Other “learned classes” of Celts included genealogists who memorized centuries of tribal relations, those responsible for memorizing the applying the law, and “bards” who were both storytellers and folk historians. In the battle with the Fomorians, Lugh uses his sorcery skills to give his army special weapons and the powers of magic. The 2001 film Druids, starring Christopher Lambert as Vercingetorix, depicts the Gaul Chieftain's struggle against Caesar.

Although that was way back in the past, many clues still survive which tell us what life was like during Roman times. Lifestyles and types of settlements remained little changed from the Iron Age through the Roman period. The Luigni, an ancient tribe inhabiting what is today County Meath and County Sligo in the north of Ireland, considered themselves descendants of Lugh, even if in many sources he has no children.In the 1870s archaeologists were hugely excited to dig up items in northern Italy that were clearly Celtic in design and corroborated classical authors’ accounts of the Celts invading Italy from the north around 450 B. The Celts of Brittany derive their language from migrating Insular Celts from Britain and so are grouped accordingly. However, there is no mention of who won or who lost, or whether the men of Cornwall and Devon were fighting each other or on the same side. The earliest issues of his coins are from Camulodunum, which indicates that he first took power there. The ancient Celts were famous for their colorful wool textiles, forerunners of the famous Scottish tartan.

At the Battle of Alesia, also in 52 BC, the Romans besieged and defeated his forces; to save as many of his men as possible, he gave himself to the Romans. It was not unusual for leaders to be known by a title that indicated strength and power, the name Vortigern has the meaning “Great King”, while both the names Hengist and Horsa have root meanings of “powerful horsemen”. One such mound near Hochdorf, Germany, held the remains of a Celtic chieftain and a wealth of artifacts pointing to a complex and stratified Celtic society. Over the next year it battled inland, storming through hillforts and conquering anyone who stood in their way. Attempts at revolt, such as that of Ambiorix in 54 BC, had secured only local support, but Vercingetorix, whose father, Celtillus, had been put to death by his own countrymen for seeking to rule all of Gaul, managed to unify the Gallic tribes against the Romans and adopted more current styles of warfare.Central to the debate is how, and if, the term “Celt” can be applied to modern populations in western Europe. However, Patrick Sims-Williams notes that these date to the later Roman era, and says they suggest "relatively late settlement by a Celtic-speaking elite". The West Saxon victory at the Battle of Peonnum, possibly modern Penselwood in east Somerset, around 658, resulted in the eastern part of Dumnonia being permanently annexed by Wessex. Myles Dillon and Nora Kershaw Chadwick argued that "Celtic settlement of the British Isles" might date to the Bell Beaker culture of the Copper and Bronze Age (from c. The story is first told in “The Life of the Saints” written by Constantius of Lyon around 480AD and repeated in Bede’s “History of the English Church 200 years later.