In All Matters

      "The Druids do not go to war, nor pay tribute together with the rest; they have an exemption from military service and a dispensation in all matters. Induced by such great advantages, many embrace this profession of their own accord, and many are sent to it by their parents and relations. They are said there to learn by heart a great number of verses; accordingly some remain in the course of training twenty years. Nor do they regard it lawful to commit these to writing, though in almost all other matters, in their public and private transactions, they use Greek characters." 

      Wow, no war and great advantages. This would be a social position that most parents would want to send their sons. The information by Caesar continues:

      "That practice they seem to me to have adopted for two reasons; because they neither desire their doctrines to be divulged among the mass of the people, nor those who learn, to devote themselves the less to the efforts of memory, relying on writing, since it generally occurs to most men, that, in their dependence on writing, they relax their diligence in learning thoroughly, and their employment of the memory." [Again, taken from the text edited by Ronald Mellor, p. 141.]

      Many times I often wondered why my Celtic ancestors did not learn how to write their own stories down during their first 500 years. It was memory it seems. However, it also appears that Greek characters were being used among their daily activities, although I can not find any documentation of this writing.