life
0 2 OEANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. V.
to have been, often mounted as cliisels or spuds, or as the ferules of speai-s*. That such axes, if
not actual weapons, were extensively used by the Gauls in military operations, as well as in the
useful arts, appears proved by a coin of the Julian family relating to Csesar, having on the
reverse a trophy of Gaulish spoils and the flgui-e of an axe. In this reju-esentation, the axe-head,
from its form and style of ornament, is clearly a bronze celt. It is mounted on a strong shaft,
the end of which is curiously ornamented in the form of a grotesque animal head, imitated apparently
from that on the Roman secespita-\. The celts found in hai-rows in South Britain are
of the simple wedge shape, without either socket or stop-ridge i.
There is, we beheve, no reference to the use of the bow and arrow by the Britons in war;
though this weapon may have been so employed, as we know, it was by the Gauls, from Ciesar
and Strabo, the former of whom teUs us that the number of archers in Gaul was very great §. The
use of the bow by the ancient Britons, at least in the chase, is proved by the frequent discovery
of arrow-heads beautifully formed of flint, and delicately barbed. That arrows thus pointed
were in use to a late epoch, and probably to the close of the pre-Eoman or true Celtic period
in South Britain, and that a large proportion and the finest of these siliceous arrow-heads
are not to be attributed to the stone-age, is proved by their being very frequently found with
bronze weapons. The form and finish indeed of many of them is such, that if not copied from
metallic models, implements of metal must at least have been employed in their fabrication 1|.
The sling was extensively employed by the Gauls. Strabo mentions it, and Csesar more
than once describes the encounters of the legions with the Gallic slingers, who were especially
employed in assaults on camps and fortified places^. Of the use of the sling by the Britons there
is no historical evidence; but it may clearly be inferred, from the frequent discovery of sUngstones
within the area of their fortified camps and strongholds. Stores of roimded pebbles,
about the size of a pigeon's egg, of the hard limestone of the district, which must have been
brought from the sea-beach at some distance, were frequently found in the exploration of the
hut-circles within the British fortress at Worle TTill Similar stones in great numbers, recognized
as having been procured from the vale of the WUey, a distance of ten miles, were found
* For examples of celts from Barrows in South Britain,
see Hoare, "Ancient Wilts," vol. i. p. 203, 208, 209, plates
26, 28, 29 ; Tol. ii. p. 89. Bateman, Journal of the British
Archseological Association, vol. vii. p. 217. pi. 19. That
figured in "Ancient Wilts," vol. i. pi. 21, must, from the
manner in which it is fixed in its handle, have been used as a
chisel.
t De Jiagoy, loe. cit. pi. 2. fig. 8. One proof of these
celts being indigenous, is that of their being known throughout
France as "Gallic axes." In England, the objects found
with them are British—not Koman or Saxon.
J The best descriptions of British " celts" are those by Mr.
Du Noyer (Archseological Journal, vol. iv. pp. ], 327), Mr.
Yates (lb. vol. vi. p. 363), Mr. Hugo and Mr. H. Syer
Cuming (Journal of the British Archieological Association,
vol. ix. p. 63, 184). Mr. Yates successfully maintams the use
of the celt in military operations, but we think fails in the
proof of its being Roman. Mr. H. Syer Cuming shows reasons
for believing that it was often fitted, after the fashion of
a ferule, to the end of spear-shafts, and thinks that the loops
on such celts may have been for the attachment of the thong
{amentum)^ by which the spear when used as a missile was recovered.
A similar opinion is expressed by Rowland, in his
"Mona Antiqua." The intimate connexion of the two is
shown by the mould for casting celts and spear-heads of peculiar
type, both provided with a loop on each side. Archseological
Journal, vol. ili. p. 257.
§ Caisar, B. G. lib. vii. c. 31. Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4. § 3,
II For examples of flint alTow-heads found with objects of
bronze, see Hoare, " Ancient Wilts," vol. i. p. 239. pi. 34.
Wiltshire Archieological and Natural History Magazine, 1856,
vol. iii. p. 186. Mr. Du Noyer's remarks on the classification
of bronze and flint arrow-heads must here be referred to.
Archaeological Journal, vol. vii. p. 281. As with bronze
spear-heads and celts, a gradual development is to be traced in
the form of the bronze arrow-head, from a simple blade with a
tang for fixing in a split shaft, to those furnished with loops
and sockets, into which last the shaft was received. Bronze
arrow-heads are very rarely discovered in South Britain : one
only was found in the barrows of Wiltshire by Sir R. C.
Hoare, "Ancient Wilts," vol. i. p. 238. pi. 32. fig, 1.
If B. G. lib. V. c. 35, 43. comp. lib. ii. c. 6.
CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN. 93
within the camp at Bratton, on the escarpment of the WUtshire Downs. From these and other
similar instances, it may be concluded that the sKng was especially employed by the Britons, in
the defence of their fortified posts *. In the monkish histories of Ireland, referring to the
pagan period, slings and sling-stones are often mentioned. Whether the lia miledh, carried in
the girdle, was a sling-stone, or a stone celt intended for use as a missile, is doubtful f.
The Gauls, as we learn from Diodorus, at least the chiefs, used brazen hehnets and breastplates
of iron rings J ; but the Britons, as we have seen, in general disdained the use of such defensive
body armqur, trusting entirely to their shields. The shields of the Gauls are described as
very long, both by Strabo and Diodorus, and, as Virgil intimates, were in keeping with the size of
their bodies §. Livy speaks of the large—long and flat—shields of the Gauls in Asia Minor,
which, however, were too narrow to cover their large bodies ||. From the representations on
both Gauhsh and Roman coins, the Gallic shield was of a lengthened oval form, somewhat
pointed at each end, and about three feet and a half in length. The Ligm-ians and some of the
Celtiberians are said, by Diodorus, to have had oblong shields, like those of the GaulsIT; whilst
other of the Celtiberians and Lusitanians used smaU round bucklers, which Strabo says were
two feet in diameter, and Diodorus that they were made of thongs **. Csesar teHs us that the
Iberians who bordered on Gaul had adopted the Gaulish shield, and were hence termed scutatm;
whilst those of western and southern Spain, he terms cetratce, from their use of the smaU round
buckler—ce<m or pelta; which, from Strabo, may be inferred as proper to the Iberians, to whom
he gives the general name oipeUast,^^. The form and size of the cii-cular Iberian target is weU
seen on several autonomous coins of that country, and especially on some of IlKberis, of a date
probably not later than about 140 B.C.; the reverses of which represent cavah-y soldiers in the
native costumei J- The shield of the Britons, foUo^ving the rule of -M.Ao.-populi GalUce armati
—should resemble that of the Gauls rather than the Iberians, and be a scutum rather than
a cetra. On certain early British corns, anterior to the time of Claudius, and bearing the name
of the British prince Tasciovanus, the long oval Gaulish shield is distinctly shown, as the armour
of a horse-soldier§§. On a remarkable coin of Cunobelin, however, having on the obverse a
horseman with a long shield, a foot-soldier is represented on the reverse, with a round convex
shield, from eighteen inches to two feet in diameter, corresponding precisely with the Iberian
cetra, as described by Ccesar, Diodorus and Strabo || i|. Both forms of shield, it must be admitted,
* Hoare, " Ancient Wilts," vol.i. pp. 55, 56. Nearlyacart- ft Ccesar, B. Civ. lib. i. c. 39. Strabo, lib Ui c 4 & i s '
load of thjise large pebbles were obtained from tl,e British Livy Gib. xxii. c. 46) says that the Gauls and Spaniards at'
the battle of Canna:, though distinguished by their swords,
used shields of nearly the same form. The roerians in the
army of Hannibal were probably from Hither Spain.
t t Akermau, "Coins of Hispania," &c. p. 34. pi. 4. no. fi.
De Saulcv, "Monnaies d'Espagne," 1840, pp. 12,202. Archreocamp
at Brattou. Considerable deposits of smootli pebbles,
of a similar description, have likewise been turned up within
the great camp at Hamden Hill, near Yeovil. Proceedings of
the Somerset Archa;ological and Natural History Society, 1853,
vol. iii. p. 8.1. Circular discs of flint, the size of a crownpiece,
but thicker, are frequently discovered m the barrows of logical Journal, vol. xiii. p. 187. That the Carthaginians used
Yorkfinire nnrl DprlnrGliiro m Yorkshire and Derbyshire, whliiinclhi may have b1 een intended cfo r °
use in slings.
t W. R. Wilde, " Catalogue of Antiquities," Royal Irish
Academy, 1857, pp. 17, 74.
i Diodorus, lib. v. c. 30. The breast-plates of the Cimbri
were also of bright iron. Plutarch, Mar. c. 25.
5 Virgil, iEu. hb. viii. V. 662. " Scutis protecti corpora
lougis."
II Livy, lib. xxxviii. c. 17, 21.
If Diodorus, lib. V. C. 33, 34, 39. Strabo, Ub. iv. c. 6. § 2.
** Strabo, lib. iii. c. 3. § 6.
a very similar buckler, appears from the reverses of Roman
coins of the Cecilia family, which are supposed to exhibit the
spoils taken in the Punic wars. Morell, tab. iii. no. 3, quoted
by De Lagoy, loc. cit. pi. 1. no. 1. See also Servius (on Virg.
jEn. rii. V. 732), who defines the cetra as "scutum loreum,
quo utnutur Afri et Hispani."
§§ Mon. Hist. Brit. pi. l .no. 6. Akermau, "Coins of
Hispania, Gallia and Britannia," pi. 22. no. 9, pi. 21. no. 15.
nil Mon. Hist. Brit. pi. 1. no. 19, Akermau, loc. cit. pi. 24.
no, 9 ; but especially the specimen recently described by Mr.
Evans. Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xviii. p. 39. fig. 3.
O