druid was a member of the educated, professional class among the Celtic peoples of

Gaul, Britain, Galicia, Ireland, and possibly elsewhere during the Iron Age. While the
best known among the druids were the religious leaders, the druid class also included
law-speakers, poets and doctors, among other learned professions. Very little is known
about the ancient druids. They left no written accounts of themselves, and the only
evidence is a few descriptions left by Greek, Roman, and various scattered authors and
artists, as well as stories created by later medieval Irish writers.
[2]
While archaeological
evidence has been uncovered pertaining to the religious practices of the Iron Age
people, "not one single artefact or image has been unearthed that can undoubtedly be
connected with the ancient Druids."
[3]
Various recurring themes emerge in a number of
the Greco-Roman accounts of the druids, including that they performed animal and even
human sacrifice, believed in a form of reincarnation, and held a high position in Gaulish
society. Next to nothing is known for certain about their cultic practice, except for the
ritual of oak and mistletoe as described by Pliny the Elder.
The earliest known reference to the druids dates to 200 BCE, although the oldest actual
description comes from the Roman military general Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de
Bello Gallico (50s BCE). Later Greco-Roman writers also described the druids,
including Cicero,
[4]
Tacitus
[5]
and Pliny the Elder.
[6]
Following the Roman invasion of
Gaul, druidism was suppressed by the Roman government under the 1st century CE
emperors Tiberius and Claudius, and it had disappeared from the written record by the
2nd century.
In about 750 CE the word druid appears in a poem by Blathmac, who wrote about
Jesus, saying that he was "... better than a prophet, more knowledgeable than every
druid, a king who was a bishop and a complete sage."
[7]
The druids then also appear in
some of the medieval tales from Christianized Ireland like the "Tin B Cailnge",
where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the coming of Christianity.
[8]

In the wake of the Celtic revival during the 18th and 19th centuries, fraternal and
Neopagan groups were founded based on ideas about the ancient druids, a movement
known as Neo-Druidism. Many popular modern notions about druids have no
connection to the druids of the Iron Age and are largely based on much later inventions
or misconceptions.