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176 CELTS induced them to become allies of the Romans ; but they revolted in 181 B. C., and renewed the war from time to time during more than a century. After the fall of Sertorius, 72 B. C., they began to adopt the Roman language, dress, and manners, and their country gradually be- came an integral part of the Roman empire. The great mass of the people inhabiting the central portions of Spain under all these changes retained, and indeed still retain, the essential characteristics of their ancestors. The Celti- berians, like the modern Spaniards, were grave in dress, sober and temperate in their habits, and of an unyielding disposition. Like the modern Spaniards, they were remarkable for the bitter animosity with which they warred against their neighbors, and for the obstinate courage with which they endured protracted sieges. (See IBKHIA.) CELTS (Lat. Celtas ; Gr. KWrat), a people of the Aryan or Indo-European family, who in prehistoric times, and probably before the mi- gration of any other Aryan tribes, passed over from Asia into Europe. Subsequent migra- tions drove them gradually further and fur- ther to the westward ; and after overspread- ing many regions in their passage (for evidences of their residence are found in most of the Eu- ropean countries), they appear at the very be- ginning of the historic period to have so en- tirely passed away from the eastern portion of the continent, and to have so firmly settled in the regions afterward called Transalpine Gaul and the British isles, that ancient historians believed them to be an autochthonous race, the natives and original possessors of those lands. This theory was strengthened by the fact that the tide of their progress now began to return upon itself; the earliest records showing that even at a remote period they sent out armies and emigrants toward the east, in a direction exactly opposite to the first current of their migration. As early probably as the 5th century B. C. Celts had subdued that part of northern Italy afterward called from their later name Gallia (Cisalpina), and had become firmly settled in the country ; they had planted vigorous colonies (Vindeli- cians, &c.) in southern Germany, near the E. bank of the Rhine ; and from these in turn they penetrated, chiefly under the names of Rhieti, Boii, Norici, and Carui, into the western re- gions of modern Austria. Nearly all the terri- tory now included in Switzerland seems also to have been held by them. Celtic tribes, too, had crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, and set- tled in the country ; and from them and the Iberians, the older residents of the peninsula, sprung the mixed race of the Celtiberi, form- ing a famous nation in the centuries which followed. The Spanish branch of the Celts was the first to find mention under the name of the race in authentic written records ; and Herodotus only noticed this tribe briefly, as living "beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and bordering on the Cynesians, who dwell at the extreme west of Europe." (Book ii., 33.) But soon after his time the great body of the Celtic race began to fill a prominent place in general history. About 390 B. C., according to what is little more than a historical tradi- tion, vast hordes of Celts, under their leader Brennus (a word probably equivalent merely to general or king), poured into Italy and sacked Rome, from which they were driven by Camillus. About the same period others ap- peared along the lower Danube, and succeeded in the establishment of an enduring power there. From this colony many formidable armies went out to carry devastation through Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. In 280 B. C. one of these, under another Brennus, poured its overwhelming numbers into the kingdom of Ptolemy Ceraunus, defeated and killed that monarch, overran Thessaly, entered central Greece at Thermopylae, and reached Delphi with the intention of destroying it, when they were at last successfully opposed and driven back. They founded at the same time a kingdom in Thrace, which remained for many years a formidable power, but was finally destroy- ed by the Thracians around it. From the same branch of the Celts which sent out these armies (a branch often called the Illyrian Celts from the district, Illyricuin, in which their place of settlement was subsequently in- cluded) sprung also another offshoot. This con- sisted of an army which, about the time of the expedition of the second Brennus, crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor, and appears to have overrun much of the peninsula, until at last the invaders were compelled to confine themselves to the region called after them Galatia. This was successfully held by them, and they estab- lished there one of the most enduring of their kingdoms, in which they long preserved many peculiarities of the race. In the earliest writings the Celts had been called K.Mrai (Cel- t) ; but as they became better known to the Greeks and Romans, the names Galli and Ga- latffi (Ta^drai) were more commonly applied to them, these being probably nothing more than corrupted forms of the original word. The names were for a long time used indiscrimi- nately of all the race ; but gradually their appli- cation was limited Galli (Gauls) signifying those who lived in Europe ; Galatse (Galatians), those who settled in Asia Minor ; while the name Celt gradually disappeared. The looseness with which ancient writers use the word Galli, employing it now to denote a Teutonic, now a Celtic people, and generally understanding it to mean any northern barbarians, whoever they were, is perhaps the greatest cause of our in- ability to trace with exactness the gradual de- cline of the Celts before the advance of other races. Their career after the various wander- ings and settlements we have noticed becomes inextricably involved with that of other peo- ples ; and all that can be affirmed with cer- tainty concerning them is the fact that they were gradually absorbed into the Roman,