Facts about Druids
Historical knowledge of Druids is very limited, for they left no written records.
Under Tiberius the Druids were suppressed by a decree of the Senate, but this had to be renewed by Claudius in 54 C.E.
Some research done on the ancient Indian scripture Rig Veda, suggests a parallel between the Druids and the Druhyus referred therein.
The association of Druids with Stonehenge was hypothesized in the sixteenth century in attempts to explain the mysteries of Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument that was abandoned long before any Druids came to Britain.
Caesar notes that all men of any rank and dignity in Gaul were included either among the Druids or among the nobles, indicating that they formed two classes.
Druids were not a hereditary caste, but they enjoyed exemption from military service as well as from payment of taxes.
The Druids were polytheists who also revered elements of nature, such as the sun, the moon, and the stars, looking to them for "signs and seasons."
Caesar noted that Druids punished members of the society by a form of excommunication, preventing them from attending religious festivals.
The British Museum declares: "Modern Druids have no direct connection to the Druids of the Iron Age.
Druids came there from all over Europe to learn their secrets, but what was taught there, or at other centers, is conjecture.
the continental Druids disappeared entirely from the historical record and were referred to only on very rare occasions.
Before setting out on the great expedition against Ulster in Tбin Bу Cuailnge, Medb, queen of Connacht, consults her Druids regarding the outcome of the war.
Many of Paris' churches each had their own cemetery, but, by the late eighteenth century, these were creating unpleasant living conditions for nearby residential areas.
Druids began to figure widely in popular culture with the first advent of Romanticism.
Of the Druids' oral literature (sacred songs, formulas for prayers and incantations, and rules of divination and magic), not one verse has survived, even in translation.
remarks on the existence among the Gauls of augurs or soothsayers, known by the name of Druids, saying that he had made the acquaintance of one Diviciacus, an Aeduan also known to Caesar.
Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico gives the fullest account of the Druids.
is the first author who says that the Druids' instruction was secret, carried on in caves and forests.
Writers such as Diodorus and Strabo, though with less firsthand experience than Caesar, reported that the Celtic priestly order or class included Druids, Bardism and Vates (soothsayers).