Ancient Literary Sources

THE ARRIVAL OF THE CELTS IN THE SOUTH AND THE

EAST AND HOW THE GREEKS AND ROMANS SAW THEM

Ancient Literary Sources

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Migrations

Between the 5th and the 3rd centuries BC, migrations carried the Celts from central |Europe across the Alps into

ItalyAlong the Danube riverCarpathian mountainsUkrainian steppesSE to the Balkans, Greece and Anatolia

(Turkey).Small groups even reached Egypt.

Danube River

Migrations

During that time the Celts earned a reputation for savagery in war. It is also the time when Greek and Roman writers comment on this ‘new’ people.

They became the most widespread group of peoples in Europe.

The traditional story told by the Roman historian Livy (Titus Livius) explains how the king of the Bituriges sent his two nephews Bellovesus and Segovesus to find new homelands.

Bellovesus and his followers went to Italy, and Segovesus went to the south of Germany.

Migrations

The migrations into Italy probably lasted between c450BC and 400BC.

Later the Romans knew the whole area of Celtic settlement in Italy as Cisalpine Gaul (Cisalpina Gallia).

Most of the migrants came from:Marne-Moselle regionCentral, estern Gaul (Senones, Cenomani,

Lingones)SE Gaul and beyond (Boii).

Migrations

According to the Roman historian the Celtic peoples who took part in these two major waves of migration were the following:

Bituriges, Arverni, Senones, Aedui, Ambari, Carnutes, Aulerci.

Gaulish tribes

Migrations

Many of the Etruscan villages that the Celts overran were assimilated into La Tene Celtic culture in language and customs.

This period c391BC also marks the very first contacts between the Romans and the Celts. A failed diplomatic mission by the Romans who tried to mediate between the Senones and the Etruscans led to armed conflict between the Celts (Senones) and the Romans and Etruscans. And led to death of a Celtic chieftain.

Etruscans and Celts

Migrations- the Sack of Rome c390BC

This in turn led to retaliatory action by the Celts who headed with great speed down the Tiber river valley to Rome. (July 390 or 386BC).

Rome had been abandoned by all bu the sick and old, Rome was sacked by the Celts.

They remained for seven months. The Gauls were persuaded to leave after

paying a huge ransom in gold.Brennus: “vae victis” !

Migrations

It has been argued that by weakening the Etruscans, the Gauls had made it easier for the Romans to become masters of Italy.

The Romans built a city wall in 378BC to defend themselves from the Gauls.

Finally there was a peace-treaty between the Romans and the Gauls of the north in 334BC.

Fear of the Gauls always remained amongst the Romans, and they bore a grudge against them that would last 300 years.

Migrations-the east

Celtic migrations into eastern Europe began early in the fourth century (c380BC).

By 300BC a loose confederation of Celtic tribes moved into the Balkans and attacked the local peoples known as the Illyrians, Triballi and Paionians

Although we have little written evidence for this migration from Roman or Greek writers, it is clear from the archaeology that the Celts followed the Danube river as it flowed towards the SE.

Thus, we find evidence of Celtic settlements in today’s Slovenia, Serbia and Hungary.

Local peoples most likely adopted La Tene culture.

Danube River (in red)

Celts in the east

Possibly some of those going as far as today’s Ukraine were no more than warbands, although a Celtic (La Tene) cemetary has been found near Chernobyl.

Some placenames suggest the presence of Gauls: Gallitsyja and Galich).

They may have wanted to raid the Greek settlements on the Black Sea. (coins).

A 3rd century inscription from Olbia (Nikolayev, Ukraine) records the threat of Galatian (Gaulish, Celtic) attacks.

Alexander and the Celts

During the advance of the La Tene Celts towards the eastern parts of Europe, Alexander the Great came into contact with a group of la Tene ambassadors in 335BC.

This was during his expedition across the Danube.

These Celts are supposed to have been in residence along the shores of the Ionic Gulf, and were probably an offshoot of the Celtic influx into Italy.

Alexander and the Celts

When the same ambassadors discussed a treaty with Alexander, they admitted fear of nothing, except perhaps that the sky should fall, and Alexander thought that they merely vainglorious.

They were declaring themselves free from fear of him.

The Celts certainly were frightened of such manifestations of natural power as thunderstorms, because they thought that they might presage the end of the world. Delphi.

Celts in the East

A short time later in 323BC, the Greek historian Arrian tells us that a delegation of Celts came to Babylon along with representatives of other peoples where Alexander was present.

This was the first time that Macedonians had seen Celtic war-equipment and armour.

Perhaps they had come to survey the prospects of raids in that part of the world.

Celts in Greece

Later, Celtic raiders turned their sights towards Macedonia (Greece).

Several attempts were made to enter Greece; one attack led by Bolgios in 281BC.

A more serious attempt took place in 279BC under Brennus.

Celts in Greece

The Celts were not used to defensive warfare which allowed the Greeks to take cover in walled cities.

The Greeks tried to stop the Celts at the famous Pass of Thermopylai.

After scattering the Greek forces, the Celts continued under the leadership of Brennus as far as Delphi. The Celts were interested in raiding, and many Greek cities had their treasures stored there.

Delphi

Celts in Greece

Greek sources for this story tended to explain the defeat of the Celts in Delphi through a mixture of fantasy and meteorological confusion. (earthquakes, snow-storms, rock-falls).

Brennus’ army eventually settled on the Black Sea in today’s Bulgaria. (Commontorios)

Another group made for the Balkans (probably joining other Celts there) under the leadership of Bathanatos, and they founded the new tribe/people/touta known as the Scordisci.

Celts of Belgrade

Their main centre became Singidunum (modern Belgrade).

The Scordisci who have left considerable archaeological remains became a force to be reckoned with raiding both Macedonia and Greece.

Another group of warriors found their way to Egypt were they became cleruchs (sleepers= reservists).

At the end of the 2nd century Bc (c120BC) there were soldiers with Celtic names in the garrison of Hermopolis in Middle Egypt.

The edge of Singidunum today

Celts in Anatolia

Some of the large contingent who refused to join the expedition into Greece had continued on to Thrace (north of Greece).

They were the Tectosages, Trocmi and the Tolistobogii. Half of them were women and children, no doubt seeking places to settle and less interested in raiding (like Brennos).

They were invited into Anatolia (278-7BC). Their men would help the local king to defend the area.

Anatolia (with Galatia)

Celts in Anatolia

The area of Celtic settlement there was called Galatia (the land of the Gauls).

St Jerome in the 4th century AD stated that the Galatians spoke the same Celtic language as the Gauls.

They evolved a separate form of self-government. Their national shrine was called the Drunemeton (oak-grove).

The local tetrarchs were assisted by a judge possibly a druid.

The end of the migrations

By the end of the third century (c 220BC) the period of Celtic migration had mainly finished.

In Italy they were already in retreat following the battle of Telemon.

If there were migrations they tended to take place within the Celtic world itself.

Caesar mentions the migration of the Helvetii to new lands.

There were movements of peoples to southern Britain from northern gaul at this time.

The End of the Migrations

These were mainly Belgae who went to Britain c100BC.

Possibly contingents from the Parisii tribe in Gaul relocated to northern Britain at about the same time. They kept the tribal name (Parisi-sic).

Another tribe found both in Gaul and Britain are the Atrebates and Belgae.

Some movement from Celtic Britain to Ireland (Ivernia) seems possibel with duplication of names: Dumnonii, Brigantes (N Britain) in particular.

Ancient literary Sources

When speaking of the ‘barbarian’ peoples of ancient Europe, and especially the ‘Celts’, the written records highlight and illuminate the world of these peoples.

Virtually everything we know about the Iron-Age Celts depends (outside of the archaeology) on the writings of the Greeks and then later the Romans.


The written heritance of the Celts is only to be found in a few hundred inscriptions written in Gaul (ancient France), Spain and northern Italy.

The first testimony of the Celts can be traced to the 6th century, mentioned as they are by Hecataeus in about 500BC. It is possible that he knew the Celts living inland from Massalia.


Avienus, the poet, can be dated to the sixth century BC, he cites the Celts as being enemies of the Ligurians based further west.

Probably at this time no special attention was given to the Keltoi, since they were seen as just another ethnic group north of the Mediterrean.

Herodotus who was working about 400BC mentions (perhaps based on Hecataeus) that the river Danube has its source in the territory inhabited by the Celts.


This territory he says extended as far as the shores of the ocean to the west, and into Spain.

He mentions a city called Pyrene (on the Danube). It is probably no coincidence that by following his directions we arrive in the centre of the western part of the Hallstatt culture.

Certainly because of trade the Mediterraneans know of the Celts in the 6th century.

However, Herodotus does not provide us with ethnographical information about the Celts.


Until the 5th century then, the Celts were seemingly only a number of tribes on the fringes of the Greek world.

The end of the Hallstatt and the beginning of the La Tene meant that information about the Celts became better known by the end of the 5th century with Celtic settlements in the Po Valley (Italy).

News of the sack of Rome by Gauls in 390BC reached the Greek historians.


From at least the 4th century BC the Celts had thus acquired a reputation for being brave and extremely aggressive warriors, and were employed by Etruscans, Carthaginians, and the western Greeks.

Xenophon mentions that Celtic and Spanish mercenaries were used as an expeditionary force to the aid of the Spartans in 371BC.

This is the first testimony of the presence of Celts on the Greek mainland.


As a result we find the first attempts at ethnographical description in works by Greek authors of the 4th century BC.

Plato describes them as bellicose, but also as excessive drinkers of wine (Nomoi).

Aristotle also praises their temerity and rigid discipline to which they were subjected from childhood onward. (Politica), and refers to them as examples of the greatest courage.


Theopompus mentions that there were Celts in Illyria and the historian Ephorus mentions them as being inhabitants of western Europe, and emphasizes their military valour and absolute fearlessness. They calmly awaited hightide on the sea’s edge, thus losing more lives than in war.

He also mentions the good relations between them and the Greeks (Massalia).


Unfortunately the account of Phytheas who sailed around Gaul, Britain and Northern Europe has not survived, but he was much quoted by later writers.

By 380BC the Celts mercenaries were already fighting in Dalmatia, in Ptolemy’s Greek Histories we hear how Alexander the Great in the thick of his campaign in the Balkans was approached by a delegation of Celts (somewhere in Slovenia).

Their famous boast that they feared nothing in the world except that the sky might fall down.


Unfortunately apart from a few passages by Polybius, the entire history of the Hellenistic period, like the ethnography and geography has been lost (eg the Geographika by Eratosthenes).

As well as the 13 volumes by Demetrios of Byzantium about the movement of the Celts in Asia.

And the epic poem by Simonides of Magnesia (late 3rd century) about the war between King Antiochus and the Galatians.


In general the image we have of the Celts from the Hellenistic period was built up in a context of wars and constant fear of brutal aggression.

Geographically by this time they were viewed as inhabitants of western Europe, but also of central Europe and north as far as the land of the Scythians. The Germanic tribes beyond the Celtic belt were largely unknown in the Mediterranean. If they were regarded as anything they were regarded as Celts as well.


The first written contacts between the Celts and Romans are largely lost. Such evidence as we have is sometimes recorded in the work of the Roman historian Livy. He mentions in particular the attack on Rome and the duel between Titus Manlius Torquatus and a Gaul.

Much information for this period can be found in the Greek historian Polybius who has very interesting ethnographical descriptions of the Celts of northern Italy, as well as a grandiose description of the battle of Telamon and the gaesatae (mercenaries) of 225BC.


Polybius provides us with concise but useful descriptions of the Celtic hierarchical system.

The great Roman scholar of the next stage when Rome waged war against the Arverni and created Gallia Narbonensis in the late 2nd century BC, was Posidonius.

He was a great ethnographer and philosopher (c135-50BC).

Large excerpts of his ethnographical descriptions of the Celts remain.


He knew the Celts from his travels and he spoke of them from first hand experience.as well as the information in his accounts we also have the descriptions provided in the works of Strabo and Diodorus .

Posidonius was very good on detail. He describes their receptive and courageous temperament, their frankness and a certain arrogance.

Their love of ornament, their obsession with honour.


Their beliefs in an afterlife, their excitabilty, their priests and their bards who sang of the feats of the kings and lords.

He also mentions their cult of the head.Posidonius’s account remains the most

detail in an antiquity of the Celts of the 1st century BC.

In his work the archaeological finds of the late La Tene period come to life.


Cicero as well mentions in one of his philosophical works his meeting with the druid Divitiacus of the Aedui people of eastern Gaul and their discussions about Celtic belief.

During the last half of the 1st century BC Julius Caesar fought his campaign againt the Gauls leading to their defeat and the integration of Gaul into the new Roman empire.


In his memoires of the campaign Caesar gives copious information about the Gauls during this last stage in La Tene civilisation.

Caesar was an expert on Gaul and in his writings we have a high level of ethnographical expertise. He may well have used a lot of Posidonius but this is not certain.Caesar concentrates on three aspects: politics, society and religion.

Ancient Literary Sources

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