Galatian Mercenaries: the Strengthening of Celtic Cultural Identity in Ptolemaic Egypt

Abstract

The most far-flung of the migrating Celtic tribes in the 3rd century BC settled in Asia Minor. They were invited by king Nicomedes of Bithynia to act as a buffer against the territorial ambitions of the Seleucid king Antiochus I. Eventually settling in Phrygia, they proved difficult to control and became a new political and military entity in the Eastern Mediterranean. Galatia became a popular source of mercenaries in the region. This thesis aims to analyze to what extend the cultural identity of these warbands of mercenaries retained their Celtic identity, in Galatia and Ptolemaic Egypt.