began with the conquest of Gallia Cisalpina in 275 BC. The conquest of Gallia Celtica followed in 121 BC and was completed with the Gallic Wars of 58-50 BC. After this period, Gallic culture quickly assimilated to Roman culture, giving rise to the hybrid Gallo-Roman culture of Late Antiquity. Continuation in Ireland Roman conquest eventually extinguished the cultural and political independence of all the Celtic peoples starting on the Italian peninsula, then the Iberian Peninsula, Anatolia, Gaul and finally southern Britain. Celtic cultural independence survived only in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cumbria. After the Roman era, only in the British Isles, therefore, could there be said to still exist a distinctly Celtic culture, peoples and style of warfare. Ireland was the last region to adopt the La Tène style of Celtic culture and technology with a smaller and less dense population than that of the British or Continental Celts, the Gaelic Irish sustained an era of small scale elite clan warfare for much longer. Traditional patterns of warfare seem to have continued all the way to the Viking and Norman invasions. For centuries the backbone of any Gaelic Irish army were lightly armed foot soldiers called Ceithearn or Kern. Kern usually fought lacking metal armor including helmets, fighting with spears (gae) and a set of javelins or darts (gá-ín), a long dagger (scian), occasionally wielding axes (tua) and bow (bogha), protected by a round shield (sciath) and in the case of higher status and class warriors, swords (claideamh). The Viking invasions saw greater adoption of the shortbow and heavier armor in addition, but never in great numbers. The Norman invasion in the 12th century and the ineffectiveness of traditional tactics in resisting it led to the Irish moving towards a more typically medieval style of warfare exemplified by the Gallóglaigh or Gallowglass heavy infantry soldier. Unlike Kern, Gallowglass usually wore chainmail and iron helmets and wielded heavy weaponry such as the Dane axe, Sparth axe, Claymores and sometimes spears or lances. They were a kind of heavy infantry, shock troop and elite bodyguard for the Gaelic nobility. They were the Celtic response to the heavily favored and armored Heavy Cavalry, Knights and Men-at-arms of the era and were very effective. Gallic Wars The best known Roman source for descriptions of Celtic warfare was from Julius Caesar in his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars in which he describes the methods of