Tolistobogii
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Tolistobogii is the name used by the Roman historian, Livy, for one of the three ancient Celtic tribes of Galatia in central Asia Minor, together with the Trocmi and Tectosages. Other authors referring to the same tribe use Tolistobogioi, Tolistobōgioi, Tolistoboioi, Tolistobioi, and Toligistobogioi. Some add the identification Tolistoagioi. The tribe entered Anatolia in 279 BC as a contingent of Celtic raiders from the Danube region, settled mainly in Phrygia there, later became part of the province of Galatia under the Roman Republic and kept its language and Celtic identity through the 4th century AD. When the Roman Empire divided it became part of the Eastern Empire with capital at Constantinople. At some indefinite time, perhaps 500-1000 AD, the region lost its Celtic language in favor of Greek, becoming known as Graeco-Galatia. The Seljuk Turks arriving in the 11th century AD replaced the population and political structure with Turkish ones.
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[edit] Etymology and identity
How the name is to be deciphered depends on how it is segmented; i.e., whether it is Tolis-tobogii or Tolisto-bogii. If the latter choice is given credibility, a segment, -bogio-, can be abstracted. The meaning of Tolisto is obscure; it is not necessarily even Celtic.[1] Tolistobogii is often translated Tolistoboii presuming a hypothesis that -bogioi refers to the Boii and that the tribe is a branch of the latter. There is no proof of such a hypothesis but it fits many of the circumstances.
The alternation between -bogio- and -boio- is common also to the names of early Germanic Bavaria, in which the -o- becomes Germanic -a-: -bagio- and -baio-. In addition to the forms without the gutteral: Baiovarii, Beovarii, Bajuvarii, and so on, is another, gutteralized series: Bagibareia, Bagoari, Bauguarii, Baucueri, Bauocarii, Bacuarenses, and so on, covering a somewhat wider Danubian area than today's Bavaria.[2]
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The Tolistobogii must have traversed this area on their way to Anatolia, if they were not actually from it, which the name indicates they probably were.
Like the etymology of Boii itelf, the gutteral alternative has never been satisfactorily explained, although a few substantial conjectures have been made, such as Obermüller's invocation of Welsh buwch, "cattle", in the "cow" etymology of Boii.[3] Similar gutteralized Celtic words can be found for the "warrior" or "striker" etymology. Regardless of the etymology or form of the name, the Boii certainly appear in the name of Bavaria. The name of a settlement of the Tolistobogii, Vindia, is consistent with the Boic custom[dubious ] of naming places and people after *Vindos, "the shining one"; to wit, Vindelicia and Vindobona.[4] *Vindos appears elsewhere among the Celts of various times as Vindonnus and Gwyn ap Nudd, and in the modern Celtic languages is the adjective fionn (Ireland, Scotland) and gwyn/gwin/gwen (Wales, Cornwall, Britanny)fair, white, blond; and common as a personal name in the Gaelic word, as Fionn as well as the compound feminine name Fionnuala Fair-Nuala .
[edit] Geography
The Tolistobogii for the greater part of their centuries-long stay in Galatia were located in what is now Eskişehir Province just to the west of Ankara, capital of Turkey.
[edit] History
The Tolistobogii first appear as troops in the army of Brennus on its way to plunder Delphi in Greece in 279 BC. In Dardania, it is said, some 20,000 men under Leonorius and Lutarius in these three tribes seceded from Brennus and entered Thrace, where they collected tribute from the region, including Byzantium. Subsequently they crossed the Hellespont to fight as mercenaries for Nicomedes I of Bithynia and then left Bithynia to plunder Anatolia. The Tolistobogii received Aeolia and Ionia as territory. Brennus and all the remainder of his men never made it home from Greece but were massacred individually and in small units in a running battle with the Greeks the whole time they were in Greece.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Falileyev, Alexander, ed (2007). "Tolistobogioi" (pdf). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-Names. Aberystwyth University. http://cadair.aber.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/2160/282/5/ContCelticPNDictionary.pdf. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
- ^ Vennemann; Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna (2003). Europa Vasconica, Europa Semitica (illustrated ed.). Walter de Gruyter. p. 302. ISBN 311017054X, 9783110170542.
- ^ Obermüller, Wilhelm (1872). "Bayern" (in German). Deutsch-keltisches: Geschichtlich-geographisches Wörterbuch zur Erklärung der Fluss-, Berg-, Orts-, Gau-, Völker-, und Personen-namen Europas, West-asiens und Nord-afrikas im Allgemeinen, wie insbesondere Deutschlands, nebst den daraus sich ergebenden Folgerungen für die Urgeschichte der Menschheit. L. Denicke. p. 232.
- ^ Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí (2003). The Celts: a history (illustrated ed.). Boydell Press. p. 50. ISBN 0851159230, 9780851159232.
- ^ Livy, History of Rome, xxxviii.16
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