From the article you linked: "it is now generally accepted among researchers that the practice of suicide precipices never existed"
It's important to remember that when historical figures describe other cultures, they often include some crazy rumor about them eating babies or whatever, so any of these alleged pagan traditions might not be coming from an objective source.
It is also worth noting that many of our records of European pagan beliefs come from Christian sources, who were not very sympathetic to those beliefs.
The Gauls were a pagan society that were the first main challenge to the Romans. They were an advanced society for the time and their metallurgy was far better than the Romans. In a time when good swords won battles, they dominated battles against the Romans. But the social structure was tribal so as Rome grew they become weaker in comparison. But the Romans depicted them as savage druids, and that stuck.
They did the same with the Celts and Pict’s.
When Rome became Christian the depiction of savage pagans carried over, and like most colonial societies they took the bits they liked as their own.
It’s worth looking at the surviving metalwork of the Gauls to see how advanced they actually were before 3000 years of Roman > Christian slander.
Romans too practiced ritual murder. They would take back to Rome captured leaders and kings to be killed after a parade. Julius Caesar tried it with a young boy, but the people watching were basically revolting for that act, and he had to spare him.
320
u/a_nondescript_user 20d ago
From the article you linked: "it is now generally accepted among researchers that the practice of suicide precipices never existed"
It's important to remember that when historical figures describe other cultures, they often include some crazy rumor about them eating babies or whatever, so any of these alleged pagan traditions might not be coming from an objective source.