During the La Tene Culture period (5th century BC – 1st century AD), Celtic presence and influence spread out over a vast area from the Iberian Peninsula to the Black Sea. After the invasion of Italy in the 4th century BC, some of the Celtic tribes went on with their conquering campaign until arriving in Greece and Asia Minor.
Celts’ Diplomacy in the Balkans
According to the ancient historian Strabo, Celts from the Adriatic coast attended the peace negotiations between Alexander the Great and Syrmos – the king of the Triballi (a Thracian people who inhabited parts of modern Northwestern Bulgaria and Eastern Serbia) in 335 BC. That meeting was held at the Triballi’s land, so the Celtic chieftains affirmed their vow of amity before Alexander of Macedonia and established first diplomatic contacts with the Thracians.
Through such contacts as well as by successful warfare, Celts gradually expanded their territories towards the central Balkans. One of the most influential tribes, the Scordisci, for instance,built the city of Singidunum, which today is the capital of modern Serbia, the city of Belgrade. However, the unstoppable Celtic tide down the Danube River was blocked by the Dacians who settled the present-day Romania. So, “the ferocious barbarians”, as ancient Greeks called the Celts, direct their attention to Greece.
Celts Sacked Delphi
In 280 BC, the Celts began a well-organized military invasion into Thrace, Macedonia and Greece. A year later, they defeated the Macedonians and killed their leader Ptolemy Ceraunus. Meanwhile, one of the Celtic chieftains, Brennus (possibly a legendary character), launched an attack on Delphi and destroyed the world-famous temple. Finally, the Celts were completely defeated during that campaign, and Brennus committed suicide.
The Celtic Tribal State in Thrace
The Celts, who survived the utter defeat at Delphi, established a tribal state in Thrace in 279 BC. Their kingdom expanded and spread over a large area reached the Balkan range to the North, but was destroyed by Thracians in 213 BC. The capital of the Celtic tribal state was called Tylis and according to some historical sources was located in the region of Byzantium (the modern city of Istanbul in Turkey). Other ancient record placed Tylis near the present-day village of Tulovo, in Bulgaria’s Valley of the Thracian kings.
Although ancient historians have chronicled the events concerning the Celtic settlements, the city of Tylis is not discovered yet. And that is the greatest and most challenging paradox of the Celtic presence in Thrace: there are historical sources about it, but it is practically invisible to archaeologists. So, there is only scanty archaeological evidence including a valuable gold torc, an iron sword with a fragmentary decorated scabbard, a small inscribed cult relief and some bronze parts of a Celtic chariot.
Celtic Finds in Thrace – Gifts, Booty or Traces of Permanent Presence
The gold torc was found by chance near a village on the bank of the Danube River in North-western Bulgaria. It is dated back to the 4th – 3rd century BC. Most Bulgarian scholars assume that the torc was either a gift, offered by a Celtic chieftain to a Thracian aristocrat in a course of diplomatic negotiations, or loot taken after the victory of the Macedonian general Cassander over the Celts in 310 BC.
The iron sword was excavated in a burial mound near the town of Vratsa, North-western Bulgaria, in 1959. The scabbard design closely matches the style of Celtic La Tene weaponry discovered in Slovenia, Croatia and Trans-dunabia. And again, there is no solid scientific proof that it was not an occasional relic but a sign of Celtic permanent presence in Thrace. The other artifacts – the stone cult relief, depicting the horse-goddess Epona, and the Celtic chariot, discovered in 1931, are also waiting for an explicit scientific explanation.
Sources:
Of the Celts in Thrace by Margarit Damyanov, National Geographic Magazine – Bulgaria, April, 2006
Celtic Settlement in North-western Thrace during the Late 4th and 3rd Centuries BC: Some Historical and Archaeological Notes by Nikola Theodossiev, Krakow 2004
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