Druids
group · 4 works · 5 mentions · 9 anchored passages
the Celts · the Druids · the order of the Druids
in the texts
Lectures on the Early History of Institutions
The learned, priestly order of Continental Celtic society described by Caesar, treated as the historical predecessor of the Irish Brehons.
It is, however, remarkable that, when he speaks of the Druids, his statements are greatly more detailed.
The writers of the prefaces seem to have conceived the Druids as a class of heathen priests who had once practised magical arts.
Cæsar states that the Druids believed in the immortality and transmigration of the soul, and considered it the key of their system.
Stromata
Philosophical order among the Galatians (Celts).
At its head stood the prophets of the Egyptians, the Chaldeans among the Assyrians, the Druids among the Galatians, the Samanaeans among the Bactrians, the philosophers of the Celts, and the Magi of the Persians (who by their magic foretold the birth of the Saviour, coming into the land of Judaea led by a star), and among the Indians the gymnosophists, and other barbarian philosophers besides.
Orations
Celtic priestly class concerned with prophecy and wisdom, whose counsel Celtic kings could not act without.
and the Celts, those whom they name Druids, these too being concerned with prophecy and the rest of wisdom;
The Rights of War and Peace
Priestly class of the Gauls credited by Strabo with deciding wars and ending disputes.
The office of deciding wars and putting an end to the contentions of armies was assigned, according to Strabo, to the Druids of the Gauls, and upon the testimony of the same writer, it formed a part of the priestly functions among the Iberians.