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

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WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ? 379
380 WHENCE CAME THE ACHEAXS ?
Thracian tribe of Triballi\ carrying on hostilities within the
Gyrton, a city on the right
side of the mouth of the Peneius
limits of Thrace. The wild tribes of that region continued
belonging to the Perrhaebians and Magnetes, where Peirithous
unsubdued, and gave constant trouble to the Roman governors
and Ixion were kings. That the Thracian tribes often made
of Macedonia or the opportunity of distinguishing themselves
forays into Thessaly is highly probable, for the habitual practice
by successful punitive expeditions.
ascribed to their
The Scordisci had by Strabo's day been war-god Ares is but a reflection of such occurrences
in actual life.
expelled from the
valley of the Danube by the Dacians (p. 347), as had also the
It is evident then that the Celtic advance into the centre
Boii. This once great Celtic tribe had formerly dwelt in
of the upper Balkan peninsula, Thrace and Macedonia, was
northern Italy, from which it had been expelled by the Romans.
They had settled on the Danube along the valley of the Save. The Boii.had after their expulsion
from their settlements on the Po found refuge in the land
in the territory of the Taurisci
adjoining Rhaetia and Vindelicia. This region was called
of the Taurisci, and as later on they appear in Pamionia along
from them Boiohemum (Bohemia). Here they had to bear the
with the Scordisci there can be little doubt that they had
attacks of advancing tribes. From their homes in the Hercynian
made their way thither from Noricum and Carniola and
forest they had repelled at least one attack of the Cimbri,
through the land of the lapodes down the line of the Save.
and had to wage continual war with the Dacians. Under such
When they were in Noricum they could have passed down
pressure they had moved southwards like the Scordisci, and
from Noreia by the river to Aquileia and thence followed the
like the latter they too became largely intermixed with the old
coast road by Tergeste down to Dodona. Again, when they
Thracian population. Finally they w^ere com})lete]y destroyed
had advanced through the land of the Carni and got as far as
by their more powerful neighbours, who became masters of all
the lapodes they might have crossed from the Save valley over
the territory up
to Illyricum.
Mount Ocra and thus reached the coast road at Tergeste. In
The irruption of the Scordisci into Thessaly was just a
other words, they might have passed down by either of the two
repetition of the Celtic wave which had ;idvanced as far as
amber routes which I have described above, the one of which
Delphi in '270 li.c, and of many another such in pievious
passed up over the Alps through Noricum, the other from
generati(jns.
Tergeste by Mount Ocra to the Save and the junction of that
There can be little doubt that the Scordisci in this irruj)-
rivei- witli the Danube. But it is tion passed down important to note that any
from I'hrace into Thcssalv l)y the valKy
advance from the Alps, whether down into Epirus or down into
of the Pencus. This rivt'i', says Strabo, " Hows fi-oin Pindus
Thrace and ^Macedonia, had to pass by the head of the Adriatic.
through the middle of Thessaly eastwaids, passing thi'ough the
The bodies of Celts who entered the Balkan in the third
cities of the J^apithac and sonic o\' the cities of the I'eirhaebians'".'"
A well-known ]iassage
and fourth centuries n.c. are always
first heard of at the head
ni Homer j>roves that from
of the Adriatic. Thus we shall soon see that when Alexander
verv remote davs Thracian tribes hei'c found nadx' ac