 Why did the Celts not write a lot down? A frustration when doing this channel on Celtic history is how the Celts didn't write a lot down at all. Often the ancient primary sources on the Celts are from Roman and Greek sources and not from Celtic ones. This is a problem, as it probably does give us a skewed perspective on the Celts. One reason why the Celts didn't write a lot down was the Druids, the priesthood of Celtic societies. In Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul, yes, yet another Roman source, he details, from a Roman perspective, why the Druids disliked and discouraged people from writing. Caesar writes that, the Druids believe that their religion forbids them to commit their teachings to writing, although for most other purposes, such as public and private accounts, the Gauls used the Greek alphabet. But I imagine that this rule was originally established for other reasons, because they did not want their doctrine to become public property, and in order to prevent their pupils from relying on the written word and neglecting to train their memories. For it is usually found that when people have the help of texts, they are less diligent in learning by heart and let their memories rust. So according to Caesar, one of the reasons why the Celts didn't write a lot down was the Druids, because the Druids wanted to guard the secrets of their order and ensure that the population's memories did not rust. Although perhaps not the only reason, the Druids and their beliefs about writing is probably one of the primary reasons why there is not a lot of Celtic sources from ancient times.