- Appearance, Life and Leisure -
in cedar oil,94 which practice is also recorded on Trajan's column, completed in
c.AD 113.^95
In many respects society was structured, with nobles, princes and kings guidillg
the tribe or smaller social group under their control. Hence the shock felt when
Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes, set aside her husband Venutius, and took
his armour-bearer Vellocatus for her lover.96 Below the noble classes, but no less
important to the whole society were the druids with their various skills, intermediary
between ordinary mortals and the gods, and custodians of the laws and traditions,
and whose influence could sway the decisions of kings and warriors, and bind the
people more closely together during times of conflictY
Artisans and craftsmen, especially the smith, were accorded high honour and
status, for what must have seemed the almost magical transformation of lumps of
earth and rock into pure molten iron, bronze or the precious gold and silver, and
thence into weapons, tools and things of great beauty. The skills of the smith were
jealously guarded and kept within the family, or passed on to a trusted apprentice
who had shown aptitude. The importance of the smith's trade is also reinforced
by representations of the tools of his trade on pottery,98 but the secrecy and accom-
panying ritual during the process of smelting and manufacture continued well
into the Middle Ages.^99 Less is known of the other, lesser members of society, the
farmers, traders, servants and slaves, or of their families. As elsewhere in the ancient
world where medicine and a true understanding of disease and its causes were little
understood, life must have been a hard grind to keep body and soul together. Infant
mortality and death in childbirth was not uncommon .. As was pointed out by Birley
in 1979, life expectancy was short when compared with the comparative longevity of
today.loo Parents would have tried to raise a large family in the hope that some
of their offspring would be strong enough to survive until adulthood. War and
agricultural accidents, especially if suffered by the stronger members of the family,
could ruin a household where children were too young to cope with the vital heavier
tasks. Failure of crops through unseasonable weather, infestation by pests or fungal
attack were also to be greatly feared.
Not all prospects were bleak. The Celts of the historic period down to the present
have always been able to entertain themselves. Visits from traders travelling between
farmsteads, villages and towns, and the fortified and strategically defensible places
that were establishing themselves, would have been welcomed for their news and
gossip. Bards were made much of for their music and songs, and their stories would
have been suitably rewarded, especially during the dark days of winter and at festival
time. Board games were played, as demonstrated by the gaming-pieces and (?)board
from the Welwyn Garden City burial 1965;101 and at important gatherings young
men would compete against each other in different sports and contests to prove their
prowess before their elders.
Gradually under external influences over the centuries, the various Celtic tribes
adapted to the outward trappings of Graeco-Roman civilization. Members of the
upper classes became part of the administration from G. Julius Alpinus Classicianus,
who became procurator of the province of Britain in AD 6 I following the revolt of
Boudica;102 to the fourth-century Attius Patera of Bayeux, who claimed descent from
a druidical family. He was the son of a priest of Apollo Belenus and friend to the
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