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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. However Molistomos was defeated by the Dardanians.
Endemic warfare appears to have been a regular feature of Celtic societies. While epic literature depicts this as more of a sport focused on raids and hunting rather than an organized territorial conquest, the historical record is more of different groups using warfare to exert political control and harass rivals, for economic advantage, and in some instances to conquer territory.
The Celtic military pressure toward Greece in the southern Balkans reached its turning point in 281 BC. In 280 BC a great army, comprising about 85,000 warriors, [1] approached from Pannonia and split into three divisions. These forces marched south to Macedon and central Greece. [2]
Northern Mediterranean Coast straddling South-east French and North-west Italian coasts, including far Northern and Northwestern Tuscany and Corsica. Because of the strong Celtic influences on their language and culture, they were known already in antiquity as Celto-Ligurians (in Greek Κελτολίγυες, Keltolígues). [39]
The Gundestrup Cauldron, which was deposited in a bog in Himmerland in the 2nd or 1st century BC, shows that there was some sort of contact with southeastern Europe, but it is uncertain if this contact can be associated with the Cimbrian militia expeditions against Rome of the 1st Century BC. It is known that the peoples of Northern Europe and ...
Another newer theory, "Celtic from the Centre", suggests proto-Celtic arose between these two zones, in Bronze Age Gaul, then spread in various directions. After the Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe in the 3rd century BC, Celtic culture reached as far east as central Anatolia , Turkey .
The word may derive from a conjectural proto-Celtic word *keternā, ultimately from an Indo-European root meaning a chain. [2] Kern was adopted into English as a term for a Gaelic soldier in medieval Ireland and as cateran, meaning 'Highland marauder', 'bandit'. The term ceithernach is also used in modern Irish for a chess pawn.
In the mid-5th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus (Book 2.33) made a brief passing reference to a Celtic city called by the Greek "Pyrene": "For the Ister flows from the land of the Celts and the city of Pyrene through the very middle of Europe..." Since the Heuneburg is roughly in the right location and was a major regional centre just ...