οἱ δὲ Γαλάται οὗτοι νέμονται τῆς Εὐρώπης τὰ ἔσχατα ἐπὶ θαλάσσῃ πολλῇ καὶ ἐς τὰ πέρατα οὐ πλωίμῳ, παρέχεται δὲ ἄμπωτιν καὶ ῥαχίαν καὶ θηρία οὐδὲν ἐοικότα τοῖς ἐν θαλάσσῃ τῇ λοιπῇ· καί σφισι διὰ τῆς χώρας ῥεῖ ποταμὸς Ἠριδανός, ἐφʼ ᾧ τὰς θυγατέρας τὰς Ἡλίου ὀδύρεσθαι νομίζουσι τὸ περὶ τὸν Φαέθοντα τὸν ἀδελφὸν πάθος. ὀψὲ δέ ποτε αὐτοὺς καλεῖσθαι Γαλάτας ἐξενίκησεν· Κελτοὶ γὰρ κατά τε σφᾶς τὸ ἀρχαῖον καὶ παρὰ τοῖς ἄλλοις ὠνομάζοντο. συλλεγεῖσα δέ σφισι στρατιὰ τρέπεται τὴν ἐπὶ Ἰονίου, καὶ τό τε Ἰλλυριῶν ἔθνος καὶ πᾶν ὅσον ἄχρι Μακεδόνων ᾤκει καὶ Μακεδόνας αὐτοὺς ἀναστάτους ἐποίησε Θεσσαλίαν τε ἐπέδραμε. καὶ ὡς ἐγγὺς Θερμοπυλῶν ἐγίνοντο, ἐνταῦθα οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐς τὴν ἔφοδον ἡσύχαζον τῶν βαρβάρων, ἅτε ὑπὸ Ἀλεξάνδρου μεγάλως καὶ Φιλίππου κακωθέντες πρότερον· καθεῖλε δὲ καὶ Ἀντίπατρος καὶ Κάσσανδρος ὕστερον τὸ Ἑλληνικόν, ὥστε ἕκαστοι διʼ ἀσθένειαν οὐδὲν αἰσχρὸν ἐνόμιζον ἀπεῖναι τὸ κατὰ σφᾶς τῆς βοηθείας.
Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ μάλιστα μὲν τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀπειρήκεσαν μήκει τοῦ Μακεδονικοῦ πολέμου καὶ προσπταίοντες τὰ πολλὰ ἐν ταῖς μάχαις, ἐξιέναι δὲ ὅμως ὥρμηντο ἐς τὰς Θερμοπύλας σὺν τοῖς ἐλθοῦσι τῶν Ἑλλήνων, ἑλόμενοι σφίσι τὸν Κάλλιππον τοῦτον ἡγεῖσθαι. καταλαβόντες δὲ ᾗ στενώτατον ἦν, τῆς ἐσόδου τῆς ἐς τὴν Ἑλλάδα εἶργον τοὺς βαρβάρους· ἀνευρόντες δὲ οἱ Κελτοὶ τὴν ἀτραπόν, ἣν καὶ Μήδοις ποτὲ Ἐφιάλτης ἡγήσατο ὁ Τραχίνιος, καὶ βιασάμενοι Φωκέων τοὺς τεταγμένους ἐπʼ αὐτῇ λανθάνουσι τοὺς Ἕλληνας ὑπερβαλόντες τὴν Οἴτην.
ἔνθα δὴ πλείστου παρέσχοντο αὑτοὺς Ἀθηναῖοι τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἀξίους, ἀμφοτέρωθεν ὡς ἐκυκλώθησαν ἀμυνόμενοι τοὺς βαρβάρους· οἱ δέ σφισιν ἐπὶ τῶν νεῶν μάλιστα ἐταλαιπώρουν ἅτε τοῦ κόλπου τοῦ Λαμιακοῦ τέλματος πρὸς ταῖς Θερμοπύλαις ὄντος· αἴτιον δὲ ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν τὸ ὕδωρ ταύτῃ τὸ θερμὸν ἐκρέον ἐς τὴν θάλασσαν. μείζονα οὖν εἶχον οὗτοι πόνον· ἀναλαβόντες γὰρ ἐπὶ τὰ καταστρώματα τοὺς Ἕλληνας ναυσὶν ὑπό τε ὅπλων βαρείαις καὶ ἀνδρῶν ἐβιάζοντο κατὰ τοῦ πηλοῦ πλεῖν.
οὗτοι μὲν δὴ τοὺς Ἕλληνας τρόπον τὸν εἰρημένον ἔσωζον, οἱ δὲ Γαλάται Πυλῶν τε ἐντὸς ἦσαν καὶ τὰ πολίσματα ἑλεῖν ἐν οὐδενὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ποιησάμενοι Δελφοὺς καὶ τὰ χρήματα. τοῦ θεοῦ διαρπάσαι μάλιστα εἶχον σπουδήν. καί σφισιν αὐτοί τε Δελφοὶ καὶ Φωκέων ἀντετάχθησαν οἱ τὰς πόλεις περὶ τὸν Παρνασσὸν οἰκοῦντες, ἀφίκετο δὲ καὶ δύναμις Αἰτωλῶν· τὸ γὰρ Αἰτωλικὸν προεῖχεν ἀκμῇ νεότητος τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον. ὡς δὲ ἐς χεῖρας συνῄεσαν, ἐνταῦθα κεραυνοί τε ἐφέροντο ἐς τοὺς Γαλάτας καὶ ἀπορραγεῖσαι πέτραι τοῦ Παρνασσοῦ, δείματά τε ἄνδρες ἐφίσταντο ὁπλῖται τοῖς βαρβάροις· τούτων τοὺς μὲν ἐξ Ὑπερβορέων λέγουσιν ἐλθεῖν, Ὑπέροχον καὶ Ἀμάδοκον, τὸν δὲ τρίτον Πύρρον εἶναι τὸν Ἀχιλλέως· ἐναγίζουσι δὲ ἀπὸ ταύτης Δελφοὶ τῆς συμμαχίας Πύρρῳ, πρότερον ἔχοντες ἅτε ἀνδρὸς πολεμίου καὶ τὸ μνῆμα ἐν ἀτιμίᾳ.
Γαλατῶν δὲ οἱ πολλοὶ ναυσὶν ἐς τὴν Ἀσίαν διαβάντες τὰ παραθαλάσσια αὐτῆς ἐλεηλάτουν· χρόνῳ δὲ ὕστερον οἱ Πέργαμον ἔχοντες, πάλαι δὲ Τευθρανίαν καλουμένην, ἐς ταύτην Γαλάτας ἐλαύνουσιν ἀπὸ θαλάσσης. οὗτοι μὲν δὴ τὴν ἐκτὸς Σαγγαρίου χώραν ἔσχον Ἄγκυραν πόλιν ἑλόντες Φρυγῶν, ἣν Μίδας ὁ Γορδίου πρότερον ᾤκισεν—ἄγκυρα δέ, ἣν ὁ Μίδας ἀνεῦρεν, ἦν ἔτι καὶ ἐς ἐμὲ ἐν ἱερῷ Διὸς καὶ κρήνη Μίδου καλουμένη· ταύτην οἴνῳ κεράσαι Μίδαν φασὶν ἐπὶ τὴν θήραν τοῦ Σιληνοῦ—, ταύτην τε δὴ τὴν Ἄγκυραν εἷλον καὶ Πεσσινοῦντα τὴν ὑπὸ τὸ ὄρος τὴν Ἄγδιστιν, ἔνθα καὶ τὸν Ἄττην τεθάφθαι λέγουσι.
Περγαμηνοῖς δὲ ἔστι μὲν σκῦλα ἀπὸ Γαλατῶν, ἔστι δὲ γραφὴ τὸ ἔργον τὸ πρὸς Γαλάτας ἔχουσα. ἣν δὲ νέμονται οἱ Περγαμηνοί, Καβείρων ἱεράν φασιν εἶναι τὸ ἀρχαῖον· αὐτοὶ δὲ Ἀρκάδες ἐθέλουσιν εἶναι τῶν ὁμοῦ Τηλέφῳ διαβάντων ἐς τὴν Ἀσίαν. πολέμων δὲ τῶν μὲν ἄλλων, εἰ δή τινας ἐπολέμησαν, οὐκ ἐς ἅπαντας κεχώρηκεν ἡ φήμη· τρία δὲ γνωριμώτατα ἐξείργασταί σφισι, τῆς τε Ἀσίας ἀρχὴ τῆς κάτω καὶ ἡ Γαλατῶν ἀπʼ αὐτῆς ἀναχώρησις καὶ τὸ ἐς τοὺς σὺν Ἀγαμέμνονι Τηλέφου τόλμημα, ὅτε Ἕλληνες ἁμαρτόντες Ἰλίου τὸ πεδίον ἐλεηλάτουν τὸ Μήιον ὡς γῆν Τρῳάδα. ἐπάνειμι δὲ ἐς τὴν ἀρχὴν ὅθεν ἐξέβην τοῦ λόγου.
These Gauls inhabit the farthest parts of Europe on the shore of a great sea, which at its extremities is not navigable. The sea ebbs and flows, and contains beasts quite unlike those in the rest of the sea. Through their country flows the river Eridanus, on whose banks people think that the daughters of the Sun bewail the fate of their brother Phaethon. The name Gauls came into vogue late, for of old the people were called Celts both by themselves and others. A host of them mustered and marched towards the Ionian Sea : they dispossessed the Illyrian nation and the Macedonians, as well as all the intervening peoples, and overran Thessaly. When they were come near to Thermopylae most of the Greeks awaited passively the attack of the barbarians ; for they had suffered heavily before at the hands of Alexander and Philip, and afterwards the nation had been brought low by Antipater and Cassander, so that in their weakness each thought it no shame to refrain from taking part in the national defence.
But the Athenians, although they were more exhausted than any of the Greeks by the long Macedonian war and many defeats in battle, nevertheless appointed the said Callipus to the command, and hastened to Thermopylae with such of the Greeks as volunteered. Having seized the narrowest part of the pass, they attempted to hinder the barbarians from entering into Greece. But the Celts discovered the path by which Ephialtes the Trachinian once guided the Medes; and after overpowering the Phocians, who were posted on it, they crossed Mount Oeta before the Greeks were aware.
Then it was that the Athenians rendered a great service to Greece ; for on both sides, surrounded as they were, they kept the barbarians at bay. But their comrades on the ships laboured the most ; for at Thermopylae the Lamian Gulf is a swamp, the cause of which, it seems to me, is the warm water that here flows into the sea. So their toil was the greater; for when they had taken the Greeks on board, they made shift to sail through the mud in ships weighed down with arms and men.
Thus they strove to save the Greeks in the way I have described. But the Gauls were inside of Pylae; and, scorning to capture the other towns, they were bent on plundering Delphi and the treasures of the god. The Delphians, and those of the Phocians who inhabit the cities round about Parnassus, put themselves in array against them, and there came also a force of Aetolians ; for at that time the Aetolian race excelled in youthful vigour. But when they came to close quarters, thunderbolts and rocks, breaking away from Parnassus, came hurtling down upon the Gauls; and dreadful shapes of men in arms appeared against the barbarians. They say that two of these phantom warriors, Hyperochus and Amadocus, came from the Hyperboreans, and that the third was Pyrrhus, son of Achilles. For this help in battle the Delphians sacrifice to Pyrrhus as to a hero, though formerly they held his very tomb in dishonour as that of a foe.
Most of the Gauls crossed to Asia in ships and plundered the sea-coast. But afterwards the people of Pergamus, which was called Teuthrania of old, drove them away from the sea into the country now called Galatia. They captured Ancyra, a city of the Phrygians, founded in former days by Midas, son of Gordius, and took possession of the land beyond the Sangarius. The anchor which Midas found still existed, even down to my time, in the sanctuary of Zeus; and there is a fountain called the fountain of Midas: they say that Midas mixed wine with the water of the fountain to catch Silenus. This town of Ancyra, then, was captured by the Gauls, and likewise Pessinus under Mount Agdistis, where they say that Attis is buried.
The Pergamenians have spoils taken from the Gauls, and a picture representing the battle with them. The country inhabited by the Pergamenians is said to have been sacred to the Cabiri of old; but the Pergamenians themselves claim to be Arcadians of the band which crossed to Asia with Telephus. Of their other wars, if indeed they waged any, the fame has not gone abroad ; but three most renowned achievements are theirs, to wit, the empire of lower Asia, the expulsion of the Gauls from thence, and Telephus’ bold attack on the army of Agamemnon at the time when the Greeks, after missing Ilium, were plundering the Mysian plain in the belief that it was the land of Troy. But I return to the point from which I digressed.
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