TheGalatians (Ancient Greek:Γαλάται,romanized: Galátai;Latin:Galatae, Galati, Gallograeci;Greek:Γαλάτες,romanized: Galátes,lit. 'Gauls') were aCeltic people dwelling inGalatia, a region of centralAnatolia in modern-dayTurkey surroundingAnkara during theHellenistic period.[1] They spoke theGalatian language, which was closely related toGaulish, a contemporaryCeltic language spoken inGaul.[2][3]
The Galatians were descended from Celts who hadinvaded Greece in the 3rd century BC. The original settlers of Galatia came throughThrace under the leadership of Leogarios andLeonnorios c. 278 BC. They consisted mainly of three Gaulish tribes, theTectosages, theTrocmii, and theTolistobogii, but there were also other minor tribes. In 25 BC,Galatia became a province of theRoman Empire, withAnkara (Ancyra) as its capital.
In the 1st century AD, many Galatians were Christianized byPaul the Apostle's missionary activities. TheEpistle to the Galatians by Paul the Apostle is addressed to Galatian Christian communities in Galatia and is preserved in theNew Testament.
Seeing something of a Hellenized savage in the Galatians,Francis Bacon and other Renaissance writers called themGallo-Graeci ('Gauls settled among the Greeks') and the countryGallo-Graecia, as had the 3rd century AD Latin historianJustin.[4] The more usual term wasAncient Greek:Ἑλληνογαλάται,romanized: Hellēnogalátai ofDiodorus Siculus'Bibliotheca historica v.32.5, in a passage that is translated "...and were called Gallo-Graeci because of their connection with the Greeks", identifying Galatia in the Greek East as opposed toGaul in the West.[5]Suda also used the term Hellenogalatai.[6]
Brennus invaded Greece in 281 BC with a huge war band and was turned back before he could plunder the temple of Apollo atDelphi. At the same time, another Gaulish group of men, women, and children were migrating through Thrace. They had split off from Brennus' people in 279 BC, and had migrated into Thrace under their leaders Leonnorius and Lutarius. These invaders appeared inAsia Minor in 278–277 BC; others invaded Macedonia, killed thePtolemaic rulerPtolemy Ceraunus but were eventually ousted byAntigonus Gonatas, the grandson of the defeatedDiadochAntigonus the One-Eyed.
During the course of the power struggle betweenNicomedes I ofBithynia and his brotherZipoetes, the former hired 20,000 Galatian mercenaries. The Galatians split into two groups headed byLeonnorius and Lutarius, which crossed theBosporus and theHellespont respectively. In 277 BC, when the hostilities had ended the Galatians came out of Nikomedes' control and began raiding Greek cities in Asia Minor while Antiochus was solidifying his rule in Syria. The Galatians lootedCyzikus,Ilion,Didyma,Priene,Thyatira andLaodicea on the Lycus, while the citizens ofErythras paid them ransom. Either in 275 or 269 BC Antiochus' army faced the Galatians somewhere on the plain ofSardis in theBattle of Elephants. In the aftermath of the battle the Celts settled in northernPhrygia, a region that eventually came to be known as Galatia.[7]
The Seleucids built a series of forts at Thyatira, Akrasos and Nakrason and placed garrisons atSeleucia Sidera,Apamea,Antioch of Pisidia, Laodicea on the Lycus,Hierapolis, Peltos and Vlandos to limit Galatian raids. However, the Galatians expanded beyond those borders taking control of important cities such asAncyra (present day Ankara),Pessinus,Tavium, andGordion. They launched further raids into Bithynia, Heracleia and thePontus in both 255 and 250 BC.[8] Either in 240 or 230 BCAttalus I of Pergamon inflicted a heavy defeat on the Galatians at theBattle of the Caecus River. In 216 BC,Prusias I of Bithynia intervened to protect the cities of the Hellespont from Galatian raids. In 190s BC, the Galatians raidedLampsacus andHeraclea Pontica. According toMemnon of Heraclea their goal was to gain access to the sea; however, this claim is disputed by modern historiography.[9]
The constitution of the Galatian state is described byStrabo: comfortably to custom, each tribe was divided into cantons, each governed by atetrarch with a judge under him, whose powers were unlimited except in cases of murder, which were tried before a council of 300 drawn from the twelve cantons and meeting at a holy place, twenty miles south-west of Ancyra, written inAncient Greek:Δρυνεμετον,romanized: Drunemeton/Drynemeton,lit. 'holy place of oak'. It is likely it was a sacred oak grove, since the name means 'sanctuary of the oaks' inTransalpine Gaulish: *dru-nemeton,lit. 'holy place of oak' (fromdrus,lit. 'oak', andnemeton,lit. 'sacred ground'). The local population of Cappadocians were left in control of the towns and most of the land, paying tithes to their new overlords, who formed a military aristocracy and kept aloof in fortified farmsteads, surrounded by their bands.
These Galatians were warriors, respected by Greeks and Romans. They were often hired as mercenary soldiers, sometimes fighting on both sides in the great battles of the times. For years the chieftains and their war bands ravaged the western half of Asia Minor as allies of one or other of the warring princes without any serious check—until they sided with the renegade Seleucid princeAntiochus Hierax, who reigned inAsia Minor. Hieraxtried to defeatAttalus I, the ruler ofPergamon (241–197 BC), but instead the Hellenized cities united under Attalus' banner and his armies inflicted several severe defeats upon Hierax and the Galatians in c. 232, forcing them to settle permanently and to confine themselves to the region to which they had already given their name. The theme of theDying Gaul (a famous statue displayed inPergamon) remained a favourite in Hellenistic art for a generation.
The king of Attalid Pergamon employed their services in the increasingly devastating wars of Asia Minor; another band deserted from their Egyptian overlordPtolemy IV after asolar eclipse had broken their spirits.[citation needed]
In 189 BC, Rome sentGnaeus Manlius Vulso on an expedition against the Galatians, theGalatian War, defeating them. Galatia was henceforth dominated by Rome through regional rulers from 189 BC onward. Galatia declined, at times falling underPontic ascendancy. They were finally freed by theMithridatic Wars, during which they supported Rome.
In the settlement of 64 BC, Galatia became a client-state of the Roman empire, the old constitution disappeared, and three chiefs (wrongly styled 'tetrarchs') were appointed, one for each tribe. But this arrangement soon gave way before the ambition of one of these tetrarchs,Deiotarus, the contemporary ofCicero andJulius Caesar, who made himself master of the other two tetrarchies and was finally recognized by the Romans as'king' of Galatia.
Each tribal territory was divided into fourcantons ortetrarchies. Each of the twelve tetrarchs had under him a judge and a general. A council of the nation consisting of the tetrarchs and three hundredsenators was periodically held at Drynemeton.
There were also the:
Comparatively little is known about Galatian religion, but it can be assumed that it was similar to that of most Celts. The Greek godTelesphorus has attributes not seen in other Greek gods, and it is speculated to have been imported from Galatia.[11]
A Gallic, i.e. Celtic, people who crossed the Hellespont from Europe into Asia Minor in 278 BC and settled in parts of Phrygia and Cappadocia, in the area surrounding modern Ankara in central Turkey.
Galatian has usually been conceived of as a variety of Celtic similar to that of Transalpine Gaul ...
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