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Short description

These light and mobile Galatian spearmen are members of a warband and have sworn their allegiance to a noble leader.

Description

This light spear infantry made up a big part of Celtic armies. Having joined a warband, these younger sons of Galatian commoners are hoping to win sufficient glory, recognition and gold in war to become landowners themselves. Armed with spear, sword, and shield, these warriors would usually fight defensively in close formations.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

During the late Bronze and early Iron Age, most of central Europe was covered by the Hallstatt culture (ca. 1200 –450 BC), named after the homonymous village in Austria (south of Salzburg), where some of the most important finds of this period have been made. Politically, these early Celts were ruled from so called Fürstensitze (princely seats), impressive hillforts such as the Heuneburg on the Danube (now South-West Germany) or Vix in what is now Northern Burgundy. The pottery and jewellery finds attest to an incredible wealth of its inhabitants, with the Heuneburg hosting a population of well over 10,000 people. Contrary to popular imagination, the Celts were mostly peaceful people during this period, master traders who often hired foreign warriors as mercenaries if they did go to war after all. Therefore, the Phokaian Greeks who would eventually found Massalia around 600 BC probably arrived in the Keltiké as mercenaries hired by the local rulers (which can be inferred from e.g. Iust. XLIII, 3, 4–11).

Why and how this prosperous period in the history of early Central and Western Europe came to an end is still discussed by archaeologists and historians alike. Kim McCone (e.g. 1987, 2002) has suggested that, already during the late Hallstatt period, we can find an institution called koríos. This comprised landless young males who engaged in raiding and warfare to win wealth in other ways, styling themselves as wolves. This fits to our current general image of the La Tène period (ca. 450 BC-31 BC), when petty kings depended on the prestige won in war to retain their power. The constant population growth had given rise to social tensions, and it seems that Hallstatt society was unable to solve these. Instead, the afterborne sons of landowners regularly organised themselves in warbands, and their raiding may have brought down the old Fürstensitze.

Soon, these warbands began attacking and raiding not only other Celts, but also their neighbours. Most famously, in 390 or 387 BC a large group of Gallic warriors, possibly hired by Dionysios I of Syracuse as mercenaries (Bridgman 2003), sacked the city of Rome. Yet most warbands were smaller, often encompassing the retainers of nobles (Ambacti) who had sworn their life to their leader, a phenomenon known as devotio on the Iberian Peninsula. Among these warriors one would not only find the heavily armed bodyguards and the favoured “Parasitoi”, as the Greeks called them, but also these commoners, who would wear little more than a thureos shield, the famous bracae (Gallic trousers, see e.g. Polyb. II, 28, 7), and a long wooden spear.