Imagine if you can, the brief but telling meeting between
one of the greatest military leaders of the world and a local Celtic leader. Alexander,
the young King of the Macedonians and scourge-about-town, met with a Celtic Chieftain
whose name, regrettably, is lost to history. What they spoke of, and how, we shall never
know. But one vignette was so memorable that thirty years later, Alexander's friend
Ptolemy remembered it and set it down.
"So," queried Alexander, whom we must remember was very young at the
time, "What do you Celts fear most?" If he had hoped for the reply "you, my
lord", he was destined for disappointment. The chieftain eyed Alexander coolly and
replied, "Only this - that the sky should fall upon our heads."
