GALATIA (PaXarta). This name is employ-ed in two senses by ancient writers. First, to denote the country. inhabited or possessed by the eastern Galli ; rip Ialtartrip, x(Lpap, as St. Luke calls it (Acts xvi. 6). And second, as the name of the later Roman province. It will be necessary here to consider each in succession, as the word is evi dently used in both senses in the N. T.
The Galli, or KeRce (KAraz, Ccits), for the names are identical, originally emigrated from Gallia. In the fourth century B.C., sections of three tribes of Galli, the Tectosag-es, whose home was near the Pyrennees, the Trocmi, and the Tolistabogii, left their native country, crossed to the banks of the Dan ube, and then struck southward into Greece. After some fierce contests with the Greeks at Thermo pylae, at Delphi, ancrother places, they were forced to retire to the shores of the Hellespont, (Strabo iv. p. 129, sq. ; Pausan. 16 ; x. 19 ; Justin xxiv.) One of their tribes crossed the straits in boats ob tained from Antipater of Macedonia ; and the others were carried across by Nicomedes I., king of Bithynia, on condition they should aid him against his enemy Zyboetas (Memnon, ap. Phot. ; Liv. xxxviii. 16 ; circa B.C. 270). Having thus obtained a footing in Asia Minor, they led a wan dering life for many years. At one time we find them employed as mercenaries by the native princes in their wars against each other ; at another we find them warring on their own account, and living on plunder. They soon became the terror of the whole peninsula, marching from city to city, and from province to province, and leaving desolation and death in their track. They were at length op posed and defeated by Antiochus, king of Syria, who, in consequence of the victory over them, ob tained the name Soler, or ` Saviour ' (Appian, Syriac. 65). Soon afterwards they sustained a still more signal defeat from Attalus, prince of Perga mum ; and they were then compelled to retreat to the mountainous region in the centre of Asia Minor, between the rivers Sangarius and Halys, where they settled about B.C. 230 (Liv. c. ; Strabo, xiii. p. 429). Here, however, they still followed their old habits, plundering all within their reach ; and it was not until the Roman rule was extended over western Asia that they were completely subdued. The pro-consul Manlius attacked them in their strongholds, defeated the tribes in succession, sum moned their chiefs to meet him on the shores of the Hellespont, where he dictated his own terms, and sent them back to their mountains humbled and submissive (B. c. 189 ; Liv. xxxviii. 4o).
The country now colonized by these warlike tribes was called Galatia, or Gallogracia. Its boundaries cannot be accurately determined, as it embraced portions of several provinces. The Tec tosages made the strong city of Pessinus their capi tal, and occupied the region on the borders of Phrygia and Bithynia. The Tolistobogii settled
around Ancyra, and extended as far east as the banks of the Halys. The Trocmi seized the fertile region along the east side of the Halys. Tavium was their chief city, and they encroached considerably on the provinces of Pontus and Cappadocia (Mem non. ap. Phot.) Pliny says the Galli were divided into peoples and tetrarchies, numbering x95 (v. 42). Each tribe had four tetrarchies ; and the twelve tetrarchies had a council of 3oo members, who exercised supreme authority over the nation ; but Strabo tells us that in his days the whole power devolved first on three men, then on two, and finally on one, who was proclaimed king (xii. p. 39o). Their first monarch was Deiotarus, who, having espoused the cause of Pompey, was stripped Cmsar of his tetrarchy and kingdom. Cicero defended him in a noble speech, which is still extant (pro Deiot. 13).
Though the Galli were the dominant race in Galatia, they were mixed with Phrygians and other native tribes. A large number of Greeks, also, who had followed the conquests of Alexander, settled among them—hence the name Gallograyia. Greek soon became the common languagc of all ; but the Galli, as we learn from Jerome, retained their own language even down so late as the fourth century,—' Galatos except() scrmonc gracco, quo omnis oriens loquitur, propriam linguam eandem habere qualm Treviros' (Hieron. Prol. Epist Gal.) The Galli were fierce, restless, and warlike. They were impatient of all foreign restraint, and eagerly seized on every opportunity to throw off the yoke of Rome. They appear to have had little religion of their own ; and they adopted the superstitions of the Phrygians and the mythology of the Greeks with an easy indifference. The character given to them by Thierry strikingly illustrates many passages in Paul's epistle--' Une bravoure personelle que rien n'egale . . . . un esprit franc, impetueux, ouvert a toutes les impressions, eminemment intel ligent ; mais, h dlte de cela, une mobilite extreme, point de constance, une repugnance marquee aux idees de discipline et d'ordre ' (Histoire des Gaulois, Int. iv.) When Galatia was constituted a Roman province under M. Lollius (circa B.C. 22 ; Eutrop. vit. to), its boundaries wcre greatly enlarged. They are given by Ptolemy (v. 3). It had Bithynia and Phrygia on the west ; Parnphylia on the south ; Cappadocia and Pontus on the east ; and the Euxine on the north. Its line of coast reached from Cytorus in Bithynia. to the mouth of the Halys. It thus included the whole of Paphlagonia, with large sections of Phrygia, Lycaonia, and Cap padocia. It extended from the Black Sea to the range of Taurus.