33 
used for ancient mirrors agrees very closely with modern speculum 
metal, both containing about 32 per cent, of tin. 
The majority of the bronze objects in this case consist of those 
wedge and chisel shaped implements known as celts , not so called 
after the people of that name, but from the old Latin word celtes , 
a chisel. Bronze celts, as may be seen at a glance, vary consider¬ 
ably in form : it has been advanced that this variation is an evidence 
of the progressive knowledge acquired by experience as to the 
most secure and lasting mode of hafting the implement, but this 
probably is not the only cause. These implements were applied 
to such varied uses that the actual form of the implement and the 
mode of mounting it probably differed according to the nature of 
the work required to be done. 
Some celts are like axeheads, these—and particularly so when 
large and heavy—would be most effective mounted at a right angle 
to the handle, and would be used like a hatchet ; the chisel-shaped 
celts, on the other hand, were probably often mounted on a straight 
stick, and would in use be thrust forward from the workman, as in 
the case of a spud or a pitchfork. 
The bronze celt is believed by some to be the ancient dolabra, 
which was the tool used by the military train (caloriesJ of the 
Roman army. We may, perhaps, hesitate before according our 
belief to what has been stated about the use of the celt in levelling 
earth-works and filling up ditches. Their extremely small size 
renders such an application of them highly improbable; conceive 
the attempt to level Old Sarum and to fill up the trenches there, 
with such tools; but abundance of evidence proves that they were 
used for effecting breaches in the walls of besieged cities. Thus, 
when Alexander the Great rashly leaped from the top of the wall 
into a city, his followers broke through the wall with their celts 
(dolabrce), and Hannibal, when besieging Saguntum, sent 500 
men to destroy the wall with celts. Pictorial evidence is not 
wanting on this point, for in the bas-reliefs of Nimroud the 
Assyrian soldiers are represented breaking through the walls of 
hostile cities, with celts fixed at the end of straight sticks, and a 
slab now in the British Museum, exhibits two Assyrian soldiers 
thus employed. 
An account exists in the Memoires de la Socaete des Antiquaires 
de TOuest, Poitiers, of a number of celts having been discovered 
firmly wedged in an ancient wall, as if they had become fixed, and 
were therefore abandoned. 
The celt (dolabra) seems to have been but seldom used as an 
offensive weapon; however, when the .ZEdui revolted in Gaul, and 
added to their forces the trained gladiators, clad in iron-plate 
armour, against which javelins and swords were found to be 
useless, the Romans attacked them as if they were breaking 
through a wall with their hatchets and celts, with complete 
success. 
The celt found a place in agricultural as well as military opera- 
F 
