|Weapons||Long Sword, Lancea, Sling, Burda|
|Battle Status||Lost vs. Persian Immortal|
|Experts||Francis Brebner (Highland Games Champion)
Spencer Dinnean (Celtic Warrior Descendant)
Dave Baker (Blade Master)
"We have no rules of engagement. Whatever we need to do to get the job done...we thought of war as a sport."
-Spencer Dinnean, Celtic warrior descendant.
The Celtic Warrior, the savage war loving barbarian from 400 BC, who dominated Europe through brute force and raw fighting skills;
the Persian Immortals, the precision killer in a massive war machine who forged the largest empire the middle east has ever seen.
Stats[edit | edit source]
- Year - 400 BC
- Height - 6'
- Weight - 180 lbs
- Armor - Leather & Wooden Shield
- Symbol - Woad pattern
History[edit | edit source]
The earliest known Homo Sapien in Europe was discovered in Apidima Cave in southern Greece, dated to 213,000 BC. The Aurignacians were the first modern people to populate Europe: immigrating from Turkey and the Middle East into Greece in circa 42,000 BC. This was shortly before the extinction of the Neanderthals, a subspecies of humans already living in Europe at that time. There are many theories about why the Neanderthals went extinct shortly after the arrival of Aurignacians; perhaps the Aurigancians committed genocide against Neanderthals, or Neanderthals were unable to survive with human competition dominating the land and its resources, or Neanderthals bred and mixed with the humans: a combination of these theories is also possible. England would be settled as late as circa 29,000 BC by the successors of the Aurignacians: the Gravettians. In circa 1,200 BC: the Iron Age began, and the Celts would eventually adopt this new metal to dominate Europe.
It is believed that the first Celts originated in the region of Bavaria and Austria as the Hallstatt Culture; which is what the city of Hallstatt, Austria is named after. The region saw both immigration and invasions during ancient times due to its high salt production; a vital and valuable resource.
Tribal warfare was a regular feature of Celtic societies, with tribes using warfare as a means of exerting political control harassing rivals, for economic advantage, and, in some instances, to conquer territory. The majority of Celtic warriors were usually levies, though Celtic levies often proved to be worthy adversaries despite their lack of training or discipline. Aside from fairly common tribal warfare, the Celts were actually quite civilized people, they are often credited with the invention of soap. Celt's were some of the ancient world's most talented metal workers and were quite famous for their fine swords and chainmail as well as many intricate works of art. During the La Tene era (~450 BCE-100 BCE), Celtic culture was geographically the most widespread in Europe and certainly one of the more advanced. It was during the La Tene period that Brennus led the Sennones tribe, among many others (perhaps even some Germanic tribes), into Italy and sacked Rome 386-387 BCE before being repelled and continuing on east to ravage the Balkans and parts of Greece before settling in Turkey in the region known as Galatia. Many of the Celtic tribes that remained in Gaul, the Alps, Bohemia, parts of Iberia, and parts of Britain were gradually conquered by the Romans around three hundred years later, due mostly to disunity often caused by Roman bribery. During this period of Roman conquering and occupation, Vercingetorix (ver-sin-get-or-rick)s became king of the Arverni tribe and led a rebellion against the Romans, which ended at the battle of Alesia where Vercingtorix lost, was captured, and was slain after Caesar's Triumph (basically a Roman parade after a military conquest) through Rome, of which he was a center piece. This effectively ended the heaviest Celtic resistance to Roman rule in Gaul, but they would later clash with the Romans in Hispania and Britain. In Hispania, several celtic tribes (known as the Lusitanians) fought a war of risistence against the Romans when they attampted to conquer Hispania, during this time Viriathus was waging a succesful war against the Romans, but after three of his allies were bribed by the Romans to murder Viriathus in his sleep, the Romans conqured Hispania. After Rome tried to annax more territory in Britain, Boudica led a celtic rebellion against the Romans after she was brutaly whipped and her daughters were raped by Roman soldiers, during this revolt the celts succesfuly burned down Roman towns and defeted entire legions but before they could drive the Roman legions out of Britain, Boudica and her army were defeated by the Romans at Walting Street, after which she eaither died of an unknown illness or commited suicide. The celts however would continue to cause problems for the Romans and finaly halt their advance.
In the aftermath of the fall of the Roman Empire; The Celts would form the beginnings of the modern European states; Franks would form France, and Spanish Celtiberians would form Spain. The Britons: who would then be conquered by Anglo-Saxons, and then by Normans under William the Conqueror: with the modern English being a genetic mix of the groups. Irish and Scottish Celts would be influenced by England throughout history; but would forge the early identities of Ireland and Scotland. Christianity quickly spread across Europe, and cracked down on the Celtic pagan culture. The Medieval Age was the beginning of the end of Celtic society, but Celtic culture has survived in modern art and music.
Galleries[edit | edit source]
Weapons[edit | edit source]
|Close-Range||Long Sword 170|
|Special Weapon||Burda Club 14|
The Celts fought with a wide variety of weapons, includings swords, daggers, spears, slings, javelins, axes, bows and even their shield was used for stricking in a two front attack (similer to the Vikings shield). They fought using infantry, cavalry, chariotry, and on occasions even used a navy. The prefered weapons and armor varied from tribe to tribe, some prefered using spears while others were master swordsmen. The armor of a Celtic tribe also varied greatly, some fought with leather armor, others using thier signature armor, chainmail, others used plate armor or scale armor and some were even known to fight naked. They were renowned iron workers, having invented chain mail. The top of Celtic society would wear chain mail and a decorated iron helmet, along with a high quality spear (Gaesum), shield and longsword. They would also be further decorated by bronze torques on their arms and necks and would often spike and bleach their hair to appear more intimidating.
Battle[edit | edit source]
The battle begins in a open field with the Persian Immortal and Celt in their own chariots, each with its own charioteer. The Celt raises his Long Sword and points at the other chariot, signaling his charioteer to advance. The Immortal's chariot signals for the chariot to charge as well. As the two chariots race across the field, the Immortal fires an arrow from his bow and hits the Celt's charioteer in his chest. The Persian chariot closes in and breaks one of the Chariot's wheels with a Chariot Scythe. The collision throws the Celt off of his chariot and flips the chariot over. The Celt runs up to the fallen vehicle and grabs his Lancea, choosing to abandon his shield. With a loud battlecry, he charges at the Persian Immortal and his chariot. The Persian fires another arrow, but misses. As he readies another arrow, the Celt throws his Lancea. It misses, but it distracts the Immortal and prevents him from getting a clear shot. The Celt runs past the Persian chariot, vaulting over the incoming Scythe. He grabs his Lancea and tries to distance himself from the chariot. He realizes that it won't do him any good, however, and chooses to discard it in favor of his Sling. The Persian Immortal jumps off his chariot with his spear and shield just before the Celt swings his Sling around and throws a rock. The rock hits the Persian charioteer and knocks him unconsious. The Immortal runs towards the Celt, but the Celt picks up his Lancea just as the Immortal approaches him. He thrusts at the Immortal, knocking his spear out of his hand. The Immortal tries to back off, but the Celt jumps up and kicks him. The Immortal draws his Sagaris axe and glares at the Celt. The two begin to swing at each other, but cannot pull off a successful blow. After a few misses, the Celt aims at the Immortal's thigh and stabs it. The Persian Immortal yells in pain and swings, forcing the Celt to pull out his Lancea. The Immortal tries an overhand swing, but the Celt blocks with his Lancea. The Persian seizes the opportunity to kick him in the stomach and knock him down. The Celt gets back up and draws his Long Sword and Burda club. He distracts the Immortal with the Long Sword, and then hits the Immortal with the club. The Persian Immortal blocks the Long Sword with his Sagaris, but the Celt kicks him again. The Celt tries to finish the fight with a stab, but the Immortal rolls out of the way. He gets back up and swings the Sagaris, but the Celt parries and hits him twice with the Burda Club. The Immortal falls to the floor, but manages to roll over and block the Long Sword with the Sagaris. He gets up and spins around the Sagaris, piercing the Celt's arm. The Celt hits the Sagaris out of the Persian Immortal's hands and leaves him without a weapon. The Immortal runs away, forcing the Celt to chase him down, dropping the Burda from his wounded arm. The Immortal finds his spear laying on the floor and grabs it. He thrusts it at the Celt twice, but misses. The Celt tries to swing the sword downward, but the Immortal flips the Spear over and hits him in the head with the iron counterweight on the bottom of the spear. The Celt throws his head back in pain, giving the Immortal enough time to flip the Spear again and stab the Celt in the chest. He drives the Spear harder through the leather armor and forces the Celt to the floor. The Immortal pushes the spear deeper until blood spews out of the Celt's mouth as the Immortal pulls out his spear. The Persian Immortal, standing over the dead body, raises his spear and yell out "Parsa!" (Persia) in victory.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Archaeological evidence has shown that the Celts did indeed invent chainmail.
- An interesting note in history is both the Celts and Immortals fought at the famous Thermopylae pass. The Persian Immortals did so under Xerxes I, in the famous battle against 300 Spartans, the Celts did so under Brennus almost 200 years later.
- Many Celts immigrated to Rome and the Roman Empire. By the end of the Roman Empire, the population of foreigners rivaled that of the native Romans. Roman military technology devolved to resemble barbarian weapons because of this culture clash and the financial troubles of the late Romans.
- Hannibal allied himself with Iberian and Gaulish Celts, though because Celts were separate tribes, Hannibal also had to fight Celts. Sometimes he would convert the opposing Celts to his army.
- Celtic civilization was formed earlier than 800BC, making the Celt one of the most ancient or oldest warrior on Deadliest Warrior to date.
- The celt were ancestors of the Scotish and Irish clans.
- Like North America's Native americans, the celts were not united under a single empire but instead they lived in hundreds of tribes across most of Europe and the British Isles.
- Celtic Languages spoken today include Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Manx and Breton.
- One of the oldest preserved corpses still intact today is a Celt know as 'Old Croghan Man'. He has was believed to have died somewhere between 362 and 175 B.C. His corpse was found in an Irish bog, which were so well known for preserving people that they created a term for the corpses: 'Bog Body'. This bog body was ritually mutilated after his death, probably from a Celtic burial tradition.
- Despite Celts being tribal, many Irish Celtic tribes have been discovered to have imported foreign goods from the Baltics and North Africa.
- A majority of their history was written by Romans as Celts had no written language. This made many of the accounts of the Celts heavily biased by their enemies.
- It was very common for Celts to bring animal symbols into battle, even on their helmets. Some Celts wore horned helmets; which most likely inspired the myth of Vikings having horned helmets.
- Many Celtic tribes mimicked Greek hoplite tactics.
- One of the reasons why Celts fought naked was because pants could get caught in bushes if the Celts attempted to run in the forests.
- The Roman Empire's conquest of the Celtic Britons was actually less profitable than not conquering them. In peacetime; Rome was able to profit from import tariffs. It was common for Celtic territories to be more expensive than they were worth for the Romans; who had to establish new political and military forces in the regions while also trying to establish and maintain fortifications and infrastructure. Many Celtic revolts that did succeed against the Roman Empire did so because Rome couldn't financially afford to maintain the province.
- Celtic Warpaint is primarily from the plant Isatis Tinctoria. The color of the dye produced by the plant is called 'Celtic Blue'.
- The Gallic Empire was a short lived independent Gaul that broke away from the Roman Empire between 260 AD–274 AD.