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Warfare

Introduction

According to the various written sources available to us, from the Greek and Roman writers to the mythological corpus of the insular tradition, the Celts were characterized by a "warlike disposition". Whether the interaction took the form of brawling in the context of a boasting match, service as a mercenary in Asia Minor or a fight to the death against another tribe's champion in the middle of a ford, armed conflict seems to have been a major part of the Celtic tradition. In more recent times we find Scottish, Irish and Welsh soldiers fighting across Europe, on the seas, and in almost all of the colonial territories of the British Empire. There are many ways in which the topic of Celtic warfare could be addressed by submissions to this issue:

• Military strategies, accounts and analyses of battles, from Alesia to Stirling Bridge
• Major military figures from a biographical and social-historical perspective
• Warfare and its effects on noncombatants in the Celtic world
• Archaeological evidence for Celtic warfare
• Arms, armor and the technology involved in producing the machinery of war
• Evidence for combat and defense and how these changes through time