THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ? 355
From Thrace also Eumolpus had passed to Attica, where at
Eleusis his posterity were the sacred ' keyholders ' of Demeter.
The Thracian Samos was the chief seat of the worship of the
Cabeiri, whose cult was said to have been introduced into the
Troad by Dardauus. it
Finally, was in Thrace that the
worship of Dionysus first arose, and from thence it
spread into
Greece.
When once we comprehend that one and the same race was
indigenous not only in the Aegean basin but over the whole
Balkan peninsula, the close relationship in the arts as well as
in religion between those of the Thracians who lived in proximity
to the Aegean and the early inhabitants of Greece becomes
manifest. There was no more a hard line between the culture
of the people of Thessaly the Paeonians and Thracians than
there was on the other side between the culture of Corinth and
Delphi and that of the Ambraciots, Acarnanians, Aetolians,
and Eyjirotes.
The tribes higher up lived under less advantageous
conditions, being more exposed to constant attacks
from other tribes pressing on from above, and less in contact
with the civilizations of Asia Minor and Egypt.
Again, the close connection between the culture of Hissarlik,
and the prehistoi'ic anticjuities
of the upper Balkan and
Danubian region, is
completely explained by the facts respecting
the race and movements of such tribes as the Phryges,
Mysians, and Danlanians. Furthermore, we pointed out that
the earliest prehistoric culture found in north Jtaly has close
affinities with that of tiie lowei' strata at Hissarlik.
In northern Italy the Illyrians shadccl off into the Ligyes,
to whom we have ascribed the Terrainare culture, which coi'-
responds to the earlier strata at Hissai'lik. But as the Jllyrians
and Tinacians have bt'cn identified with one another and with
the earliest folk of the Aegean and the mainland of (Jreece, we
need not be surprise(l
to find a like
material remains of all
these [)eoiles.
(torres))on(lenee
in the
On- the other hand, we see that all the \alley of the upper
Damd)e was occupied
1)\- tribes whom the (Jreeks called ('elts,
but, whom the latei- writeis began to distinguish into Celts and
Germans. The characteristics of this race are well known
356 WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ?
from the ancients ; they were large of stature, with fair hair
and blue eyes. We shall presently see strong historical and
archaeological evidence to show that the Celts from the Alps
ever kept pressing down upon and intermixing with the Illyrio-
Thracian tribes of the upper Balkan.
In the time of Herodotus they did not yet under the
name of Celts occupy any part of north Italy, but the
Umbrians dwelt up to the Alps. But how far the Umbrians
differed from their Celtic neighbours it is hard to say. We
know at least that in speech they were very close. Thus
inscriptions, now said to be Gaulish, have been published
as Umbrian. That the fair-haired people of central Europe
were constantly gravitating southwards over the Alps is
made
probable by many considerations. (1) At all ages of which
we have historical record this has been the case. Through
mediaeval times Italy was the constant prey of invaders
from Germany and France in the later days of the Roman
:
empire Visigoths, Huns, Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Lombards
streamed down upon the fei'tile plains of the Po : at the
end of the second century
B.C. Italy had only been saved
by the valour and discipline of the legionaries and the
military genius of Marius from the Teutons and the Cimbrians
;
in the beginning of the fourth century
B.C. a great
wave of Gauls had swept down from the Alps, which after
crushing the Romans at the Allia, and engulfing for the
moment Rome herself, spent its force in the malaria-smitten
Cam])agna; some of these Gauls, according to Justin', had
passed down all Italy and even crossed into Sicil}'.
In the
end of the third l?.c.
century the Romans had been able
not only to check the spread southwards of the Gaul.s, but
had either expelled them altogether from north Italy, or
reduced them to submission. Nor is there wanting evidence
to show that there liad been a Celtic invasion of Italy in
the fifth centuiy B.C., but beyond this date it is
ini]>(jssible
to find docuinentaiT i'vidence. Yet it is not unreasonable to
sup])ose that the martial Umbro-Latin i-aee which coiKiuered
'
xxviii. 2,
(')
;
XXXVIII. 4, 7.
2:5 2