Editing Commentarii de Bello Gallico (section)

=== The Druids  ===
Caesar's account of the [[Druids]] and the "superstitions" of the Gallic nations are documented in Book 6, chapters 13, 14 and 16–18 of ''De Bello Gallico''.  In chapter 13, he mentions the importance of Druids in the culture and social structure of Gaul at the time of his conquest. Chapter 14 addresses the education of the Druids and the high social standing that comes with their position. He first comments on the role of sacrificial practices in their daily lives in chapter 16. Caesar highlights the sacrificial practices of the Druids containing innocent people and the large sacrificial ceremony where hundreds of people were burnt alive at one time to protect the whole from famine, plague, and war (6.16). Chapter 17 and 18 focuses on the divinities the Gauls believed in and Dis, the god which they claim they were descended from. This account of the Druids highlights Caesar's interest in the order and importance of the Druids in Gaul.

Caesar spent a great amount of time in Gaul and his book is one of the best preserved accounts of the Druids from an author who was in Gaul.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Webster|first=Jane|date=1999|title=At the End of the World: Druidic and Other Revitalization Movements in Post-Conquest Gaul and Britain|journal=Britannia|volume=30|pages=1–20|doi=10.2307/526671|jstor=526671|s2cid=162214983 }}</ref> However, although Caesar provides what is seemingly a first-hand account, much of his knowledge of the Druids comes not from personal experience, but rather from the hearsay of others, and is regarded as anachronistic.<ref name=":0" /> Caesar based some of his account on that of Posidonius, who wrote a clear and well-known account of the Druids in Gaul.<ref name=":0" /> Caesar provides his account of the Druids as a means of sharing his knowledge and educating the Roman people on the foreign conquests.

There is no doubt that the Druids offered sacrifices to their god. However, scholars are still uncertain about what kind of offerings they made. Caesar and other Roman authors assert that the Druids would offer human sacrifices on numerous occasions for relief from disease and famine or for a successful war campaign. Caesar provides a detailed account of the manner in which the supposed human sacrifices occurred in chapter 16, claiming that "they have images of immense size, the limbs of which are framed with twisted twigs and filled with living persons.  These being set on fire, those within are encompassed by the flames" (6.16).

Caesar, however, also observes and mentions a civil Druid culture. In chapter 13, he claims that they selected a single leader who ruled until his death, and a successor would be chosen by a vote or through violence. Also in chapter 13, he mentions that the Druids studied "the stars and their movements, the size of the cosmos and the earth, the nature of the world, and the powers of immortal deities," signifying to the Roman people that the Druids were also versed in astrology, cosmology, and theology. Although Caesar is one of the few primary sources on the Druids, many believe that he had used his influence to portray the Druids to the Roman people as both barbaric, as they performed human sacrifices, and civilized in order to depict the Druids as a society worth assimilating to Rome (6.16).