BOII, bo'i-I, a Celtic people, who at first inhabited Transalpine Gaul. Their original seat is supposed to have been between the upper Sa6ne and the higher parts of the Seine and Marne. They migrated to Cisalpine Gaul, crossed the Po and established themselves be tween it and the Apennines, in the country pre viously occupied by the Umbrians. They are found, 396 B.C., engaged along with the Insu bres and the Senones, two other tribes of Cisal pine Gaul, in the capture and destruction of Melpum, a neighboring city, of which the site and history are unknown. They united their forces with the Etruscans, 283 a.c., after the de feat of the Senones, and were defeated by the ch Romans at the Vadimonian Lake, the scene of a previous defeat of the Etruscans. After an other defeat they made a peace with the Romans, which was preserved for 45 years, when the occupation of the territory of the Senones by the latter led to another war, in which the Boii were again defeated. At the
commencement of the second Punic War, 218 B.C., they again attached the Romans and sup ported Hannibal. From this period they were engaged in almost constant war with the Romans till they were completely subdued by Scipio Nasica, 191 a.c. Many of them were put to the sword; the remainder were at length compelled to migrate, and crossing the Alps found a refuge among the Tauriscans, a kindred tribe in the territory of modern Bohemia, to which the Boii have given their name. They were afterward driven out or exterminated by the Dacians (some say the Marcomans). Part of them migrated about 58 B.C. to Bavaria. The Boii, like the other Gauls,. were a people of considerable civilization, possessing a strong love of independence, and formidable from their military disposition and virtues.