But classical authors (writing between C4BC and C3AD) paint a rather different picture of the Druids. Their ‘druidae’ (the word derives from an ancient Celtic word meaning ‘magician’) were a northern European male priesthood who were believed to indulge in animal and human sacrifice: ‘Some tribes have colossal images made of wickerwork, the limbs of which they fill with living men; they are then set on fire, and the victims burnt to death’ (Julius Caesar, The Conquest of Gaul, Book 6). Many of the Druids’ observances were carried out in oak groves or beside water. Their sacred traditional knowledge was passed on by word of mouth, and they had more power than any king. They were indeed portrayed as magicians, and also as powerful priests, seers, lawgivers and teachers.

The Romans saw the Druids as a dangerously subversive influence, and Roman reports of the Druids have to be seen today as political propaganda: Celtic culture is seen as barbaric, and Roman culture as civilised. 

Throughout their empire, the Romans sought to extirpate the Druids; the Roman historian Tacitus tells of the last stand of the Druids in Anglesey in AD61, when they were slaughtered by the Romans. The Druids, and the beliefs they stood for, had been eradicated by C2AD. In the 19th century, a form of druidism was revived, which is what we see at Eisteddfods and Stonehenge today. 

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