Download or read book Celts and the Classical World (Routledge Revivals) written by David Rankin and published by . This book was released on 2014-04-06 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient peoples known today as Celts had a lasting prejudice against putting important matters down in writing. Not until the eight century AD do we find non-Romanised Celts producing literature which was not predominantly Classical in form and content. Thus, most of what we know of such an enigmatic civilisation comes to us via the Greeks and Romans, and so the first aim of this study is to observe the Celts through Graeco-Roman eyes. David Rankin provides a thoroughly researched and lucidly articulated portrayal of those Celts who entered the classical world, and of the fringe Celtic communities at the moment when they were overrun and assimilated by expansionist Rome. Celts and the Classical World, published first in 1987, remains a staple treatment of this fascinating subject, its particular strength being the author's wide, sympathetic and scholarly acquaintance with Celtic mythology, ethnography and literature.