Druids' Dark Side

Cannibalism? Mass human sacrifices? Reasonable options when your gods demand it. Or, to be more precise, when your priests say the gods demand it...

According to Gaea News, "First-century historian Pliny the Elder even suggested that the Celts practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their enemies’ flesh as a source of spiritual and physical strength. But, with only the Romans’ word to rely on, it’s been easy for historians to dismiss such tales as wartime propaganda."

Archaeologists have looked with suspicion for some time at the bog-mummified body of Lindow Man, who came to light in the 1980s. Evidence suggests he was a person of high rank, perhaps even a Druid himself, sacrificed about the time of the Roman invasions. Perhaps to convince the gods to help the people defend themselves. And then came the 2000 discovery of skeletons of up to 150 people, found in a cave in Alveston, England.

"Druids may have killed the victims, who show evidence of skull-splitting blows, in a single event. It may have been the Roman invasion itself that escalated the Druids’ ritualized slaughter, according to the researchers."

That was in Britain, but much of the research on this has come from France - from Ribemont, Picardy, in particular.

Philip Freeman, in The Philosopher and the Druids, writes

We may be shocked at Celtic head-hunting, as were the Greeks and Romans, and wonder if such reports could have been exaggerated by those seeking to portray the Gauls as barbarians - but in truth the classical reports don't begin to compare with he gruesome evidence archaeologists have unearthed ofo such practices in ancient Gaul. At Roquepertuse in southern France, a Celtic sanctuary from the third century B.C. has yielded concrete evidence of severed heads used in rituals. Three pillars from the site contain niches to display human skulls, while similar temples with the skulls still in place have been found elsewhere in southern France.

These sanctuaries, however, pale in comparison with recent finds in northern France. At Ribemont and Gournay, north of Paris, archaeologists have discovered rectangular Celtic sanctuaries from around 300 B.C. that measure over ninety feet on each side. They were surrounded first by a shallow ditch, hen inside by a wooden palisade.... The inner temple at Ribemont covered an altar five feet square, made largely of human bones. Here the thighbones of over a thousand enemy warriors have been recovered - crushed first to expose the marrow, then burned as a sacrifice to the gods.

Just outside the walls of the sanctuary at Ribemont, archaeologists found one of the most macabre and conclusive pieces of physical evidence for Celtic head-hunting on a grand scale. The headless bodies of at least eighty warriors with their weapons were suspended there on a wooden frame several feet above the ground. These warriors had been placed on the structure as if they were still alive, holding their shields and spears for battle. It must have been a gruesome sight...

Most likely much of this will be covered on "Secrets of the Druids" on the National Geographic Channel on 27 August.

Archaeological Excavations in Bulgaria

We sometimes forget just how far the Roman Empire reached. I've read that the best Roman ruins are actually in Libya, of all places.

Here's news of an excavation in Bulgaria of Nicopolis ad Istrum, "founded by Emperor Trajan around 101–106 AD, at the junction of the Yantra River with the Danube, in memory of his victory over the Dacians. The town reached its apogee during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian (117 - 138 AD), the Antonines (138 - 180 AD) and the Severan dynasty (193 – 235 AD)."

Second Century Chronology

This is an often suspect church chronology. It represents a lot of work, even if it is biased against the Catholic Church. Take the Catholic bits (and more) with a grain of salt.

110 Marcion, leader of a heretical sect, born. Died 165. Marcion rejected the Old Testament God, the creator of this miserable world, and hence he rejected the Old Testament also. He believed it impossible that Jesus, the redeemer of mankind, had been born of a woman.

Papias, bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, lived in this era. He is the source of the tradition that Mark's gospel was based on Peter's testimony. Papias was a chiliast. Eusebius of Caesarea was of the opinion that Papias learned his millennialism from a certain John the presbyter. According to this view, others (including Irenaeus - see 177 below) understood Papias - incorrectly - to have gotten his view from the apostle John, and so were convinced there would be a literal millennium.

112 Pliny the Younger (61/62 - 113), governor of Bithynia, wrote a letter to the emperor Trajan. He stated that the Christians "are accustomed on a stated day to meet before daylight, to sing antiphonally a hymn to Christ as to God, and to bind themselves by a sacrament not to commit any wickedness."

118 4th Persecution of Christians, under the emperor Hadrian (117-138). According to Severus, Hadrian set up “images of demons” on the temple mount and Golgotha. Hadrian also set guards to prevent Jews from approaching Jerusalem.

127-42 Ptolemy, an astronomer, geographer, and mathematician flourished in Alexandria. His earth-centered model of the universe held the field until 1542, when Copernicus supplied a solar-centered model. Ptology's estimate of the earth's circumference was 30 percent below the actual value.

135 Another Jewish rebellion began, this one led by Bar-Cocheba.

136 Second conquest and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. More than 500,000 put to the sword. The emperor Hadrian forbade the Jews to return to the Jerusalem, and they dispersed over the earth.

In this year the Alexandrian philosopher Valentinus, a baptized Christian, but Gnostic thinker, moved to Rome. He left the Christian community in 140, when another was chosen bishop of Rome. After departing Rome around 160, Valentinus continued to develop his religious philosophy, reportedly writing The Gospel of Truth. His system, like other Gnostic views, supposed a fundamental dualism between good and evil and salvation through gnosis. He was refuted by Irenaeus and Hippolytus.

Basilides was another Gnostic philosopher from Alexandria. The school he founded, known as the Basilidians, still existed in Alexandria in the fourth century. Basilidians are thought to be the first to celebrate Jesus' baptism on January 6 (or Jan 10), keeping an all-night vigil. Basilides used the term "Abraxas" (thought to have magical significance) for God.

Still another Gnostic group saw Simon Magus (Acts 8.9-24) as the true God or Father. God had generated the first thought (Ennoia) to create the angels, who, in turn, were to create the universe. Through jealousy, the angels imprisoned Ennoia in human flesh, and she was doomed to transmigrate to a new body upon the death of the old one. To free her, God had entered creation in the form of Simon, and he offered salvation to mankind in exchange for their recognition of his deity.

Mithraism became increasingly popular within the Roman empire, particularly among soldiers, from around this year. In 307, Diocletian dedicated a temple to Mithra at Carnuntum on the Danube. Mithra was a sun god, and his faith emphasized loyalty to the emperor. After the emperors became Christians, Mithraism faded. Mithra had been the most important Persian god prior to Zoroaster's time. Mithric sanctuaries were caverns. Only men attended the ceremonies of this faith, and there was, apparently, no religious hierarchy.

157 Montanus, leader of a heretical sect, flourished. He was a Phrygian. Together with two women, Prisca and Maximilla, he entered ecstatic states and spoke as moved by the Holy Spirit. They were chiliasts, believing that the new Jerusalem would land in Phrygia. They taught that disagreement with their ecstatic utterances was blasphemy against the Spirit. The sect he founded continued to exist at least until 722.

160 By this year, the grave of Peter was marked by a shrine.

The annual celebration of Easter may have began in Rome around this year (see 190). It had been celebrated in Asia Minor much earlier.

165-180 The Plague of Antoninus. Smallpox was introduced into the western part of the Roman empire, possibly by Roman soldiers. According to Galen, one-fourth to one-third of the population of Italy died of smallpox during this period.

177 Irenaeus, a pupil of Polycarp, was elected bishop of Lyons, then called Lugdunum, in Gaul. Born in 130. Died 200. [There is quite a long entry for Irenaeus.]

179 Conversion of Bardesanes (154-222) to Christianity. Unfortunately, he was influenced by Gnostic thought, denying the immediate creation by God of the universe and Satan, introducing a series of intermediate beings instead. Bardesanes thus became a leading figure in Syrian Gnosticism.

Mandaeanism originated sometime during the first three centuries in the Middle East. In this religion, salvation is of the soul alone, through esoteric knowledge. There is a system of intervening spiritual beings (Archons) between the soul and God. In these points, Mandaeanism is similar to Gnosticism. Unlike many Gnostic systems, however, sexual promiscuity is forbidden and marriage is encouraged. Mandaeans consider Jesus a false messiah, but they have great respect for John the Baptist.

185 Tertullian (160-230), a native of Carthage, converted to Christianity. According to Jerome, he was a priest. Yet it is clear that he was married.

200 In this era, the population of Rome may have been as much as 1,000,000. Alexandria and Antioch may have had populations of 300,000. The population of Rome fell dramatically in the late fifth and early sixth centuries. (See 552.)

Sacrilege and Panic

Wikipedia tells us that in Lyon in 177, the martyr Blandina met her end because "The fanaticism of the Roman populace in Lyon had been excited against the Christians so that the latter, when they ventured to show themselves publicly, were harassed and ill-treated."

Is that like the fanatical Iranian population has been excited against their dictatorship? It seems pretty facile, doesn't it?

Marcus Aurelius was emperor during this time, pretty busy with the Parthian Wars. Also from Wikipedia:

The returning army carried with them a plague, afterwards known as the Antonine Plague, or the Plague of Galen, which spread through the Roman Empire between 165 and 180. The disease was a pandemic believed to be either of smallpox or measles, and would ultimately claim the lives of two Roman emperors—Lucius Verus, who died in 169, and Marcus Aurelius, whose family name, Antoninus, was given to the epidemic. The disease broke out again nine years later, according to the Roman historian Dio Cassius, and caused up to 2,000 deaths a day at Rome, one quarter of those infected. Total deaths have been estimated at five million.

In The World of Late Antiquity, Peter Brown writes that in the second and third century, the average Roman was pretty content with the "homely figures" of the gods of traditional belief. (Sounds like saints, doesn't it?) Statues of the gods were everywhere, and the gods they represented busily did the work of "the One High God who was quite inexpressible and thus 'above' everything."

These gods were believed to care for mankind in general, and for cities and individuals in particular.... people expected direct personal attention. Throughout the Roman world, cities and individuals were giving the old gods every opportunity to look after their worshippers: the second century saw a remarkable revival of the traditional oracle-sites of the Greek world.

This care was obtained by following rites regarded as being as old as the human race itself. To abandon such rites provoked genuine anxiety and hatred. Christians were savagely attacked for having neglected these rites whenever earthquakes, famine or barbarian invasion betrayed the anger of the gods.

This is one of the enjoyable parts of research - what didn't make sense now does for me. The population of Lyon may have been "excited" against the Christians, but if there was a plague that had decimated families then people would have been grasping for reasons for the disaster.

And so Blandina is martyred, to the pleasure of the crowds and to the satisfaction of many Christians who actively sought martyrdom - as Christ had been martyred.

Evocative graves in Turkey

Ben Wirthington, an evangelical writer who blogs at beliefnet, posted some evocative photos today of a second-century headstone in Turkey. He writes:

Now the third line in the inscription has the word CHRESTOS which was sometimes mistaken for CHRISTOS, but it appears often enough in ancient inscriptions and has a meaning range from upright to worthy to anointed. ... The last line of the inscription is more mundane--- 'to those passing by, Greetings!' As you know however, the word 'grace' is in fact a modified form of the word greetings, and when one couples this with the double entendre CHRESTOS it is more than possible that this is a Christian inscription made generic enough that the casual observer would see this as a normal grave inscription, but the Christian might well make more of it. It is of course odd to us that a deceased person would be portrayed as greeting the passerby, but a Christian might well think of a grace wish to passersby.

... The early second century was a dicey time for Christians in western Turkey as is evident from reading Pliny's letter to Trajan asking what to do with Christians handed over for practicing a 'superstition'.