'How often do you think of the Roman Empire?' Simon : Delivers his best vocal narration in years. Fantastic script and intense narration. Great episode.
@@darcybissonpullen7125 If you participate in literally anything in Western society then you're already subconsciously thinking about it's foundations. Roma... Aeterna. Well at least until we collapse ourselves and the East transplants it.
Thank you for not confusing the Irish druids with the British ones. Different culture, different language, different ideals. And Ireland never fell to Rome.
In pre-Roman times, Irish and British druids shared a similar core set of beliefs, rooted in the wider Celtic religious and cultural framework that spanned much of Iron Age Europe. The Irish and British druids likely spoke closely related languages within the Celtic language family, though there would have been distinct dialectal differences. Not as different as you seem to think.
@@vids595being able to communicate and sharing some basic beliefs does not make them part of the same culture. The United States and England share a language, dominant religion, and a lot of history and beliefs. It'd still be ridiculous to treat the two countries like they're the same.
Ireland was counted as a Celtic Isle by itself and Celts in general since the Celtic culture and its language dialects existed. Ireland is visible from England and Wales, and v.v. Most of Great Britain did NOT fall to Rome BTW.
In spite of Irish being a Celtic language, linguistically (an archaic one tracing back to the steppes more than 4,000 years ago), the Irish were not Celts and the Celts did not invade or occupy Ireland. Material culture demonstrated this for decades before modern genetic research finally confirmed it. There may have been the occasional individual immigrant but the Irish did not adopt Celtic culture. There's no evidence of their culture or genome changing at all during the period when Celts arrived and spread throughout Britain. The Irish had arrived over a thousand years prior, with their more archaic form of a related language, and they show amazing cultural continuity and genetic insularity basically until the Viking incursions and ultimate Norman conquest.
Both are, obviously, awful. Though you could argue that our own society is one of Human sacrifice for both entertainment and commercial purposes, but that's not the point I came here to make. Though both are obviously awful, one thing I will say is that people are easily sated while Gods can demand the infinite - if a group of people go to the coliseum to watch blood and mayhem, after a certain amount of blood and mayhem they'll be satisfied and ready to go back to other things. But any religious head can have a moment of zealotry and decide that, this time, the Gods require the firstborn of everyone in the village. And everyone from the village next door. And everyone who thinks this is a bad idea. There's a great example in the bible, where a king burned thousands upon thousands of livestock in ritual sacrifice - that was likely most of the meat in the kingdom, incinerated, to feed not the population but a king's reputation with his god. Aztecs did similar - they genuinely believed that if they didn't sacrifice enough worthy warriors to one of their gods, the sun would stop rising. It wasn't just about gaining rep, it was about preventing the end of the world. They sacrificed so many enemy warriors that they ran out, and began sending agents to incite rebellions inside their own conquered territories just so that they had more warrior hearts for the sun god's perpetual death machine.
Druids: human sacrifice for religious purposes. Romans: human sacrifice for entertainment purposes. *Modern World : human sacrifice for pure 100% profitability*
@@aecides3203that's all true but don't forget that the ruins himself also sacrifice humans for religious purposes. Doing a plague outbreak, dozens of couple where buried alive to please the gods
Kind of a shame that all the big blockbuster movies that deal with Roman conquest pretty much paint it as expanding their land, generic putting down of rebellions. Everyone knows they intentionally wiped out the druids, but somehow Hollywood hasn't capitalized on that.
@@sea_triscuit7980 as op mentioned Hollywood, 110% can confirm that the US doesn't idolize the Romans at all. It comes down due to a lack of knowledge. European history isn't taught in as much detail as the US/North American history. Hollywood gets upset when a non white gets arrested for armed robbery
@@alejandromaldonado6159the druids became a threat when rome subjugated gaul and germany. It's like the US attacking mexico and wiping out every native because "the mexicans threatened violence"😂
The Romans also completely wiped out the Phoenecian Religion and unlike Druidism not even their gods were safe from Roman annihilation. The Romans incorporated the gods of the Druids and their faithful such as Epona. The Romans wiped out the entire Phoenecian religion including their gods alongside wiping out all the Phoenecians by enslaving them, killing them, and destroying all their written history.
@ The Lebanese of Lebanon are Lebanese not Phoenecian for they do not speak Phoenecian, they do not write Phoenecian, they possess nothing of Phoenecian culture nor religion, their civilizations are entirely different, the only thing they share is relativistic geographic symmetry.
It was the beginning of the end for Rome fighting the celts.celts were in Ireland too not touched but roman Catholic church tried to erase that too final nail in coffin to celts and brehan laws
Well... rest in peace to the Druids man. Ancient Romans destroying cities, culture, civilizations... now, entire religions. The grind doesn't stop, I guess...
They didn't necessarily destroy the religion, itself. The whole point was that the druids had a high level of political sway & were inspiring violent rebellion amongst the Celtic provinces. But, the religion it continued going for a fair time afterwards.
@@MrChristianDT It melted with the Greek and Roman pantheon but their ancient rites and mythologies disappeared, the Romans were not tolerant people but syncretic ones, they believed that all the people on earth believe in the same gods but with different names ( of course, since the Romans were jingoist, they think they got them in the right way). That is why the Jews and the Christians were discriminated against in the Roman Empire because their monotheism and the belief that there was only one god worthy of veneration destroyed the image the Romans had of themselves. That explained why the druids were all but killed.
I would love to hear your script writers deep dive into Henry Morton Stanley & his infamous expedition into Africa. Your brand blend of intense, sincere, and powerful writing, narrative, and story telling would make it an excellent listening/learning experience.
After first studying Celtic History, I noticed a stunning similarity between what happened to the Native Americans in North America, and the Celts. I was fortunate to continue my studies in a very Celtic/Romanic city in Germany (Bad Kreuznach) from 1998-2001. The eradication of Native American culture for Christianity's sake in the U.S. was very similar to what the Romans did in conquering Britain in my view. Thanks for this video, cheers.
@@toomanymarys7355 Christians also have ritualistic sacrifice under the pretense of heresy laws. You'll burn and behead anyone to appease God and drive out the demons as Jesus did, but I guess we can pretend that's not the same as any other fanatic cult.
The idea that the romans, one of the most bloodthirsty societies in history, which killed people in games for fun, demonized druids because of human sacrifice... Hypocrisy much?! 🤦
No, the gladiator games were not to the death, with the only exception being murderers sentenced to death. In the Roman world, there was a clear difference between war and cooking your fellow countrymen for spiritual blessing.
Oh the hypocrisy was much more blatant than that. You known, because of that whole thing where the Romans ritually murder of enemy combatants for the glory for their gods during the Triumphs.
Um, all cultures were bloodthirsty, and to a large degree...that's still around in some form. You can't say one culture had a monopoly on that, especially when your example isn't even right since most gladiators did it as a profession, meaning...they didn't die, it was a fight to when you were incapacitated. Really goes to show how you extremists on both sides of the political spectrum fail to really learn about history with the broader context. You just regurgitate things you heard offhand in some random video
Plus they likely overexaggerated the Celts sacrifical practices to make them seem barbaric but the likelihood is they wouldn't have sacrificed more people than Romans. Especially when it comes to prisoners of war.
I know the "fairy doctor" thing would seem to be some sort of continuation of the druids medical knowledge, & the celtic countries kept alive several non-christian religious rituals, but I wouldn't know about much else with that regard.
What a fascinating exploration of such a significant moment in history! I really appreciate how you presented the complexities involved. That said, I can't help but wonder if the portrayal of Rome's actions might come off as a bit one-sided. Many might argue that every major empire has its own narrative when it comes to such conflicts. Just something to think about!
Yeah, you might look into the Albigensian Crusade, when the Catholic Church committed genocide against the Cathars, for the crime of not being Catholic...aka heresy.
Another group of Europeans believing in reincarnation, decimated to keep all focused on death to achieve eternal life via the gateway that is “The Church.” What would happen if a large group of people endeavoured to consciously reincarnate? Well, we would have Eternal Life in every sense of the term as soon as someone succeeds where Casanova and La Marquise d’Urfe failed.
Don't trust anyone, ancient or modern, who tells you "what the Druids believed." Yes, the destruction of Druidic worship and belief really was completely "comprehensive," and what little was written down at the time by those who might know, was done so for explicitly propagandistic purposes by their pagan or Christian adversaries to justify their elemination. This dearth of knowledge also covers the "Celtic revival" of the 19th and 20th centuries. Like "Neopaganism" generally, but even more completely so in the case of Druidism, modern romanticizers had essentially zero reliable information to work with. What they created and pushed into the modern popular consciousness bears basically no relation to the ancient reality whatsoever. And the Druids of the Celts and their Germanic neighbors who together populated all of Western Europe left no writings regarding their beliefs and practices. So, unless someone can directly cite specific archeological discoveries, and can also be trusted to be interpreting them accurately given our dearth of historical contextual information, no discussion of what these people actually believed and their rites is remotely trustworthy. Simon's talk here is mostly in line with this, but he does mention their supposed belief in something we can vaguely and anachronistically liken to reincarnation, as well as that their human sacrificial behavior "probably" existed while not being as extreme as the Roman depictions of it, and that they were essentially animists "close to nature." But even such minimal assertions are guesses based on conjecture and not to be taken as factual.
Modern Paganism as long as its not dumb liberal abominations are probably quite close to the conservative European Pagans, I am not "new age" or "neopagan" paganism is the old religion not some new thing and I could never identify with new age weirdos
Wow! Nice to see someone talking about the actual Druids and not a video game or movie character. Druidism is actually part of my core beliefs and practice.
The Romans did not annihilate the ancient Egyptians nor their religion. It was the Arab Muslims that did that. The Ptolemaic Kingdom ended in 30 BC when Cleopatra VII died.
@@Reina.Nijinsky except the Romans did end their religion seeing as how around 30BC they were conquered by the Roman Empire and begin introducing Christianity in Egypt. And around the 530s nobody really practiced that religion anymore
A segment of the Golden Book is set in 1 BC... And Petibonum is the local trading center, the village's palisade is in disrepair, and there's no druid around. The implication is that at some point the Romans won... And while how they did it isn't shown, they could have turned the village against Panoramix.
@@thcusandsunnyYep. Getafix is captured by the Romans in Asterix The Gaul and The Big Fight. Fulliatomatix bashes Cacofonix and hates fish. Chief Vitalstatistix is hen pecked by wife Impedimenta.
It reveals something significant of the importance of Druidism that the Romans felt they had to wipe it out entirely. Other religions were left to their own devices within the empire, with client kings utilised for mediation. As troublesome as Judaism was for them, they still didn’t try and wipe it out entirely. Druidism was certainly a religion where central to its practices was a respect for the very fabric of nature. One might imagine there were religious caveats within Druidism around the extraction of resources from the Earth, and the resource hungry Roman Empire felt they had to remove this obstacle in order to exploit it. We might only imagine what the Earth would look like today if these ancient nature venerating religions had continued to hold sway over the spiritual imaginations of human beings.
Meh. If you want to paint a narrative that Druidism was significantly important or unique, you can spin it any which way you want. But the Romans certainly destroyed other cultures and religions in their time, pre and post Caesar. Look at your own example - the Jews. Do you really think it’s reasonable to say that Hadrian didn’t try to wipe out?
@ well, the Romans were reasonably pragmatic when it came to other people’s beliefs and were even known to venerate local gods and meld equivalent gods etc. Unless a culture and their beliefs were seen to threaten their rule the Romans were characteristically tolerant.
The did try to destroy Judaism a few times. The main problem, I think, with the Druids was their oral tradition, it's way easier to censure and erase a culture with no written records.
@ good point about the oral tradition. Especially considering Hebrew has been brought back from extinction solely because it existed in written form. The British all but kept their language despite Roman control. Modern Welsh is still ostensibly a Brythonic language with some Latin nomenclature here and there
The Romans never get to the four corners of the British Isles. They called Scotland Caledonia, meaning the Unconquerable, and it was a place where the Druids were able to persist. And verbal histories are still passed down. My family still celebrates some of the key dates in the Druid calendar year...though no human sacrifice for a while now, as far as I know.
@@DenSchimmige gladiators rarely died, because they were expensive to train and maintain for their owners. Their owners didnt want their expensive (in both money and time) gladiators to just die like that.
@@togiielectricboogaloo6875 so you claim prisoners/prisoners of war and the religious that were persecuted in Rome at any given moment never got fed to lions or "executed" by gladiators as a sacrifice to sate the entertainment demands of the cities populations? I'm not saying it's millions or even hundreds of thousands of times, But It Did Happen and you can't rewrite history dude. But by all means it's the internet, Insult the dead.
Much later, the Christian Romans also wiped out the Manichaeans. These were a gnostic religion related to Buddhism and for a long time they were the greatest competitors to Christianity. The Christians persuaded Theodosius I to outlaw the religion and decree death for all Manichaean monks in 382, and the religion died out from Europe sometime in the 500s AD.
@@B-I-G-N-A-S-T-Y. Not so, as druids believed in their souls being subsumed back into the earth that made them. Essentially making all living things interconnected. By most historians accounts any young man could become a druid as long as he has the patience to memorize the inherited knowledge given by a druid. It's probably the reason why early humans understood about changing seasons and what flora and fauna was safe to consume
9:15 one of those druids from Ireland managed to get to the new world where he anglized his name to Atticus O' Sullivan. He has been alive since that time, over 2000 years. He has an irish wolfhound named Oberon. 😅😅😅 Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne. A good read with gods from many mythologies, vampires, witches, werewolfs, ghouls etc
Good stuff! Looking forward to your feature coverage of MANI-chaeism. N.B. Augustine the APOSTATE played a central role in waging war on this ancient SYNCRETIC religion. SO sad ......
Thank you for safeguarding one of the oldest role of storyteller Simon, without storytellers I don't think we will ever grow, just repeating the same tragedy over and over.
The Druids were more than mere priests, or judges, or advisors, they were doctors, philosophers, poets musicians, keepers of tribal history, memory, dispensers of Culture and enforcers of tradition. They were seers, diviners and interpretors of natural phenomena, and dreams. No wonder the Roman's feared and hated them! Their power was soft but impactive, while Roman might was hard and destructive. I guess we do have the Roman to thank for this illustrative example of Genocide and Culturecide.
This is why I’ve always said that those cultures with oral traditions need to meet in the middle and make written accounts of their culture. You never know when your culture will end or be badly diminished. Written accounts can ensure your culture survives in memory, or it can serve to teach the survivors of your culture.
Their are parallels: the Spanish destruction of the Aztecs, and the Brittish colonists' subjugation of native American people. When visiting New Zealand in the 1980's, it was refreshing to see that the Maoris are respected and allowed to maintain their culture. The Australians also allow the Aboriginal people to carry on their culture, but not all Australians seemed to be on board.
I think it's fascinating that for so many other religious the Romans simply incorporated them into their own pantheon as a way of winning the people they conquered round, but they didn't/couldn't do that with the druids which is really telling. I've often seen it explained as the druids being the civil service of the Celtic world. It wasn't just a religion it was a form of government that unified the tribes. The fact that Rome had to eradicate them so entirely really shows how powerful they were. Makes me so sad thinking about all the knowledge lost. Think about the ancient Greeks and their philosophers. Many ancient cultures would have had equivalent scholarship that has been lost due to conquest/not being written down.
Latin and Latino aren't interchangeable either but people use it as such. Latin = Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and Romania (i.e. the successor states of Western Rome) Latino (Short for Latinoamericano -Latin + American ) = Someone from America that Speaks a Latin Language. Under the strict definition of Latinoamerican, the one Napoleon III wanted when he made the term up, Quebec is in fact a part of Latinamerica. (Is in the American continent and Speaks a Latin language)
"In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing..." -Nigel Tufnel
Fun fact: this was my final project I completed for college, was a discussion on the Druidism, more specifically there goddess Epona. My conclusion was very much “Screw you Rome for making my life a living nightmare!”
With this said, I am not going to watch this video or respond to comments because the longer I think about the subject the more my headache returns so goodbye y’all
The Romans worshipped Epona alongside other gods who were neither Latin nor Hellenic. The Romans merely replaced the clergy with another who served the politik and authority of the empire. The same luxury was not granted to the Phoenecians.
The last Druid lived on Hirta / St Kilda island in the early 1800s, were he and the other islanders practiced a syncretic Druid /Catholic belief system complete with Pagan altars , animal sacrifices and a stone circle . It was then that protestant missionaries ended what Rome began all those years ago , destroying the stone circle for good measure .
Human sacrifice was one moral motivation for the destruction of the Phoenicians, Rome's early great enemy. If druids didn't realize the same behaviour would have them branded as evil by the presiding European power then they weren't all that bright
I think the Druids were basically prototype hippies, and it always amuses me how modern Druids congregate at Stonehenge even though it was built at least 2000 years before Druidism was even a thing!!
Cultures and religions always change and incorporate new elements. There's nothing especially weird or silly about their affinity for Stonehenge. We also don't actually know when druidic practice started, or HOW it started. By its very nature, it is extremely hard to study and track through historical sources. Throughout history, whole deities have merged with others, or disappeared, developed brand new associations that wipe out their old ones, and have been added to different pantheons. That's how it always works. Catholicism now looks absolutely nothing like early Christianity, doesn't even share many of the core beliefs they would have held, and most of the practices that we're familiar with are extremely recent. Living practices are never static, and even before the original druids were wiped out, I can guarantee that their practices also changed significantly and incorporated different elements over time.
do you mean 'the second time' Rome destroyed an Entire Religion, don't forget they also eliminated Carthage and their religion in the Punic Wars. It's so sad that Rome was so destructive during its rise to power...
The Romans also completely destroyed their main competitor, the Phoenicians , who were a worthy rival, having defeated the Romans in battles as much as the other way around. But when Rome finally got the edge and invaded their capital city, they killed everybody and burnt it to the ground, so that literally nothing was left of this civilization. Their brutal, revengeful destruction was complete and total. This was the Romans.
The druids did have a written language. It was called ohmish. It was like no other writing, and they wrote on very large, perfectly preserved oak leaves. They had impressive libraries.
No, they didn't. They were often literate, meaning they could read and write, but they did not record their lore or practices. It was an entirely oral tradition, which means they passed it down through listening and memorization. There were no druidic libraries. I believe you are talking about ogham, but it was not used by druids to record their teachings. Not sure where you got the oak leaf druid libraries idea from, but it definitely wasn't any actual historical sources. Druids were a religious group, not a whole culture. The culture they lived in had written language, but the druids themselves did not use it to keep any religious records.
@@Chance_Rice Absolut Nonsense! You, it is you that obviously have no Clue about that Issue! The proverbial Guy sitting in a Glasshouse throwing Stones. Pathetic! 🤦
The Romans, who often adopted aspects of other cultures they conquered, made an exception with the Druids. They systematically destroyed Druidic sites, rituals, and sacred groves to erase their influence. Unlike other conquered peoples, the Druids left no written records of their own, as their knowledge was passed down orally. The Romans’ destruction of Druidic practices led to the loss of an entire body of spiritual and cultural knowledge.
When an empire destroys a religion so thoroughly you only know them from D&D.
It must be said oral traditions are easily removed from history.
It's even funnier since the druids didn't want to write anything down. 😅
@@lupea8079You think genocide is funny?
@@merlebarney quit being a tool
@@merlebarneythe poor druids ! I put a curse on those romans! may their empire one day fall!
I watched with a faint hope that Asterix the Gaul and indominitable village with Getafix the druid would be mentioned, but that hope was extinguished.
Sad, really
Another casualty in the war of the Romans against the druids
I was just thinking, if Getafix had been able to share his magical potion of strength with more clans, maybe things would have gone differently
You beat me to it!
@@alyssinwilliams4570 He gave the british tea 😄
'How often do you think of the Roman Empire?'
Simon : Delivers his best vocal narration in years.
Fantastic script and intense narration. Great episode.
The issue isn’t “how often” but more “when…” and frankly “usually.”
Simon needs to like your comment!✌️
I bet every day people think of it with out knowing
@@darcybissonpullen7125 If you participate in literally anything in Western society then you're already subconsciously thinking about it's foundations. Roma... Aeterna. Well at least until we collapse ourselves and the East transplants it.
@@gregoire203333Simon doesn’t like or love comments. He’s too busy making more videos.
Thank you for not confusing the Irish druids with the British ones. Different culture, different language, different ideals. And Ireland never fell to Rome.
In pre-Roman times, Irish and British druids shared a similar core set of beliefs, rooted in the wider Celtic religious and cultural framework that spanned much of Iron Age Europe. The Irish and British druids likely spoke closely related languages within the Celtic language family, though there would have been distinct dialectal differences. Not as different as you seem to think.
@@vids595being able to communicate and sharing some basic beliefs does not make them part of the same culture. The United States and England share a language, dominant religion, and a lot of history and beliefs. It'd still be ridiculous to treat the two countries like they're the same.
But Ireland still lives under the British heel so
Ireland was counted as a Celtic Isle by itself and Celts in general since the Celtic culture and its language dialects existed. Ireland is visible from England and Wales, and v.v. Most of Great Britain did NOT fall to Rome BTW.
In spite of Irish being a Celtic language, linguistically (an archaic one tracing back to the steppes more than 4,000 years ago), the Irish were not Celts and the Celts did not invade or occupy Ireland. Material culture demonstrated this for decades before modern genetic research finally confirmed it. There may have been the occasional individual immigrant but the Irish did not adopt Celtic culture. There's no evidence of their culture or genome changing at all during the period when Celts arrived and spread throughout Britain. The Irish had arrived over a thousand years prior, with their more archaic form of a related language, and they show amazing cultural continuity and genetic insularity basically until the Viking incursions and ultimate Norman conquest.
Druids: human sacrifice for religious purposes.
Romans: human sacrifice for entertainment purposes.
Hmmm...
Both are, obviously, awful.
Though you could argue that our own society is one of Human sacrifice for both entertainment and commercial purposes, but that's not the point I came here to make.
Though both are obviously awful, one thing I will say is that people are easily sated while Gods can demand the infinite - if a group of people go to the coliseum to watch blood and mayhem, after a certain amount of blood and mayhem they'll be satisfied and ready to go back to other things. But any religious head can have a moment of zealotry and decide that, this time, the Gods require the firstborn of everyone in the village. And everyone from the village next door. And everyone who thinks this is a bad idea.
There's a great example in the bible, where a king burned thousands upon thousands of livestock in ritual sacrifice - that was likely most of the meat in the kingdom, incinerated, to feed not the population but a king's reputation with his god.
Aztecs did similar - they genuinely believed that if they didn't sacrifice enough worthy warriors to one of their gods, the sun would stop rising. It wasn't just about gaining rep, it was about preventing the end of the world. They sacrificed so many enemy warriors that they ran out, and began sending agents to incite rebellions inside their own conquered territories just so that they had more warrior hearts for the sun god's perpetual death machine.
@@aecides3203 @pioneercynthia1
neither are 'mutually exclusive'
Druids: human sacrifice for religious purposes.
Romans: human sacrifice for entertainment purposes.
*Modern World : human sacrifice for pure 100% profitability*
@@aecides3203that's all true but don't forget that the ruins himself also sacrifice humans for religious purposes.
Doing a plague outbreak, dozens of couple where buried alive to please the gods
all satanic and man made false doctrine
Kind of a shame that all the big blockbuster movies that deal with Roman conquest pretty much paint it as expanding their land, generic putting down of rebellions. Everyone knows they intentionally wiped out the druids, but somehow Hollywood hasn't capitalized on that.
Cause it'd make the Romans look bad
@@InucroftIf you believe wiping out those who are a threat to you is bad then sure.
@@InucroftExactly and the Western world likes to equate themselves with the Empire
@@sea_triscuit7980 as op mentioned Hollywood, 110% can confirm that the US doesn't idolize the Romans at all. It comes down due to a lack of knowledge. European history isn't taught in as much detail as the US/North American history. Hollywood gets upset when a non white gets arrested for armed robbery
@@alejandromaldonado6159the druids became a threat when rome subjugated gaul and germany.
It's like the US attacking mexico and wiping out every native because "the mexicans threatened violence"😂
The Romans also completely wiped out the Phoenecian Religion and unlike Druidism not even their gods were safe from Roman annihilation. The Romans incorporated the gods of the Druids and their faithful such as Epona. The Romans wiped out the entire Phoenecian religion including their gods alongside wiping out all the Phoenecians by enslaving them, killing them, and destroying all their written history.
Then what would you consider the modern Lebanese people to be if not Phoenecian?
@ The Lebanese of Lebanon are Lebanese not Phoenecian for they do not speak Phoenecian, they do not write Phoenecian, they possess nothing of Phoenecian culture nor religion, their civilizations are entirely different, the only thing they share is relativistic geographic symmetry.
@@InquisitorXarius Interesting, thank you
@inquisitorxarius by that logic Egyptians aren't Egyptian but Arab
All such experts on the Phoenicians , but none of you can even spell their name correctly .
“Funny she doesn’t look Druish.”
HAIL SKROOB!!!
RIP John Candy. You were your own best friend.
Druish princesses are often attracted to money and power! And I have both! And you know it
❤
1,2,3,4,5
Another amazing video from Simon and the Basement crew!!! 👏👏
A shame in real life, no Gaulish druid was able to concoct a magic potion that granted superhuman prowess.
Getafix failed us.
@@reyonXIII Well....Maybe if he hadn't made it as a suppository......
It was the beginning of the end for Rome fighting the celts.celts were in Ireland too not touched but roman Catholic church tried to erase that too final nail in coffin to celts and brehan laws
They needed Captain America in a bad way.
@gabriellashimone6546 We all do. Just not the actor
Well... rest in peace to the Druids man. Ancient Romans destroying cities, culture, civilizations... now, entire religions. The grind doesn't stop, I guess...
Yeah I'm with you , bring back human sacrifice 😈😈
ps , YOU FIRST 😈😈
What did the Roman's ever do for us ? stopped the druid's human's sacrifices....
They didn't necessarily destroy the religion, itself. The whole point was that the druids had a high level of political sway & were inspiring violent rebellion amongst the Celtic provinces. But, the religion it continued going for a fair time afterwards.
@@MrChristianDT It melted with the Greek and Roman pantheon but their ancient rites and mythologies disappeared, the Romans were not tolerant people but syncretic ones, they believed that all the people on earth believe in the same gods but with different names ( of course, since the Romans were jingoist, they think they got them in the right way). That is why the Jews and the Christians were discriminated against in the Roman Empire because their monotheism and the belief that there was only one god worthy of veneration destroyed the image the Romans had of themselves. That explained why the druids were all but killed.
good video yet again, I would only add for people to read 'Magnetic Aura' from Talesio helped me a tonnn
I would love to hear your script writers deep dive into Henry Morton Stanley & his infamous expedition into Africa. Your brand blend of intense, sincere, and powerful writing, narrative, and story telling would make it an excellent listening/learning experience.
I watched a video discussing Africa's geography from the perspective of it being the most remote populated continent and now I want to see this, too
After first studying Celtic History, I noticed a stunning similarity between what happened to the Native Americans in North America, and the Celts. I was fortunate to continue my studies in a very Celtic/Romanic city in Germany (Bad Kreuznach) from 1998-2001. The eradication of Native American culture for Christianity's sake in the U.S. was very similar to what the Romans did in conquering Britain in my view. Thanks for this video, cheers.
They both has ritualistic human sacrifice, so another big similarity. Only Indians had eitual cannabalism, though. Want to talk about that one?
I thought about this as well ... In particular with the Mexican and Central American peoples in the 1500s and the plains Indians in the 1800s
I agree. Christianity is a bloodthirsty religion and found its place in Rome for a reason.
@@toomanymarys7355 Christians also have ritualistic sacrifice under the pretense of heresy laws. You'll burn and behead anyone to appease God and drive out the demons as Jesus did, but I guess we can pretend that's not the same as any other fanatic cult.
@@toomanymarys7355 While the Christians dogmatically believe they also ritualistically sacrifice and cannibalize Jesus.
The idea that the romans, one of the most bloodthirsty societies in history, which killed people in games for fun, demonized druids because of human sacrifice... Hypocrisy much?! 🤦
Oh, good point.
No, the gladiator games were not to the death, with the only exception being murderers sentenced to death. In the Roman world, there was a clear difference between war and cooking your fellow countrymen for spiritual blessing.
Oh the hypocrisy was much more blatant than that. You known, because of that whole thing where the Romans ritually murder of enemy combatants for the glory for their gods during the Triumphs.
Um, all cultures were bloodthirsty, and to a large degree...that's still around in some form. You can't say one culture had a monopoly on that, especially when your example isn't even right since most gladiators did it as a profession, meaning...they didn't die, it was a fight to when you were incapacitated.
Really goes to show how you extremists on both sides of the political spectrum fail to really learn about history with the broader context. You just regurgitate things you heard offhand in some random video
Plus they likely overexaggerated the Celts sacrifical practices to make them seem barbaric but the likelihood is they wouldn't have sacrificed more people than Romans. Especially when it comes to prisoners of war.
Reparations for the Druids!!!!
And for the shamans, and for the witches burned in medeval times..
@@DenSchimmige
Lots of people 😅
Well... California is willing to pay reparations to anyone so give it a go. 🤡
@@keepingitreal6793 whats up bud? why do you feel the need to speak this way?
@gavhenrad
I rather give reparations to druids then blacks to be honest. Lol.
Don’t hate that’s my opinion who ever reads this and disagrees
The knowledge is still there, but if you can’t see the forest for the leaves, you’ll never hear the whispers on the breeze.
I'm sure climate change, caused by goverments who built their nations as effigies to Rome, will finish that job long after Rome's passing.
The groves are reborn, and those who can hear, learn. The old Gods walk the land again.
I know the "fairy doctor" thing would seem to be some sort of continuation of the druids medical knowledge, & the celtic countries kept alive several non-christian religious rituals, but I wouldn't know about much else with that regard.
@@Tirani2 you have a computer stop fronting lol
What a fascinating exploration of such a significant moment in history! I really appreciate how you presented the complexities involved. That said, I can't help but wonder if the portrayal of Rome's actions might come off as a bit one-sided. Many might argue that every major empire has its own narrative when it comes to such conflicts. Just something to think about!
I am glad you do at least label the AI content. As much as I wish you could do it without AI, there's not always a good existing image.
Yeah, you might look into the Albigensian Crusade, when the Catholic Church committed genocide against the Cathars, for the crime of not being Catholic...aka heresy.
And they would’ve done the same thing to the Protestants too if it hadn’t been for that meddling Henry VIII.
All Abrahamic religions are genocidal and disgusting in nature. Prove me wrong
@@CAP198462 Why did you phrase that like a Scooby doo villain😂
@@diegoveloso3rd ... and they would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids! ... :D
Another group of Europeans believing in reincarnation, decimated to keep all focused on death to achieve eternal life via the gateway that is “The Church.” What would happen if a large group of people endeavoured to consciously reincarnate? Well, we would have Eternal Life in every sense of the term as soon as someone succeeds where Casanova and La Marquise d’Urfe failed.
Don't trust anyone, ancient or modern, who tells you "what the Druids believed." Yes, the destruction of Druidic worship and belief really was completely "comprehensive," and what little was written down at the time by those who might know, was done so for explicitly propagandistic purposes by their pagan or Christian adversaries to justify their elemination.
This dearth of knowledge also covers the "Celtic revival" of the 19th and 20th centuries. Like "Neopaganism" generally, but even more completely so in the case of Druidism, modern romanticizers had essentially zero reliable information to work with. What they created and pushed into the modern popular consciousness bears basically no relation to the ancient reality whatsoever.
And the Druids of the Celts and their Germanic neighbors who together populated all of Western Europe left no writings regarding their beliefs and practices. So, unless someone can directly cite specific archeological discoveries, and can also be trusted to be interpreting them accurately given our dearth of historical contextual information, no discussion of what these people actually believed and their rites is remotely trustworthy.
Simon's talk here is mostly in line with this, but he does mention their supposed belief in something we can vaguely and anachronistically liken to reincarnation, as well as that their human sacrificial behavior "probably" existed while not being as extreme as the Roman depictions of it, and that they were essentially animists "close to nature." But even such minimal assertions are guesses based on conjecture and not to be taken as factual.
Modern Paganism as long as its not dumb liberal abominations are probably quite close to the conservative European Pagans, I am not "new age" or "neopagan" paganism is the old religion not some new thing and I could never identify with new age weirdos
Wow! Nice to see someone talking about the actual Druids and not a video game or movie character. Druidism is actually part of my core beliefs and practice.
No it isn’t
If it is really a core part of your beliefs, then you have likely practiced human sacrifice. So you are either larping or should be in jail.
@@TheRatOnFire_ if thats the case true, christians raise the dead and thats illegal oh no! 🙄
Soil surrounds the stone
Can you elaborate?
good video yet again, thank you love ❤️
That AI picture with Ceaser using a ballpoint pen is just anachronistic to the nth degree.
What if it was riptide?
Honestly I was expecting this video to be about how Romans caused the death of The Ancient Egyptian religion.
The Romans did not annihilate the ancient Egyptians nor their religion. It was the Arab Muslims that did that. The Ptolemaic Kingdom ended in 30 BC when Cleopatra VII died.
Are you suggesting there's a pattern ?
@@Reina.Nijinsky except the Romans did end their religion seeing as how around 30BC they were conquered by the Roman Empire and begin introducing Christianity in Egypt.
And around the 530s nobody really practiced that religion anymore
@@sailinbob11 yes
@@JamailvanWestering looks like you’ve been hitting up google 😂 this subject was part of my graduating thesis at the university 🙌🏼
It's impossible to watch this without thinking of the Romans trying to kidnap Panoramix.
That's the French for Getafix, captured by the Goths and rescued by Asterix and Obelix.
@duncancurtis5108 his English name is Getafix? Brilliant! 🤣
A segment of the Golden Book is set in 1 BC... And Petibonum is the local trading center, the village's palisade is in disrepair, and there's no druid around.
The implication is that at some point the Romans won... And while how they did it isn't shown, they could have turned the village against Panoramix.
@@lordMartiyaCondatum is the nearest to the Gaulish village, today's Rennes.
@@thcusandsunnyYep. Getafix is captured by the Romans in Asterix The Gaul and The Big Fight. Fulliatomatix bashes Cacofonix and hates fish. Chief Vitalstatistix is hen pecked by wife Impedimenta.
It reveals something significant of the importance of Druidism that the Romans felt they had to wipe it out entirely. Other religions were left to their own devices within the empire, with client kings utilised for mediation. As troublesome as Judaism was for them, they still didn’t try and wipe it out entirely. Druidism was certainly a religion where central to its practices was a respect for the very fabric of nature. One might imagine there were religious caveats within Druidism around the extraction of resources from the Earth, and the resource hungry Roman Empire felt they had to remove this obstacle in order to exploit it. We might only imagine what the Earth would look like today if these ancient nature venerating religions had continued to hold sway over the spiritual imaginations of human beings.
Meh. If you want to paint a narrative that Druidism was significantly important or unique, you can spin it any which way you want.
But the Romans certainly destroyed other cultures and religions in their time, pre and post Caesar. Look at your own example - the Jews. Do you really think it’s reasonable to say that Hadrian didn’t try to wipe out?
@ well, the Romans were reasonably pragmatic when it came to other people’s beliefs and were even known to venerate local gods and meld equivalent gods etc. Unless a culture and their beliefs were seen to threaten their rule the Romans were characteristically tolerant.
@@TreforTreforgan It is inevitable that these nature loving religions fall to man's industrial nature.
The did try to destroy Judaism a few times. The main problem, I think, with the Druids was their oral tradition, it's way easier to censure and erase a culture with no written records.
@ good point about the oral tradition. Especially considering Hebrew has been brought back from extinction solely because it existed in written form. The British all but kept their language despite Roman control. Modern Welsh is still ostensibly a Brythonic language with some Latin nomenclature here and there
Great work, thank you for the research.
EXCELLENT CONTENT, Simmon and team........!!!!!!!!!!!! Baruch Hashem! 🤟❤️🔥🐺
Thank you Brother Simon. ❤
The Romans never get to the four corners of the British Isles. They called Scotland Caledonia, meaning the Unconquerable, and it was a place where the Druids were able to persist. And verbal histories are still passed down. My family still celebrates some of the key dates in the Druid calendar year...though no human sacrifice for a while now, as far as I know.
The Romans also did human sacrifice early on...
Early on? Make it the entire time..
What do you think happend in those fighting arena's?
@@DenSchimmige gladiators rarely died, because they were expensive to train and maintain for their owners. Their owners didnt want their expensive (in both money and time) gladiators to just die like that.
@togiielectricboogaloo6875 those gladiatoren had to fight something.
And it aint always lions and elephants..
@@DenSchimmige yes, each other, and it was rarely to the death
@@togiielectricboogaloo6875 so you claim prisoners/prisoners of war and the religious that were persecuted in Rome at any given moment never got fed to lions or "executed" by gladiators as a sacrifice to sate the entertainment demands of the cities populations? I'm not saying it's millions or even hundreds of thousands of times, But It Did Happen and you can't rewrite history dude. But by all means it's the internet, Insult the dead.
Thank you.
The Romans did not first encounter the druids in the Gallic Wars. The Celts invaded and sacked Rome early in the Republic.
Much later, the Christian Romans also wiped out the Manichaeans. These were a gnostic religion related to Buddhism and for a long time they were the greatest competitors to Christianity. The Christians persuaded Theodosius I to outlaw the religion and decree death for all Manichaean monks in 382, and the religion died out from Europe sometime in the 500s AD.
I see what you did with that opening line..... bravo fact boi
I really enjoyed this. And Simon used his voice well.
I'm so GLAD that C3PO & R2D2 weren't around during that period! No wonder the Roman Empire couldn't conquer the universe!
Here I was trying to not think about the Romans, and Simon pulls me back in...AM I RIGHT PETER?
Given the number of roles a druid holds (according to the video), what does it take for a young celt to become a druid?
years of study
Caste , same with all Indo European cultures , the triumvirate.
Priest ( Druids )
Warrior
Plebs
Study 20 years
@@B-I-G-N-A-S-T-Y. Not so, as druids believed in their souls being subsumed back into the earth that made them. Essentially making all living things interconnected. By most historians accounts any young man could become a druid as long as he has the patience to memorize the inherited knowledge given by a druid. It's probably the reason why early humans understood about changing seasons and what flora and fauna was safe to consume
How have I been watching Simon spew facts for the last 4 years and never knew this channel existed?
All I can hear is in my head is Mel Brooks... Drewish.
9:15 one of those druids from Ireland managed to get to the new world where he anglized his name to Atticus O' Sullivan. He has been alive since that time, over 2000 years. He has an irish wolfhound named Oberon.
😅😅😅
Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne.
A good read with gods from many mythologies, vampires, witches, werewolfs, ghouls etc
Ireland remained. It took Christians to finish Druidism.
Based
@@ttterg6152Cringe
I find it kind of rich for the Romans to call the Druids' ways of disposing of their criminals "barbaric."
It's also the 'Empaa'e' that destroyed their own predecessor-empire, Carthage.
Also the whatnow?
He’s making fun of British people for r dropping.
Good stuff! Looking forward to your feature coverage of MANI-chaeism.
N.B. Augustine the APOSTATE played a central role in waging war on this ancient SYNCRETIC religion. SO sad ......
Who else can't stop seeing This is Spinal Tap scenes in their mind every time Simon says "druids".
I'm lucky enough to not know what is, I guess.
Nah, I was thinking of Spaceballs.
"...no one knows who they were or what they were doing..."😅
I see Undertaker at WrestleMania
Thank you for safeguarding one of the oldest role of storyteller Simon, without storytellers I don't think we will ever grow, just repeating the same tragedy over and over.
"Gallic" with a short A. With a long A it becomes "Gaelic", which are the Irish, not continental Gauls.
The Druids were more than mere priests, or judges, or advisors, they were doctors, philosophers, poets musicians, keepers of tribal history, memory, dispensers of Culture and enforcers of tradition. They were seers, diviners and interpretors of natural phenomena, and dreams.
No wonder the Roman's feared and hated them! Their power was soft but impactive, while Roman might was hard and destructive.
I guess we do have the Roman to thank for this illustrative example of Genocide and Culturecide.
Look what the Romand did to Judeah
too. 😮
Ironic how the my are doing the same to the Arabs
Go look at what group is leading the research on how Romans subjugated religious minorities. It's Israelis. Coincidence? No.
th-cam.com/video/KHDFYQKlT3A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=oBcJdtTiz3sDN4Qo
That's what happens to people who fail to understand when they are conquered to be honest
This is why I’ve always said that those cultures with oral traditions need to meet in the middle and make written accounts of their culture. You never know when your culture will end or be badly diminished. Written accounts can ensure your culture survives in memory, or it can serve to teach the survivors of your culture.
Their are parallels: the Spanish destruction of the Aztecs, and the Brittish colonists' subjugation of native American people. When visiting New Zealand in the 1980's, it was refreshing to see that the Maoris are respected and allowed to maintain their culture. The Australians also allow the Aboriginal people to carry on their culture, but not all Australians seemed to be on board.
The Japanese and their subjugation of the ainus.
I think it's fascinating that for so many other religious the Romans simply incorporated them into their own pantheon as a way of winning the people they conquered round, but they didn't/couldn't do that with the druids which is really telling. I've often seen it explained as the druids being the civil service of the Celtic world. It wasn't just a religion it was a form of government that unified the tribes. The fact that Rome had to eradicate them so entirely really shows how powerful they were. Makes me so sad thinking about all the knowledge lost. Think about the ancient Greeks and their philosophers. Many ancient cultures would have had equivalent scholarship that has been lost due to conquest/not being written down.
Gallic = Gauls, living mostly in France
Gaelic = Celts, living mostly in Ireland and Scotland
These are not interchangeable!
Latin and Latino aren't interchangeable either but people use it as such.
Latin = Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and Romania (i.e. the successor states of Western Rome)
Latino (Short for Latinoamericano -Latin + American ) = Someone from America that Speaks a Latin Language.
Under the strict definition of Latinoamerican, the one Napoleon III wanted when he made the term up, Quebec is in fact a part of Latinamerica. (Is in the American continent and Speaks a Latin language)
Gauls were a Celtic tribe
"In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing..." -Nigel Tufnel
The Time ISlam destroyed entire Nations, entire religions , entire cultures and civilisations ..that would be like 20 episodes
💯 Thuth North Africa , Egypt, Afghanistan, Zoroastrianism,Buddhism, Arabic Jewism & paganism just to name a few.....
Christianity destroyed entire people , civilization, culture as well
Still on going....
Asterix and Obelix approve of this video
4:48 eating the dogs 🐶
Very interesting video. Too bad "Gallic" and "Gaelic" are mixed up a few times, though...
Good video 🙂
Fun fact: this was my final project I completed for college, was a discussion on the Druidism, more specifically there goddess Epona. My conclusion was very much “Screw you Rome for making my life a living nightmare!”
With this said, I am not going to watch this video or respond to comments because the longer I think about the subject the more my headache returns so goodbye y’all
The Romans worshipped Epona alongside other gods who were neither Latin nor Hellenic. The Romans merely replaced the clergy with another who served the politik and authority of the empire. The same luxury was not granted to the Phoenecians.
The last Druid lived on Hirta / St Kilda island in the early 1800s, were he and the other islanders practiced a syncretic Druid /Catholic belief system complete with Pagan altars , animal sacrifices and a stone circle . It was then that protestant missionaries ended what Rome began all those years ago , destroying the stone circle for good measure .
Rome still didn't conquer Scotland. Shout out to my Celtic cousins in Eire.
They took a look at Scotland and decided to build a wall and call it a day 😂
Eire is Ireland
Lol they didn’t want to
Simon knows a lot more about Druidism than is actually known.
The Romans f-ck'd up the Druids so badly they became the worst spellcasters in gaming history.
Cool video, and you're looking great.
Interesting but sad story. 😮
The underrated show ‘Britannia’ covers this subject with an element of surrealism.
RIP Peanut The Squirrel
Human sacrifice was one moral motivation for the destruction of the Phoenicians, Rome's early great enemy. If druids didn't realize the same behaviour would have them branded as evil by the presiding European power then they weren't all that bright
And here I thought he was going to talk about Gnosticism 😂
Romans be like "shhhh"
Although there are around 60k people who consider themselves a practicing Druid. The faith is far from dead
I think the Druids were basically prototype hippies, and it always amuses me how modern Druids congregate at Stonehenge even though it was built at least 2000 years before Druidism was even a thing!!
Cultures and religions always change and incorporate new elements. There's nothing especially weird or silly about their affinity for Stonehenge. We also don't actually know when druidic practice started, or HOW it started. By its very nature, it is extremely hard to study and track through historical sources.
Throughout history, whole deities have merged with others, or disappeared, developed brand new associations that wipe out their old ones, and have been added to different pantheons. That's how it always works. Catholicism now looks absolutely nothing like early Christianity, doesn't even share many of the core beliefs they would have held, and most of the practices that we're familiar with are extremely recent. Living practices are never static, and even before the original druids were wiped out, I can guarantee that their practices also changed significantly and incorporated different elements over time.
@@jasminecollins897 Good answer and fair point(s) 👍💗
do you mean 'the second time' Rome destroyed an Entire Religion, don't forget they also eliminated Carthage and their religion in the Punic Wars.
It's so sad that Rome was so destructive during its rise to power...
Gaius Suetinius --
a man named Sue 😂
I guess the Druids were wrong about the gods favoring them to go into battle because they don't exist at all anymore.
correct, they worshipped baals, false demon gods
@@aaronwylie6928there are no gods.
@@aaronwylie6928Semitic cope
2:30 If we still has Druids to guide and educate us today? There is no doubt Simon would be revered in the Order! ..
Wasn't Churchill a Druid?
Druids at Stonehenge, which we saw in
2013. 😅
People have tried to recreate the old practices, but it's mostly entirely new. Almost all of the old druidic lore and practices were entirely lost.
Sooo… I guess the Italians owe the welsh a bunch of repetitions then?😏 somebody needs to bring this up… I’d totally watch that debate😂
Today we have human sacrifice.
It's called war. 😮
Its called ge no cide.
This vid was well worth my time to watch.
The Jews were in effect ended too, they then reinvented it by starting the talmud.
Christianity is "true" Judaism (Jesus is the fulfilment and the Messiah) - Talmudic Judaism is a cult
The Romans also completely destroyed their main competitor, the Phoenicians , who were a worthy rival, having defeated the Romans in battles as much as the other way around. But when Rome finally got the edge and invaded their capital city, they killed everybody and burnt it to the ground, so that literally nothing was left of this civilization. Their brutal, revengeful destruction was complete and total. This was the Romans.
The druids did have a written language. It was called ohmish. It was like no other writing, and they wrote on very large, perfectly preserved oak leaves. They had impressive libraries.
No, they didn't. They were often literate, meaning they could read and write, but they did not record their lore or practices. It was an entirely oral tradition, which means they passed it down through listening and memorization. There were no druidic libraries.
I believe you are talking about ogham, but it was not used by druids to record their teachings. Not sure where you got the oak leaf druid libraries idea from, but it definitely wasn't any actual historical sources.
Druids were a religious group, not a whole culture. The culture they lived in had written language, but the druids themselves did not use it to keep any religious records.
My guy we're talking the real druids not fantasy elves
The leaves, being biodegradable, literally make what you described impossible.
Didn't know Caesar used a ballpoint pen.
If only there was any evidence of the same behaviors being replicated in the modern world...
A heart warms up
To where you feel at home
Soil surrounds the stone.
Of course civilized Roman practices such as crucifixion and later Christian witch burnings were completely humane.
Isn't "Christian witch" an oxymoron ?
@@SRW_ Pretty sure it's intended as Christians burning witches, so not really.
Christian which burning was mostly a American thing, if you don't know history don't act like you do
@@Chance_Rice Absolut Nonsense!
You, it is you that obviously have no Clue about that Issue!
The proverbial Guy sitting in a Glasshouse throwing Stones.
Pathetic! 🤦
@@Tar-Earendil lets learn some basic English, mostly means alot but not all, well witch burning were very rare In Europe
If you can destroy their hope and faith, you can crush anyone
The Jews know this well.
And then their own religion destroyed them, swings and roundabouts...
???
They were pagan at the time so no your just talking out of your ass
You can’t destroy a religion , we’re still talking about the Druids now
Rome did wipe out druidism. Not the Roman Empire - the Roman Catholic Church.
The Catholic church didn't really exist at the time in a way to have had any influence
Christianity didn't even have %5 of the population of Rome at the time
That’s wasn’t invented for another 200 years.
The Romans, who often adopted aspects of other cultures they conquered, made an exception with the Druids. They systematically destroyed Druidic sites, rituals, and sacred groves to erase their influence. Unlike other conquered peoples, the Druids left no written records of their own, as their knowledge was passed down orally. The Romans’ destruction of Druidic practices led to the loss of an entire body of spiritual and cultural knowledge.
Wotan mit uns
I hope this video remains here if it gets viral in India
8:19 but when Tacitus mentions Jesus everyone becomes a cyni...skeptic, right?
Oy vey! Shut them down!
The Romans did nearly the same to Jews by separating the people from the land known as Judea, except the religion carried on throughout the diaspora.