Those just spoken of are of such antiquity and obscurity, that we note their place in history without being able to say how they came to fill it.  It is only with the sixth century before our era that we light upon the really historical expeditions of the Gauls away from Gaul, those, in fact, of which we may follow the course and estimate the effects.

Towards the year 587 B.C., almost at the very moment when the Phoceans had just founded Marseilles, two great Gallic hordes got in motion at the same time, and crossed, one the Rhine, the other the Alps, making one for Germany, the other for Italy.  The former followed the course of the Danube and settled in Illyria, on the right bank of the river.  It is too much, perhaps, to say that they settled; the greater part of them continued wandering and fighting, sometimes amalgamating with the peoplets they encountered, sometimes chasing them and exterminating them, whilst themselves were incessantly pushed forward by fresh bands coming also from Gaul.  Thus marching and spreading, leaving here and there on their route, along the rivers and in the valleys of the Alps, tribes that remained and founded peoples, the Gauls had arrived, towards the year 340 B.C., at the confines of Macedonia, at the time when Alexander, the son of Philip, who was already famous, was advancing to the same point to restrain the ravages of the neighboring tribes, perhaps of the Gauls themselves.  From curiosity, or a desire to make terms with Alexander, certain Gauls betook themselves to his camp.  He treated them well, made them sit at his table, took pleasure in exhibiting his magnificence before them, and in the midst of his carouse made his interpreter ask them what they were most afraid of.

“We fear nought,” they answered, “unless it be the fall of heaven; but we set above everything the friendship of a man like thee.”  “The Celts are proud,” said Alexander to his Macedonians; and he promised them his friendship.  On the death of Alexander, the Gauls, as mercenaries, entered, in Europe and Asia, the service of the kings who had been his generals.  Ever greedy, fierce, and passionate, they were almost equally dangerous as auxiliaries and as neighbors.  Antigonus, King of Macedonia, was to pay the band he had enrolled a gold piece a head.  They brought their wives and children with them, and at the end of the campaign they claimed pay for their following as well as for themselves:  “We were promised,” said they, “a gold piece a head for each Gaul; and these are also Gauls.”

Before long they tired of fighting the battles of another; their power accumulated; fresh hordes, in great numbers, arrived amongst them about the year 281 B.C.  They had before them Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Greece, rich, but distracted and weakened by civil strife.  They effected an entrance at several points, devastating, plundering, loading their cars with booty, and dividing their prisoners into two parts; one offered in sacrifice to their gods, the other strung up to trees and abandoned to the gais and matars, or javelins and pikes of the conquerors.