In his Gallic Wars book Caesar notes that the Gauls had censuses and other written tax and accounting records and republican forms of government with written constitutions. Weren't they actually a pretty advanced society then?

>>17754514 (OP)
I haven't read much on it, but didn't the Romans adapt chainmail and socks from the Gauls? Caesar characterizes them as savages who run into battle naked but we see similar propaganda being used to describe the Native American "savages" whenever war was being justified against them. I'm pretty sure any idea that the Gauls were savage and primitive was just the result of the winners writing history.

>>17754514 (OP)
Vercingetorix was nearly the same caliber of general as Caesar and, were it not for Caesar's insanely out-of-the-box tactics, he would've won.

>>17754568
The Gauls, from archaeological evidence had superior military equipment, both in terms of weapons and armor. The issue was, like with the Greeks, the Gauls couldn't field their forces correctly as they were too internally divided. Later Roman equipment, which was better, was almost a complete copy of Gallic kit.

>>17754514 (OP)
The concept of Celts being backwards unga bunga primitives is, ironically enough Roman propaganda. The Celts of Gaul had the same level of technology that the Romans did, they were just less able to mass distribute it to the extent that Rome could since their union was extremely decentralized whereas Rome was extremely centralized and organized. Both were iron age civilizations with advanced iron working capacity.

>>17754962
They didn't have the same level of technology. At some point the Gauls surrendered when seeing roman siege equipment because they thought it was so advanced that the Gods must have helped the Romans pull it forward

>>17754514 (OP)
>worthy opponeent finally surrenders
>keep him in jail for years, then human-sacrifice him like an aztec
holy shit, have some respect. Cultures all over the world treated worthy vanquished foes with honor

>>17755026
yeah but the Akkadians said the same about the Assyrians when they showed up in siege towers or burrowing underneath their walls and nobody calls them uncivilized

>>17755038
for the romans, that was honorable. A triumphal sacrifice was like being called a divine antagonist to Rome and the city only being saved by grace of the gods
the ceremony got diluted and banalized by the late republic but it was still a massive deal

>>17755026
>>17754962
There were many Gaulic tribes and I think it's safe to assume the ones living near borders of the Republic were on a similar technological level as the Romans and the ones closer to Rhine were more savage although not as much as the propaganda suggests.