Julius Caesar

The Ancient British

In 54 BC Julius Caesar described the Britons:

"The population is exceedingly large, the ground thickly studded with homesteads...and the cattle very numerous... hares, fowl, and geese they think it unlawful to eat, but rear them for pleasure and amusement...Most of the tribes do not grow corn but live on milk and meat, and wear skins. All the Britons dye their bodies with woad, which produces a blue colour, and this gives them a more terrifying appearance in battle. They wear their hair long, and shave the whole of their bodies except the head and the upper lip. Wives are shared between groups of ten or twelve men."