When Alexander the Great was receiving diplomats from all over the civilised world in Babylon, he met a few Celtic envoys. Having heard of their bravery in combat and eager to check whether they too, like most other nations, were in awe of his power, he asked them what they feared the most in the world. He was greatly displeased to hear that the Celts’ biggest fear was that the sky might fall on their heads. Alexander dismissed the envoys, and to those present said that these barbarians were far too proud of themselves. His successors, however, would see that their words were not an empty boast.
In the early decades of III c. BC a large group of Celts, called Galatians, started moving from Central Europe in a southeast direction. By 281 BC they had crossed the Danube River, attacking the Thracian tribes they found there. The new Macedonian king of Thrace, Ptolemy Ceraunus, refused to aid his Thracian subjects and was defeated and killed by the invaders in the spring of 279 BC. Some of the Galatians consequently established a kingdom of their own in the northeastern parts of present-day Bulgaria, which lasted until about 243 BC. The majority of them, however, did not remain there but moved on to Macedonia. Since the death of Lysimachus two years before, Macedonia had no king and was an easy prey for the Galatians, who overran it in no time, looting the countryside. Having no siege weapons, however, they could not besiege the fortified towns, so the majority of the population was saved. Finally Sosthenes, a Macedonian nobleman, harassed Bolgius, one of their leaders, to the north. Another chieftain, however, Brennus, came in his place and in 278 BC marched through Macedonia to Greece. He was opposed by the allied forces of king Antigonus Gonatas and free Greek towns at Thermopylae, but was successful in defeating them and proceeded to pillage the sacred oracle of Apollo in Delphi. The early snow forced him to retreat, though and when his men suffered heavy losses, Brennus committed suicide. In 277 BC Antigonus Gonatas defeated the rest of them in the vicinity of Lysimachia (on the Thracian Chersonesus), which made him popular enough to become king of Macedonia later that year.
Yet a third group of Galatians crossed over to Asia Minor in 277 BC, where everyone was so petrified, that no one dared resist them until king Antiochus I defeated the foreigners with his elephants in 273 BC, for which he was proclaimed the Soter (‘saviour’) of Asia. The defeated Galatians, however, settled unopposed in central Asia Minor, which was given their name. They were of great peculiarity to the local soft peoples and often raided them for plunder or served as mercenaries in their armies. Successful opposition to the Galatians in the 240s BC was what enabled Attalus of Pergamum to proclaim himself king. Galatia became a vassal of Rome early in II c. BC and was annexed and organised into a Roman province by emperor Augustus in 25 BC. A Celtic language continued to be spoken there until IV c. AD. |
