The first recorded use of the name of Celts – as Κελτοί (Keltoi) in Greek – to refer to an ethnic group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, Greek geographer, in 517 BC, when writing about a people living near Massilia (modern

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The Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages. By the time Celts are first mentioned in written records around 400 BC, they were

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Continental Celts
Gaul
The Romans knew the Celts then living in present-day France as

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Under Caesar the Romans conquered Celtic Gaul, and from Claudiusonward the Roman empire absorbed parts of Britain. Roman local government of these regions closely mirrored pre-Roman tribal boundaries, and archaeological finds suggest native involvement in local

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To the extent that sources are available, they depict a pre-Christian Iron Age Celtic social structurebased formally on class and kingship, although

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Tribal warfareappears to have been a regular feature of Celtic societies. While epic literature depicts this as more of a sport focused on raids and hunting rather than organised territorial

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Polytheism
Like other European Iron Age tribal societies, the Celts practised a polytheistic religion. Many Celtic godsare known from texts and inscriptions

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