ABSTRACT
Britain was, from about 1000 BC, part of the Celtic world which embraced Gaul and most of Central Europe. By the time Caesar arrived in Britain, much of the earlier Hallstatt culture in the south had been overlaid by, in turn, the early and middle La Tene styles, with which they in part fused to throw up a hybrid culture. From the very beginning, the Celts placed great reliance on the construction of fortified enclosures for defence, with prominent hills being the most favoured sites. Hill-forts, if classified by the character of their defences, fall broadly into two main classes: univallate and multivallate, but there are many variations of type within these categories, according to the nature of their entrances and the methods of construction used m their ramparts. The Celtic forces in Britain which opposed Caesar, therefore, had a formidable weapon of highly mobile infantry, and it is recorded that Cassivellaunus disposed more than 4,000 chariots.
