Gaesati

If you play Ancients then you have probably heard of Gaesati.  They were the spiky haired, ferocious and naked Celtic warriors who attracted the attention of classical writers. Here is an entirely uncontroversial view of the Gaesati from a respected and not unsympathetic scholar.

“The name of this Alpine tribe is probably connected with ‘Gaisos’ which means javelin and is a word that which has been given an Iberian origin in Athenaeus 273f.  It may also be related to Old Irish ‘Gae’ a spear. Polybius translates ‘Gaesati’ as mercenaries (2.22), which if its original meaning is something like ‘spearmen’ in Celtic is by no means an unreasonable secondary meaning, when we consider such Greek words as Doryphoroi, the attendant body guards of tyrants and dictators”.

David Rankin Celts and the Classical world.

This is the received wisdom on the subject.  Often you will also find a reference comparing the Gaesati with the Irish Fianna.

I wonder if it may rest on a misreading of the word Gaesati? 

Here is what I’m thinking.  

The word Gae does indeed mean spear but there is another Celtic word which may provide the root of the Gaesati name.  That word in Irish is Geis.  As you will shortly see this is not an exercise in ‘sounds like’.

A Geis is a ritual prohibition the breaking of which has serious consequences.  Conversely, if you kept your Geis you got Buada.  Buada sort of translates as luck, success, triumph, honour.  The root of the word is Bua, victory which gives you the jist.  Think of it as like the Roman Virtu.  Buada, like Virtu was a useful and measurable status thing.   We can see a Geis modified behaviour.   

Geis often had very practical motivations and strictures.  As an example, it was a Geis of the King of Leinster that he must never campaign in Dysart O’Dea.  When an English army under King Richard II tried it, they almost starved to death. Clearly then, this Geis was to prevent a king from doing something which experience had shown was destructive folly.

The Geis of the Fianna was never to retreat unless outnumbered by more than ten to one.  Which is quite a statement of intent.

By now you can see where I’m going with this.  I suspect the key part of the name Gaesati is not Gae (Spear/Javelin) but Geis.  That would make the Gaesati men who had taken a Geis rather than Spear men. Which is to say the Gaesati were ritually devoted warriors just like the Fían of Ireland.  

That they were available for pay as Polybius tells us would also fit with the Irish comparison.  As for spears, certainly, but the sword was ever the prestigious Celtic weapon and the Gaesati were prestigious warriors.  When Tacitus had to make up the name of a Caledonian King, he gave us Calgacus, literally ‘swordsman’.

Could this be possible?  Well, our version of Polybius comes from 10th Century Byzantium and was likely copied out at a time when the nuances of the Celtic West had long since ceased to be of political interest there. 

Now this rests on linguistics and I’m insufficient a scholar for the task.  Have we even recovered the Gaulish word for Geis?  Not according to Václav Blázek in his 2008 Gaulish Dictionary.   I turned to the eminent scholar John T Koch’s Celtic Encyclopaedia, alas to no avail.  Scholars like Prof Koch who has Linguistics, Archeology and History as strings to his bow know how words are transmitted from one language to another-and what form they will take.  He could no doubt tell us the answer.

So, if I'm onto something here what does it mean for Army Lists and suchlike?  Absolutely nothing - classification would remain the same.  But, we have had a little historical ramble which does no harm at all.

Here's a final photo of my Gaesati, from Donnington.  Jolly little figures I think.