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Coitiage tt» Celtic society

For most of its early history in most areas, Celtic society has aptly been deser i bod as rural, tribal, hierarchical, and familial. lt was divided into four main groupings. The ruling stratum was a wealthy and internally competitive nobility, which in its most highly dcveloped form, as for instance in Cunobelin’s kingdom in Britain in the thirties ad, might be steeply ranked from a paramount king at its head via ranks of minor kings and senior nobles to the basie grade of nobility whose status was defined by wealth in land and cattle, and above all by the fact that each had sorhe minimum number - perhaps five - of free landowning but non-noble dependants. This complicated system was operated by two important forms of contractual relationship - base and noble contracts.

Base contracts linked the nobility with free smallholders and other grades of compatriot tribesmen; the contract consisted of a loan - probably of cattle or of land - madę by noble to dependant, whiłe thedependant paid the noble annual dues (nominally a rent on the loan, but in fact the prototype of a tax) and gave military or personal semce when required. The noble also guaranteed his dependants legał and physical safety. lt was by calling upon such contracts that a Celtic noble could assemble an army of compatriot warriors, as distinct from his personal retinue or bodyguard of young nobles, who were likely to be of very mixed origin and were actually maintained within his household. It would probably have been difficult for any Celtic smallholder to survive for long without entering into a base contract with sonie noble house or other (Julius Caesar certainly implies that this was the case in the first century bc), but it seems to have been a matter of morę or less free choice to which noble house a particular warrior attached himself. Nobles therefore needed to compete for their compatriot follow-ing, and a wealthy, generous, and militarily successful noble would naturally attract the largest following with which to pursue his ambitions.

Noble contracts linked the various grades of nobility. Once again they were nominally based upon a loan of livestock or of land in return for annual dues - in this case a form of tribute - and in return also for the subordinate noble's agreement to provide military' assistance with his own dependent warriors when so reąuired. In this way a senior noble could quickly collect extensive armies by summoning subordinate nobles, each with their own

personal retinue and ariny. A senior noble also offered his noble dependants the benefits of attendance at his court. The highest ranks of the nobility - district or trihal kings - probably always maintained diplomatic tics with others of similar rank cłsewhere and with representatives of external societies (above all in the Mediterrancan world), so that one of the chief benefits to be derived from entering into a noble contract with a senior king was association with important foreign dignitaries at his court or in his company abroad. During the height of mercenary activity in the fourth and third centuries bc this sort of noble relationship probably accounted for the contract which societies as remote as the western Gauls and Southern Britons seem to have had with the Mediterranean world, in association with stronger kings whose contacts were direct and well established.

Celtic society

In Julius Caesar's day, nobles were described generically as ‘horsemen’, suggesting that it was a minimum mark of nobility to possess a horse. In some areas a two-horse chariot may have been the insignia of senior nobility (Platę 3), for instance in the Seine basin during the fifth and fourth centuries bc, where the graves of the wealthiest warriors were provided with a two-horse chariot (recalling the Irish title for the nobility, ‘eirr’, or chariot-men). Another example may be first-century Britain, where Caesar was astonished to see Celtic chariots in action. If, as seems very likely, Celtic coinage was used primarily for payments by nobles to dependants in their capacity as warriors, the horse which is such a prominent symbol on most Celtic precious metal coinage may have been the chief insignia of nobility. In this connection it may be important that the two-horse chariot is generally confined to the largest denomi nations of early gold coinage; a one-horse chariot or horse alone is morę usuał on smaller denominations and on silver. Other items of noble insignia, and objects of martial significance. abound on Celtic coins: torąues or neck-rings (Platę 8); weapons, cattle. and trophies especially.

Ranking among the nobility was established competitively by prowess as leaders in battle or in single combat among themselves, and could be symbolically re-enacted at the feasts where compan-ions, guests, and retainers were entertained. The Celtic feast was