I.

Introduction

Celts, a people who dominated much of western and central Europe in the 1st millennium bc, giving their language, customs, and religion to the other peoples of that area. The ancient Greeks and Romans recognized the cultural unity of a people whose territory stretched from western Europe to the northern frontier of the Classical world. Their generic name appears in Roman sources as Celtae (derived from Keltoi, the name of these people recorded by Herodotus and other Greek writers), Galatae, or Galli.

The Celts spoke an Indo-European language (see Celtic Languages), and were thus ultimately of the same stock as their Italic, Hellenic, and Germanic neighbours. Celtic place-names, together with the names of Celtic peoples, individuals, and gods, enable us to plot their presence in the British Isles, and in a broad crescent across Europe from Spain to the Lower Danube.