Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe
Gallic groups, originating from the various La Tène chiefdoms, began a southeastern movement into the Balkans from the 4th century BC.
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.
From the 4th century BC, Celtic groups pushed into the Carpathian region and the Danube basin, coinciding with their movement into Italy.
The fertile lands around the Pannonian rivers enabled the Celts to establish themselves easily, developing their agriculture and pottery, and at the same time exploiting the rich mines of modern Poland.
Thus, it appears that the Celts had created a new homeland for themselves in the southern part of Central Europe; in a region stretching from Poland to the Danube, but there is little to no non-Christian evidence of that.
[further explanation needed] In 335 BC, the Celts sent representatives to pay homage to Alexander the Great, while Macedon was engaged in wars against Thracians on its northern border.
[3] After the death of Alexander the Great, Celtic armies began to bear down on the southern regions, threatening the Greek kingdom of Macedonia and the rest of Greece.
In 310 BC, the Celtic general Molistomos attacked deep into Illyrian territory, trying to subdue Dardanians, Paeonians and Triballi.
[3] In 298 BC, the Celts attempted a penetrating attack into Thrace and Macedon, where they suffered a heavy defeat near Haemus Mons at the hands of Cassander.
[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.
[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.
In 105 BC, while marching to Arausio, the Proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul Quintus Servilius Caepio plundered the sanctuaries of the town of Tolosa, whose inhabitants had joined the Cimbri, finding over 50,000 15 lb.
The riches of Tolosa were shipped back to Rome, but only the silver made it: the gold was stolen by a band of marauders, who were believed to have been hired by Caepio himself and to have killed the legion guarding it.
In 105 BC, Caepio refused to co-operate with his superior officer, Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, because he thought of him as a novus homo, deciding by himself to engage in battle against the Cimbri, on the Rhone.
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.
In 277 BC, Antigonus II Gonatas defeated the Gauls at the Battle of Lysimachia and the survivors retreated, founding a short-lived city-state named Tyle.
[24] Another group of Gauls, who split off from Brennus' army in 281 BC, were transported over to Asia Minor by Nicomedes I to help him defeat his brother and secure the throne of Bithynia.
Altogether new tribes are encountered, bearing Latin names (such as the Arabiates), possibly representing new creations carved out of the defeated Boian confederation.
Their ethnic independence was gradually lost as they were absorbed by the surrounding Dacian, Illyrian and Germanic peoples, although Celtic names survive until the 3rd century AD.
