Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Galatia"
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)
Galatia
has been called the "Gallia" of the East, Roman writers calling
its inhabitants Galli. They were an intermixture of Gauls and
Greeks, and hence were called Gallo-Graeci, and the country
Gallo-Graecia. The Galatians were in their origin a part of that
great Celtic migration which invaded Macedonia about B.C. 280.
They were invited by the king of Bithynia to cross over into
Asia Minor to assist him in his wars. There they ultimately
settled, and being strengthened by fresh accessions of the same
clan from Europe, they overran Bithynia, and supported
themselves by plundering neighbouring countries. They were great
warriors, and hired themselves out as mercenary soldiers,
sometimes fighting on both sides in the great battles of the
times. They were at length brought under the power of Rome in
B.C. 189, and Galatia became a Roman province B.C. 25.
This province of Galatia, within the limits of which these
Celtic tribes were confined, was the central region of Asia
Minor.
During his second missionary journey Paul, accompanied by
Silas and Timothy (Acts 16:6), visited the "region of Galatia,"
where he was detained by sickness (Gal. 4:13), and had thus the
longer opportunity of preaching to them the gospel. On his third
journey he went over "all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in
order" (Acts 18:23). Crescens was sent thither by Paul toward
the close of his life (2 Tim. 4:10).
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