The Word Celt Has Had a Checkered Career
W D T TH E OR CEL . Probably the earliest mention of the word C elt with which in most readers are familiar occurs that classic phrase where , ‘ ’ r in the introduction to his Commentaries on the Gallic Wa , e k G Ca sar, spea ing of the division of all aul into three parts , says that the native name of the group of peoples who occupied G th e the centre of aul between the Seine , Marne and the G aronne is a Celtic word . The word is found long before ’ e . Ca sar s time , however In fact , as early as the end of the i i . C . r s xth century, B , we find , for the fi st time in h story , the G i H ecata eu s f word in a derived form, in the reek wr ter ‘ o u . Milet s , who uses it in a geographic sense In his Voyage ’ i m around the World , of wh ch only frag ents have been pre i eltica served , he says , speak ng of Marseilles , that it is near C , N ra x and he also says that y , wherever that may have been , is elt B . C a Celtic city The word , itself , is found first in erodo t us fi u , in a passage dating from the middle of the fth cent ry h 445 443 C . t e B . , or, more precisely, between years and , where ' o f Kel roe iv e he informs us that the Celts , J at the sources of the D G anube , that is , in the southwest corner of ermany in the G D present rand uchy of Baden , and in Spain and on the coast C elt h mi of the Atlantic .
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