Gaesatae

[cmacq]

When One Follows Bread Crumbs into a Fray?

A famous spear shaker once said, ’what’s in a name, that which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet. So what’s in this name and why would the ancient Celts call these warriors Gaesatae? As mentioned many times, we know the term Gaesatae implies not a spear per se, rather its a javelin. Now, because of its design, the spear is a very good weapon when used in defense, but offensively not so much. On the other hand the javelin is of little use both on defense and offense. This is because the javelin is too short, too light, and the point way too aerodynamic to standup to the close quarter mano-a-mano blood, sweat, and tears of the melee. The only practical use for the javelin is when its tossed at the enemy, and as classical mechanic dictate, the potential of mass is converted by speed into kinetic which translates into a bodkin-esque penetration of the enemy. Once the javelin is loosed there’s no recourse, no recall; it either finds its mark or fails. Its as if the javelin were a striped down version of a spear designed to fly through the air with the greatest of ease. So...

most simply put, the javelin as a naked type of spear was only meant to be unleashed and fly at high speed, with the singular propose to penetrate the enemy’s shield wall, or whatever it happened to run into. Again, why would the Gauls use the word for the javelin, to denote these Gaesatae warriors?

Lets change gears here and do big picture-small to recap? First we have heavily armed-shield-wall w/spear Hellen-istas going old school all around on the world known to the west. The shield wall w/spears thingy made light and even heavy horse, which had been all the rage untill this point, all but useless. Next, to counter the shield wall w/spears thingy, someone invented the ‘float like a butterfly, sting like bee’ (Italics) or the ‘smash and grab’ tactics (Africa and the East). Of course the ‘smash and grab’ used the elephant. So lets say, what would the poor man’s version of a smash and grab operation look like? OK there would be no elephants; but there was tons of the disposable young and dumb, and all the Perps-in-Charge (PIC) had to do was ‘point and click.’

I'm really not saying anything about the Gaesatae being either naked or clothed, other than that may be a bit of a red herring as far as the nature of the formation was concerned. What I am implying is that when the Gaesatae were on site, there was a certain expectation as to what role they would perform in combat. I view the naked warrior thing as another issue, of which elements of the Gaesatae were often a component.


CmacQ