LThe Druids disappeared with the Roman conquest of Gaul (- 52 BC). However, it is to Julius Caesar himself that we owe some of the knowledge, unfortunately incomplete, about these eminent people. The Roman generalissimo relates, in his famous “Gallic War”, that they gathered every year in the country of the Carnutes, between Chartres and Orléans: “There, from all sides flock all those who have differences…
LThe Druids disappeared with the Roman conquest of Gaul (- 52 BC). However, it is to Julius Caesar himself that we owe some of the knowledge, unfortunately incomplete, about these eminent people. The Roman generalissimo relates, in his famous “Gallic War”, that they gathered every year in the country of the Carnutes, between Chartres and Orléans: “There, from all sides flock all those who have differences, and they submit to their decisions and judgments. »
Jean-Louis Brunaux, specialist on the Gauls and author of “The City of the Druids”.
Photo Mollat
Who are these men of influence? The author does not dwell on the old representations of the soothsayer or magician taken up in a famous comic strip. He puts the cursor on the register of wisdom and science, relying on the writings of a certain Posidonios of Apamea: this Greek philosopher of the IIe century BC, who had surveyed Gaul, described the Druids as philosophical judges linked to the philosophical school of the Greek master Pythagoras (- 580/-495).
Assembly regimes
The author, who has published many works on the Gauls (including one on the battle of Alésia and another on Vercingétorix) is not only familiar with Greek and Latin texts. He also cites the work of a Huguenot writer from the 16the century, François Hotman, who was the first to underline the originality of a civilization where power was not exercised by a sovereign but, at the scale of peoples, by assembly regimes reminiscent of Greek cities.
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In Locronan (29), (modern) druids took part in La Grande Troménie in July 2013, one of the largest pardons in Brittany.
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Jean-Louis Brunaux’s knowledge is not just bookish: the man is also an archaeologist. However, since the discovery, in 1977, of a large Gallic sanctuary, it has become possible to bring the Gallic religion closer to those of the Mediterranean. And by deepening the cultural and commercial links between Greece and Gaul since the founding of Massalia (the future Marseille) in the VIe century BC BC, the author was able to nourish his thesis on the role of the Druids, far from confining himself to the sacred dimension.
Great network
Because the main argument of the book is to explain that the druids, whose name evokes both the oak tree (yes!) and the ability to see far, are the true guides of Gaul. They do not claim political power but influence it through the breadth of their knowledge. These men in white robes are astronomers and mathematicians, they administer justice, are masters of wisdom and teachers. And in a few centuries they constituted a formidable network brought to life by their famous annual meeting.
It was under the influence of the Druids that the “Gallic cities” would have learned to govern themselves and would have come together to constitute, even before Caesar’s conquest, the embryo of a nation. We can discuss it because the historian is forced to fill in the gaps in the sources. But by warmly reviving the community of disappeared druids, Brunaux reinforces the now established idea that Gaul subjugated by Rome had long been a great ancient civilization.
“The City of the Druids, builders of ancient Gaul” by Jean-Louis Brunaux, Gallimard/L’Esprit de la cite, 242 p., €20.50, ebook, €14.99.
