Galatia

The territory in modern central Turkey known as Galatia was an oddity in the eastern world. It was originally home of the ancient civilization of the Hittites, but came to be occupied by Gallic Celts in the 3rd century BC, hence Galatia, or ?Gallia of the East.? The Gauls had migrated east and south during the reign of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, but he held them off and pushed them back towards the Danube. A couple of generation later, around 280 BC, the Gauls were on the move again, first settling in Thracia and then continuing south into Macedonia and Greece.