By Anubh na Preachain, 2020 (spelling of name changed to Anauved de Mona in 2022)
(Jump to the Documentation below)
Commius comes to Albion and Gaul
Commius sees us, Germans, Celts, and Romans all
Commius, on coins in the hand
Commius, on minds and hearts
You think you know who is us or them but
You can’t always tell them apart.
The Sabis River ran red with blood in Belgic Gaul when
Three tribes including that of Komm the chieftain[1] met Romans with a roar of weapons.
And though eagle-killers drew banquets for ravens
Though sword blows rained down and the din of shield-noise rose up, in the end
Gallic forces lost the protection of their tribal god Teutates[2] and fell to Julius Caesar[3].
Preparing for this, the god Ogmios had run a chain
From the tongue of Tribesman Komm to Caesar’s ear[4].
So pleased was Caesar by the words and valor of Tribesman Komm,
Caesar appointed him Commius Rex, client king of the Atrebates[5].
Moss, however, never grew beneath our Commius.
Caesar sent Commius the envoy across the channel ahead of Roman troops,
Petitioning Pretani there to yield.
Insulted Celts took Commius captive[6].
And Pretani[7] prepared the proconsul a pretty greeting
Meeting wave-wagons that came over
with javelins at the cliffs of Dover
chasing them up the coast
Until they floundered in at an upshore beach
Where they had to dump soldiers into deep water.
Some drowned, others were beset by foes in the shallows.
But Romans had mad machines.
Ballista bolts from boat decks beat the Britons back!
No chase could be given though:
Roman cavalry ships had come within sight of shore
But before landing were forced away by a storm[8].
Druids had nothing to do with that[9]…
Commius the prisoner was released and stumbled back down the beach to Caesar.
Now, whether Commius suffered abuse by his Celtic captors
or suffered from a hard night’s drinking was anyone’s guess.
Then the god Taranis hurled a tempest[10].
Wind, surging swells and lightning slammed Caesar’s anchored sea-carts against each other
Swamped beached warships with water and
Snapped masts like twigs[11].
Druids looked at their fingernails and shook their heads
Such a waste of wood from good trees[12]…
Commius the Horseman used 30 of his own cavalry
To shield Caesar from Celtic attackers[13]
Allowing Caesar to limp away and overwinter in Gaul,
nursing his bruised dignity.
All too soon, the next year brought Caesar back across the sail-road to Albion
With a vengeance, his two legions grown to five.
Again the gods of sea and sky came alive.
Wind-starved sails left Caesar’s low-planked ferries drifting
pulled off-course by tide currents in the still night crossing.
Then once they did make land,
Boat-tossing weather did beastly damage to harbored ships a second time[14].
Hardwood Hulls cracked easy as eggshells and
Druids scratched their chins under long grey beards and clucked, tut-tut.
But Romans with axes and shovels were Red Ants
Repairing ships and digging into a shoreline fort at Pegwell Bay[15]
Receiving aid and intelligence from Treacherous Trinovantes
Who complained that the defending celts led by Cassivellaunos
had just killed their Trinovanti king[16] (wanh)
Caesar both fended off Kentish attacks at the beach
And waged war inland against Cassivellaunos, finally
Trampling the skirts of Tamesis, goddess of the Thames river[17],
on an ELEPHANT he happened to have in the folds of his toga[18]…
However it happened, Romans won the day.
Then Commius the Negotiator stepped in to mediate Cassivellaunos’s surrender[19].
Caesar got back to terrorizing Gaul, bringing back a few hostages
NO war booty
and promise of tribute which may or may not have been paid.
While Commius brought Tax Exempt status back to the Homesteader[20] Atrebates folk[21]
Loosening the Roman yoke AND ALSO
Folded the territory of the coastal Menapii into his own holdings.
Roman troops did not return to the shores of Albion for more than eight decades.
Not bad, Commius.
Sadly soon the Romans began to wonder if Commius might be a little too slippery.
Commius the Gullible walked into a trap set by the Roman general Volusenus
Volusenus the betrayor tried to strike Commius dead
And Commius fled, Raven’s wine gushing from his head.
Did that wound kill Commius?
No, his life’s thread remained uncut…but it changed him.
Commius the oathmaker swore he would do his best to slay
At any Romans he met after that fateful day. He was done with Rome.
So when the allied tribes of Gaul,
Battle-adorned and bristling with fury in their multitudes
Marched to aid Vercingetorix under siege at Alesia
Then Commius the General was one of four who shared command of relief troops[22]. Alesia.
Again, Caesar waged war with the mattocks and spade as much as with javelin and sword[23].
Though Celts outnumbered Romans four to one
In a Hairy Gaul[24] Donut Sandwich, well
Caesar’s tricky traps and towers, trenches, pits and ditches
Filled with sharpened hardened stakes, with water and iron hooks
And twenty-five miles of wall[25], it turns out,
Can even those odds.
Days of blade-storms ended with Camulos, the god of war[26] saluting Caesar
as the Romans seized a victory that, by the numbers, should not have been theirs.
Did that defeat stop Commius? It did not.
Commius, still a horseman brought hope and Epona’s blessing[27] in the form of 500 cavalry from Germania, To aid in the Bellovaci rebellion[28].
The Germans sheltered him when that rebellion failed.
Commius the Rebel harassed supply lines of Mark Antony,
stealing goods and starving centurions.[29]
Commius the Warrior got Volusenus back,
Wounding him in the thigh with a lance
In the final recorded skirmish of the Gallic Wars.
Still, Commius, eventually, was bested.
Remembering his oath, Commius sent capitulation with these words:
I will behave, I’ll go where you want and when
As long as I don’t ever
have to see a Roman AGAIN![30]
Antonius agreed this would be of benefit, to both sides.
The Gallic Wars were not truly lost until Commius gave up the fight,
Last valiant Gallo Belgic hero opposing the Roman flood.
But does the story of Commius end with the Gallic Wars? No!
Commius the survivor persisted.
Swirling in the eddies of that Roman Tide,
He chose to find his way to Albion and cling,
Winding up himself a Pretani King.
Was he placed there by Rome? Was he welcomed by kin?
Did he conquer his way, or marry in? Who knows.
But Commius the Name retains its fame.
It is written…in Gold.
His was the first name minted on a Celtic coin in Britain.
Triple-tailed stallions stamped on these staters bear testament to steeds that bore him
Letters with their magic of forever trumpet his name across millenia
And whether from loin or heart
Kings claim him as father with money’s art
So kings both Brit and Continental share space on coins with Commius, Channel Straddler.
On coins, Belgic kings Garmanos and Carsicios and
Britons Tincomarus, Eppillus and Verica all align with him[31].
We know Commius was royalty,
Equestrian, Diplomat, combatant,
Yet these are only the tales about him
That come to us written in Latin!
How much more glorious must the stories have been
That were told by bards among his own kin?!
Alas we cannot know.
What little we have of Commius is treasure and tonic though, and we remember:
Commius comes between Albion and Gaul
Commius sees us, Germans, Celts, and Romans all
Commius continues
Commius beyond, within
He didn’t always stick to one side
And he didn’t always win.
His name was first on staters gold
Brightness of Belenus[32] above him
Commius the brave and bold
Commius, we love him.
[1] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book II, 16. Translation based on W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn (1869), accessed 1/16/2020 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Commentaries_on_the_Gallic_War/Book_2
[2] Green, M. 1992. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Thames & Hudson Ltd., London
[3] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book II, 28
[4] Lucian. The Works Of Lucian Of Samosata: Complete With Exceptions Specified In The Preface. Vol.III. Translated By H. W. Fowler And F. G. Fowler. Oxford University Press, 1905. From Project Gutenberg. Accessed 2/2/2020 http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6829/pg6829-images.html
[5] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book IV, 21
[6] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book IV, 27
[7] Diodorus Siculus’ Bibliotheca Historica Book V. Chapter XXI. Section 1 Greek text at the Perseus Project; variants of the term Pretani are used by more than one ancient author to refer to Britain and the people living there. Here the term is used to refer to the inhabitants of pre-Roman Britain.
[8] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book IV, 23-28
[9] Druids are not described as manipulators of weather by classical authors. This association appears initially in the “Life of St. Columba” (author unknown). St. Columba lived in the 6th century CE with primary manuscripts dating from the 12th century CE. Translation by William Reeves accessed 2/2/20 https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T201040.html, see section entitled “Of the manner in which St. Columba overcame Broichan the Druid and sailed against the wind.”
[10]Green, M. 1992. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Thames & Hudson Ltd., London
[11] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book IV, 29
[12] Pliny the Elder wrote of Druids performing rituals involving oak trees, a century after Caesar, see chapter 95. The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855. Translation accessed 2/2/2020 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D16%3Achapter%3D95#note2. Tacitus mentions sacred druid groves in his Annales, XIV, 30. Complete Works of Tacitus. Tacitus. Alfred John Church. William Jackson Brodribb. Sara Bryant. edited for Perseus. New York. : Random House, Inc. Random House, Inc. Accessed 2/2/2020 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0078%3Abook%3D14%3Achapter%3D30 accessed in translation 2/2/20
[13] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book IV, 35
[14] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book V, 10
[15] University of Leicester archaeology department website, accessed 1/16/2020 https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/research/projects/footsteps-of-caesar/in-the-footsteps-of-caesar-the-archaeology-of-the-first-roman-invasions-of-britain
[16] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book V, 20
[17] Tamesis is here imagined as a goddess of the river Thames, based on the Latin name for the river. Local celtic deities associated with specific rivers are known from epigraphy on the continent such as Sequana, goddess of the river Seine. See Greene, M. (1986) The Gods of the Celts. The History Press, Brimscombe Port. In addition, many depositions in the Thames are interpreted as religious offerings, see: Joy, J. (2011). ‘The Iron Age’, in Insoll, T. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion Pp. 405-424. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
[18] Polyaenus, Strategemata 8:23.5. accessed 1/16/2020 at http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus8A.html#23.5
[19] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book V, 22
[20] Atrebates translates roughly to Homesteader so this is redundant but done for didactic purposes.
[21] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book VII, 76
[22] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book VII, 76
[23] This beautiful comparison is stolen with reverence from Clio, A. (1900) “Komm of the Atrebates’, in Clio, Good Press 2019, page 37, accessed in translation online 1/18/2020 at https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hsbCDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PP1.w.2.0.0
[24] Caesar referred to this region as Gallia Comata, which translates to Long-Haired Gaul or Hairy Gaul, see Wasson, D. L. (2017, February 28). Roman Gaul. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Accessed on 1/18/2020 at https://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Gaul/
[25] Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book VII, 73
[26] Green, M. 1992. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Thames & Hudson Ltd., London
[27] Green, M. 1992. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Thames & Hudson Ltd., London
[28] Aulus Hirtius, De Bello Gallico, Book VIII, 6, 7
[29] Aulus Hirtius, De Bello Gallico, Book VIII, 47
[30]Aulus Hirtius, De Bello Gallico, Book VIII, 47-48
[31] C. J. Howgego, Volker Heuchert, Andrew Burnett, eds (2005). Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
[32] The god Belenus is referred to in the Historia Augusta and is there associated with Apollo, see http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Maximini_duo*.html, accessed 1/16/2020. Also the name BELLINVS is known from inscriptions in Britain, see https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/search?qv=bellinus&submit=, accessed 1/16/2020
Documentation – Ode To Commius Spoken Word piece -Lady Anubh na Preachain (spelling of name changed to Anauved de Mona in 2022)
Motivation/ Primary and Secondary Sources
Commius is one of the few documentable historical figures from the 1st century BCE in Britain and Gaul. Primary Source evidence of Commius comes mostly from Julius Caesar’s Commentary De Bello Gallicum (The Gallic Wars), where Commius is described as alternately helping and fighting against Rome. I spent a great deal of time combing through De Bello Gallicum to find references for Commius and have done my absolute best to create an accurate and careful retelling of events in his life as they were recounted in that source. This research is documented in footnotes throughout the written version of the piece. I supplemented with secondary-source documents by classical authors, including the final book of De Bello Gallicum, written by Aulus Hirtius after Julius Caesar’s death, and Strategemata, written by Sextus Julius Frontinus in the 1st century CE (information for published versions of translations used can be found in the footnotes of the written text for the piece).
The only examples of writing by the people of Iron Age Britain comes from graffiti, curse-tablets, and coins. The only primary source evidence for Commius from the Celtic point of view is from coins, found in both Belgic Gaul and Britain. Coins from these regions bear the name of Commius, both independently and in combination with the names of five other kings. The fact that the name of Commius was minted on coins for several decades and across such a wide area implies that he was held in high esteem by groups in those regions, in an enduring way, despite the fact that no major military victories are attributed to him by Roman authors. For this project, I wanted to combine accounts from these extant sources to both imagine and retell the story of Commius from the Celtic point of view, rather than from the Roman point of view.
Format and length
This is a long-format spoken-word piece meant to be told aloud around fires and at bardic circles, in order to teach reenactors about a largely-unsung Celtic hero. It is my most comprehensive and in-depth retelling of this particular story, but represents only one component of a larger campaign of Commius-awareness-raising bardic work I am undertaking across several genres. In subsequent efforts I am focusing on specific parts of the story and/or condensing it to render it more accessible for shorter attention spans, but the version presented here is intended to tell the whole story and linger unapologetically on details. It is long, taking over 11 minutes to tell.
Portions of Ode to Commius are clearly prose, while others employ meter, alliteration, end-rhyme and internal rhyme in a more poetic style. Alternating between poetic and more prosaic language is a method used regularly by storytellers to retain interest in longer stories, augmented by expressive delivery. In addition, the narration includes occasional brief, “third wall” conversational reflections and asides. These are done for humor, to model appropriate responses from the audience, and to draw attention to particularly remarkable incidents. I realize this is a nontraditional format that is by no means authentic but I feel the educational intent justifies its entry for A&S, since the SCA is a 501-3C educational organization. As a bard I have memorized this story and I ask that you reserve judgment on this issue until you have watched the complete performance by accessing the QR code at the beginning of this document.
Titles for Commius
One of the things I find most compelling about Commius is the many roles he played and titles he held during his life, therefore I structured the piece around his various and changing identities. Commius is first a chieftain, then client king, envoy, prisoner, horseman, diplomat/negotiator, victim of assault (gullible), oathmaker, rebel, warrior, survivor, coin minter and a leader in both Britain and on the Continent (channel straddler). Throughout the piece, actions taken by Commius are preceded by the introduction, “Commius, the __(insert role)__,” before his actions are described. This is done to emphasize his versatility, and these “titles” appear in bold face type.
Place Names
It is not known which river Caesar meant when he named the Sabis River in De Bello Gallicum, so I used the name Caesar used for that river. Albion is an ancient name for Britain used by the Roman classical author Pliny the Elder, and Pretani is an ancient word used by the Greek classical writer Diodorus Siculus to refer to the people living on the island of Britain. I use both Albion and Pretani in Ode to Commius. Inconsistently enough, however, I also chose to use the modern names for the Cliffs of Dover and Pegwell Bay. I made the Dover choice because I thought modern audiences would be likely to recognize the cliffs of Dover and I wanted to provide a geographical reference point. In retrospect, It might have been better to use a more archaic name for the cliffs of Dover, so next time I will probably work harder at identifying ancient place names. I made the Pegwell Bay choice because I was excited about recent Archaeological research identifying Pegwell bay as a likely site for the Roman fort described in the story. I might have been both showing off and wallowing in the joy of the research on that one, so again that choice is questionable, but is based in enthusiasm.
Kennings
Kennings are figurative compounds used as metaphors: “eagle-killers” refers to Celtic warriors, because Romans had eagles on their standards, or “wave-wagon” refers to a boat. Kennings are found in both Norse and Old English poetry. This story is set in Britain, so Old English influences are geographically plausible. Whether bards in Britain used kennings during the first century BCE is debatable, but this story of Commius is also narrated as a retelling of events that happened in the distant past, therefore it could plausibly be a product of later centuries. Kennings occur notably throughout Beowulf, which is thought to be set in the 5th or 6th century, although it was written down centuries after that. This would be a different project if Iron Age Celts had written their own stories down. My choice to include kennings includes a healthy amount of artistic license but I feel the kennings add enough flavor to justify their inclusion.
Religion
Caesar’s writings relate military and diplomatic events, but I wanted to add depth and context in the form of references to religion, both Celtic and Roman. These include a reference to the Roman deity Camulos (war) and Celtic deities Teutates (war), Ogmios (eloquence), Taranis (thunder), Tamesis (Thames River), and Belenus (sun). Anytime a deity is named in Ode to Commius, footnotes indicate where descriptions of that specific god or goddess can be found in academic published literature. These names are obtained from classical sources, inscriptions, sculptures and archaeological finds dated to the period. The one exception to this is Tamesis, who is an imagined deity modeled after goddesses associated with specific rivers on the European continent.
In addition to the names of deities, I also refer to the association of druids with both trees and weather manipulation. Pliny described druids worshiping in oak groves, so druidic affinity for trees is documentable (see Miranda Greene’s work on this subject for additional information). Twice, however, I imply that druids were responsible for the bad weather that interfered with Caesar’s expeditions to Britain. Descriptions of druids manipulating weather actually do not occur in historical documents until several centuries after the events described in this story, but modern audiences are likely to know about these later stories, and I decided to take the liberty of drawing the weather reference backwards in time, both to pander to audience expectations (this piece asks a lot of the audience) and for comic relief.
I hope you enjoy learning about Commius!
Anubh na Preachain, mka Monika Townsend
WATCH A RECORDING OF A PERFORMANCE OF THIS PIECE BY POINTING YOUR PHONE’S CAMERA AT THIS QR CODE
Bibliography
Aelius. Historia Augusta, Volume II. Translation by David Magie, Loeb Classical Library, 1924
Caesar, Julius. De Bello Gallico, Book II, 16. Translation based on W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn (1869), Available at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Commentaries_on_the_Gallic_War
Clio, A. (1900) “Komm of the Atrebates’, in Clio, Good Press 2019, page 37, accessed in translation online 1/18/2020 at https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hsbCDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PP1.w.2.0.0
Diodorus Siculus’ Bibliotheca Historica Book V. Chapter XXI. Section 1 Greek text at the Perseus Project
Green, M. 1992. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Thames & Hudson Ltd., London
See Greene, M. (1986) The Gods of the Celts. The History Press, Brimscombe Port.
C. J. Howgego, Volker Heuchert, Andrew Burnett, eds (2005). Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Joy, J. (2011). ‘The Iron Age’, in Insoll, T. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion Pp. 405-424. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Lucian. The Works Of Lucian Of Samosata: Complete With Exceptions Specified In The Preface. Vol.III. Translated By H. W. Fowler And F. G. Fowler. Oxford University Press, 1905. From Project Gutenberg. Accessed 2/2/2020 http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6829/pg6829-images.html
Pliny the Elder. The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855. Translation accessed 2/2/2020 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D16%3Achapter%3D95#note2.
Polyaenus, Strategemata 8:23.5. accessed 1/16/2020 at http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus8A.html#23.5
Tacitus, Cornelius. Complete Works of Tacitus. Alfred John Church. William Jackson Brodribb. Sara Bryant. edited for Perseus. New York. : Random House, Inc. Random House, Inc. Accessed in translation 2/2/2020 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0078%3Abook%3D14%3Achapter%3D30
Unknown. “Life of St. Columba” (author unknown). St. Columba lived in the 6th century CE with primary manuscripts dating from the 12th century CE. Translation by William Reeves accessed 2/2/20 https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T201040.html,
University of Leicester archaeology department website, accessed 1/16/2020 https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/research/projects/footsteps-of-caesar/in-the-footsteps-of-caesar-the-archaeology-of-the-first-roman-invasions-of-britain
Wasson, D. L. (2017, February 28). Roman Gaul. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Accessed on 1/18/2020 at https://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Gaul/