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Galatia (; , Galatía, ) was an ancient area in the highlands of central Anatolia, roughly corresponding to the provinces of Ankara Province and Eskişehir in modern Turkey. Galatia was named after the Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who settled here and became a small transient foreign tribe in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of the East, "Gallacia" ultimately deriving from the northwest of ancient Spain.
By the 4th century BC, the Celts had penetrated into the Balkans, coming into contact with the Thracians and Greeks. See The Periplus of Scylax (18-19) In 380 BC, they fought in the southern regions of Dalmatia (present day Croatia), and rumors circulated around the ancient world that Alexander the Greats father, Philip II of Macedonia had been assassinated by someone using a dagger of Celtic origins. See Diod. 16, 94, 3 (1999). 9780847821938, Random House Incorporated. ISBN 9780847821938 Arrian writes that "Celts established on the Ionic coast" were among those who came to meet Alexander the Great during a campaign against the Getae in 335 BC. See also Strabo, vii, 3, 8. Several ancient accounts mention that the Celts formed an alliance with Dionysius I of Syracuse who sent them to fight alongside the Macedonians against the Thebans.Justin, xx, 4, 9; Xen., Hell., vii, 1, 20, 31; Diod., xv, 70. For a full discussion see Henri Hubert, The Rise of the Celts, 1966 pp. 5-6 In 279 BC, two Celtic factions united under the leadership of Brennus and began to push southwards from southern Bulgaria towards the Greek states. According to Livy, a sizable force split off from this main group and headed toward Asia Minor.
For several years, a federation of Hellespontine cities, including Byzantion and Chalkedon, prevented the Celts from entering Asia Minor. (2005). 9789004142916, Brill. ISBN 9789004142916 During the course of the power struggle between Nikomedes I of Bithynia and his brother Zipoetes II, the former hired 20,000 Galatian mercenaries. The Galatians split into two groups headed by Leonnorius and Lutarius, which crossed the Bosporus and the Hellespont, 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 looted Cyzikus, Troy, Didyma, Priene, Thyatira and Laodicea on the Lycus, while the citizens of Erythras paid them ransom. Either in 275 or 269 BC, Antiochus' army faced the Galatians somewhere on the plain of Sardis in the Battle of Elephants. In the aftermath of the battle, the Celts then settled in northern Phrygia, a region that eventually came to be known as Galatia.
The territory of Celtic Galatia included the cities of Ankara (present day Ankara), Pessinus, Tavium, and Gordium.
Josephus related the Biblical figure Gomer to Galatia (or perhaps to Gaul in general): "For Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians, Galls, but were then called Gomerites."Josephus. Antiquities of the Jews, I:6. Others have related Gomer to Cimmerians.
Paul the Apostle visited Galatia in his missionary journeys,Acts 16:6 and Acts 18:23 and wrote to the Christians there in the Epistle to the Galatians.
Although originally possessing a strong Celts, by the 2nd century AD, the Galatians had become assimilated (Hellenization) into the Hellenistic civilization of Anatolia. Galatia The Galatians were still speaking the Galatian language in the time of St. Jerome (347–420 AD), who wrote that the Galatians of Ancyra and the Treveri of Trier (in what is now the Rhineland) spoke the same Gaulish language ( Comentarii in Epistolam ad Galatos, 2.3, composed c. 387).
In an administrative reorganisation ( c. 386–395), two new provinces succeeded it, Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris, which included part of Phrygia. The fate of the Galatian people is a subject of some uncertainty, but they seem ultimately to have been absorbed into the Greek-speaking populations of Anatolia.
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