- Chapter Twenty-Five -
a practice essentially similar to that described by Caesar (De Bello Gallico Vl.I7):
When they have decided to fight a battle, it is to Mars that they usually dedicate
the spoils they hope to win.CLASSICAL WRITERS ON CELTIC GODS
Although Greek and Roman writers recorded their perceptions of Celtic culture
and religion, especially from the first century Be, they provide little evidence for
the identity or function of Celtic deities. Indeed, such commentators as Caesar,
Strabo and Diodorus Siculus are more concerned with ritual practices, such as head-
hunting, or religious functionaries, like the druids, than with Celtic perceptions
of the supernatural world. Caesar (De Bello Gallieo Vl.I4) alludes to druidic lore
concerning the transmigration of souls. Both Lucan (Pharsalia 1.446ff.) and Diodorus
(v.28.6) comment on this Celtic belief in a cycle of death and rebirth.
Where mention of the gods does occur, it is heavily overlaid by Roman conflation
and misinterpretation. Thus Caesar (VI. I 7) speaks as if Celtic deities are identical with
those of the Roman pantheon, giving them such names as Mercury, Mars and Jupiter.
Does this mean that he was unaware of their native names, that they were deliberately
Figure 25.4 Altar of Romano-Celtic date dedicated to Taranucnus, a derivative of Taranis, the
Celtic thunder-god; Bockingen, Germany. (Photo: Wlirttembergisches Landesmuseum,
Stuttgart.)472