GALA'TIA was an ancient times the name of a country of Asia Minor, and was so called from a body of Gauls who settled there. In the 3(1 c. B.C., great hordes of Gauls, under Brennus, invaded Greece. Some of them took possession of Byzantium and the Propontis, passed the Ilellespont on the invitation of Nicorgedes, kiag of Bithyuia, in the year 278 B.C., subdued Troas and the n. of Phrygia, and were first checked by Attains, king of Perginnus, in a great battle about the year 239 B.C., and compelled by him to settle permanently within certain limits. The state of G., which hitherto had had no accurately defined boundaries, was now confined between Paphlagonia, Pontus. Cappadocia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, and Bithynia. It was also called Gallogrmcia, and was peopled by numbers of Phrygians, Greeks, and Paphiagonians, as well as Gauls or Celts. The form of government was at first purely aristocratic, but at a later period the twelve tetrarchs who shared the government among them, in conjunction with a senate of 300 members, succeeded in making their dignity hereditary. At length one
of them (30 n.c.), supported by Pompey, assumed the title of king. After the kingdom descended to Amyntas, but was shortly after conquered by the Romans, and converted into a Roman province, divided under Theodosius into Galatia prima, with the capital Ancyra, and Galatia secunda, with the capital Pessinus. The majority of the Gauls of G. retained their old Celtic language as late as the time of Jerome (4th c.), who says that they spoke the same dialect as the people about Treves; and as Jerome had himself lived there, and was a good scholar, lie may be regarded as an authority on the subject. G. was twice visited by the apostle Paul.