- Ancient Ethnie -Essay - Italic and Gallic Ethnie: hypothesis and careful considerations -Roberto -page1

Italic ancient Ethnie

Celti, Galli, Celto-Galli, Germani, Normanni, Galizi...all the ancient peoples, European, not roman nor etrusch or greek are today often called as Celti, or sometimes as Galli. Really, today, expecially the term "Celta" is become very generic to point many ancient peoples and ethnie very different one from the other.

We only have the scripts of Giulio Cesare left,who tells us, in such a detailed way,about these peoples; very limited are the descriptions from other sources, so as the greek ones. So, we know that peoples of the south Gallia Cisalpina and the Iberi(Celti Iberi) were very civil.So civil that they were also called, as well as the peoples of the Gallia Cisalpina,"Galli Togati" or "Celti Togati". It is easier that the term Celta, referred only to the Celti Iberi but actually we know well that it's very difficult to say in complete security that this term suits to one particular Ethnia.

From:"Il Piemonte Cispadano Antico" by Jacopo Durandi-Torino MDCCLXXIV-

Surely, the communications by sea were not only commercial businesses, but also the moving of peoples.

Enough to say that the towns of south France were also greek colonies. There were so settlements,in the mediterranean towns, already hosting from the old times, different ethnie, coming from different cultures.

So,for the populations of the Mediterranean bacin too, it's difficult to distinguish them with a specific appellative. By the other way, for the rest of the Continental Europe, things, about the ethnie were much more complicated. So the level of civilisation was very different in the various populations.

But if we take care of the term "Celta" as a semantic contraction of the term "Occelt", then we all could easily agree.

- Ancient Ethnie -Essay - Italic and Gallic Ethnie: hypothesis and careful considerations - Roberto-page2
"The Piemonte Cispadano Antico"Jacopo Durandi-Torino MDCCLXXIV. So,"OCCELTI" peoples to mean:"Peoples west of Greece" as greek say. Surely the term "Gallo" or "Galli"peoples comes from the Roman appellative "Galliae": the lands occupied by Galli (all the lands north of river Rubicone), that at the time of ancient Rome separated the Italic-Roman-Etrusc zone from the one of the northern populations( Galli or Celti). It is quite probable that the term "Galli"comes from an Indo-European migration of the peoples of Galizia who lived in Minor-Asia (Galli-Galati). This is much more than a clue if we take a look of the "toponimi" of the old towns in Asia-Minor(Turkey, Siria; ancient Mesopotamia). Here is that we find again towns as Susa, Naples, Pessinus, Germa etc. and rivers as Sangro. Names that we find in our lands, repeated, or the Alpine zones, or in other parts of Italy and France. Chart describing the archaeological sites of Minor-Asia(Turkey). So, peoples emigrating or moving toward Europe and refounded towns or villages with the names of their original countries, with epiteths that have been preserved nearly inaltered until nowadays. The study of Jacopo Durandi,is an accurate research on the names of the ancient ethnie of Cispadano, Alpine and Ligure Piemonte. The text, dated 1774, is also to be found in anastatic copy by Arnaldo Forni Editor, so, to be found on the market too. I insert here forward, some pages that give an idea of the accurate research of the author, and you will have an example of the numerous ethnie that once populated our lands and our mountains.

- Ancient Ethnie -Essay - Italic and Gallic Ethnie: hypothesis and careful considerations - Roberto-page3
Cartography of Paolo Forlani-1566. Particularly,in this chart, are marked many ethnie of Northern Italy and Alpi with the names of the populations that once inhabited the different places. Paolo Forlani:descriptive chart of localities and populations of North-West Italy and Alps. Paolo Forlani:descriptive chart of localities and populations of North-East Italy and Alps.