knowledge of it.
There is no reason to believe that Druids did not exist wherever there
were Celts. The Druids and Semnotheoi of the Celts and Galatae referred
to _c._ 200 B.C. were apparently priests of other Celts than those of
Gaul, and Celtic groups of Cisalpine Gaul had priests, though these are
not formally styled Druids.[1012] The argument _ex silentio_ is here of
little value, since the references to the Druids are so brief, and it
tells equally against their non-Celtic origin, since we do not hear of
Druids in Aquitania, a non-Celtic region.[1013]

The theory of the non-Celtic origin of the Druids assumes that the Celts
had no priests, or that these were effaced by the Druids. The Celts had
priests called _gutuatri_ attached to certain temples, their name
perhaps meaning "the speakers," those who spoke to the gods.[1014] The
functions of the Druids were much more general, according to this
theory, hence M. D'Arbois supposes that, before their intrusion, the
Celts had no other priests than the _gutuatri_.[1015] But the
probability is that they were a Druidic class, ministers of local
sanctuaries, and related to the Druids as the Levites were to the
priests of Israel, since the Druids were a composite priesthood with a
variety of functions. If the priests and servants of Belenos, described
by Ausonius and called by him _oedituus Beleni_, were _gutuatri_, then
the latter must have been connected with the Druids, since he says they
were of Druidic stock.[1016] Lucan's "priest of the grove" may have been
a _gutuatros_, and the priests (_sacerdotes_) and other ministers
(_antistites_) of the Boii may have been Druids properly so called and
_gutuatri_.[1017] Another class of temple servants may have existed.
Names beginning with the name of a god and ending in _gnatos_,
"accustomed to," "beloved of," occur in inscriptions, and may denote
persons consecrated from their youth to the service of a grove or
temple. On the other hand, the names may mean no more than that those
bearing them were devoted to the cult of one particular god.

Our supposition that the _gutuatri_ were a class of Druids is supported
by classical evidence, which tends to show that the Druids were a great
inclusive priesthood with different classes possessing different
functions--priestly, prophetic, magical, medical, legal, and poetical.
Caesar attributes these to the Druids as a whole, but in other writers
they are in part at least in the hands o