Originally Posted by ick_of_pick
Just to clarify, I'm not saying that the Gallic, Briton, and Germanic peoples were poor warriors, I'm saying they were ineffective because of a lack of organization and irregular training. The Romans would drill thier troops constantly, and they were taught how to work together as an army. They had much more balance in terms of combined arms, and would respond to orders and change in battlefield tactics much more efficiently than the Gauls ever could. If your talking about individual fighting prowess, then yes, I would agree that a single Celt or German would most likely defeat a single legionnaire in one-on-one combat, seeing as how they trained from youth to be outstanding individual fighters. The reason I call them ineffective is because of the big picture. They were conquered. It is a definite fact that the Celts did win many battles against the Romans, Boudiccas rebellion alone killed about 70,000 Roman Soldiers. However, consider the fact that the Roman army, at it's maximum number of about 500,000 men, spread out across the whole empire managed to defeat and drive out a Gallic population of over 6,000,000. That shows how hopeless they were against the legions on open ground. There are certain situations, such as Teutoburg Forest, where the "Barbarians" defeated the Romans by luring them into a devastating ambush in terrain the Legions articulated poorly in, but these are few, and were not major setbacks for the Romans. I'm a big fan of Celtic culture and history, so don't think I'm some sort of biased maniac. But history shows results, and the Romans pretty much out performed the Celts in terms of overall martial ability.
Ick