e Celts. The
idea that they were not Celtic is sometimes connected with the
supposition that Druidism was something superadded to Celtic religion
from without, or that Celtic polytheism was not part of the creed of the
Druids, but sanctioned by them, while they had a definite theological
system with only a few gods.[1025] These are the ideas of writers who
see in the Druids an occult and esoteric priesthood. The Druids had
grown up _pari passu_ with the growth of the native religion and magic.
Where they had become more civilised, as in the south of Gaul, they may
have given up many magical practices, but as a class they were addicted
to magic, and must have taken part in local cults as well as in those of
the greater gods. That they were a philosophic priesthood advocating a
pure religion among polytheists is a baseless theory. Druidism was not a
formal system outside Celtic religion. It covered the whole ground of
Celtic religion; in other words, it was that religion itself.

The Druids are first referred to by pseudo-Aristotle and Sotion in the
second century B.C., the reference being preserved by Diogenes Laertius:
"There are among the Celtae and Galatae those called Druids and
Semnotheoi."[1026] The two words may be synonymous, or they may describe
two classes of priests, or, again, the Druids may have been Celtic, and
the Semnotheoi Galatic (? Galatian) priests. Caesar's account comes next
in time. Later writers gives the Druids a lofty place and speak vaguely
of the Druidic philosophy and science. Caesar also refers to their
science, but both he and Strabo speak of their human sacrifices.
Suetonius describes their religion as cruel and savage, and Mela, who
speaks of their learning, regards their human sacrifices as
savagery.[1027] Pliny says nothing of the Druids as philosophers, but
hints at their priestly functions, and connects them with magico-medical
rites.[1028] These divergent opinions are difficult to account for. But
as the Romans gained closer acquaintance with the Druids, they found
less philosophy and more superstition among them. For their cruel rites
and hostility to Rome, they sought to suppress them, but this they never
would have done had the Druids been esoteric philosophers. It has been
thought that Pliny's phrase, "Druids and that race of prophets and
doctors," signifies that, through Roman persecution, the Druids were
reduced to a kind of medicine-men.[1029] But the phrase rather describes
t