[121] Titus Livius (V. 46) represents the Gauls as very religious.
[122] The existence of human sacrifices among the Gauls is attested by a great number of authors. (Cicero, Orat. pro Fonteio, xiv. 31.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, I. 38.—Lucan, Pharsalia, I. 444; III. 399, et seq.—Solinus, 21.—Plutarch, De Superstitione, p. 171.—Strabo, IV., p. 164, edit. Didot.)
[123] De Bello Gallico, VI. 17.
[124] Pharsalia, I., lines 445, 446.
[125] “So, in spite of their love of money, the Gauls never touched the piles of gold deposited in the temples and sacred woods, so great was their horror of sacrilege.” (Diodorus Siculus, V. 27.)
[126] De Bello Gallico, VI. 13, et seq.
[127] “The Gauls have poets who celebrate in rhythmic words, on a sort of lyre, the high deeds of heroes, or who turn to derision disgraceful actions.” (Diodorus Siculus, V. 31.) And he adds: “They have philosophers and theologians, who are held in great honour, and are named Druids (according to certain texts, Saronides). They have diviners, whose predictions are held in great respect. These consult the future by the aid of auguries and the entrails of the victims; and, in solemn circumstances, they have recourse to strange and incredible rites. They immolate a man by striking him with a sword above the diaphragm, and they draw presages from the manner in which he falls, in which he struggles, or in which the blood flows. They authority of the Druids and bards is not less powerful in peace than in war. Friends and enemies consult them, and submit to their decision; it has often been sufficient to arrest two armies on the point of engaging.”—Strabo (VI., p. 164, edit. Didot) relates nearly the same facts. He makes a distinction also between the bards, the priests, and the Druids.
[128] Ammianus Marcellinus (XV. 9) speaks as follows of the ancient Druids: “The men of that country (Gaul), having become gradually polished, caused the useful studies to flourish which the bards, the euhages (prophets), and the Druids had begun to cultivate. The bards sang, in heroic verse, to the sound of their lyres, the lofty deeds of men; the euhages tried, by meditation, to explain the order and marvels of nature. In the midst of these were distinguished the Druids, who united in a society, occupied themselves with profound and sublime questions, raised themselves above human affairs, and sustained the immortality of the soul.” These details, which Ammianus Marcellinus borrows from the Greek historian Timagenes, a contemporary of Cæsar, and from other authors, show that the sacerdotal caste comprised three classes—1, the bards; 2, the prophets; 3, the Druids, properly so called.
[129] Amédée Thierry, II. 1.
[130] See Paulus Diaconus, p. 4, edit. Müller.