Exodus
Countries with known historical Celtic habitation are Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, the Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey. Apart from this, Celtic mercenaries have established regular colonies in Greece, Egypt, Iran and other places. And Celtic cultural influence extended further northward to the Netherlands, Denmark, Belarus and other countries, but without signs of typically Celtic settlements. Today, Celtic languages are spoken i Wales or Cymru (around 1000000 daily Cymric speakers), Scotland or Alba (about 50000 daily Gaelic speakers), Ireland or Ériu (about 10000 daily Irish speakers) and Brittany or Breizh in France (about 300000 Breton speakers). A language of its own also exists on the isle of Man in the Irish sea, the Manx language, which is still known by some hundreds of people, but with little daily use, and in Cornwall or Kernow in southeast England, where a few enthousiasts try to reestablish some usage of the Cornish language. Strong Celtic cultural influence also is found in Galicia in Spain, but the language there vanished long ago.
All this was unknown to Epovarros and his people, standing on the top of a hill watching the landscape below one late summer morning. It was so curiously barren, like if a curse lay upon it. Then he saw the glint of white. The hillside over there lay in the shade, the Sun stood behind it. But something was glinting white there in the darkness. The white gold.
In the forests and river valleys of Switzerland, southern Germany, eastern France, northern Italy and the countries just east of the Alps, the Urnfield culture dominated 3000 years ago, fairly static, settled agricultural societies. This is probably an Indoeuropean culture and possibly proto-Celtic. The later Hallstatt and La Tène phases are perhaps results of the amalgamation of the Urnfield culture with newcomers, maybe Cimmerians riding in from the east. The centre seems to have been the mighty forest north of the Alps, the Hercynian forests, it is said that it took nine days for a lightly equipped horseman to cross it from west to east. From there, the Unfield culture spread over the continent, and then the Hallstatt culture dispersed across the Urnfield settlements and later La Tène diffused through the Hallstatt.
They built their plaited houses over more than half of the continent and part of the next one. They lived their lives like aristocrats, but when their upper class life could not be supported where they were, they moved. They forged long slicing swords and played war games in their spare time and when they met people who disputed their rights to take their land, they chased them in blood and taught Europe to fear the Celts. But like the sportsmen they were, they gave the owners of the land the opportunity to avoid bloodshed by choosing a man to meet their best in single combat. The loser would abandon the land with his people and try to find another, not an easy job. The Celt, trained in all kinds of sport, would usually win. But in battles with regular armies, they won great victories as well, and a rumour for invincibility. Their tactics was based on mobility, the cavalry played an important role, and the infantry was very lightly equipped and fast moving. The cavalry often was augmented by legendary fast war chariots of the most sophisticated construction seen until then. The standard equipment for the infantry was a heavy sword, a man-high shield and nothing else. When they went to battle, they were sometimes known to throw away all their clothes to make their dreadful tatoos visible. Fear was an important item in their arsenal. In addition to tatoos or war paint, they brought instruments to make fearful noise as well as their rumour for invincibility, and in attack, they stormed on with a speed designed to make even the bravest adversary turn and run for his life. This of course had the benign effect that their battles often were less bloody than other famous battles. They did not pursue fleeing enemies, but were merciless against those who stood their ground.
On a tall crag, with a chill breeze in his face, Isarnotectos and his people stood, silently regarding something they had never seen before: the sea, in turmoil under a grey sky. He had ridden with them towards the west. Now, they came no further. They had come to a mysterious country, they called it Litavia, or Letauia, a word of the same origin as Lithuania, which is called Litavia in Latin (Lithuanian: Lietuva). Meaning "the land by the sea".
Litavia, or France as most people prefer to call it today, has been inhabited since the ice age. From paleolithic times, there has been a marked division in Europe between the western culture of Spain, France and the British isles (including Ireland), and the culture further east. The Celtic immigration from 900 BCE on removes this division. The Hallstatt culture brought by Isarnotectos and his people celtified the eastern part of the country thoroughly, and established in pockets elsewhere. From the 6th century BCE, the La Tène Celts arrive, penetrate the north, push the Ligurians of the southeast aside and present themselves to the Greeks in Massalia. Only in southwest, the pre-Celtic Aquitanians persist, but their culture is influenced strongly by La Tène.
We are told (by Titus Livy) that Ambicatos was the king of the Gauls in the last half of the 6th century BCE. His land was so fertile and populous that the immense masses of the populace were threatening to become ungovernable. Hence, the old king decided to send his two young and vigorous sister's sons, Bellovesos and Sigovesos, to find new land according to divine omens. To Sigovesos, the gods gave the Hercynian forests north of the Alps . To Bellovesos, they gave Italy. He took his tribe or clan, the Insubri, and settled in the Po valley. After him came Elitovios and his Cenomani, then the Libii, the Salluvi, the Boii and the Lingones and finally the Senones, all choosing their portion of the valley and adjoining areas. The Etruscans, who claimed sovereignty over the valley, objected to this invasion and were beaten in a battle near today's Ticino in the 470s BCE. Very few of the place names of the area are pre-Celtic, implying a very low degree of contact between the newcomers and the native population. Maybe this wasn't the first Celtic invasion either, because Bellovacos settled with his Insubri in a place already called the Plain of the Insubri, he regarded this as an omen. Had the Insubri been there before? An Etruscan boundary marker dating from the 8th century BCE depicts something that looks much like a Celtic warrior.
One day about 2600 years ago, Arganthonios, the ruler of the Baetis river valley was negotiating with some Phokaian Greeks who had come to establish a treaty of trade. They wanted his silver, he wanted their money. The trading settlements built by the Phokaians along the river prospered from the silver trade. Arganthonios also seemed to prosper, for it is said that he lived until he was 120. Already at this time, Hispania was strongly Celtified. A Hallstatt-like culture is seen at an early date in the north on both sides of the Pyreneans. The original Iberian culture survived for a time in the south, but then a new wave of La Tène immigrants infiltrated them. It seems that a mixed culture was formed, the Celtiberian. In the west, a non-Celtic Indoeuropean language was spoken in historic times, Lusitanian. But the Euskadi (or Basque) of today still speak a language that seems related to Iberian. Where did they come from? Maybe they are the descendants of more or less pure Iberians who held their ground in the Pyrenean mountains themselves?
It is said (in Leabhar Gabhála) that Golamh or Milesius from Hispania, after having served under the Scythians and the Egyptians, came back to his native land and found that his nephew Ith had been killed by Mac Cécht, Mac Cuill and Mac Gréine, the sons of Ogma, the Irish god of eloquence and learning. Enraged, he took his sons, Donn, Airioch Feabhruadh, Ir and Colpa and his Egyptian wife Scota to conquer Ireland. The historic background of this myth is not clear, if there's any at all. It has been suggested that some refugees from the La Tène invasions of Spain escaped to Ireland and established the first Celtic settlements there. If so, they must have spoken a q-Celtic language, and attempts have been made to find some q-Celtic traces in Spain, but with few utterly convincing results.
The mediterranean countries had been buying tin from the British Isles since the bronze age. The ancient Greeks called these tin-islands the Kassiterides, and tin itself kassiteros. This could be a Celtic word, cassi- is a common prefix to Celtic names, meaning love or esteem. It is not certain if the word itself denoted tin, for the Gaulish word for tin is stagnon, and this or an older variant is lent to Latin as stannum. Kassiteros could be an older or local British (or Cornish) word for tin or a greek misunderstanding. The word is known from Semitic languages as well and from Sanskrit, and may originate from one of them instead. In the 5th century BCE, the explorer Pythias from Massalia came to Cornwall, observed how the inhabitants mined tin and called the country the Pretanic Isles because the locals called themselves Pretani. The Romans heard about them and called them Britanni, because their b then sounded much like the Greek p. Maybe Pretani was the common name of the whole population then, but in historic time, it is used only of the people whom the Irish call Cruithni and the Romans Picti and who inhabited the north of Scotland. Picti means 'painted' or 'endowed with images', and the two other words, which also have a common origin, mean the same. That the c in Irish is replaced by p could mean that this is an ancient name having survived since the divide between q- and the p-Celtic. Celtic influence in Britain is found from about 750 BCE, and a typical Hallstatt-culture from about 500. From the 3rd century BCE, a large scale La Tène influx is seen. Perhaps this is when the Pretani vanish in the south. But the form of their name implies that they spoke p-Celtic, just like the newcomers. And in historic time, the Britons themselves were famed for their body paint or tattoos.
Some of the descendants of Sigovesos wandered on eastward. The Boii settled early in present day Czechia and parts of Austria and Hungary, and gave their name to Bohemia. In the 4th century BCE, La Tène Celts entered other parts of Austria and Hungary, Celtic dwellings appeared in the vicinity of Wroclaw and Krakow in Poland, they followed the course of the Danube and reached the Black Sea, also establishing in Transsilvania and made an impact at the same time in Slovenia and northeastern Croatia, where Hallstatt remains have been found from as early as 900 BCE. The land further south were inhabited by Illyrians, speaking an Indoeuropean language which today is extinct, but related to Messapian, another extinct language in southern Italy, and possibly Albanian.
South of the Illyrians were the Macedonians, who spoke a language seemingly related to Greek, the influentials in the country were eager to learn Greek language and culture. One of those was their king Philippos II, who came to the throne in 359 when his brother Perdikkas III was beaten in battle and killed by the Illyrians. The Macedonians had been harried by the Illyrians many times in the previous years, and after a defeat in 393, they even had to pay them taxes. But now, the Illyrians themselves were being troubled by the Celts. Philippos was able to turn his ambition to the south and coveted the rich Greek city states, weakened by internal wars that had been fought largely with the aid of Celtic mercenaries. Through various diplomatic and military measures, Philippos conquered Greece and prepared for a war against the Persian empire when he was killed by one of his bodyguards in 336. Several city-states, it is not known which one of them who was responsible for the murder, seized the opportunity to break away, and the old enemies of the Macedonians in the north started to unsettle. Alexandros, Philippos' son, moved north with his troops, summoned the chieftains of the most powerful tribes to confirm his father's alliances and treaties. The Celtic Scordistai and other Celtic peoples were among them. After the talks, there was a feast, and during the party talk, Alexandros asked the Celts what they feared most in the world. He was famous for his Great ego, and probably expected them to fear him the most. However, the answer was these famous words: 'we are afraid of nothing except the sky falling on our heads, but we value above all else the friendship with such a man as you.'
With his northern flank secure, Alexandros happily took off, tamed the Greek rebels by erasing ancient Thebes from the face of the Earth and gathered a small army which he used to carve an empire. When he died, it fell to pieces again. His generals fought over his empire like gamecocks, each with a share of it as his basis. Meanwhile, the Celts were moving southward in Illyria. In 310, Macedonia swarmed with Illyrian refugees who were granted asylum in the border regions. In 297, a Celtic army under Cambaules invaded Thrace and established a Celtic kingdom there. The Thracians were an old Greek or semi-Greek nation that had given us Demokritos, the father of the atomic theory, and recently had been in contention with Macedonia for the hegemony of Greece.
In 281, one of Alexander's generals, Seleukos, who had conquered a major portion of his empire, came to Macedonia to challenge another of the generals, Lysimakhos, who had taken control over Greece, to single combat in the famous Celtic manner. Both were around 80 years old at this time, and the match must have been a spectacle indeed. Seleukos won, and now was within reach of world supremacy, but in the meantime, the throne of Macedonia had been usurped by a third of the generals, Ptolemaios Keraunnos, who killed Seleukos the following year and chased his army back to Minor Asia again. All this mess was like a beacon to the Celts, who stormed in across the borders. Ptolemaios, who had just finished off his worst rival for the hegemony of the world and prepared to move eastward, was killed, and his host crushed by a an army of Celtic fighters under Bolgos. The next year, the main force under the leadership of one Acichorios or Cichorios defeated the last remnants of Macedonian resistance and beat an army of the combined Greek city-states at Thermopylai after skilful tactical moves. Greece now lay open to them. But the battle had been bloody, the losses considerable, and they turned west to raid the temple complex of Delphi instead, where immense riches had been collected for more than a 1000 years Then they vanished as fast as they had come. It has been rumoured that some of these treasures were found in a lake near Tolosa (Toulouse in present day France) when the Romans came there some 200 years later, that an attempt was made to bring them to Rome, and that they disappeared along the way.
Minor Asia always has been a fabulous melting pot of nationalities and realms. On the west coast were the Greek city states. Inland, the Carians lived in the south, the Lydians north of them and to their north and east the Phrygians. Along the south coast the Lycians lived in the west, the Pamphylians in the middle and in the east the Cilicians. On the northern coast lived the Bithynians in the west, the Paphlagonians east of them and the Pontinians furthest to the east. In the middle, the Cappadocians resided, and east of them the Armenians. The Persians had ruled them all except the Pontinians, and Alexandros did the same. But already towards the end of the Persian empire, many of them had begun to claim some degree of independence, and after the Alexandrine collapse, more of them hurried after. Several of the Diadocian kingdoms, the heirs of Alexander, aimed to reconquer them, and also certain of the realms themselves sought to eat up the others.
One of these was Bithynia, where the brothers Zipoetes and Nikomedes contested for the throne in 278 BCE. Nikomedes asked one of the Diadoci, the Macedonian king Antigonos Gonatas for help, and he recruited 3 Celtic tribes, the Tolistoboii, the Tectosages and the Trocmi, altogether 20000 individuals, half of them under arms. Their leaders were Leonnorios and Lutarios, and they secured the throne for Nikomedes with no delay. Afterwards, they had no more business in Bithynia, and took to pillaging and demanding tribute, the so-called Galatika or Celtic ransom, from the Greek city states they encountered. In 275, another of the Diadokoi, Antiokhos of Syria, warred on them and beat them using elephants, they had no experience with them.
In 281, a new kingdom called Pergamon had been formed in the coastal areas of Phrygia, and now, the Celts were offered the remainder of the Phrygian lands on the condition that they behaved. Since then, this land has been known as Galatia, and each of the three tribes took their share. The Tolistoboii took the upper course of the river Sangarios around Pessinos, the ancient religious centre of the Phrygians. The Tectosages took the land east of them, surrounding Tavion, and the Trocmi took the easternmost part surrounding the town Ankyra, where the Turks have their capital today. They mostly left the Phrygians alone in their towns and preferred to establish traditional Celtic agricultural dwellings defended by hill-forts. They didn't behave so well either, the rainy season in inner Phrygia tended to be unreliable, and if the crops failed, they resorted to other means of income. In 265, they beat Antiokhos in a battle et Ephesos, and plundered far and wide, from the western coast and well into Syria. They were disciplined by the strong king Attalos of Pergamon, but later grew into a respected player in the political intrigues of Minor Asia and defended their liberty and identity with skilful diplomatic manoeuvres in the stormy times that ensued. The Phrygians in the towns were assimilated, and the language of the country was Celtic until the 400s and probably even longer.