The Retreat of Napoleons Army from Russia in 1812 by Ary Scheffer, 1826. Source: Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.What really doomed Napoleons Grand Army in Russia? For over 200 years, the story has been told as a tale of General Winter freezing Europes mightiest army into defeat.In June 1812, Napoleons Grand Army, numbering between 450,000 and 600,000 troops, poured across the Neman River into Russia. But by the end of the campaign, fewer than 120,000 soldiers remained in Napoleons Grand Army.The brutal Russian winter was certainly part of the problem, but DNA analysis has since revealed an even more insidious enemy working against Napoleons Grand Army.Science Reveals the Real Killer of Napoleons Grand ArmyNapoleon and his Officers, Russian Campaign, 1812 by Jan van Chelminski, c. 19th century. Source: Christies.It turns out that disease played the most decisive role in the demise of Napoleons Grand Army.In the early 2000s, archaeologists excavated a mass grave in Vilnius, Lithuania, filled with soldiers from Napoleons Russian campaign. Years later, DNA extracted from the soldiers preserved teeth revealed two deadly infections: Salmonella enterica (paratyphoid fever) and Borrelia recurrentis (relapsing fever). These bacteria thrived amongst the Grand Army, who lived with starvation, contaminated food and water, and lice-infested clothing.Fever, delirium, and crippling weakness would have spread quickly through crowded bivouacs. Soldiers were dying by the thousands in late summer and early autumn, months before frostbite and Cossack raids became a threat. The Grand Army would have already been hollowed out by disease by the time it approached Moscow.Why Napoleons Invasion Created the Perfect Conditions for Disease OutbreakIV Corps of the Grand Army in the invasion of Russia, 1812 by Albrecht Adam, 19th century. Source: Wikimedia Commons.Napoleons ill-fated Russia campaign officially began on June 24, 1812. The Grand Army crossed the Neman River as a massive multinational force of French troops, Poles, Italians, Germans, and others. Napoleons goal was to force Tsar Alexander I into submission after Russia withdrew from the Continental System, Napoleons economic blockade against Britain.The Russians avoided battle, retreating deeper into their own territory while employing a scorched-earth strategy. They burned crops and destroyed villages, cutting off the Grand Army from access to food or shelter.When fighting did occur, such as at Smolensk and Borodino, it was costly. At the Battle of Borodino alone, both sides suffered staggering casualties, with at least 70,000 troops killed in a single day.Napoleons Grand Army grew desperate. Starving, soldiers consumed whatever food they could find, which was often spoiled or contaminated. Meanwhile, their overcrowded camps became breeding grounds for lice and filth. These conditions were perfect for the rapid spread of paratyphoid and relapsing fever. The armys size, which had been its strength, now became a liability as disease tore through its ranks.The Final Collapse of Napoleons Grand ArmyNapoleons Retreat from Moscow by Adolph Nothern, 1851. Source: Wikimedia Commons.When Napoleon finally entered Moscow on September 14, 1812, he found the city eerily empty, having been burned by its residents. By then, disease had already gutted Napoleons forces, leaving tens of thousands too sick to march or fight. Those still standing faced plunging temperatures, relentless Cossack attacks, and the deadly crossing of the Berezina River in November.The Grand Army waited in vain for a Russian surrenderbut by mid-October, with winter approaching, Napoleon ordered the retreat. When the survivors finally staggered back across the Neman in December, the hidden killer had done its work, destroying the Grand Army and dooming the Russian campaign long before winter could claim the credit.

The Celts were one of the most popular peoples of ancient Europe. In the 4th century BCE, the Greek historian Ephorus summed up the world by saying that the Scythians lived to the north, the Indians lived to the east, the Ethiopians lived to the south, and the Celts lived to the west. They occupied a very large portion of central and western Europe, and from the 3rd century BCE onwards, Celtic groups migrated significantly to the east. For a group spread over such a large area, it is worth asking: did the Celts actually have a sense of shared identity?The Different Celtic GroupsMap of Celtic Gaul. Source: Wikimedia CommonsTo help us understand this issue better, we first need to understand what exactly we mean when we refer to the different Celtic groups. There were the Celts of Gaul, also known as the Gauls or the Gallic tribes. Their territory, Gaul, roughly corresponds to a large portion of France, although the southwest portion of France was inhabited by the non-Celtic Aquitani. Further southwest, in Iberia, there were other Celtic tribes. These were similar to the Celts of Gaul in many ways, although their language was Q-Celtic, unlike the P-Celtic of the Gauls.The Britons are also recognized today as having been Celts, in as much as they spoke a Celtic language. This language, Brythonic, was P-Celtic and closely related to the language of the Gauls. The Irish, likewise, are recognized today as having been a Celtic people by virtue of their language, which was Q-Celtic like that of the Celts of Iberia.The Galatians, in Asia Minor far to the east, were descendants of Gallic tribes that had migrated there in the 3rd century BCE.Was There Any Basis for a Sense of Shared Identity?Larzac Tablet, displaying a valuable Gaulish inscription, c. 100 CE. Source: Wikimedia CommonsAs we can see, the various Celtic-speaking peoples inhabited a very large portion of Europe. Did Celts from one area see themselves as the same people as Celts from another area? Or, rather, did they simply identify as members of their own local community, with everyone outside being others? One problem with analyzing this issue is that we have very little in the way of Celtic writing. While there are plenty of isolated examples of ancient Celtic inscriptions, they reveal next to nothing about how they viewed themselves.The first thing to note is that just because they were widely spread does not mean that they could not have had a sense of shared identity. After all, the ancient Greeks were spread out over a very large area too. In addition to occupying all of Greece, they established colonies all over the Mediterranean, including the coasts of Asia Minor and the Black Sea. Yet, countless pieces of ancient Greek literature demonstrate that they maintained a sense of shared identity.Map showing the extent of Greek colonization in the Archaic Period. Source: Wikimedia CommonsSomething that helped the Greeks maintain this sense of shared identity was the fact that they continued to speak Greek and worship the Greek gods. Did the same factors apply to the Celts? Did the Celts as a whole speak the same language and have the same religion, in contrast to surrounding nations? If so, then it would not be remarkable at all for them to have identified as one people.In reality, there were a variety of Celtic languages. As we have seen, there are P-Celtic and Q-Celtic languages, and even within these groups, the languages may not have been entirely mutually intelligible. However, it does appear that Brythonic was mutually intelligible with Gaulish.Let us just focus for a moment on the Celts who definitely spoke a mutually intelligible language, such as the Gallic tribes themselves. Based on this shared language, it is entirely possible that a Celt from one Gallic tribe would have recognized a Celt from a different tribe as being a member of his own people.Celtic GodsCarlisle Castle, built in medieval times over the site of the Roman fort of Luguvalium, which preserves the name of the Celtic god Lugus. Source: Wikimedia CommonsWhat about the issue of the Celtic gods? Even if their respective languages were not all mutually intelligible, did the various different Celtic groups at least worship the same gods? The answer is complicated. In many cases, it is possible that the same god was known by different epithets in different areas, much as the Greek gods were. This makes it difficult to know if any given inscription is simply using a local epithet for a widely worshiped god or is actually referring to a distinct local god.However, at least some gods seem to have been worshiped across essentially the entire Celtic world. Lugus is one example. Inscriptions to Lugus appear mostly in Iberia, but also in Gaul. None have been found in Britain or Ireland, but place names and personal names provide strong evidence that he was worshiped in Britain. The mythological figure of Lugh in medieval Irish mythology is very likely an evolution of Lugus, showing that he was worshiped there as well.Evidence From Classical WritersBust of Julius Caesar, by Andrea di Pietro di Marco Ferrucci, c. 16th century. Source: Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe fact that at least some Celtic gods appear to have been worshiped all across the Celtic world is significant. It lends credence to the idea that Celts from one area could have identified similar traits in Celts from another region and feel a sense of shared identity. Of course, the fact that some of the Celtic languages were likely not mutually intelligible would work against this.Helpfully, there are some useful statements from certain ancient Classical writers. One of these is from Julius Caesar. In the Bello Gallico, he states explicitly that the Celts of Gaul were called in their own tongue Celtae. This directly supports the idea that the Celts of Gaul had a sense of shared identity. They called themselves by this word, but apparently did not use it for other people. This shows that they understood their fellow Gallic tribes as distinct and different from the non-Celtic peoples.Miniature of Pliny the Elder writing, by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1457. Source: British LibraryBased on this evidence and the fact that the Gallic tribes all spoke the same language, it seems very likely indeed that they had a sense of a shared identity. Of course, Caesar was only talking about the Gallic tribes, not all Celtic peoples. To what degree did this apply to the Celts of Iberia?Interestingly, there is some evidence from Pliny the Elder. Writing a century after Julius Caesar, he noted that the Celts of Iberia recognized themselves as Celts as well. He referred to the tribe of the Mirobrigenses as being surnamed Celtici. Inscriptions from Iberia have confirmed that this term was indeed used in conjunction with this tribe. If the Celts of Iberia used this term in reference to themselves, then this appears to show that they may have had the same sense of shared identity as the Gallic tribes.True, they may well not have had a completely mutually intelligible language. Yet, it is notable that the Celts of Gaul and those of Iberia both worshiped at least some of the same gods and, apparently, both referred to themselves as Celts.Did the Celts Inhabit a Small World?A Greek vase from the Vix Grave of the Hallstatt Celts, France, c. 6th century BCE. Source: Wikimedia CommonsOne argument against the idea that the Celts would have had a sense of shared identity is the idea that the world of each individual Celt was very small. The argument is that the average Celt would have only known their local community, meaning that everyone outside of that, regardless of ethnicity, would have been viewed as equally foreign.This argument, however, does not really hold up to scrutiny. In fact, both modern archaeological research and evidence from ancient documents show that the world of the Celts was not a small one. There was a well-established trade route that went up the Rhone from the Mediterranean coast and all the way to the tin deposits of northwest Gaul. Archaeology demonstrates that there was regular trade from the Mediterranean, even from as far as Britain. The Hallstatt Celts of 6th century BCE Gaul regularly traded with the Etruscans in central Italy.This was not communication between kings and princes, but between traders. Of course, we do not know exactly how much knowledge of the world the truly average Celt would have had. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that many Celts would have been familiar with the existence of other nations in the surrounding regions.Did a Sense of Shared Identity Really Exist Among the Celts?Celtes Primites, illustration for Vie De Cesar, c. 19th century. Source: Look and Learn History Picture ArchiveIn conclusion, did the ancient Celts really have a sense of shared identity? Since we have no ancient Celtic texts that describe how they saw the world around them, we cannot say for sure. However, there certainly are some indications that there was a common Celtic identity.Many of the Celts spoke mutually intelligible languages and dialects, although this admittedly does not apply to all of them. According to Classical writers, the Celts of Gaul and at least some of those of Iberia called themselves Celts, in contrast to non-Celtic groups. Contemporary inscriptions support this claim. We can also consider the evidence for at least some pan-Celtic gods, such as Lugus.Put simply, we cannot be sure that Celts from Iberia, for example, would have considered themselves to have been the same people as Celts from Gaul. Nevertheless, there is good reason to believe that they may have done so. Even if not all of the Celts shared a sense of common identity, many of them likely did.

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