Calgacus - The man who kept the Romans out of Scotland
The first recorded Caledonian was consigned to history for a reason. Calgacus was chief of the Caledonii in the Scottish Highlands and he headed a r…
Celtic Barbarians
Viriathus - A shepherd who became ‘the terror of the Romans’
Modern-day Portugal was home to the proud Lusitanians, who thrived on self-sufficiency (and occasionally crime). But as the Romans made their way…
Vercingetorix - Leading a rebellion against the Romans never goes well
Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars saw the Roman general and statesman fight many Celtic tribes across Gaul, but he perhaps didn’t expect them to rebel. Wh…
Boudica - The Iceni queen who led a massacre of Roman soldiers
In 43 CE, Prasutagus ruled the Iceni tribe in modern-day East Anglia, but it was his wife who would go down in history. Prasutagus wanted to keep hi…
Gaius Julius Civilis - A German-born Roman army officer with a grudge
The chieftain of the Batavi in the 60s CE, Gaius Julius Civilis, was a little different – he was a Celt who had become a Roman citizen and joined th…
Dumnorix - The lone dissenter turned on his brother to oppose Caesar’s conquest of Gaul
The Aedui tribe was closely allied with the Romans in the 1st century BCE. Their leader, Divitiacus, even mediated between Julius Caesar and the oth…
Caratacus - The British resistance fighter was hauled before Emperor Claudius
While Celtic Britain was a patchwork of tribal states, Caratacus was effectively the king of southern England in the early 1st century, ruling from …
Brennus - The warrior who brought the Republic to its knees
"Vae Victis” – meaning ‘woe to the vanquished’ – declared this war chief of the Senones tribe when he sacked Rome around 390 BCE. Originally Br…
Ambiorix - The king lured the Romans into an ambush
The Romans did not consider the Eburone a threat, but under Ambiorix’s leadership they massacred 6,000 legionnaires. Living in modern-day Belgium, t…