How reliable were classical writers on the Druids ?
On the face of it, we should expect the earlier sources to be the most trustworthy, because they were written at, or just after, a time when Druids were still an active force. Posidonius visited Gaul, and Caesar spent nearly ten years there. Pliny, Lucan and Tacitus were all contemporary with the early imperial attempts to eradicate Druidism; but these earlier chroniclers of the Druids all had an agenda other than mere historical recording. The archetypal by stereotypical barbarian image is always present, to a greater or lesser extent. Stock characterization influences the descriptions of Celts and Druids. Certain phrases, which are apparently meaningful, have to be treated with skepticism. Thus Strabo’s remark that the Druids were the most righteous of men is a stock Greek literary attribute for foreigners, and may possess no more profound meaning than that. The writers of the Posidonian and Alexandrian traditions may have been affected by the current philosophies of the Graeco-Roman
