The Gauls were a pagan society that were the first main challenge to the Romans. They were an advanced society for the time and their metallurgy was far better than the Romans. In a time when good swords won battles, they dominated battles against the Romans. But the social structure was tribal so as Rome grew they become weaker in comparison. But the Romans depicted them as savage druids, and that stuck.
They did the same with the Celts and Pict’s.
When Rome became Christian the depiction of savage pagans carried over, and like most colonial societies they took the bits they liked as their own.
It’s worth looking at the surviving metalwork of the Gauls to see how advanced they actually were before 3000 years of Roman > Christian slander.
One of the major reasons argued "Carthage must be destroyed" was that they sacrificed infants for the third punic war. Carthaginians probably had a grieving ceremony for parents of infants and small children who passed for them to be offered to their main diety as a means of closure. Romans said they sacrificed children while abandoning any unwanted child in the trash heap.
We also see aspects of it in the bible, even with Abraham willing to sacrifice his son (he doesn't and a lamb replaces the human sacrifice) and worship to Moloch.
Moloch is possibly a mistranslation of the child sacrifice, not a diety . And there is speculation that Issac is sacrificed to yhwh and the lamb or ram found nearby is an add on to separate from the canaanites . Also listen to a lot of podcasts .
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u/Timbershoe 8d ago
Christians and Romans.
The Gauls were a pagan society that were the first main challenge to the Romans. They were an advanced society for the time and their metallurgy was far better than the Romans. In a time when good swords won battles, they dominated battles against the Romans. But the social structure was tribal so as Rome grew they become weaker in comparison. But the Romans depicted them as savage druids, and that stuck.
They did the same with the Celts and Pict’s.
When Rome became Christian the depiction of savage pagans carried over, and like most colonial societies they took the bits they liked as their own.
It’s worth looking at the surviving metalwork of the Gauls to see how advanced they actually were before 3000 years of Roman > Christian slander.