Celts, Romans, Britons

Abstract This introduction gives an overview of the interwoven history of the ‘Celtic’ and the ‘Classical’ as concepts, in both British and Irish history and in scholarship more generally, and makes the case for increased interdisciplinary collaboration between the disciplines of Classics and Celtic Studies. It provides examples of the long-established tendency to contrast the Celtic and the Classical, and portray them as opposing poles of civilization and primitivity, but also notes the often anachronistic and misleading nature of this approach, drawing attention to the long history of intercourse between Celtic speakers and the Classical world, the persistent interpenetration of ‘the Celtic’ and ‘the Classical’ as conceptual frameworks, and the possibility of viewing Celticism and Classicism as intellectual counterparts rather than opposing world-views. It ends by briefly setting out the organization and structure of the volume, and summarizing the arguments of its chapters.