mainly on political grounds...

Odnośniki

Smutek to uczucie, jak gdyby się tonęło, jak gdyby grzebano cię w ziemi.

Magic and human sacrifice were suppressed
because they were contrary to Roman manners. The first attack was in the
reign of Augustus, who prohibited Roman citizens from taking part in the
religion of the Druids.[1068] Tiberius next interdicted the Druids, but
this was probably aimed at their human sacrifices, for the Druids were
not suppressed, since they existed still in the reign of Claudius, who
is said to have abolished _Druidarum religionem dirae
immanitatis_.[1069] The earlier legislation was ineffective; that of
Claudius was more thorough, but it, too, was probably aimed mainly at
human sacrifice and magic, since Aurelius Victor limits it to the
"notorious superstitions" of the Druids.[1070] It did not abolish the
native religion, as is proved by the numerous inscriptions to Celtic
gods, and by the fact that, as Mela informs us, human victims were still
offered symbolically,[1071] while the Druids were still active some
years later. A parallel is found in the British abolition of S[=a]ti in
India, while permitting the native religion to flourish.
Probably more effective was the policy begun by Augustus. Magistrates
were inaugurated and acted as judges, thus ousting the Druids, and
native deities and native ritual were assimilated to those of Rome.
Celtic religion was Romanised, and if the Druids retained priestly
functions, it could only be by their becoming Romanised also. Perhaps
the new State religion in Gaul simply ignored them. The annual assembly
of deputies at Lugudunum round the altar of Rome and Augustus had a
religious character, and was intended to rival and to supersede the
annual gathering of the Druids.[1072] The deputies elected a flamen of
the province who had surveillance of the cult, and there were also
flamens for each city. Thus the power of the Druids in politics, law,
and religion was quietly undermined, while Rome also struck a blow at
their position as teachers by establishing schools throughout
Gaul.[1073]
M. D'Arbois maintains that, as a result of persecution, the Druids
retired to the depths of the forests, and continued to teach there in
secret those who despised the new learning of Rome, basing his opinion
on passages of Lucan and Mela, both writing a little after the
promulgation of the laws.[1074]. But neither Lucan nor Mela refer to an
existing state of things, and do not intend their readers to suppose
that the Druids fled to woods and caverns. Lucan speaks of them
_dwelling_ in woods, i.e. their sacred groves, and resuming their rites
after Caesar's conquest not after the later edicts, and he does not speak
of the Druids teaching there.[1075] Mela seems to be echoing Caesar's
account of the twenty years' novitiate, but adds to it that the teaching
was given in secret, confusing it, however, with that given to others
than candidates for the priesthood. Thus he says: "Docent multa
nobilissimos gentis clam et diu vicenis annis aut in specu aut in
abditis saltibus,"[1076] but there is not the slightest evidence that
this secrecy was the result of the edicts. Moreover, the attenuated
sacrificial rites which he describes were evidently practised quite
openly. Probably some Druids continued their teaching in their secret
and sacred haunts, but it is unlikely that noble Gauls would resort to
them when Greco-Roman culture was now open to them in the schools, where
they are found receiving instruction in 21 A.D.[1077] Most of the Druids
probably succumbed to the new order of things. Some continued the old
rites in a modified manner as long as they could obtain worshippers.
Others, more fanatical, would suffer from the law when they could not
evade its grasp. Some of these revolted against Rome after Nero's death,
and it was perhaps to this class that those Druids belonged who
prophesied the world-empire of the Celts in 70 A.D.[1078] The fact that
Druids existed at this date shows that the proscription had not been
complete. But the complete Romanising of Gaul took away their