Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

12 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race
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people of the trade in tin with Britain and in silver with the
miners of Spain was broken down, and the overland route across
France to Britain, for the sake of which the Phocæans had in
600 B.C. created the port of Marseilles, was definitely secured to
Greek trade. Greeks and Celts were at this period allied against
Phœnicians and Persians. The defeat of Hamilcar by Gelon at
Himera, in Sicily, took place in the same year as that of Xerxes at
Salamis. The Carthaginian army in that expedition was made up
of mercenaries from half a dozen different nations, but not a Celt
is found in the Carthaginian ranks, and Celtic hostility must have
counted for much in preventing the Carthaginians from lending
help to the Persians for the overthrow of their common enemy.
These facts show that Celtica played no small part in preserving
the Greek type of civilisation from being overwhelmed by the
despotisms of the East, and thus in keeping alive in Europe the
priceless seed of freedom and humane culture.
Alexander the Great
When the counter-movement of Hellas against the East began
under Alexander the Great we find the Celts again appearing as
a factor of importance.
In the fourth century Macedon was attacked and almost
obliterated by Thracian and Illyrian hordes. King Amyntas
II. was defeated and driven into exile. His son Perdiccas II. was
killed in battle. When Philip, a younger brother of Perdiccas,
came to the obscure and tottering throne which he and his
successors were to make the seat of a great empire he was
powerfully aided in making head against the Illyrians by the
conquests of the Celts in the valleys of the Danube and the Po.
The alliance was continued, and rendered, perhaps, more formal
in the days of Alexander. When about to undertake his conquest
of Asia (334 B.C.) Alexander first made a compact with the Celts
“who dwelt by the Ionian Gulf” in order to secure his Greek
dominions from attack during his absence. The episode is related