History of Bohemia Part I - Boiis in the Wood

Erin go bragh!

Celtic Cross in Brittany, France

I don't anything about history, at least in Central Europe. I can sum up my knowledge by saying that people lived in Central Europe and somehow, poof, I appeared here. This does not help one knows roots. Hence, I needed to fix that! I started my search at modernity's answer to the Great Library of Alexandria, repository of all human knowledge of the age - namely Wikipedia. To my shock and dismay, there wasn't as much there as I wanted but with persistance, toil, and Google, I was able to fill in the gaps.

Bohemia's name come from a Celtic tribe known as the Boii. Celts probably arrived in modern day Czech Republic in the 5th or 6th century BC. In the third and fourth century BC, Rome clashed repeatedly with Celtic tribes in Central Europe in what was known as Gaul. Gaul encompassed present day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany, particularly the west bank of the Rhine. Just for clarity, the Gauls and the Celts are the same people. It would probably be most precise to say that the Gauls were the Celts who inhabited continental Europe. They were known as Celts in their own language and Gauls in Latin. Most of what we know about Rome's conquest of the Gauls comes from Polybius' Histories written around 170 BC. No I haven't read it. Even my genealogy crazy has limits.

When I imagine a tribe, I think of some small village or series of villages. The Boii were definitely more than that. Around 390 BC, the Gauls actually were strong enough to invade Roman territory and sack Rome itself. In 225 BC, a coalition of Gallic tribes that included the Boii, again invaded Rome. The army that assembled was the biggest the pan-Gallic army ever to march on Rome, with over 20,000 cavalry and 50,000 infantry. The deciding battle took place in Telamon, 225 BC in northern Italy. Rome brought an army of over 100,000 and crushed it.

The Romans and the Gauls continued to clash for another three decades. After the Roman victory  in 222 BC, most of the Gauls submitted to Roman rule although their culture remained distinct. The Boii were the last to give up in 191 BC. However, some Boiis, refusing to live under the Roman yoke, migrated to the Danube region where they gave their name to Bohemia (Latin: Boiohaemum), literally "land of the Boii."

Dying Gaul

The Gauls were not fully subdued by the Romans until the Gallic Wars around 50 BC when Julius Caesar, probably to enrich the Roman treasury with Gallic gold and to cement himself as Roman leader, launched a campaign to annex Gaul. It was during this period that the Roman army actually invaded modern Britain. Militarily, the Gauls might have been as strong as Rome but they were much less unified. Caesar ultimately defeated the Celtic leader Vercingetorix at the Battle of Alesia.

Vercingetorix statue in Alesia

The movie Gladiator opens with scenes of Roman legions fighting barbarians in the north. Here is a clip of Russel Crowe and the Roman war machine slaughtering the 'Boiis in the wood.'

Contrary to the depictions of most Roman battles in the movies, the Gauls were not just a mob of long-haired, pseudo-Neanderthals armed with clubs and wearing animals skins. In fact, the Gauls had a culture characterized by cities, arts, trade, a sophisticated political structure within clans, and religion. Their religion is notable for the role of Druid priests. The Gauls led Europe into the Iron Age around 700 BC. Gaul was also wealthy due to extensive gold reserves and mining in France. But the Gauls didn't have the type of central organization characterized by the Roman Empire which is probably one of the main reason they were conquered and absorbed by Rome. Interestingly, Paul's epistle to the Galatians is addressed to the Gallic church in Asia Minor located in modern Turkey.

The Agris Helmet, a gold-leafed Celtic ceremonial helmet, found in France in 1981. 

4th-century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that the Gauls were tall, light-skinned, light-haired, light-eyed, and fierce. However, Gallic men, apparently, were no match for Gallic women:

Almost all Gauls are tall and fair-skinned, with reddish hair. Their savage eyes make them fearful objects; they are eager to quarrel and excessively truculent. When, in the course of a dispute, any of them calls in his wife, a creature with gleaming eyes much stronger than her husband, they are more than a match for a whole group of foreigners; especially when the woman, with swollen neck and gnashing teeth, swings her great white arms and begins to deliver a rain of punches mixed with kicks, like missiles launched by the twisted strings of a catapult.

Today, Celtic culture is almost entirely associated with Ireland. All of this begs the question, are Bohemian's Celts? The answer, sort of, at least a little. Celtic culture hasn't predominated in the lands of Czechia in close to two thousand years. Over centuries Celtic culture was assimilated into that of the other ethnicities of Central Europe such as the Slavs and Germans. Slavic Czechs began to populate Bohemia around the 5th century AD. The Czech language is clearly Slavic. Also there isn't much overlap between Irish culture and Czech culture. But there are still Celtic ruins throughout the Czech Republic including around Prague. Prague seems to have been a sort of capital for the Boii tribe. There are Celtic fortifications known as oppidum surrounding Prague. The Prague National Museum contains Celtic artifacts as well. 

Celtic artifact in Prague National Museum

The Boston Celtics are in the NBA finals this year. I don't know if this post will convince you to be a Celtics fan. But perhaps we can agree that being Bohemian seems like a one more great excuse to have a green beer on St. Patrick's Day.