"The powerful Celtic social class posed a threat to the Roman Empire before being subsumed by Christianity, but their origins remain shrouded in the past... Despite what little is actually known about ancient Druidism, the practice has seen several revivals in modern times...The earliest detailed accounts of the Druids date back to the first century B.C., but it’s likely that they had established their special role within the ancient communities of what is now Britain, Ireland, and France long before then... The pagan practitioners presented an existential threat to the Romans, who feared Druid power over the Celtic communities that Rome had conquered... The term seems to have been a blanket designation for scholars, philosophers, teachers, and holy men concerned with nature, justice and magic. “Among archaeologists there is currently no consensus over how material evidence relates to the Druids even within the same country,” writes History Today’s Ronald Hutton. “Not a single artifact has been turned up anywhere which experts universally and unequivocally agree to be Druidic.” Then and now, the idea of Druids evokes both magic and mystery."