| The Earliest Classical Sources on the Celts: A Linguistic and Historical Study consists of a series of introductory essays on the interaction and common ground between the classical and Celtic worlds followed by a collection, with translation and commentary, of sixth to second centuries scB.C. Greek and Latin historical sources on the Celts. Comparative linguistics and historical analysis are emphasized throughout the thesis.;The introductory essays begin with an examination of the common Indo-European heritage of the Greeks, Romans, and Celts as shown in language, poetry, and cultural features. Subsequent chapters discuss previous scholarship dealing with the classical sources on the Celts, as well as a definition of the corpus of these sources. Finally, an extended study examines and ultimately rejects the possible Celtic origins of Homeric ;Following the Introduction is the body of the thesis, a collection of the early Greek and Roman sources on the Celts with original text, translation, and commentary. Detailed maps illustrating the places mentioned are included in the text. These early sources range from the sixth century scB.C. historian Hecataeus and the probable early sources for the Ora Maritima of Avienus to Herodotus, Xenophon, Ephippus, Aristotle, Theopompus, and others. A selection of authors on the Celts from 300 to 100 B.C., such as Sopater, Phylarchus, and Polybius, follows.;Two appendices are also included. The first deals with a fourth century scB.C. Attic inscription mentioning Celtic weapons, while the second is an examination of early Celtic views of an afterlife based on a passage from Nicander of Colophon. |
