Despite the Celts being thought of as a people
predominantly Western European, such as the Gauls and Britons, the Celts were, in reality, a much
more widespread group, with communities reaching as far East as modern-day Turkey. The question
must be asked, how did a group we consider to be strictly European in nature come to exist
within Anatolia; the Asian part of Turkey. To understand how these celts came to live in
such distant lands, we must first understand the origins of the Celtic peoples. These origins
are rather uncertain, yet it is primarily believed that the Celts originated and later spread
from what was a large region, composing the south of Germany, most of Austria and Czechia,
and the Alsace region of France. By the 6th Century BCE, they had begun from this region,
reaching areas such as the North of Italy, France, and much of Spain - even going so far as to
cross the English Channel into Britain by 275BCE. Another community of Celts instead went Eastwards,
towards what was then the Kingdom of Macedonia. While Alexander the Great ruled Macedonia and
its vast empire, these celts dared not to invade Greece, limiting their raids to Illyria.
These Celts would soon gain an opportunity however - and with the death of Alexander,
his vast Empire was plunged into Civil War. In 281 BCE, with the death of the Diodochi
Lysimachus (one of the former generals of Alexander who partitioned his territories upon
his death), the northern frontier of the hellenic world was suddenly open. Making use of this
power vacuum and new, weak leadership, the Celts exploited the weakened frontier, raiding into
Macedonia. In an attempt to halt the celtic raids, King Ptolomy of Macedon personally led an army
against them, dying in his attempt. Despite this, the Celts were well aware of drawing the full
might of the Greek world against them, halting their expansion before entering the heartland
of Greece itself - and so the Celts turned around and proceeded to settle in previously
conquered lands… or so the Greeks thought. A certain Celtic warlord by the
name of Brennus had different ideas. Instead of returning to his homeland,
he desired to push deeper into Greece. Using the influence he held, he convinced
a great many to continue their campaign into Greece - reminding them of the weakness
of the Greeks after the death of Alexander, and the vast bounties of the Greek homeland. All
told, he had amassed a warband of roughly 170,000. The Greeks understandably were horrified
upon learning of this incredibly large force, especially given the death of Ptolomy of Macedon.
Every Greek, and every Polis understood that this was a dire situation threatening the
very continuation of greek civilisation. It was decided that the Greeks
must unite to stop them. At first they tried to stop them in Thermopylae,
a narrow road between mountains and sea, where a small army could prevent a large
army from entering Greece - earlier used by the Greeks to halt the Persian advance
during the Persian Invasion of Greece, featuring a certain King Leonidas. Here
a collective Greek army of around 30,000 soldiers and mercenaries tried to put a stop on
the celtic advances. At first the Greeks held the path due to superior tactics and weaponry.
The Celts cleverly decided their best way forward was to divide the Greek forces, sending
41,000 soldiers to raid the region of Aetolia. In doing so, the Aetolian contingent of
the united Greek army packed up and left to defend their homeland, severely weakening the
defence of Thermapylae. Despite this success, the Aetolians slaughtered the raiding Celts, leaving
less than half to return to the main warband. After intimidating the locals, the Celtic leader
Brennus learned of a secret mountain pass that would allow him to encircle the Greek defenders
entirely. He, and 40,000 celts passed through, quickly destroying the small force
of Phoceans that defended the pass. The Greeks learned of the trick from the
fleeing Phoceans, being retreated by the Athenian Navy before the Celts could complete
their encirclement and planned slaughter. Without a minute’s delay, Brennus
marched straight for Delphi, not even waiting for the rest of the army
to catch up with him. Upon reaching Delphi, Brennus met not only a defending Greek
army, but also the wrath of the gods. “All the ground where the Gaulish army
was quaked violently nearly all day, with continuous thundering and lightning. The Celts
were dumbfounded by this lightning, and unable to hear when orders were given; flashes from heaven
would not only strike a man down, but set fire to other men and their shields all round him.”
Pausanias 10.23.3 The celts were constantly harassed from all sides,
with the arrival of the main army only a day later being unable to relieve them - their morale being
so low that it was decided a full scale retreat was the only option. Brennus was injured severely
in the frenzy, overwhelmed by the pain of his wounds, decided there was only one way forward for
him - and promptly impaled himself upon a dagger. After the disastrous campaign, little was left of
the Celts. Those who had managed to escape from the slaughter at Delphi split - one settling
in Thracia and founding the city of Tylis, the other relocating to the Dardanelles - being unable
to advance further due to the city of Byzantion blocking the path, refusing to allow the Celts to
move across the Bosphorus despite constant raids. It appeared Fortune favoured the Celts
however, as in 278 BCE a civil war broke out in the Greek kingdom of Bithynia - located
across the Bosphorus from Byzantion. During the course of the War, Nikomedes I, who
was impressed by the martial ability of the Celts, hired 20,000 as mercenaries in order to
defeat his throne’s claimant - his brother. In only 2 years, the Celts had helped Nikomedes
to secure his throne, and as a reward the King was willing to gift them vast lands on the eastern
frontier of his Kingdom, containing what is today Ankara. In doing so, the King also created a
strong, loyal allied buffer state between his frontiers and the strong Empires and Kingdoms
of antiquity Anatolia and the Middle East. However, in 275 BCE, the Celts, possibly
encouraged by Nikomedes, decided to attack the Seleucid Empire. Like the Greeks, the
Selucids were victorious in their defence, with King Antiochus I Soter defeating
the Celts at the Battle of the Elephants, forcing the barbarians to sue for peace, and offer
themselves as Mercenaries for his own Kingdom. Following this, they returned to settle in
what was left in the lands they had occupied, located in the north of the region of
Phrygia. The land in which they lived became known as “Galatia”, based
on the Greek word for Gaul. The Celts further subdivided
this land into three provinces, one for each of the tribes which comprised
these people; the Tectosagii, the Trogmi, and the Tolostobogii, who respectively founded the
cities of Ancyra, Tabia and Pessinus - with all three still being inhabited today - two as small
villages, and the other, the Capital of Turkey. At first, the Celts remained culturally distinct,
retaining their Celtic religion and festivals. As with many migrators however, the Celts would soon
find themselves adapting to the local customs, adopting the Greek Pantheon as
their new religion, and becoming so Hellenized that they would become known as
“Greek-Gauls” by Roman contemporary writers.
