Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe
From their new bases in northern Illyria and Pannonia, the Gallic invasions climaxed in the early 3rd century BC, with the invasion of Greece. The 279 BC invasion of Greece proper was preceded by a series of other military campaigns waged in the southern Balkans and against the Kingdom of Macedonia, favoured by the state of confusion ensuing from the disputed succession after Alexander the Great's death. A part of the invading Celts crossed over to Anatolia and eventually settled in the area that came to be named after them, Galatia.
Settlement of southeastern Europe
From the 4th century BC,
By the 3rd century, the native inhabitants of
Early expeditions
The political situation in the northern Balkans was in constant flux with various tribes dominant over their neighbours at any one time. Within tribes, military expeditions were conducted by "an enterprising and mobile warrior class able from time to time to conquer large areas and to exploit their population".[2] The political situation in the Balkans during the 4th century BC played to the Celts' advantage. The Illyrians had been waging war against the Greeks, leaving their western flank weak. While Alexander ruled Greece, the Celts dared not to push south near Greece. Therefore, early Celtic expeditions were concentrated against Illyrian tribes.[3]
The first Balkan tribe to be defeated by the Celts was the
In 335 BC, the Celts sent representatives to pay homage to
Invasions of Thrace and Greece
Great expedition of 279 BC
The Celtic military pressure toward Greece in the southern Balkans reached its turning point in 281 BC. The collapse of
Bolgios inflicted heavy losses on the Macedonians, whose young king,
After these expeditions returned home, Brennus urged and persuaded them to mount a third united expedition against central Greece, led by himself and Acichorius.[6] The reported strength of the army of 152,000 infantry and 24,400 cavalry is impossibly large.[17] The actual number of horsemen has to be intended half as big: Pausanias describes how they used a tactic called trimarcisia, where each cavalryman was supported by two mounted servants, who could supply him with a spare horse should he have to be dismounted, or take his place in the battle, should he be killed or wounded.[18][19]
Battle of Thermopylae (279 BC)
A Greek coalition made up of
Eventually, Brennus found a way around the pass at Thermopylae, but by then the Greeks had escaped by sea.
Attack on Delphi
Brennus pushed on to
Both historians who relate the attack on Delphi, Pausanias and
Cursed gold of Delphi
In spite of the Greek accounts about the defeat of the Gauls, the Roman literary tradition preferred a far different version.[clarification needed] Strabo reports a story told in his time of a semi-legendary treasure – the aurum Tolosanum, fifteen thousand talents (450 metric tonnes/990,000 pounds) of gold and silver – supposed to have been the cursed gold looted during the sack of Delphi and brought back to Tolosa (modern Toulouse, France) by the Tectosages, who were said to have been part of the invading army.
More than a century and a half after the alleged sack, the Romans ruled
In 105 BC, Caepio refused to co-operate with his superior officer,
Upon his return to Rome, Caepio was tried for "the loss of his Army" and
He spent the rest of his life in exile in
Strabo distances himself from this account, arguing that the defeated Gauls were in no position to carry off such spoils, and that, in any case, Delphi had already been despoiled of its treasure by the Phocians during the Third Sacred War in the previous century.[22] However, Brennus' legendary pillage of Delphi is presented as fact by some popular modern historians.[23]
After the Greek campaigns
Most scholars deem the Greek campaign a disaster for the Celts.
Some of the survivors of the Greek campaign, led by Comontoris (one of Brennus' generals) settled in
Celtic groups were still the pre-eminent political units in the northern Balkans from the 4th to the 1st century BC. The Boii controlled most of northern Pannonia during the 2nd century BC, and are also mentioned as having occupied the territory of modern Slovakia. We learn of other tribes of the Boian confederation inhabiting Pannonia. There were the Taurisci in the upper Sava valley, west of Sisak, as well as the Anarti, Osi and Cotini in the Carpathian basin. In the lower Sava valley, the Scordisci wielded much power over their neighbours for over a century.
The later half of the 1st century BC brought much change to the power relations of barbarian tribes in Pannonia. The defeat of the Boian confederation by the
See also
- Celts in Transylvania
- La Tène culture
References
- ^ ISBN 0-85115-923-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7100-7714-1.
- ^ a b c Stipčević, Aleksandar (1977). The Illyrians. Translated by Stojana Čulić Burton. Park Ridge, New Jersey: Noyes Press. p. 44.
- ISBN 0521227178, 1992, page 600: „In the place of the vanished Treres and Tilataei we find the Serdi for whom there is no evidence before the first century BC. It has for long being supposed on convincing linguistic and archeological grounds that this tribe was of Celtic origin.“
- ^ a b Green, Peter. Alexander to Actium. p. 133.
- ^ a b c d e Pausanias (2013). "Description of Greece". livius.org. Translated by Peter Levi. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ^ "Justin Book XXIV". Justin. forumromanum.org. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
- ^ "Memnon: History of Heracleia". attalus.org. 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ^ Kruta, Venceslas. Les Celtes, histoire et dictionnaire. p. 493.
- ISBN 0-14-025422-6.
- ^ The term is a calque of the parallel French Grande expédition, that indicates, in French scholarly usage, the 279 BC surge of military campaigns on Greece.
- sacked Rome in 387 BC.
- ^ Some writers suppose that Brennus and Acichorius are the same person, the former being only a title and the latter the real name. Schmidt, "De fontibus veterum auctorum in enarrandis expeditionibus a Gallis in Macedoniania susceptis," Berol. 1834
- ^ Smith, William (1867). "Acichorius". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. Boston, MA. p. 12. Archived from the original on 2005-12-17. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Andrew, Paul Johstono (2012). Military Institutions and State Formation in the Hellenistic Kingdoms, Galaterschlacht and Royal Legitimacy, Department of History, Duke University, p. 85
- ^ Books and Research Papers on the History of Macedonia and the Greek Heritage Collection, Blue Vergina Sun, Macedonia, Greece, 2013, p. 159-160
- ^ Tarn, W.W. (1913). Antigonas Gonatas. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 148.
- ^ a b Pausanias (1918). Description of Greece: 10.23.1. Translation by W.H.S. Jones & H.A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ^ "Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Histories". Junianus Justinus. attalus.org. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
- ^ Pausanias (2013). "Description of Greece". livius.org. Translated by Peter Levi. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ^ "Junianus Justinus, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Philippic Histories". attalus.org. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
- ^ "Strabo, Geography". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
- ^ As did, for example, Peter Berresford Ellis, in his The Celtic Empire, Constable, 1990, pp. 82–84.
- ^ "Celtic Settlement in North-Western Thrace during the Late Fourth and Third Centuries BC" (PDF). Nikola Theodossiev. caorc.org. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
- ^ Cunliffe (1997), p.83
- ISBN 0-7099-2295-7.