Galatia (/ɡəˈleɪʃə/; Ancient Greek: Γαλατία, Galatía; Turkish: Galatya) was an ancient region in the highlands of central Anatolia. It is similar to the areas now known as Ankara and Eskişehir in modern Turkey. The name Galatia comes from the Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who moved there around the 3rd century BC. They became a small, temporary group of people from another place after the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC.

Geography

Galatia was located to the north of Bithynia and Paphlagonia, to the east of Pontus and Cappadocia, to the south of Cilicia and Lycaonia, and to the west of Phrygia. The capital city of Galatia was Ancyra, which is now known as Ankara, the capital of modern Turkey.

Celtic Galatia

The word "Galatians" was used by the Greeks to describe three Celtic groups in Anatolia: the Tectosages, the Trocmii, and the Tolistobogii. By the 1st century BC, these Celts had adopted many Greek customs. Some Greek writers called them Hellenogalatai, meaning "Greek-like Celts." The Romans referred to them as Gallograeci. Although the Celts had largely adapted to life in Hellenistic Asia Minor, they kept their language and cultural traditions.

By the 4th century BC, the Celts had moved into the Balkans, where they met the Thracians and Greeks. In 380 BC, they fought in southern Dalmatia (modern-day Croatia). Some ancient sources claimed that Philip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, was killed with a dagger made by Celts. Arrian wrote that Celts living on the Ionic coast joined Alexander the Great’s army during a campaign against the Getae in 335 BC. Some accounts mention that the Celts allied with Dionysius I of Syracuse, who sent them to fight with the Macedonians against the Thebans. In 279 BC, two Celtic groups united under Brennus and moved south from Bulgaria toward Greek states. According to Livy, part of this group traveled to Asia Minor.

For many years, a group of cities near the Hellespont, including Byzantion and Chalkedon, blocked the Celts from entering Asia Minor. During a conflict between Nikomedes I of Bithynia and his brother Zipoetes II, Nikomedes hired 20,000 Galatian soldiers. These Galatians split into two groups led by Leonnorius and Lutarius, who crossed the Bosporus and the Hellespont. In 277 BC, after conflicts ended, the Galatians left Nikomedes’ control and attacked Greek cities in Asia Minor while Antiochus was strengthening his rule in Syria. The Galatians looted cities such as Cyzikus, Ilion, Didyma, Priene, Thyatira, and Laodicea on the Lycus. The people of Erythras paid them money to avoid harm. Around 275 or 269 BC, Antiochus’ army fought the Galatians near Sardis in the Battle of the Elephants. After this battle, the Celts settled in northern Phrygia, a region later called Galatia.

The area of Celtic Galatia included cities such as Ancyra (modern-day Ankara), Pessinus, Tavium, and Gordion.

Roman Galatia

After Deiotarus died, the Kingdom of Galatia was given to Amyntas, a military officer in the Roman army of Brutus and Cassius who was favored by Mark Antony. When Amyntas died in 25 BC, Galatia became part of the Roman Empire under Augustus, turning it into a Roman province. Near the capital city of Ancyra (now Ankara), Pylamenes, the king’s heir, rebuilt a temple to honor the Phrygian god Men. This temple, called the Monumentum Ancyranum, was built to show loyalty to Augustus. The main record of Augustus’s achievements, known as the Res Gestae, was written on the walls of this temple and has survived to the present day. Few other provinces were as loyal to Rome as Galatia.

Josephus, a historian, connected the Biblical figure Gomer to Galatia (or possibly to Gaul in general), stating, “Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians [Galls], but were then called Gomerites.” Some scholars have linked Gomer to the Cimmerians instead.

Paul the Apostle visited Galatia during his missionary journeys and wrote a letter to the Christians living there, known as the Epistle to the Galatians.

Although the Galatians originally had a strong cultural identity, by the 2nd century AD, they had become part of the Hellenistic civilization of Anatolia through a process called Hellenization. The Galatians still spoke the Galatian language during the time of St. Jerome (347–420 AD). Jerome noted that the people of Ancyra and the Treveri of Trier (now in the Rhineland) shared the same language.

In an administrative reorganization around 386–395 AD, two new provinces replaced Galatia: Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris, which included parts of Phrygia. The future of the Galatian people remains unclear, but it appears they were eventually absorbed into the Greek-speaking populations of Anatolia.