This is a list of ancient Celtic peoples and tribes.
Continental Celts
Continental Celts were the Celtic peoples that inhabited mainland Europe and Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor). In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, Celts inhabited large parts of mainland Western Europe and Southern Europe (such as the Iberian Peninsula), parts of southern Central Europe, and some regions of the Balkans and Anatolia. They represented most of the population of Gallia (modern France, Switzerland, Northern Italy and Western Germany) possibly Belgica (far Northern France, Belgium and the far Southern Netherlands), and large parts of Hispania (Spain and Portugal, especially in the northern, central and western regions), and also inhabited southern Central Europe, particularly the upper Danube basin and neighbouring regions, large parts of the middle Danube basin, and the inland region of Central Anatolia. Their populations thus inhabited a large geographic area stretching from Iberia in the west to the Balkans and Anatolia in the east.
Many of the populations from these regions were called Celts by ancient authors. They are thought to have spoken Gaulish (P-Celtic type), Lepontic (P-Celtic type), Hispano-Celtic (Celtiberian and Western Hispano-Celtic or Gallaecian) (Q-Celtic type), Eastern Celtic or Noric (unknown type). P-Celtic type languages are more innovative (*kʷ > p) while Q-Celtic type languages are more conservative. However, it is not fully known if this grouping of peoples, such as their languages, is a genealogical one (phylogenetic), based on kinship, or if it is a simple geographically defined group. Many writers of classical antiquity did not describe the peoples and tribes of the British Islands as "Celts" or "Galli" but by the name "Britons", and reserved "Celts" or "Galli" for the peoples and tribes of mainland Europe.
Eastern Celts
Source:
Map 2: Roman district (probably not yet a full province by then) of Raetia et Vindelicia, as it stood in AD 14. Celts dwelt in most areas of the shown land on the map except for the Rhaetians.Map 3: Ancient tribes in the middle Danube river basin around 1st C. BCEMap 4: Central and northern Illyrian tribes and neighbouring Celtic tribes (most in magenta) to the North and Northwest during the Roman period.
They lived in Southern Central Europe (in the Upper Danube basin and neighbouring regions) which is hypothesized as the original area of the Celts (Proto-Celts), corresponding to the Hallstatt Culture. Later they expanded towards the Middle Danube valley and to parts of the Balkans and towards inland central Asia Minor or Anatolia (Galatians). Hercynian Forest (Hercynia Silva), north of the Danube and east of the Rhine, was within these lands. Celts, especially those from Western and Central Europe, were generally called "Galli" by the Romans (i.e. "Gauls"), which was a synonym of "Celts". This also means that not all of the peoples and tribes referred to as Galli were specifically Gauls in a narrower, more regional sense. Their language is scarcely attested and cannot be classified as either P-Celtic or Q-Celtic.
Some of these peoples closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others were confederations or even unions of tribes:
Anartes/Anartoi– Areas of modern Slovakia and modern Northern Hungary, north of the river Tysia / Tibiscus (Tisza). They lived in the eastern part of the Hercynia Silva (Hercynian Forest). Areas of modern central Slovakia and modern Northern Hungary, north of the river Tysia/Tibiscus (Tisza), north of the Teuriscii. They were later assimilated by Dacians.
Arabiates - areas of modern Western Hungary and eastern Austria, west of the river Danubius (Danube).
Belgites - areas of modern Western Hungary, west of the river Danubius (Danube).
Boii Boiates / Boviates / Boiates – La Tête de Buch, probably around Arcachon Bay and northwest of Landes (departement), in the Pays de Buch and Pays de Born. Although they dwelt in Aquitania Proper, they seem to have been a Celtic tribe and not a tribe of the Aquitani (a people that may have been ancestor of the Basques).
Tulingi (Tylangii?) – localization unclear, possibly Southern Germany, Switzerland, or Austria; an originally Boii Celtic tribe that migrated along the upper Danube and later allied with the Helvetii?; also, may have been a Germanic tribe.
Catubrini- In the Alps Southeastern slopes, close to Plavis (Piave) and near Bellunum (Belluno), to the Southwest of the Carni. They came from Central Europe and not from Gaul (Gallia). (They were not Cisalpine Gaulish Celts). They probably were a ver sacrum of Carni.
Helvetii– original dwellers of Agri Decumates region, in the western part of Hercynia Silva, to the east and north of the Rhine; later, possibly at the end of the 3rd century BC they expanded to the South and Southwest to land later called Helvetia (modern day Switzerland). They were possibly more related to the Celtic populations of the upper Danube basin than to the Celts of Gaul.
Decumates may have meant "Ten Cantons". La Tène, (tribal confederation of four tribes).
Latobici / Latovici - not the same tribe as the Latobrigi but they could have been related, they dwelt in areas of modern Slovenia and Western Hungary, west of the river Danubius (Danube).
Vindelici – a tribal confederation, areas of modern Southern Germany (Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg), in the upper Danube basin. May have been a confederation of mixed Celtic and Germanic tribes.
Volciani – may have been a tribe related to the Volcae and not to the Hispano-Celts / Iberian Celts (i.e., the Celts of the Iberian Peninsula). Located north of the river Iberus (Ebro), but not very precisely.
In the middle 3rd century BC, Celts from the middle Danube valley, immigrated from Thrace into the highlands of central Anatolia (modern Turkey), which was called Galatia after that. These people, called Galatians, a generic name for "Celts", were eventually Hellenized, but retained many of their own traditions. They spoke Galatian, a name derived from the generic name for "Celts". Some closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes.
Map 7: Gaul (58 BC) with important tribes, towns, rivers, etc. and early Roman provinces.Map 8: Gaul (Gallia) on the eve of Roman conquest (Celtica, which included Armorica, Belgica and Aquitania Propria were conquered while Narbonensis was conquered earlier, already ruled by the Roman Republic). The map shows the ethnic and linguistic kinship of the tribes by different colours (the map is in French).Map 9: Roman Gaul at the end of the 1st century B.C. (Droysens Allgemeiner historischer Handatlas, 1886), with important tribes, towns, rivers, etc. and Roman provinces.
Gauls were the Celtic people that lived in Gaul, having many tribes but with some influential tribal confederations. Galli (Gauls), for the Romans, was a name synonymous with "Celts" (as Julius Caesar states in De Bello Gallico), which means that not all peoples and tribes called "Galli" were necessarily Gauls in a narrower regional sense.
Gaulish Celts spoke Gaulish, a Continental Celtic language of the P Celtic type, a more innovative Celtic language - *kʷ > p.
Romans initially organized Gaul in two provinces (later in three):
Transalpine Gaul, meaning literally "Gaul on the other side of the Alps" or "Gaul across the Alps", is approximately modern Belgium, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, and western Germany, in what would become the Roman provinces of Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Celtica (later Lugdunensis and Aquitania) and Gallia Belgica.
Some closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes.
Aedui / Haedui - Gaulish Celts largest tribal confederation, roughly in the geographical centre of Gaul and controlling important land, river, and trade routes
Gaesatae– Numbering c. 30,000, they participated in the battle of Telamon a group of mercenary Celtic warriors from several tribes of the western Alps slopes, not a tribe.
Possible Gaulish tribes
Galli (tribe)– along Gallicus (Gállego) river banks, see place names (toponyms) like Forum Gallorum, Gallur, a different tribe from the Suessetani; may have been a tribe related to the Galli (Gauls) and not to the Hispano-Celts / Iberian Celts. Some Gaulish tribes may have migrated southward and crossed the Pyrenees (by the north, the central, or the south areas of the mountains) in a second or a third Celtic wave to the Iberian Peninsula. These tribes were different from the Hispano-Celtic / Iberian Celtic tribes.
Map 10: Peoples of northern Italy during the 4th to 3rd centuries BC (Celtic tribes are shown in blue).
They lived in the territory between the Alps and the Apennines, an area the Romans would later call Cisalpine Gaul, also called Gallia Citerior or Gallia Togata. They spoke Cisalpine Gaulish (a Continental Celtic language of the P Celtic type) closely related to Gaulish or Gallic. The Celtic settlement profoundly transformed the Po Valley, and prolonged contact led to cultural exchanges and a certain degree of Celticization among neighboring populations, such as the Ligures and, in some areas, the Veneti and Raeti. In this period, the Celtic-related La Tène and Hallstatt cultures spread across much of Italy, with related archeological artifacts found as far south as Apulia. Conquered by the Roman Republic in the 220s BC, it was a Roman province from c. 81 BC until 42 BC, when it was merged into Roman Italy. Until that time, it was considered part of Gaul, precisely that part of Gaul on the "hither side of the Alps" (from the perspective of the Romans), as opposed to Transalpine Gaul ("on the far side of the Alps").
Seven Gaulish tribes that according to Livy settled in Cisalpine Gaul around 600 BC. Led by Bellovesus, they defeated the Etruscans at the Ticino, settled in Insubria and founded the city of Mediolanum, the modern Milan. They were ancestors of Cisalpine Gauls.
Map 11: Location of the Golasecca culture south of the Hallstatt culture.
Around the 13th century BC, Proto-Celts (probably the ancestors of the Lepontii people), coming from the area of modern-day Switzerland, eastern France and south-western Germany (RSFO Urnfield group), through the Alpine passes, entered Northern Italy (Lombardy, eastern Piedmont and Ticino), starting the Canegrate culture, who not long time after, merging with the indigenous Ligurians, produced the mixed Golasecca culture. Raffaele de Marinis has further hypothesized that a Proto-Celtic presence dates back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (16th–15th century BC), a period when northwestern Italy appears deeply linked, regarding the production of bronze artifacts, including ornaments, to the western groups of the Tumulus culture (1600–1200 BC).
These Celts spoke Lepontic, the oldest attested Celtic language (from the 6th century BC). Anciently spoken in Switzerland and in Northern-Central Italy, from the Alps to Umbria.
Insubri: in the area south of Lake Maggiore, in Varese and part of Novara, including Golasecca, Sesto Calende, and Castelletto sopra Ticino; from the 5th century BC, this area suddenly became depopulated, while the first settlement of Mediolanum (Milan) arose.
Map 12: Tribal groups of ancient Provence and their settlementsMap 13: Approximate locations of the various tribes of the Ancient Ligurians.
May have been Celtic tribes influenced by Ligurians, heavily Celticized Ligurian tribes that shifted to a Celtic ethnolinguistic identity or mixed Celtic-Ligurian tribes. They dwelt in southeastern Transalpine Gaul and northwestern Cisalpine Gaul, mainly in the Western Alps regions, Rhodanus eastern basin and upper Po river basin.
Map 14: Roman Hispania, at the end of the 1st century B.C. (Droysens Allgemeiner historischer Handatlas, 1886), with important tribes, towns, rivers, etc. and Roman provinces.Map 15: Celts in the Iberian Peninsula, despite the name, a large part of the peninsula was celtic.
They lived in large parts of the Iberian Peninsula, in the Northern, Central, and Western regions (half of the Peninsula's territory).
The Celts in the Iberian peninsula were traditionally thought of as living on the edge of the Celtic world of the La Tène culture that defined classical Iron Age Celts. Earlier migrations were Hallstatt in culture and later came La Tène influenced peoples. Celtic or (Indo-European) Pre-Celtic cultures and populations existed in great numbers and Iberia experienced one of the highest levels of Celtic settlement in all of Europe. They dwelt in northern, central and western regions of the Iberian Peninsula, but also in several southern regions.
They spoke Celtic languages - Hispano-Celtic languages which were of the Q-Celtic type, more conservativeCeltic languages.
Romans initially organized the Peninsula in two provinces (later in three):
Hispania Citerior ("Nearer Hispania", "Hispania that is Closer", from the perspective of the Romans), was a region of Hispania during the Roman Republic, roughly occupying the northeastern coast and the Iberus (Ebro) Valley and later the eastern, central, northern and northwestern areas of the Iberian peninsula in what would become the TarraconensisRoman province (of what is now Spain and northern Portugal).
Hispania Ulterior ("Further Hispania", "Hispania that is Beyond", from the perspective of the Romans) was a region of Hispania during the Roman Republic, roughly located in what would become the provinces of Baetica (that included the Baetis, Guadalquivir, valley of modern Spain) and extending to all of Lusitania (modern south and central Portugal, Extremadura and a small part of Salamanca province).
The Roman province of Hispania included both Celtic speaking and non-Celtic speaking tribes. Some closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes.
Western Hispano-Celts were Celtic peoples and tribes that inhabited most of north and western Iberian Peninsula regions. They are often confused or taken as synonym of Celtiberians but, in fact, they were a distinct Celtic population that was most part of Iberian Peninsula Celtic populations. They spoke Gallaecian (a Continental Celtic language of the Q Celtic type, a more conservativeCeltic language) which was not Celtiberian (Celtic languages of Iberian Peninsula are often lumped as Hispano-Celtic).
Cantabri– Cantabria, part of Asturias and part of Castile and León (Spain); some consider them not Celtic, may have been Pre-Celtic Indo-European as could have been the Lusitani and Vettones. If their language was not Celtic it may have been Para-Celtic like Ligurian (i.e. an Indo-European language branch not Celtic but more closely related to Celtic). A Tribal confederation.
Concani / Gongani – two tribes of similar name (the Britannia Gangani and Hibernia Gangani) lived in Britannia and Hibernia, they could have been three branches of the same tribe, three related tribes with common ancestors or three different tribes that shared similar names.
Caristii / Carietes– today's West Basque Country, they may have been Celtic (see Late Basquisation), they were later assimilated by the Vascones in the 6th and 7th centuries CE; Some consider them not Celtic, may have been a Pre-Celtic Indo-European people as the Lusitani and Vettones could have been. If their language was not Celtic it may have been Para-Celtic like Ligurian (i.e. an Indo-European language branch not Celtic but more closely related to Celtic).
Carpetani– Central Iberian meseta (Spain), in the geographical centre of the Iberian Peninsula, in a large part of today's Castilla-La Mancha and Madrid regions. A tribal confederation with 27 identified tribes. (the name of these tribes is known today by archaeology discovery of their names in old stellae and not by mention of any known or survived works of Classical Antiquity authors)
Conii– according to some scholars, Conii and Cynetes were two different peoples or tribes and the names were not two different names of the same people or tribe; in this case, the Conii may have dwelt along the northern banks of the middle Anas (Guadiana) river, in today's western Extremadura region of Spain, and were a Celtici tribe wrongly confused with the Cynetes of Cyneticum (Algarve) that dwelt from the west banks of the Low river Anas (Guadiana) further to the south (the celticization of the Cynetes by the Celtici confused the distinction between the two peoples or tribes).
Saephes / Saefes / Sefes - people or tribe of the Celtici that has been identified as synonymous with the Ophi or Serpent People (their land was called Ophiussa), a people that migrated westward and conquered and expelled an older people known as the Oestrymni or Oestrimni (in a land that was called Oestriminis).
Gallaeci or Callaeci Proper, this tribe gave name to the larger tribal confederation of the same name (not the same tribe as the Bracari) - roughly in today's Porto District (Portuguese District = County) west of the Tâmega.
Turodi / Turodes– Trás-os-Montes (Portugal) and Galicia (Spain).
Cynetes– Cyneticum (today's Algarve region) and Low Alentejo (Portugal); originally probably Tartessians or similar, later celtized by the Celtici; according to some scholars, Cynetes and Conii were two different peoples or tribes.
Vaccaei– North Central Iberian meseta (Spain), middle Duero river basin. A tribal confederation. Ptolemy mentions 20 vaccaean Civitates (that also had the meaning of tribes)
Other tribes (19 other tribes mentioned by Ptolemy)
Varduli– today's East Basque Country, they may have been Celtic (see Late Basquisation), they were later assimilated by the Vascones in the 6th and 7th centuries AD; Some consider them not Celtic, may have been a Pre-Celtic Indo-European people as the Lusitani and Vettones could have been. If their language was not Celtic it may have been Para-Celtic like Ligurian (i.e. an Indo-European language branch not Celtic but more closely related to Celtic)..
Map 16: Territory of the Celtiberi, mixed Celtic and Iberian tribes or Celtic tribes influenced by Iberians, with the possible location of the tribes. The names of the tribes are in Castillian or Spanish (whose plural grammatical number descends from the Latin plural accusative declension).
Insular Celts were the Celtic peoples and tribes that inhabited the British Islands, Britannia (Great Britain), the main largest island to the east, and Hibernia (Ireland), the main smaller island to the west. There were three or four distinct Celtic populations in these islands, in Britannia inhabited the Britons, the Caledonians or Picts, the Belgae (not surely known if they were a Celtic people or a distinct but closely related one); in Hibernia inhabited the Hibernians or Goidels or Gaels. Britons and Caledonians or Picts spoke the P-Celtic type languages, a more innovativeCeltic language (*kʷ > p) while Hibernians or Goidels or Gaels spoke Q-Celtic type languages, a more conservativeCeltic language.
Classical Antiquity authors did not call the British islands peoples and tribes as Celts or Galli but by the name Britons (in Britannia). They only used the name Celts or Gauls for the peoples and tribes of mainland Europe.
Map 17: Southern Britain about the year 150 ADMap 18: Wales about the year 40 AD
They spoke Brittonic (an Insular Celtic language of the P Celtic type).
They lived in Britannia, it was the name Romans gave, based on the name of the people: the Britanni.
Some closely fit the concept of a tribe but others are confederations or even unions of tribes.
Gangani (Llŷn Peninsula, Wales) - A tribe of the same name, the Gangani (Ganganoi), lived in Hibernia's southwestern coast, they could have been two branches of the same tribe, two related tribes with common ancestors or two different tribes that shared similar names. A tribe of similar name, the Gongani or Concani, was a tribe of the Cantabri, they could have been another branch of the same tribe, related tribes with common ancestors or a different tribe that shared a similar name.
Map 20: The population groups (tribes and tribal confederations) of Ireland (Iouerníā / Hibernia) mentioned in Ptolemy's Geographia in a modern interpretation. Tribes' names on the map are in Greek (although some are in a phonetic transliteration and not in Greek spelling).
Autini (Aouteinoi - Auteinoi on the map, not the Greek spelling)
Brigantes (Britons? A tribe of the same name lived in northern Britannia or they could have been two different tribes that shared the same name)
Cauci (Καῦκοι, Kaukoi on the map) A tribe of the same name (Chauci) lived in Northern Germany or they could have been two different tribes that shared the same name.
Gangani (Ganganoi) (Britons? A tribe of the same name lived in western Britannia (today's northwestern Wales) they could have been two branches of the same tribe, two related tribes with common ancestors or two different tribes that shared similar names.
Iverni (Iouernoi - Iwernoi on the map, not the Greek spelling)
Manapii (Manapioi) (Belgae? A tribe of similar name, the Menapii, lived in the coast of Belgica province or they could have been two different tribes that shared similar names)
Para-Celtic has the meaning that these peoples had common ancestors with the Celts but were not Celts themselves (although they were later Celticized and belong to a Celtic culture sphere of influence), they were not direct descendants from the Proto-Celts.
They may in fact have been Proto-Celto-Italic, predating the Celtic or Italic languages and originated earlier from either Proto-Celtic or Proto-Italic populations who spread from Central Europe into Western Europe after new Yamnaya migrations into the Danube Valley. Alternatively, a European branch of Indo-European dialects, termed "North-west Indo-European" and associated with the Beaker culture, may have been ancestral to not only Celtic and Italic, but also to Germanic and Balto-Slavic.
A people or a group of related tribes that dwelt in Belgica, parts of Britannia, and may have dwelt in parts of Hibernia and also parts of Hispania (large tribal confederation).
According to classical authors works, like Caesar's De Bello Gallico, they were a different people and spoke a different language (Ancient Belgic) from the Gauls and Britons; they were clearly an Indo-European people and may have spoken a Celtic language. There is also the possibility that their language may have been a different language branch of Indo-European from the Nordwestblock culture, which may have been intermediary between Germanic and Celtic, and might have been affiliated to Italic (according to a Maurits Gysseling hypothesis).
Menapii– Cassel. A tribe of similar name, the Manapii (Manapioi), lived in southeastern Hibernia (modern Ireland) coast, they could have been two branches of the same tribe, two related tribes with common ancestors or two different tribes that shared similar names.
Suessetani - Far North Western Aragon and Far South Eastern Navarra (Spain), between the rivers Gallicus (Gállego) and Low Aragon, and between the river Ebro and Sierra de Santo Domingo mountains. Alba (Arba) river basin (a tributary of the Ebro) was in the centre of their territory that also included the Bardenas Reales. Corbio was their capital. They were north of the Celtiberians, south of the Iacetani and the Vascones, west of the Galli (tribe). They were later conquered by the Vascones in the 2nd Century B.C. which were allies of the Romans. Could have been related to the Suessiones (a tribe of the Belgae).
Map 23: Peoples of northern Italy during the 4th to 3rd centuries BC. Ligurians are shown in the west coastal region (north coast of the Ligurian Sea, part of the Mediterranean Sea) to the south of the Celts (shown in blue) and to the northwest of the Etruscans, in the left side of the map.
The Ligures or Ligurians (Latin: Ligures, singular Ligus or Ligur; Ancient Greek: Λίγυες, romanized:Lígues) were an ancient people of the northwestern Mediterranean, settled primarily in northwestern Italy and distributed along the adjacent coast of southeastern Gaul. The current consensus among specialists is that Ligurian was an Indo-European language or group of languages, although its precise position within the Indo-European language family remains disputed. Some scholars classify it as a Celtic language retaining archaic features, while others treat it as a separate Indo-European language whose resemblances to Celtic reflect close contact or common Indo-European inheritance. Because of the strong Celtic influences on their language and culture, they were known already in antiquity as Celto-Ligurians (in Greek Κελτολίγυες, Keltolígues).
Laevi– a Ligurian tribe that dwelt in the low river Ticinus (Ticino), according to both Livy & Pliny. According to Livy (v. 34), they took part in the expedition of Bellovesus into Italy in the 6th century BC
Map 24: Ancient tribes of CorsicaMap 25: Ancient tribes of Corsica and Sardinia. The Corsi resided in the northernmost part of Sardinia.
The Corsi were an ancient people who inhabited the islands of Corsica and northern Sardinia, in the region now known as Gallura. According to historian Ettore Pais and archeologist Giovanni Ugas, the Corsi likely belonged to the Ligurian people. Seneca held a similar view, maintaining that the Corsi were of mixed origin, the result of the continuous intermingling of various ethnic groups of foreign origin, such as the Ligurians, the Greeks, and the Iberians.
Lestricones/Lestrigones (Lestriconi/Lestrigoni), they dwelt Northern Sardinia, in the wider Gallura region, although the precise boundaries of their territory are uncertain.
Lusitanians (Lusitani/Bellitani)– Portugal south of the Douro and north of the Tagus, and northwestern Extremadura (Spain). They spoke Lusitanian, a now extinct language which was clearly Indo-European but the kinship of it as a Celtic language is not surely proven (although many tribal names and place names, toponyms, are Celtic). Attempts to classify the language have also pointed at an Italic origin or some kinship to the Nordwestblock culture language (Ancient Belgian). Hence Lusitanian language may have been a Para-Celtic Indo-European branch, like Ligurian (i.e. an Indo-European language branch not Celtic but more closely related to Celtic). The Lusitanians have also been identified as being a pre-Celtic Indo-European speaking culture of the Iberian Peninsula closely related to the neighbouring Vettones tribal confederation. However, under their controversial theory of Celtic originating in Iberia, John T Koch and Barry Cunliffe have proposed a para-Celtic identity for the Lusitanian language and culture or that they spoke an archaic Proto-Celtic language and were Proto-Celtic in ethnicity.
Vettones– Ávila and Salamanca (Spain), may have been a Pre-Celtic Indo-European people, closely related to the Lusitani. If their language was not Celtic it may have been Para-Celtic like Ligurian (i.e. an Indo-European language branch not Celtic but more closely related to Celtic). A tribal confederation.
Map 27: Hispania Baetica Roman province, Turdetani were the inhabitants in large parts of this province before Roman conquest along the Baetis or Rherkes river plain.
Today's Western Andalusia (Hispania Baetica), Baetis (Guadalquivir) river valley and basin, Marianus Mons (Sierra Morena), some consider them Celtic, may have been Pre-Celtic Indo-European people as the Lusitani and Vettones. If their language, called Turdetanian or Tartessian, was not Celtic it may have been Para-Celtic like Ligurian (i.e. an Indo-European language branch not Celtic but more closely related to Celtic). Also may have been a non-Indo-European people related to the Iberians, but not the same people. A tribal confederation but with much more centralized power, may have formed an early form of Kingdom or a Proto-civilisation (see Tartessos)
The Veneti, also known as the Ancient Veneti or Paleoveneti to distinguish them from the modern inhabitants of the Veneto region, were an Indo-European people people who settled in northeastern Italy around the mid-second millennium BC. They developed a distinctive civilization in the territory corresponding largely to the present-day Veneto region during the first millennium BC. Their language is generally considered a distinct branch of the Indo-European family, although its exact relationship to languages such as Latin, Germanic, Celtic, and other Italic languages is debated.
By the 4th century BC, the Veneti had come under strong Celtic cultural influence. Polybius later observed that the Veneti of the 2nd century BC resembled the Gauls in most respects, differing primarily in language. Strabo (64BCE–24CE), meanwhile, proposed that the Adriatic Veneti were descended from Celtic groups related to the Veneti of Brittany, who inhabited the Atlantic coast of Gaul and fought against Julius Caesar.
Map 28: Roman district (probably not yet a full province by then) of Raetia et Vindelicia, as it stood in AD 14, with some Rhaeti tribal names (Breuni, Camunni, Isarci, Vennones or Vennonetes, Venostes).
They lived in the Central Alps, eastern parts of present-day Switzerland, the Tyrol in Austria, and the Alpine regions of northern Italy. The Raeti, according to Pliny the Elder, were Etruscans driven into the Alps from the Po Valley by invading Gauls.. There is evidence that much of the non-Celtic (and Pre-Indo-European) elements (see Tyrsenian languages) of their territory had, by the time of Augustus, been assimilated to varying degrees by the influx of Celtic tribes and had adopted Celtic speech. According to Livy, the "sound" of the Raeti's original tongue (sonum linguae) had become corrupted as a result of inhabiting the Alps. This may indicate that at least some of the tribes lost their ancestral Raetic tongue to Celtic. Celticisation also finds support in the Roman practice of twinning the Raeti with their neighbours to the North, the Vindelici, who are regarded by most historians to have been Celtic-speakers.In addition, the abundance of Celtic toponyms leads to the conclusion that, by the time of Roman conquest, the Rhaetians were significantly Celticized.
12Ioana A. Oltean, Dacia: Landscape, Colonization and Romanization, ISBN0-415-41252-8, 2007, p. 47.
↑Andrea Faber, Körpergräber des 1.-3. Jahrhunderts in der römischen Welt: internationales Kolloquium, Frankfurt am Main, 19.-20. November 2004, ISBN3-88270-501-9, p. 144.
↑Géza Alföldy, Noricum, Tome 3 of History of the Provinces of the Roman Empire, 1974, p. 69.
↑A. Mocsy and S. Frere, Pannonia and Upper Moesia. A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire. p. 14.
↑Pannonia. A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire. p. 14.
↑Frank W. Walbank, Polybius, Rome and the Hellenistic World: Essays and Reflections,
ISBN0-521-81208-9, 2002, p. 116: "... in A7P 60 (1939) 452 8, is not Antigonus Doson but barbarians from the mainland (either Thracians or Gauls from Tylis) (cf. Rostovizef and Welles (1940) 207-8, Rostovizef (1941) 111, 1645), nor has that inscription anything to do with the Cavan expedition. On ..."
↑Velika Dautova-Ruševljan and Miroslav Vujović, Rimska vojska u Sremu, 2006, p. 131: "extended as far as Ruma whence continued the territory of another community named after the Celtic tribe of Cornacates"
↑Ion Grumeza, Dacia: Land of Transylvania, Cornerstone of Ancient Eastern Europe, ISBN0-7618-4465-1, 2009, p. 51: "In a short time the Dacians imposed their conditions on the Anerati, Boii, Eravisci, Pannoni, Scordisci,"
↑John T. Koch, Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia, ISBN1-85109-440-7, 2006, p. 907.
12J. J. Wilkes, The Illyrians, 1992, ISBN0-631-19807-5, p. 81: "In Roman Pannonia the Latobici and Varciani who dwelt east of the Venetic Catari in the upper Sava valley were Celtic but the Colapiani of ..."
↑J. J. Wilkes, The Illyrians, 1992, ISBN0-631-19807-5, p. 140: "... Autariatae at the expense of the Triballi until, as Strabo remarks, they in their turn were overcome by the Celtic Scordisci in the early third century"
↑Population and economy of the eastern part of the Roman province of Dalmatia, 2002, ISBN1-84171-440-2, p. 24: "the Dindari were a branch of the Scordisci"
↑John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, E. Sollberger, and N. G. L. Hammond, The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 3, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC, ISBN0-521-22717-8, 1992, p. 600: "In the place of the vanished Treres and Tilataei we find the Serdi for whom there is no evidence before the first century BC. It has for long been supposed on convincing linguistic and archeological grounds that this tribe was of Celtic origin"
↑Dio Cassius, Earnest Cary, and Herbert B. Foster, Dio Cassius: Roman History, Vol. IX, Books 71–80 (Loeb Classical Library, No. 177), 1927, Index: "... 9, 337, 353 Seras, philosopher, condemned to death, 8. 361 Serdi, Thracian tribe defeated by M. Crassus, 6. 73 Seretium,""
↑Dubravka Balen-Letunič, 40 godina arheoloških istraživanja u sjeverozapadnoj Hrvatskoj, 1986, p. 52: "and the Celtic Serretes"
↑Alan Bowman, Edward Champlin, and Andrew Lintott, The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 10: The Augustan Empire, 43 BC-AD 69, 1996, p. 580: "... 580 I3h. DANUBIAN AND BALKAN PROVINCES Tricornenses of Tricornium (Ritopek) replaced the Celegeri, the Picensii of Pincum ..."
↑William M. Ramsay, Historical Commentary on Galatians, 1997, p. 302: "... these adaptable Celts were Hellenized early. The term Gallograecia, compared with Themistius' (p. 360) Γαλατία ..."
↑Roger D. Woodard, The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor, 2008, p. 72: "... The Phrygian elite (like the Galatian) was quickly Hellenized linguistically; the Phrygian tongue was devalued and found refuge only ..."
12345678910Prifysgol Cymru, University of Wales, A Detailed Map of Celtic Settlements in Galatia, Celtic Names and La Tène Material in Anatolia, the Eastern Balkans, and the Pontic Steppes.
12Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Book I, chapter 1
↑Scullard, H.H. (2002). History of the Roman World: 753 to 146BC. p.16. In the fourth century their culture became so Celticized that Polybius described the second-century Veneti as practically indistinguishable...
12Baldi, Philip (2002). The Foundations of Latin. Walter de Gruyter. p.112.
↑Nicholas Hammond, Howard Scullard. Dizionario di antichità classiche. Milano, Edizioni San Paolo, 1995, p.1836-1836. ISBN88-215-3024-8.
↑"ELMO CELTICO". ARCHEOLOGIA GALLIA CISALPINA (in Italian). Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
↑Long, George (1866). Decline of the Roman republic: Volume 2. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑Snith, William George (1854). Dictionary of Greek and Roman geography: Vol.1. Boston.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑Alfons Semler, Überlingen: Bilder aus der Geschichte einer kleinen Reichsstadt,Oberbadische Verlag, Singen, 1949, pp. 11–17, specifically 15.
12Kruta, Venceslas; La grande storia dei celti: La nascita, l'affermazione e la decadenza, Newton & Compton, 2003, ISBN88-8289-851-2, 978-88-8289-851-9.
↑G. Frigerio, Il territorio comasco dall'età della pietra alla fine dell'età del bronzo, in Como nell'antichità, Società Archeologica Comense, Como 1987.
↑Raffaele C. De Marinis, La civiltà di Golasecca: i più antichi Celti d'Italia. "Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2010-12-14. Retrieved 2010-08-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
↑"
The Golasecca civilization is therefore the expression of the oldest Celts of Italy and included several groups that had the name of Insubres, Laevi, Lepontii, Oromobii (o Orumbovii)". (Raffaele C. De Marinis)
↑Schumacher, Stefan; Schulze-Thulin, Britta; aan de Wiel, Caroline (2004). Die keltischen Primärverben. Ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon (in German). Institut für Sprachen und Kulturen, University of Innsbruck. pp.84–87. ISBN978-3-85124-692-6.
↑Percivaldi, Elena (2003). I Celti: una civiltà europea. Giunti Editore. p.82.
12345Jorge de Alarcão, "Novas perspectivas sobre os Lusitanos (e outros mundos)", in Revista portuguesa de Arqueologia, vol. IV, n° 2, 2001, p. 312 e segs.
↑Ugas 2006, p.13-19. sfn error: no target: CITEREFUgas2006 (help)
↑"Haec ipsa insula saepe iam cultores mutauit. Vt antiquiora, quae uetustas obduxit, transeam, Phocide relicta Graii qui nunc Massiliam incolunt prius in hac insula consederunt, ex qua quid eos fugauerit incertum est, utrum caeli grauitas an praepotentis Italiae conspectus an natura inportuosi maris; nam in causa non fuisse feritatem accolarum eo apparet quod maxime tunc trucibus et inconditis Galliae populis se interposuerunt. Transierunt deinde Ligures in eam, transierunt et Hispani, quod ex similitudine ritus apparet; eadem enim tegmenta capitum idemque genus calciamenti quod Cantabris est, et uerba quaedam; nam totus sermo conuersatione Graecorum Ligurumque a patrio desciuit." Seneca, Ad Helviam matrem de consolatione, VII, The Latin Library
↑Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia (illustrated ed.). Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. pp. 198–200. ISBN1-85109-440-7, ISBN978-1-85109-440-0. ^ Jump up to: a b Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia (illustrated ed.). Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. pp. 224–225. ISBN1-85109-440-7, ISBN978-1-85109-440-0.
↑Smith, William (1854). "Baetis". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Perseus Digital Library.
↑The Osi's categorization as Celtic is disputed; see Osi; also may have been a Dacian or Germanic tribe.
↑Adrian Goldsworthy, How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower, ISBN0-300-13719-2, 2009, p. 105: "... who had moved to the Hungarian Plain. Another tribe, the Bastarnae, may or may not have been Germanic. ..."
↑Christopher Webber and Angus McBride, The Thracians 700 BC-AD 46 (Men-at-Arms), ISBN1-84176-329-2, 2001, p. 12: "... never got near the main body of Roman infantry. The Bastarnae (either Celts or Germans), and `the bravest nation on earth'– Livy ..."
↑Charles Anthon, A Classical Dictionary: Containing The Principal Proper Names Mentioned In Ancient Authors, Part One, 2005, p. 539: "... Tor, " elevated," " a mountain. (Strabo, 293)"; "the Iapodes (Strabo, 313), a Gallo-Illyrian race occupying the valleys of ..."
↑J. J. Wilkes, The Illyrians, 1992, ISBN0-631-19807-5, p. 79: "along with the evidence of name formulae, a Venetic element among the Japodes. A group of names identified by Alföldy as of Celtic origin: Ammida, Andes, Iaritus, Matera, Maxa,"
↑J. J. Wilkes, Dalmatia, Tome 2 of History of the Provinces of the Roman Empire, 1969, pp. 154 and 482.
↑Pellegrini, Giovanni Battista; Prosdocimi, Aldo Luigi (1967). La Lingua Venetica: I – Le iscrizioni; II – Studi. Padova: Istituto di glottologia dell'Università di Padova.
↑Scullard, H.H. (2002). History of the Roman World: 753 to 146BC. p.16. In the fourth century their culture became so Celticized that Polybius described the second-century Veneti as practically indistinguishable...
↑Strabo. Geography. It is these Veneti [the Gallic tribe of the Belgae], I think, who settled the colony that is on the Adriatic (for about all the Celti that are in Italy migrated from the transalpine land, just as did the Boii and Senones), although, on account of the likeness of name, people call them Paphlagonians. I do not say so definitely, however; [mere] probability is usually sufficient in such matters. (BookIV, Chapter4) Concerning the Heneti there are two different accounts: Some say that the Heneti too are colonists of those Celti of like name who live on the seacoast; while others say that certain of the Heneti of Paphlagonia escaped hither with Antenor from the Trojan war, and, as testimony in this, adduce their devotion to the breeding of horses – a devotion which now, indeed, has wholly disappeared, although formerly it was prized among them, from the fact of their ancient rivalry in the matter of producing mares for mule-breeding. (BookV, Chapter1) At any rate, Sophocles says that [...] Antenor and his children safely escaped to Thrace with the survivors of the Heneti, and from there got across to the Adriatic Henetice, as it is called. (BookXIII, Chapter1)
Bourdin, Stéphane (2012). Les peuples de l'Italie préromaine: identités, territoires et relations inter-ethniques en Italie centrale et septentrionale (VIIIe–Ier s. av. J.-C.). Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome. Vol.350. Rome: École française de Rome. ISBN978-2-7283-0907-8.
de Bernardo Stempel, Patrizia; Arenas Esteban, Jesús Alberto (2011). "Celtic Dialects and Cultural Contacts in Protohistory: the Italian and Iberian Peninsulae". Études celtiques. 37 (1): 119–139. doi:10.3406/ecelt.2011.2328.
de Hoz, Javier (2005). "Ptolemy and the linguistic history of the Narbonensis". In de Hoz, Javier; Luján, Eugenio R.; Sims-Williams, Patrick (eds.). New approaches to Celtic place-names in Ptolemy's Geography. Ediciones Clásicas. pp.173–188. ISBN978-8478825721.
Mees, Bernard (2024). "Ligurian and Lepontic: the inscriptions from Lunigiana and the Prestino stone". In Salomon, Corinna; Stifter, David (eds.). Cisalpine Celtic literacy Proceedings of the international symposium Maynooth 23–24 June 2022. Curach Bhán. pp.201–231.
Rubat Borel, Francesco (2008). "Gli studi sulla lingua degli antichi Liguri nel XIX secolo e agli inizi del XX". In De Pascale, Andrea; Del Lucchese, Angiolo; Raggio, Osvaldo (eds.). La nascita della Paletnologia in Liguria: personaggi, scoperte e collezioni tra XIX e XX secolo. Istituto internazionale di studi liguri. pp.143–154. ISBN978-88-86796-30-9.
Untermann, Jürgen (2006). "Ligurisches". In Bombi, Raffaella (ed.). Studi linguistici in onore di Roberto Gusmani. Ed. dell'Orso. pp.1759–1769. ISBN978-88-7694-888-6.
Further reading
Sims-Williams, Patrick. "The location of the Celts according to Hecataeus, Herodotus, and other Greek writers". In: Études Celtiques, vol. 42, 2016. pp.7–32. [DOI:https://doi.org/10.3406/ecelt.2016.2467]; [www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_2016_num_42_1_2467]
https://dc.uwm.edu/ekeltoi/ - electronic Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies by the Center for Celtic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The Madeira, Azores, and Canary Islands were not occupied by the Romans. The Madeira and Azores islands were unoccupied until the Portuguese in the 15th century; the Canary islands, the Guanches occupied the territory until the Castilians.
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