When it comes to Celtic leaders who defended their land from the encroaching Romans, one figure instantly comes to mind—the famous war-queen Boudicca and her equally famous (and sometimes historically inaccurate) chariot. It’s easy to assume that she was the only Celtic leader to rally against the invaders; in actual fact, there are several others who haven’t achieved nearly the same fame as Boudicca.

The Romans were efficient and ruthless, so fighting them was no easy feat. As such, not every Celtic leader who went against the Romans had a happy ending. Regardless, here are ten leaders who dared challenge the might of Rome in the name of the Celts.

10 Boduognatus

Boduognatus was the leader of the Nervii people. His name translates to “he who was born of the battle crow,” which tells you what kind of person he was.

Boduogantus was one of the few leaders who came close to defeating Caesar in the battlefield. In the Battle of the Sabis, he led some 40,000 Celts—with 60,000 more hidden in a nearby forest—against eight of Caesar’s legions (two of which consisted of the “baggage train”).

During the battle, the 40,000 Celts fled into the forest, hoping to draw the Romans in, but they didn’t give chase. That didn’t stop the Celts, who then gave a surprise charge that took Caesar’s forces off guard. The Romans acted quickly to get into a defensive stance and managed to turn the tide, but it was a Pyrrhic victory at best.

9 Vercingetorix

Vercingetorix lived from 82 to 46 BC and was the chieftain of the Arverni. His name translates to the very ambitious “Victor of a Hundred Battles.”

Vercingetorix put himself on the Celtic timeline when he arranged a rebellion to stop Caesar from subjugating the people of Gaul. Not much is known about Vercingetorix’s life before his revolt; even his name was given to him after he came into the spotlight. His real name was kept secret, as the Celts believed that knowing someone’s real name gave the enemy power.

Vercingetorix would use his forces to disrupt Roman trade lines and goad fights in his favor, but he fumbled when he lost a battle and fled. Caesar countered with a siege against Vercingetorix’s fortress. Vercingetorix was taken to Rome to show off Caesar’s prowess, before being executed six years later.

8 Caratacus

King of the Catuvellauni, Caratacus led his army with his brother. Combined, they helped to stave off the Roman armies for almost nine years. His own forces were outnumbered by the Romans, so he drew out the conquest by picking spots that were easy to defend and worked to repel the oncoming forces for as long as he could. He was regarded as a hero even after he lost the battle against Ostorious Scapula in AD 51 and was captured.

Even after his capture, Caratacus caught a break. He was well-known for his character, which played an important part when he was brought before Claudius for trial in Rome. His heart-capturing final speech caused Claudius to pardon him for his actions. He and his family lived the rest of their lives in Italy.

7 Ambiorix

Ambiorix was nothing short of a slippery character. Leader of the Eburones tribe, he managed to get on the good side of a legion and half of Caesar’s troops. He used the insider information gleaned to start a revolt and attack the camp.

When the attack failed, he managed to convince the camp that the revolts were widespread, Caesar had fled Gail, and that Germans were on the way to massacre the Romans. The camp fled, only to be nearly wiped out in an ambush set up for them.

It was Caesar’s worst loss in the Gallic War, so he wanted revenge. He wiped out the rebels, leaving Ambiorix for last. Ambiorix knew he was severely outnumbered, so when the Romans came for him, he simply told his army to spread out and flee. He hid in the woods, never to be seen again.

6 Cassivellaunus

Cassivellaunus played a vital role in opposing Caesar during his second invasion against the Celts. Caesar had learned from his mistakes during his first invasion, so instead of bringing two legions, he brought five. This was, obviously, a giant problem for the Celts, so they weren’t very confident in enaging the Romans in a straight fight.

Cassivellaunus responded by denying Caesar a proper fight, instead backpedaling into the woods and making guerilla strikes against the forces. The Romans made heavy use of chariots, which Cassivellaunus made sure to capitalize on in his surprise attacks.

Cassivellaunus would eventually have his stronghold ratted out by other captured Celtic leaders. His stronghold fell to the Romans, and Cassivellaunus fled. He tried one last attack on a Roman camp, but he failed and sued for surrender. He had to promise not to wage war against the Romans again but was otherwise left alone.

5 Dumnorix

Dumnorix was the leader of an anti-Roman faction in the Aedui tribe, which was mostly allied with Caesar. He joined Orgetorix and his Helvetii as they migrated from modern Switzerland to France. Caesar wasn’t too pleased with this and denied them travel across his lands.

Dumnorix got permission from the Sequani to cross their lands, where pro-Rome Aedui lived. Caesar didn’t like this, so he cut off Dumnorix with the Battle of the Ara. Even worse, the pro-Rome Aedui had taken poorly to Dumnorix and attacked, meaning that he had to fight two different forces.

The Romans managed to defeat some of the Helvetian forces, so the armies settled into negotiations. However, they fell apart. Dumnorix continued the migration, but the Romans shadowed them. He was eventually taken hostage by Caesar. He was killed after he tried to flee the camp in which he was kept.

4 Convictolitavis

Convictolitavis came into the picture when he and Cotos fought over leadership of the Aedui tribe. Caesar helped Convictolitavis to win in hopes that he’d help fight against Vercingetorix, but Convictolitavis told Caesar that he “did not owe him anything”—something that would bite Caesar later on.

When Caesar led his army against Vercingetorix in a siege of Gergovia, he expected Convictolitavis to help him. Instead, Convictolitavis revealed his true colors and aided Vercingetorix midway into the fight, catching Caesar unaware and causing him to lose the battle entirely. It was one of the few times where Caesar had been simply outdone.

3 Viridomarus

Viridomarus (or Britomartus, depending on translation) was a Gallic king in 222 BC. Not much is known about him, other than how attacked the Roman village of Clastidium. Unfortunately for him, a particularly successful Roman cavalry leader named M. Claudius Marcellus caught wind of his attack. Marcellus redirected his army to Clastidium and attacked Viridomarus’s forces from the front and then from the sides and rear, which broke Viridomarus’s army.

Trying to make something good of a bad situation, Viridomarus challenged Marcellus to single mounted combat. Marcellus accepted and won the duel, which earned Marcellus a spolia opima (spoils from a slain commander) for killing a Gallic king.

2 Venutius

Venutius was king of the Brigantes, along with his wife, Queen Cartimandua. When Caratacus arrived at Brigantium to find support against the Romans, Cartimandua responded by capturing him and turning him over to Caesar. Venutius disliked this move, and when Cartimandua divorced him for his armor-bearer, Vellocatus, he began a revolt that was initially against Cartimandua but then escalated into an anti-Roman cause. The Romans stepped in, quelled the revolt, and brought the couple back together again.

Venutius wasn’t done, however. During the Roman “year of four emperors” (AD 68 to 69), the Roman government was unstable. Using this weakness, Venutius staged another revolt. Cartimandua asked Rome for aid but got only auxiliary units. She was eventually overthrown by Venutius, who acted as a thorn in Rome’s side until his defeat.

1 Brennus

We’ve already covered a war leader named Brennus (see “10 Forgotten Conquerors From Ancient History”). This is a different Brennus, who appeared in the fourth century AD and fought against the Romans.

Brennus has an especially large claim to fame, since he was the first commander to sack Rome. He commanded his forces in the Battle of the Allia over Rome, which ended in Brennus’s victory and the Gallic Celts managing to secure a large majority of the city. The Romans negotiated Brennus’ leave with 450 kilograms (1,000 lb) of gold. Brennus responded by using overly heavy weights on the scales used to measure the gold and then threw his own sword atop the weights and said, “Vae Victis,” or “Woe to the vanquished.”

S.E. Batt is a freelance writer and author. He enjoys a good keyboard, cats, and tea, even though the three of them never blend well together. You can follow his antics over at @Simon_Batt or his fiction website at sebatt.com

We don’t know entertainment. Sure, we have our TV shows and our movies, but we’re not living up to our potential because one little thing is holding us back: basic human morality.

In ancient Rome, they didn’t share our hang-ups over human rights. At the Colosseum and the Roman games, the Romans acted out every sadistic, twisted thought they could imagine—and turned it into first-rate entertainment.

10 Criminals On Seesaws Slaughtered By Animals

The people who organized the Roman games came up with some strange ideas. The weirdest one was probably a device called the petaurua. This was a gigantic seesaw that could lift people 5 meters (15 ft) into the air. Criminals were brought out naked with their hands tied behind their backs. They were placed on massive seesaws, where they could bounce each other into the sky like kids on a playground.

Then wild animals were released. The animals couldn’t reach the person on the top of the seesaw, so the criminals would desperately try to bounce the guy on the other side to the ground.

The audience placed bets on who would live longest, but nobody got out unscathed. As soon as your seesaw partner fled, you’d crash down to your doom.

9 Wild Animals Popping Out Of The Floor

The animals released into the Colosseum didn’t come neatly out of cages. They would surprise you, popping out of the ground beneath your feet without a moment’s notice.

The Colosseum was littered with trapdoors, powered by a system of 24 lifts. These lifts were designed to carry 270 kilograms (600 lb) of weight because they had to lift massive, wild predators to the surface. Lions, wolves, leopards, and bears were all put into these things, ready to jump out at the condemned people above when they least expected it.

It took eight men to turn the wooden shaft that brought the animals out, and they had to do it perfectly. If things didn’t go as planned, the technicians were thrown into the Colosseum with the criminals.

8 A Naked Emperor Fighting Animals

Emperor Commodus was a big fan of the games. Swept up by his love of the sport—and probably his debilitating mental illness—he would waltz into the arena himself, usually naked, and fight for the amusement of his people. Most of the time, the naked emperor slaughtered exotic animals like lions, ostriches, hippos, elephants, and giraffes in front of a crowd that was required to applaud.

Other times, he would fight people, although he wouldn’t kill them in the arena. He let them surrender. In private, though, Commodus murdered people for practice, getting ready for the games. Disgusted, his people plotted against him. In the bath one day, Commodus met a fitting end—strangled to death naked by his wrestling trainer.

7 Dwarfs Fighting Each Other With Meat Cleavers

While Commodus was in power, it wasn’t just criminals who got sent to their deaths. Cripples and dwarfs were, too.

Commodus once gathered up every dwarf he could find and dragged them off to the Colosseum. There, each one was given a meat cleaver and set loose for the amusement of the crowd, forced to fight until the last man.

Another time, Commodus gathered up people who had lost their feet to disease and had them tied up in a row in the center of the arena. The emperor himself came out and walked down the line, bashing in their heads with a club.

6 Mythical Deaths Played Out On Stage

The myths of ancient Rome would be played out for an audience. These weren’t literary works performed by actors; they were massacres, with criminals playing the roles of the doomed.

One show played out the torture of Prometheus by having a criminal nailed to a cross with his stomach cut open. A bear was then released to finish him off.

Another criminal thought he got off easy. Cast as Orpheus taming the beasts, he was sent in with a lyre and ordered to play it for an arena full of animals. These were tame animals that wouldn’t hurt him—at first.

Watching a man walk around not getting murdered was too boring for the Roman audiences, so they deviated from the source material a bit. Halfway through the show, a starved bear was sent in to kill Orpheus.

5 Animals From Every Corner Of The World

The games were the best place to see animals. The first giraffe ever to set foot in Europe was displayed there. It had been captured by Julius Caesar and was dragged into the arena with a chain around its neck. The crowd was impressed by its exoticness but not so much by the animal.

Of course, this was Rome, so just showing off animals wasn’t enough. Exotic animals—including elephants, rhinoceroses, hippos, and giraffes—were pitted against one another in combat. Other times, hunters would be set loose to slaughter the animals for the amusement of the crowd.

According to one source, Nero managed to get an elephant to walk on a tightrope for the delight of the audience, although we don’t know the technical details of how his people pulled it off.

So many animals from so many places were brought in that it created its own ecosystem. At least 684 unique species of plants have been found there, birthed from the droppings of animals from every corner of the globe.

4 A Free-For-All Animal Slaughter

In AD 281, Emperor Probus had his people plant trees in the Circus Maximus until it looked like a forest. Then he invited the city to the circus for an event that would never be matched.

Instead of being stuck sitting in the bleachers, the people were invited to walk into the arena itself. There, a horde of herbivores was let loose. A thousand ostriches, a thousand stags, and a thousand boars were released into the crowd—along with a scattered slew of whatever animals they had on hand.

The entire audience was allowed to run wild with the animals, free to hunt them any way they chose—and they could take home whatever they killed.

3 Women Murdering Each Other

It wasn’t always just men in the arena—women were sent in, too. One show started with a woman dressed as Venus standing before Emperor Titus and declaring, “It is not enough that warrior Mars serves you in unconquered arms, Caesar. Venus herself serves you, too.”

This was more than just a ceremony; it was a signal to the audience. Today, they wouldn’t just see men beating each other senseless. They would see women kill each other, too.

Titus’s brother, Domitian, was really into the idea. When Domitian took over, he had more women fight than any other emperor. Unlike the men, these women were usually untrained, beating each other or being pitted against dwarfs in savage, desperate battles.

The men loved it. “What sense of shame can be found in a woman wearing a helmet,” one Roman wrote, “who shuns femininity and loves brute force!”

2 A Live Naval Battle

There are about four confirmed times in history when the Colosseum was filled with water to stage a full-scale naval battle. These were incredible technical displays. Crewed by condemned prisoners, full fleets of ships were put inside and would battle for the amusement of the crowds.

The first was staged by Julius Caesar, and it included 4,000 oarsmen and 2,000 fighters aboard full-size ships. It was so popular that people were trampled to death trying to get a good view.

That was just a small show, though. They got bigger and bigger until Claudius set the record by having 100 ships and 19,000 soldiers fight in a massive artificial sea.

His show almost didn’t happen. At first, the prisoners aboard the ships refused to fight. Claudius sent in his imperial guard to demonstrate exactly what would happen to the prisoners if they didn’t die for the entertainment of his audience. Then the show began.

1 A Prisoner Forcing A Lavatory Sponge Down His Throat

The prisoners weren’t too happy about being sent to death for the amusement of the Roman people. For many, going through these horrors was a fate worse than death—and some did everything they could to end their lives before they were forced onstage.

The night before they were to face the arena, one group of 29 Saxon prisoners took turns strangling one another to death, which was believed to be a mercy compared to the horrors of the Roman games. Another prisoner shoved his head between the spokes of a spinning cart wheel to snap his own neck.

The most extreme was a desperate German prisoner. With no other options, he grabbed the lavatory sponge from the communal toilet and thrust it down his throat, choking himself to death.

The Romans just saw it as another great extension of the games. Upon finding out about the suicide, the philosopher Seneca wrote, “What a brave fellow! He surely deserved to be allowed to choose his fate! How bravely he would have wielded a sword!”

The ancient Romans and Greeks had a highly liberated attitude toward sex—one that is surprising, even by today’s standards. They had gods devoted to it, festivals to partake in it, and local economies that surrounded it. Sex was not something to be ashamed of or hidden from public view. Rather, it was something to rejoice in.

10Phallic Bricks Of Pompeii

We all know the legend surrounding Pompeii. The original City of Sin’s people basked in a perpetual heat of promiscuity—promiscuity said to have inspired the gods’ rage with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Since excavation of its near-perfectly preserved remains began in the 18th century, archaeologists have discovered a great deal regarding Pompeii’s sexual identity.

Pompeii’s economy thrived on more than 40 brothels, the most famous of which was named “Lupanare Grande,” translated today as “pleasure house.” The rooms in these brothels were often cramped and dim, with a small straw mattress positioned beneath a piece of pornographic artwork hung on the wall. Despite their appearances, it would be misleading to classify these brothels as the seedy underbelly of Pompeii’s economy. Rather, they existed on a highly public and unashamed platform, alongside the forum and communal bath houses, both of which were important sites of a larger (public) sex system.

Visit the ruins of Pompeii today, and you will no doubt see the “phallic bricks” of Pompeii pointing the way to the nearest pleasure house with an erect phallus engraved into its stone. And if those weren’t clear enough markers, erect phalluses were often positioned above the doors of brothels and private residences as tidings of good luck.

9Voyeurism

“You may look, but don’t touch,” was somewhat of a guiding theme across Ancient Roman and Greek artwork, as indicated by the many pieces of art uncovered today displaying such provocations. One could discover this for themselves at The Gabinetto Segreto in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

This “Secret Cabinet” houses a collection of erotic artwork from Ancient Rome. One such wall painting from, unsurprisingly, Pompeii, displays this voyeurism with a man and a woman having intercourse in front of their attendant, who is visible in the background.

In Ancient Greece, there exists a body of art dedicated to Maenads, the feverous female followers of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, ritual madness, religious euphoria, and theatre. Artwork surrounding these women were highly explicit, and the sexual acts represented by the artwork displayed the figures as objects to be observed. This idea of voyeurism in erotic art was twofold, where a voyeur existed within the artwork, as was the case in one hydria painting Sleeping Maenad and Satyrs, as well as external to the artwork, where the onlooker (or “innocent bystander”) also became a voyeur.

8The Wife-Sharing Economy

The Etruscan civilization was assimilated into the Roman Republic during the fourth century BC. However, their customs remained largely intact.

The Etruscan women were known for their liberated attitude toward intercourse and nudity. They kept their bodies in fit condition and often walked around in the nude, enjoying the pleasure of all men who came by. “Marriage” was a loose construct. It was common for children to have no clue who their father was, and for women not to ask.

Frescoes painted on the Tombs of The Bulls, The Bigas, and The Floggings, in Tarquinia, display these kinds of erotic scenes.

7Fruitful Contest Of The Sexes

Kenneth Reckford, an expert of the Classics, analyzed Aristophanes’s work in a series of essays entitled Aristophanes’s Old-and-New Comedy. One essay, “Aischrologia,” addresses the season ritual of Thesmophoria in Ancient Greece. Only married Athenian women participated in this ritual, which aimed to promote fertility. In preparation, women would abstain from intercourse and oftentimes bathe as an act of purification. During this three-day affair, women would perform various acts of “fertility magic.” In addition, they would share lewd jokes and tales of their indecencies, and play with toys replicating both the male and female genitals.

This ritual, coupled with the Eleusinian Haloa festival, gave women the opportunity to release pent-up sexual frustration through liberal use of sex symbols, pornographic sweets, raucous activities, and free-range slut-shaming—for lack of a better phrase. During Haloa, according to Reckford, Greek women could “say the most ugly and shameful things to one another,” shooting insults at each other regarding sexuality and vulgarity, while proclaiming their own indiscretions.

6Fun At The Carnival

According to Mikhail Bakhtin, a scholar of literary theory and philosophy, the Carnival of ancient literature was a free-for-all, where people would throw class division, respect, and sensitivity out the window. There was no “saying no,” and certainly no saying “too much.” Carnival was pure id. Suspend reality and imagine a scene of extravagance, with banquets of food and wine, laughter, and sex. At Carnival, everyone was equal, and even degrading remarks inspired a regenerative energy—though, that may be in part due to the number of drugs and intoxicants they used to strip inhibitions.

Arthur Edward Waite in his book A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry says, “The Festivals were orgies of wine and sex: there was every kind of drunkenness and every aberration of sex, the one leading up to the other. Over all reigned the Phallus.”

These Carnival rituals date back to as early as the fifth century BC and were held during the spring equinox. It should come as no surprise that these festivals, called The Dionysian Mysteries, were dedicated to Dionysus, the Greek god of all your earthly desires and the enabler of all your poor decision-making. This carnival inspired the Roman equivalent, Bacchanalia.

Most of the initiation process for men and women are known thanks to a collection of frescoes preserved in the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii. And, in all fairness, it is a bit reminiscent of what one might expect in Greek life initiation today. The murals a declaration of initiation at the feet of the priestess followed by a descent into the underworld (katabasis), before returning anew. Aristophanes, in his play The Frogs, assumes the origin of this ritual with descent of Dionysis into Hades.

5Before Viagra, There Was Priapus

The Greeks had a very firm relationship with the phallus—more an obsession, really. In particular was Priapus, the Greek god equivalent to Dionysus, known for his extremely long and permanently erect penis. If you think you recognize the term, it’s because Priapus inspired the medical term priapism.

And even if Priapus didn’t play too well with the other gods, he was revered on Earth. The Priapeia contains a collection of 95 poems dedicated to the sexually driven vulgarity of Priapus.

With this gift of dirty pictures
from the tract of Elephantis
Lalage asks if the horny
deity could help her do it
just like in the illustrations

The law which (as they say) Priapus coined
for boys appear immediately subjoined
“Come pluck my garden’s contents without blame
if in your garden I can do the same.”

4They Threw Some Serious Shade

Hipponax of Ephesus was a highly controversial iambic poet, even for ancient Greece. Where he excelled were his insults, which were raunchy and lewd and often satirical of the high (dignified) language of his targets.

In fact, as the story goes, he was so skillful at insults, they drove one victim to suicide. Hipponax was apparently after the daughter of Bupalus, but Hipponax’s deformed looks ultimately led to his rejection. In jest, Bupalus made a statue of Hipponax so ugly that Hipponax retaliated with accusations of Bupalus having an incestuous relationship with his mother:

“Bupalus, the mother-f—r with Arete, fooling with these words the Erythraeans preparing to draw back his damnable foreskin”

Other notable shade interpreted in Hipponax’s work includes the dissection of Bupalus’s name, Bou-phallus, meaning quite literally “ox phallus,” and the ever-charming “interprandial pooper,” meaning a person who must get up during the middle of a meal to defecate.

3Using Sex For World Peace

Aristophanes, considered one of the most famous comic playwrights of ancient Greece, was known for his poignant commentary of the social and political landscapes of Athens during the late fifth and early fourth centuries BC. In one such play, Lysistrata, Aristophanes parodies warfare with a battle of the sexes.

The women use the men’s desires against them, forcing abstinence to compel peace between the Athenians and the Spartans. Women thus use their sexuality to put things in perspective for men, and to ultimately remind them of the “transcendental significance” of sex. According to the women, the men had forgotten this amidst their stubbornness over more trivial matters, like war.

In the end, Peace appears to the men as a young, naked woman to remind the men of their sexual desires to “plow a few furrows” and “work a few loads of fertilizer in.” The men, in turn, realize the importance of sex to their society enough that they put war behind them.

2“Ars Amatoria”

A short cry from Karma Sutra was the work of one Ancient Roman poet, Ovid (43 BC–AD 17). His work provided instruction for sexual proclivities, with titles including “Amores” (Love), “Medicamina Faciei” (Remedies for Love) “Remedia Amoris,” and most infamously, “Ars Amatoria” (the Art of Love). While his work may sound wholesome, Ars Amatoria became a guidebook for lovers and adulterers alike.

In many ways, he created The Game, which confuses both men and women to this day. He advises men to let their women miss them—but not too much, while advising women to make their men jealous at times, to ensure they do not grow lax nor lazy. In the bedroom, Ovid details what form women should take, to not only maximize pleasure for themselves, but also to make it most pleasurable to the man’s gaze. In one sense, he moved away from the notion of women as possession—as they were equal players in the game of love—while on the other hand, reinforcing manipulative tactics to keep one’s lover constantly on their toes.

Though his language never broke into vulgarity, it was quite explicit in its detail, and in a matter of poor timing, resulted in his exile by Augustus, who was still coping with the news of his daughter’s copulations.

1Martial

As with other emotional impulses, shock lies in the space between expectations and reality. Marcus Valerius Martialis, or Martial, was a Roman poet from first century, who was made famous by his 12 books of epigrams. To this day, Martial’s epigrams are shocking due to their obscene, and oftentimes graphic, language. If nothing else, their vulgarity sheds light on the type of work published at the time.

Epigrams 79 and 80 of Book III convey vulgarity in a distinct structure. In these epigrams, insults are initially targeted at the subjects’ character and are then redirected by insulting subjects’ sexual “short-cummings.” In Epigram 79, Martial begins by declaring:

“Sertorius finishes nothing, and starts everything. When he fornicates, I don’t suppose he completes.”

Martial’s sharp words pivot this insult more pointedly at Sertorius’s sexual incapability. Likewise, Epigram 80 introduces its subject with a more general observation followed by a hyper-sexualized observation.

“You talk of nobody, Apicius, speak ill of nobody, yet rumor says you have an evil tongue.”

While the former could pose as a general remark to Apicius’s soft-spoken character, the latter angles the reader to the true central insult: Apicius’s skill at oral sex. Here, “evil” is more likely a term for “wild,” suggesting that Apicius’s tongue causes his sexual partner to lose control and that he is skillful at giving head. The explicit quality of this language indicates the level of tolerance Ancient society had at the time regarding sex.

Emma Marie is a student, photographer, traveler, and certified freediver.