Celtic Migrations and the Celtic Identity
The first clearly identifiable Celtic migration is that of the tribes who moved westward from Bohemia and southern Germany,across what was later called Gaul,and into the Iberian peninsula,which they reached sometime before 450 BC.At about the same time, other Celts moved southwards over the Alps,occupying the Po river valley. There is evidence that some tribes reached as far as Rome,and even as far south as Sicily.
Archaeologists,careful to avoid controversies surrounding the Celtic identity,sometimes refer to the bronze-using peoples who made these migrations as the Nothern Alpine Urnfield culture .There were many tribes among them,principal of which appears to have been the Insubres who sacked Etruria and reached Mediolanum (modern Milan), Italy.
Later Celtic tribes expanded eastwards through Macedonia,invading Greece via Thrace and Thessaly. They attacked the temple at Delphi in 279 BC.Perhaps as many as 25 000 Celts went even further eastwards into Asia Minor and settled the area later known as Galatia. On the western Atlantic seaboard, there were tribal movements for centuries between the Iberian peninsula,Armorica (later called Brittany) and Scotland and Ireland. The last great migration of pre-classical times was the northward invasion of the Belgae into southern Britain and Ireland around 250 BC.
When these migrations are examined in detail, problems of identity occur. The essence of the problem is that we are forced to rely on the accounts of classical authors who had great difficulty in distinguishing between Celts, Germans and Scythians.
If we rely on linguistic evidence as the most secure indicator of Celtic identity,even access to a time machine might not be as helpful as could be imagined. The very name German is actually Latin in origin - it is from germanus , meaning genuine or authentic , so the Germans were simply the "real ones" - but the real what is not clear.
It may well be that the title Germani actually means the real Celts : that was certainly the interpretationgiven by the Greek historian, Strabo,who lived and worked in Alexandria. Plutarch,Poseidonius and Strabo recorded what the early Celts (or Germans)did with greater or lesser dependability according to one's point of view, but nowhere did they report what they said,at least not in their own words or language. Classical writers livened up their writing by having ket players in the story make elaborate and lengthy speeches, but of course the speeches were in Latin, not in any native tongue.
Tacitus does however make passing reference to native languages. For example,he identifies the Cotini as a Celtic tribe as follows:
Close behind the Marcomanni and the Quadi are the Marsigni,Cotini,Osi and Buri. Of these the Marsigni and Buri are exactly like the Suebi in language and mode of life, The Cotini and the Osi are not Germans:that is proved by their languages, Celtic in the one case, Pannonian in the other,and also by the fact that they submit to paying tribute. The payments are exacted from them,as foreigners,by the Quadi and by the Samartians respectively - of which the Cotini have all the more reason to be ashamed in as much as they work iron mines
The meaning of the reference to iron mines is likely that the Cotini could make themselves weapons,if they chose. Unfortunately while Tacitus makes the distinction, he gives us no examples of the Cotinic language itself. If we had any authentic samples of tribal language,especially any substantial fragements of written text,there is enough linguistic expertise nowadays to reveal a great deal about the origins and inter-relations of these early nothern tribes, but sadly such evidence is not available.
We can illustrate the extent of the problem by following the wanderings of one particular tribe, the Cimbri ,over a twelve year period, namely 113 BC - 101 BC.The Cimbri originated in the region now called Denmark.Their tribal neighbours were the Teutones ,the Harudes and the Ambrones . Most refference books list all four tribes as Germanic . Teutonic , derived from Teutones ,has come specifically to mean "relating to the Germanic languages".
However, the king of the Cimbri during that period was Boiorix , whose name is indisputably Celtic: the -rix element means king , so the name either means "King of the Boii or (far less likely) "King Boio ". The Boii ,who Cato says were subdivided into 112 seperate family clans, were a well known and indisputably Celtic tribe. The tribal name Cimbri is convincingly similar to the Brythonic term cymri , meaning "companions" or "tribesmen" from which Cymru , the Welsh name for Wales is derived.
During the summer of 113 BC, news came to Rome that the Cimbri,Teutones and Ambrones were moving southwards. They passed through the lands of the Scordisci (modern day Serbia and Croatia),then drifted into the territories of the Noricans and the Tauriscian Celts (modern Austria). A Roman army led by Papirius Carbo , met them in battle at Noreia, the Norican captial city. According to Plutarch, the nothern host was 300 000 strong, which is probably a considerable exaggeration,but the result of the battle was abundantly clear - Papirius Carbo's legions were utterly destroyed. Rome prepared for a second Celtic invasion and feared the worst.
In the event, the invading tribes moved west rather than south,and in three subsequent battles, the last at Arausio (modern Orange,Provence) in 109 BC, the Romans were again defeated. A young general named Gaius Marius was then appointed by Rome to deal with the problem. after the defeat at Arausio,he introduced strict and rigorous training regimes into the Roman army,which soon proved very effective. He pursued the Teutones and Ambrones in a series of forced marches towards the Alps and finally defeated them at the battle of Aqua Sextae (modern Aix-en-Provence).
The Cimbri meanwhile, had advanced further south and east into the plains of nothern Italy. Gaius Marius met them at Vercellae (modern Vercelli, Piedmont) in the spring of 101 BC. As was the Celtic custom, Boiorix challenged Gaius Marius to individual combat, and as was the Roman custom, Gaius Marius declined. Full battle was engaged and the new Roman tactics prevailed as they had with the other two tribes earlier. Plutarch paints a vivid and gory picture of the Cimbri allowing themselves to be slaughtered rather than submit to life as slaves in Rome. He tells us that the tribesmen, severely weakened by heat, thrist and exhaustion, chained themselves together to await death so that no individual would be tempted to try and run for his life and thereby bring shame to his people. The women killed their own children and their own menfolk and then killed themselves.
So these Cimbri, who spent 12 years wandering from their nothern homes into Gallia, Germania and Italia, and who were slaughtered in such spectacular fashion at Vercellae, give every indication of being Celts - both the tribe and their king had convincingly Celtic names. But the Roman nomenclature seems to have been based very strongly on geographical origin and followed a very simple scheme: Iberians to the west; Gauls (Celts) came from Gallia to the northwest; Germans (the "genuine ones") came from the north (specifically, from east of the Rhine and being "even more taller,more savage and blonde" than regular Gauls; and the Scythians from the east.
One convincing detail which suggests that the Cimbri, Teutones and Ambrones were not only Celts but the "genuine ones", the most Celtic of Celts, is Plutarch's description of how the Ligurians , Celtic tribal auxiliaries fighting on the Roman side, called out their tribal names during the Battle of Aqua Sextae. They heard the Ambrones calling out their individual tribal or clan names as rallying calls during the battle and followed suit - "they too shouted out their old names, for the Ligurians are known after their origins as Ambrones". In other words, the convincingly Celtic pattern of deep allegiance to the clan or tribal identity emerged even in the heat of battle across opposing armies.
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Originally Posted by providenje
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