17/04/2024
This podcast is probably the best and most respectful account of Celtic people I have ever heard. Specifically, it covers Caesar’s Gallic Wars and tells of how the Gauls resisted against him, fought, and nearly won.
I think everyone in Europe should know this story.
It even briefly covers the first (failed) attempt at a Roman invasion of Britain, or Bretannikē, though the bulk of these events took place in what is modern-day Northern France. It remains notable that the people of Gaul would have spoken a language extremely similar to that of ancient Britain, in the Brythonic language family tree (which is ancestral to modern-day Welsh).
For me, it is a rare and valuable resource of historical information compacted into an enjoyable listening format.
I listened to it before I began Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth in 2019 and it still holds up very well today.
The title “Celtic Holocaust” refers to the death tolls of Caesar’s wars for gold, slaves and land, and the manner in which he himself claims to have affected a potential 3 Million population of Gaul;
1 Million killed in warfare
1 Million sold into slavery after warfare
1 Million left to deal with the devastation of warfare and imperial expansion
These numbers are today thought by modern historians to have been grossly exaggerated by Caesar… But one thing all can agree upoon; Gaul never recovered to its former self and was, most certainly, changed forever.
Julius Caesar is our travel guide as he takes us through his murderous subjugation of the native Celtic tribal peoples of ancient Gaul. It sounds vaguely lik...
