Ancient Britain and the Invasions of Julius Caesar

by T. Rice Holmes

[1150] B. G., v, 22, § 3.

[1151] H. d’A. de Jubainville, Les Celtes, pp. 39-40, 44. Cf. J. Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, p. 220.

[1152] J. Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, pp. 39, 41-2.

[1153] M. Camille Jullian (Rev. des études anc., iv, 1902, p. 109, n. 1) points out that in vol. vii [p. 331] of the Corpus inscr. Lat. there are sixty-one inscriptions in honour of Mars [of which, however, eight are uncertain], and only eight in honour of Mercury; and the greater popularity of Mars is also apparent in the supplements published in Ephemeris epigraphica (iii, 1877, pp. 125, 128; iv, 1881, p. 196; vii, 1892, pp. 289, 299, 313, 324, 332, 334, 352). But no account should be taken of those inscriptions in which the name of Mars is not coupled with that of a Celtic deity, though even with this reservation the ascendancy of Mars remains unaffected.

[1154] See Rev. des études anc., iv, 1902, p. 109, n. 1. Even in Gaul the cult of Mars appears to have preponderated among the Aquitani (ib., pp. 106-7, and Corpus inscr. Lat., xiii, 87, 108-17, 209-13).

[1155] B. G., vi, 17, §§ 3-5. Cf. J. Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, pp. 49-50.

[1156] Corpus inscr. Lat., vii, 84.

[1157] Pharsalia, i, 445-6.

[1158] There is no trace of the worship of Esus in the British Isles, unless M. d’Arbois de Jubainville (Les Celtes, p. 63) is right in thinking that Esus was a god whose surname was Smertullos, and that Smertullos, the Celtic Pollux, is to be identified with the Irish Cuchulainn (see also Fragm. hist. Graec., ed. Didot, i, 1841, p. 194, fr. 6; Diodorus Siculus, iv, 56, § 4; Corpus inscr. Lat., xiii, 3026 c; and H. d’A. de Jubainville, Principaux auteurs à consulter sur l’hist. des Celtes, p. 88). Esus is depicted as a woodman in the act of felling a tree on No. 2 of four altars which were discovered at Paris in 1710; while Smertullos appears on the right of No. 3, threatening a serpent with a club. M. d’Arbois is a little rash in concluding (La civilisation des Celtes, 1899, p. 173) that because there was a Briton called Esunectus, who may have been an immigrant from Gaul, Esus was worshipped in Britain. The name AESV occurs on a coin of the Iceni; but its meaning is uncertain (J. Evans, Coins of the Anc. Britons, p. 386). The scholiasts of Lucan identified Esus with Mercury; but their authority on such a matter is worthless (see Rev. celt., xviii, 1897, p. 117). Prof. Rhys, however, has recently examined an inscription (Celtic Inscr. in France and Italy, 1907, p. 56), which leads him to give a qualified support to the identification.

[1159] Corpus inscr. Lat., vii, 747, 1114d; H. Gaidoz, Esquisse de la rel. des Gaulois, p. 12; W. H. Roscher, Lex. der griech. und röm. Mythol., i, 1884-6, col. 1286-93; Rev. arch., 3^e sér., xxvi, 1895, pp. 309, 317; 4^e sér., ii, 1903, pp. 348-50; Rev. des études anc., vii, 1905, pp. 234-8.