2017

chapter in monograph / paper

polish

EN In 121 B.C. war dogs had been a part of the Allobroges’ army which was described by Appian and Orosius. Some scholars believe that it was a typical Celtic custom. The author has attempted to verify this opinion by analyzing literary, archaeological and linguistic sources. Moreover, he decided to expand the scope of the research into the British Isles, which were not entirely inhabited by the Celts. Consequently, the belief of the prevalence of the Celtic war dogs has been negatively verified. The strongest argument for the existence of the ‘fighting dogs’ in some areas are separate terms in Gallic and Goidelic languages. It is not entirely clear how we should understand the world ‘fighting’ because it could affect fighting with other animals, for example during the hunting, not necessarily humans. Furthermore, the names referring to dogs we know from ancient Britain and Ireland did not have to refer to combat skills but rather to hunting skills (Britain) or protecting the home and homeland (Ireland). The analysis of archeological data also did not confirm using the war dogs by the Celts and the Goidels. The only premise comes from the linguistic. Summarizing, the war dogs existed in the south-eastern Gaul during the second century B.C. and possibly in northern and central-east Ireland. We have no evidence of using them in the other areas inhabited by La Tène people.

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Animus Belli 2017. Duch wojny. T. 2, Historia sztuki wojennej. Zwierzęta na polu walki

I Ogólnopolska Konferencja Naukowa z cyklu "Animus Belli", 20.04.2017, Warszawa, Polska

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