Celtic Military Equipment in the Ancient Mediterranean: Innovation, Imitation, and Empire, 400–25 BCE

This article examines the diffusion of military technology in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia from the fourth to first centuries BCE. Arms and armor initially associated with Celtic peoples spread across the Mediterranean and beyond, a process hastened by the adoption of the panoply by the Romans in the century prior to their explosive conquests. This case study in the “globalization” of military technology in the pre-modern world highlights the agency and influence of groups commonly considered subaltern in the geopolitical history of the Mediterranean and its continental environs.