Description
The fierce and proud Galatians dominated central Anatolia and eastern Phrygia. Having splintered from the migrating Celts following Brennus’ invasions of Macedon and Greece in 279BC, three tribes, the Tectosages, Tolistobogii and Trocmi, moved through Thrace and crossed the Bosporus into Asia Minor. They came as allies of Nicomedes of Bithynia and secured a victory for him in a dynastic struggle against his brother. After a brief and inconclusive war between Nicomedes and the Seleucid king, Antiochus, the Galatians settled down to stay. Their territory was split between the three tribes, each maintaining its own capital, but with a council at Drynemeton, a sacred grove of oaks near the Tectosages’ capital at Ancyra. Ruled by a military aristocracy, the Galatians left the indigenous Cappadocian people in control of their own towns and lands in return for tithes. Galatian mercenaries were highly prized and respected by Greek, Roman and Seleucid commanders. In fact, the personal bodyguard of the Ptolemies of Egypt consisted of Celtic mercenaries, and it is highly likely that these men came from Galatia.
