A member of a
Celtic order of priest magicians or
wizards whose
rituals, centering on animal and tree worship, were said to include human sacrifice.
A
druid was a member of the priestly class in
Gaul and likely other parts of Celtic Western Europe during the Iron Age. Following the invasion of Gaul by the Roman Empire, the
druids were
suppressed by the Roman government from the 1st century CE and disappeared from the written record by the 2nd century, although there may have been later survivals in the British
Isles. Very little is currently known about the ancient druids as they left no written accounts about themselves, and other than a few descriptions left by Greek and Roman authors, and in stories created by later mediaeval Irish writers, the accuracy of all of which are disputed, we have no evidence about them.