The Gaesatae were a group of Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

ish warriors who lived in the Alps

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

 near the river Rhône

Rhône River

The Rhone is one of the major rivers of Europe, rising in Switzerland and running from there through southeastern France. At Arles, near its mouth on the Mediterranean Sea, the river divides into two branches, known as the Great Rhone and the Little Rhone...

 and fought against the Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

 in the Battle of Telamon

Battle of Telamon

The Battle of Telamon was fought between the Roman Republic and an alliance of Gauls in 225 BC. The Romans, led by the consuls Gaius Atilius Regulus and Lucius Aemilius Papus, defeated the Gauls, thus extending their influence over northern Italy....

 of 225 BC. The Greek historian Polybius

Polybius

Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...

 says their name meant "mercenaries", which matches Old Irish

Old Irish language

Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Goidelic languages for which extensive written texts are extant. It was used from the 6th to the 10th centuries, by which time it had developed into Middle Irish....

 gaiscedach "champion, armed person", from gaisced "weapons", itself from gáe "spear, javelin", and compare quite closely with the medieval Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 fianna

Fianna

Fianna were small, semi-independent warrior bands in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology, most notably in the stories of the Fenian Cycle, where they are led by Fionn mac Cumhaill....

, who were small warbands of landless young men operating independently of any kingdom.

According to Polybius' account, the Boii

Boii

The Boii were one of the most prominent ancient Celtic tribes of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul , Pannonia , in and around Bohemia, and Transalpine Gaul...

 and Insubres

Insubres

The Insubres were a Gaulish population settled in Insubria, in what is now Lombardy . They were the founders of Milan . Though ethnically Celtic at the time of Roman conquest , they were most likely the result of the fusion of pre-existing Ligurian, Celtic and "Italic" population strata with Gaulish...

 of Cisalpine Gaul

Cisalpine Gaul

Cisalpine Gaul, in Latin: Gallia Cisalpina or Citerior, also called Gallia Togata, was a Roman province until 41 BC when it was merged into Roman Italy.It bore the name Gallia, because the great body of its inhabitants, after the expulsion of the Etruscans, consisted of Gauls or Celts...

 paid the Gaesatae, under their leaders Concolitanus

Concolitanus

Concolitanus was one of the two leaders of the Gaesatae, a group of Gaulish mercenaries who lived in the Alps near the Rhône and fought against the Roman Republic in the Battle of Telamon of 224 BC. He and his colleague Aneroëstes were hired by the Boii and Insubres in response to the Roman...

 and Aneroëstes

Aneroëstes

Aneroëstes was one of the two leaders of the Gaesatae, a group of Gaulish mercenaries who lived in the Alps near the Rhône and fought against the Roman Republic in the Battle of Telamon of 224 BC. He and his colleague Concolitanus were hired by the Boii and Insubres in response to the Roman...

, large sums of money to fight against the Romans, in response to the Roman colonisation of the former Gallic territory of Picenum

Picenum

Picenum was a region of ancient Italy. The name is an exonym assigned by the Romans, who conquered and incorporated it into the Roman Republic. Picenum was the birthplace of such notables as Pompey the Great and his father Pompeius Strabo. It was situated in what is now Marche...

. The Gauls overran and defeated a Roman army on the approach to Rome, but when the consul Lucius Aemilius Papus

Lucius Aemilius Papus

Lucius Aemilius Papus , or Lucius Aemilius Q.f. Cn.n. Papus, a member of the patrician gens Aemilia of the branch cognominated Papus, was a Roman general and statesman who led the Romans to victory over the Gauls in the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC.He was the son of Quintus Aemilius Papus, himself...

 arrived with his troops, the Gauls followed Aneroëstes' advice to withdraw with their booty. Papus pursued them, and the other consul Gaius Atilius Regulus

Gaius Atilius Regulus (consul 225 BC)

Gaius Atilius M.f. M.n. Regulus was one of the two Roman consuls who fought a Celtic invasion of Italy in 225 BC-224 BC; he however was killed in battle and beheaded...

 cut them off at Telamon

Talamone

Talamone is a town in Tuscany, central Italy, administratively a frazione of the comune of Orbetello, province of Grosseto, in the Tuscan Maremma....

 in Etruria

Etruria

Etruria—usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia—was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna, and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...

.

Polybius describes how the Gaesatae fought at the front, and unlike their Gallic allies who fought in trousers and light cloaks, they went into battle naked

Nudity in combat

Nudity in combat is the practice of entering combat without clothing and armor. It is rarely practiced because, apart from the social aspects of nudity, the combatant lacks even the basic protection of clothes, e.g. when diving for cover, or crawling...

, both because of their great confidence and their desire not to get their clothes caught in the brambles. Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...

 also reports that some Gauls fought naked, trusting in the protection of nature. The appearance of these well-built naked warriors, and the noise of their trumpets and war-cries, intimidated the Romans, but their small shields offered little protection against Roman javelins, and the Gaesatae were driven back and their allies slaughtered. Concolitanus was captured. Aneroëstes escaped with a few followers and took his own life. In 222 BC the Gaesatae were hired again, but the Gallic forces were defeated by the Roman cavalry at Clastidium

Battle of Clastidium

The Battle of Clastidium was fought in 222 BC between a Roman Republican army led by the Roman consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus and the Insubres led by Viridomarus. The Romans won the battle, and in the process, Marcellus earned the Spolia opima, one of the highest honors in ancient Rome, by...

in the territory of the Insubres.