policeman, lawyers and judges of today, but, my feeling is that crime is on the rise in our world today mainly due to the lack of discipline and deterrents portrayed by lawmakers and this leads to my point of contrast as when the Druids had this power. Caesar relates that “If anyone failed to abide by their decision, he is banned from taking part in sacrifices, which is a very serious matter. Those that are banned are thought to be impious and wicked men”. (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars). Due to all of these matters, people actually feared the Druids, and therefore, would certainly think twice before trying to commit a crime.
Now I am going to move on to the issue of how the leadership of the Druids operated. According to Caesar, there was always one chief Druid who was the most important figure of the tribe. However, choosing this chief Druid was a very complicated and sometimes savage process. Caesar says “When the chief Druid dies, another outstanding Druid takes his place or, if there are several contenders, they hold an election among themselves or even fight the matter out”.(Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars). For Druidic leadership, it is shown that there could have been a mixture of any means, the most familiar to our time being clearly having an election, but most importantly, we are told that the Druids could go to even fanatical measures of bloodshed in order to obtain a leader.
I raised the question concerning the origin of the Druids; this question is answered firmly by Julius Caesar who relates that “It is thought that the Druids’ way of life was brought over from Britain to Gaul”. (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars). Julius Caesar is also known to have made historic expeditions to Britain, however, he didn’t discover anything of note about the Druids there. He also clarifies this by abruptly stating that “Today anyone who wants to find out more exactly what the Druids are like, goes across to Britain” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars). This information that Caesar gives us that he is trying to emphasise that not only do Druids come from Britain, but have some kind of headquarters and possibly more mysteries over there.
The Druids were known to keep themselves very much distant from warfare so much so that they excused themselves from paying war taxes and joining military services. This attracted many young men to join Druidism simply due to the prospect of not going to war. However, Tacitus recalled having a strange experience of the Druids when taking part in the attack on the island of Mona, he said “At the same time a circle of Druids raised their hands to heaven, screaming out terrible curses. The troops were dumbfounded by this strange spectacle” (Tacitus, Annals). These actions from the Druids make us feel stranger about the nature of the Druids and shroud them in more mystery.
I am now going to switch my focus on the teachings and the beliefs of the Druids. Julius Caesar says that “It is said that in the Druids’ schools they have to learn to recite many lines of verse by heart, so that some people spend twenty years training. They do not think it right to put these verses down in writing”. I think that this number of years if training is very much staggering and introduces a sterner aspect towards the Druids. Caesar goes on to further evaluate with his own views that “they do this for two reasons: firstly, they do not want everyone to know about their way of life; secondly, they do not want those who learn it to rely on writing as this would mean that they would not keep their memories in training” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars). In my opinion, this persistence of secrecy from the Druids only further shrouds them into much more mystery.
Now I would like to explain about the Druids’ most important and rather moving and emotional teaching which in my opinion mostly defines the nature of their creed. “Their main teaching is that souls do not die but when a man dies his soul passes to someone else. This belief helps to make them brave, as they do not need to fear death” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars). This belief of the Druids seems really to be quite general at this time, as there were many other tribes who had bravery installed into them and did not fear death. I think this in fact brings the Druids to be less complex and takes a bit of distance and element of mystery away from them. Julius Caesar also describes a more logical view of the Druids when he relates to their educational aspects, but also their religious combination of it, he says “In addition, they are always such matters as the stars and their movements, the size of the universe and the earth, the nature of the universe and the power of the immortal gods. And they pass on this learning to the younger generation” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars). This learning and teachings of the Druids really makes me admire the Druids very much, maybe because of my love of interest in the universe.
In conclusion, the Druids were very respectable people in society because of their excellent handling of issues in society. The fact that they were feared makes my admiration for them increase, because at the end of the day, they demonstrate to us a clear example of what we lack in today’s world to prevent atrocities occurring. Maybe their choosing of leaders rarely was inappropriate (fighting and bloodshed), but it always seemed to work and run successfully. To prove this, their beliefs and restrictions always attracted more people to join them (although it was to avoid war).
In the Druids’ beliefs and practices, I see a clear comparison with them and the Spartans. Both had vigorous training which lasted very long, and didn’t fear death, but ironically, a stark contrast comes in, which is that Sparta’s life very much depended on warfare and dieing in battle, which as we know, completely contradicted the Druids.
Researching Julius Caesars’ works on the Druids, I feel that Caesar probably contained the same views about the Druids as of those of mine. Caesar should get a lot of credit for his works on the Druids, but I think that there are probably is much more mysteries about the Druids which we will never find out.
Word Count- 1,470
Bibliography
The Romans Discover Britain
Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars
Tacitus- Annals
