In the years before the Roman Empire expanded beyond the confines of Italy, Europe from Spain to Turkey was populated by a Celtic-speaking barbarian peoples called the Celts.
These fierce warriors were members of tribes which varied greatly in size and regional diversity. Many of these tribes developed high skill levels working with iron, gold and silver to make weapons, armor and decorative items.
Despite bravery and dedication to their warrior creeds, they were no match for the mastery of warfare exhibited by their nemesis, the Roman Legions.

With the decline of the Roman army in the 5th and 6th Centuries, the Barbarians increased their incursions on Roman territory, eventually sacking the city of Rome in 410 AD.
The proliferation of the Barbarian tribes into what had once been the Roman world ushered in the Dark Ages. While savage and resourceful warriors, some of the Barbarian tribes, such as the Huns, didn’t even have a written language. During the Barbarian primacy, the Western World regressed into a period of anarchy and violence. The Franks ruled Gaul; the Ostrogoths ruled Italy and Pannonia; the Visigoths controlled the Iberian Peninsula; the Celts controlled Britain. It would take many centuries before the Western World returned to the levels of civilization known in Roman times.