The Celts of central Gaul : some aspects of social and economic development as background to the Roman conquest in the light of numismatic and archaeological evidence
Keywords: conquest
archaeological
Roman
numismatic evidence
social and economic development
archaeology
land settlement
numismatics
Roman conquest
archaeological evidence
Celts
Gaul

In this study I set out to examine two questions: what changes took place in Central Gaulish society during the la Téne period, especially between the third century and the Caesarian conquest, and why they occurred. Central Gaul is defined as the area of present France enclosed by the river Loire, the Forez and Cévennes mountains, the Garonne basin and the Atlantic. Three types of primary evidence were used for this study: archaeology, coins and ancient texts relating to the Gauls.
The first section here presents the archaeological evidence for Central Gaul in this period, with specific reference to those features such as the development of oppida which are directly relevant to an investigation of social change. The material for this section was largely drawn from published reports. The second section deals with the coinage material, especially gold and silver issues. Here my primary aim was to establish the chronology and the regional distributions of particular types, and the ways in which types and distribution patterns changed over time. This work was of some importance especially for the third and second centuries as there has not hitherto been any published work on this period of the Central coinages, and it has been assumed by some prominent numismatists that the Arverni were responsible for coinage production in the Centre until 121. I hope to have shown that on the contrary there were many different mints before then, and that in fact the Arverni had no coinage of any importance, if they had one at all, before the first century. A large proportion of the work for this section has been my own primary research on the coins themselves.
Finally in the third section I examine the textual evidence for Celtic society in Gaul, and set beside it the conclusions from the other sections. Gaulish society in the fourth to second centuries is examined first, followed by a discussion of the evidence for the first century; particular emphasis is put upon the social structure of Celtic society: the role of the different social classes within the society and especially the importance of the Celtic system of clientage in the maintenance and increase of power by the ruling classes is stressed. The picture that has emerged is one which might be characterized as a transition : in this period from a high barbarian warrior society to a form of archaic statehood. During the second century, in the most advanced Central civitates, the political authority which had previously been spread over a relatively large number of virtually independent nobles was concentrated in the hands of a new political ruling class constituted on very narrow oligarchic lines, at the expense of the older 'heroic' warrior tradition. At a certain (unknown) point almost certainly in the second century it would appear that in these civitates there occurred a series of systematic 'reforms' closely analogous in purpose with those of Servius at Rome, Solon or Kleisthenes at Athens, and semi-legendary lawgivers in other archaic states in the world.
In order to examine the question why these changes occurred, the Gaulish evidence is compared with that from some other archaic or high barbarian societies, especially early Ireland and parts of Africa, and the role of foreign trade and the accumulation of private wealth in the process of political unification is discussed, Considerable attention is paid in the final chapter to the origin and social uses of wealth and coinage in Gaul, partly because the history of the coinage illustrates a number of important features of Gaulish society, and partly because I have been concerned to confront and criticize a number of false but persistent assumptions about the nature and uses of ancient coinage. I argue that Gaulish coinage was not in origin connected with or used for foreign or domestic trade, but that the Gauls first became accustomed to Macedonian coin in their extensive and well-documented service as mercenaries in Hellenistic armies late in the fourth century and daring the third. The purposes for which Gaulish coin was first minted were the same as those for which gold and silver precious goods were already used by the Celts: principally for payments between nobles and within the Celtic system of Clientage relations. The question of the authorship for minting Celtic coin is also discussed, and the close relation between the characteristics of each successive major phase of the coinage and the contemporary political structure of Gaul is stressed.
The Roman conquest decisively intervened in the development of Celtic society; the rapidity with which Central Gaul submitted to Roman administration (in contrast with the more backward 'warrior' areas of the north and north-west) is directly connected with the existence there of an as yet somewhat insecure native oligarchy whose social and political position within the civitates could only be strengthened by their incorporation into the Roman administration, and who therefore put up only very temporary resistance.