A Good Works Translation from Description of Greece 10.21.1-7

Pausanias' Galatian narrative reaches the first clash at Thermopylae: Brennus attacks at sunrise, the Greeks hold formation, Athenian ships strike the Galatian flank, Cydias dies in his first battle, and Pausanias closes with Greek burial and the Galatian dead left unclaimed.

Translation

Section 1

So Brennus advanced from Heraclea. From deserters he had learned those gathered at the Gates from each city; therefore he despised the Greek force and began battle the next day at sunrise. He had neither a Greek seer nor used local rites, if indeed there is any Celtic divination. At that point the Greeks advanced in silence and in order. When they came to hand-to-hand fighting, the infantry did not run out so far from their line as to throw their own phalanx into confusion, and the light-armed troops, remaining in place, sent their javelins and whatever came from bows or slings.

Section 2

The cavalry became useless for both sides, since the place after the Gates was not only narrow, but also smooth with natural rock, and, because of the constant streams, mostly slippery. The Galatians' equipment was weaker, for they had their native shields, and there was no other armor for the protection of the body. Still more than this, they fell short in experience in matters of war.

Section 3

They moved against their opponents in anger and rage, with no calculation, like wild beasts. Even when they were being cut apart by axes or swords, madness did not leave those who were still breathing; nor did those who had been pierced by missiles and javelins let go of their fury as long as life remained. Some pulled from their wounds the spears with which they had been struck, hurled them back at the Greeks, and used them hand to hand.

Section 4

Meanwhile the Athenians on the triremes, with difficulty and not without danger, nevertheless sailed along through the mud that stretched farthest over the sea, brought their ships as close as possible to the barbarians, and used every kind of missile and arrow against their flanks. Since the Celts were wearied beyond telling, and in the narrow place were doing little while suffering twice and four times as much, their leaders signaled for them to withdraw to the camp. But as they turned back without order and with no formation, many were trampled by one another, and many fell into the marsh and disappeared in the mud. Their loss in retreat was no less than what happened to them in the height of the battle.

Section 5

Among the Greeks, the Attic force surpassed the rest in courage on that day; and among the Athenians Cydias was especially brave. He was young in age and had then come into the contest of war for the first time. When he died at the hands of the Galatians, his relatives dedicated his shield to Zeus Eleutherios, and the inscription was this: 'Longing still for the young youth of Cydias, the shield of a famous man, a gift to Zeus, through which he first stretched out his left arm when furious Ares flourished against the Galatian.'

Section 6

This was inscribed before those with Sulla took down, among other things at Athens, the shields in the stoa of Zeus Eleutherios. At Thermopylae then, after the battle, the Greeks buried their own dead and stripped the barbarians. The Galatians did not send heralds for the taking up of their dead, and they made it equal whether they obtained earth or whether wild beasts and whatever birds are hostile to the dead fed upon them.

Section 7

In my judgment, two things persuaded them to treat burials for the dead with indifference: they wished to strike fear into hostile men, and it was not their custom to feel pity for the dead. In the battle, forty of the Greek force died. The number of the barbarians could not be discovered exactly, for many of them had disappeared in the mud.

Colophon

This page translates Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.21.1-7 from Greek for the Celtic continental expansion of the Good Work Library. It preserves Pausanias' hostile Greek rhetoric about Galatian warfare and burial practice as source evidence, not as neutral ethnography.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.21.1-7

Greek source text from Perseus Digital Library's text of Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 10. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Section 1

προελθὼν οὖν ἀπὸ τῆς Ἡρακλείας—ἐπυνθάνετο γὰρ παρὰ αὐτομόλων τοὺς συνειλεγμένους ἐς Πύλας ἀπὸ ἑκάστης πόλεως— ὑπερεφρόνει τε τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ καὶ ἦρχεν ἐς τὴν ἐπιοῦσαν μάχης ἅμα ἀνίσχοντι τῷ ἡλίῳ, οὔτε Ἕλληνα ἔχων μάντιν οὔτε ἱεροῖς ἐπιχωρίοις χρώμενος, εἰ δὴ ἔστι γε μαντεία Κελτική. ἐνταῦθα οἱ Ἕλληνες ἐν σιγῇ τε ἐπῄεσαν καὶ ἐν κόσμῳ: καὶ ὡς ἀφίκοντο ἐς χεῖρας, οὔτε σφίσιν οἱ πεζοὶ τοσοῦτο ἀπὸ τῆς τάξεως ἐξέθεον ὥστε τὴν φάλαγγα ἐπιταράσσειν τὴν οἰκείαν καὶ οἱ ψιλοὶ μένοντες κατὰ χώραν τά τε ἀκόντια ἔπεμπον καὶ ὅσα ἀπὸ τῶν τόξων ἢ σφενδονῶν.

Section 2

τὰ δὲ ἱππικὰ ἀμφοτέροις ἀχρεῖα ἐγένετο ἅτε οὐ στενοῦ μόνον χωρίου τοῦ μετὰ τὰς Πύλας ὄντος ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπὸ αὐτοφυοῦς πέτρας λείου καὶ διὰ τῶν ῥευμάτων τὸ συνεχὲς τὰ πλείονα καὶ ὀλισθηροῦ. τοῖς δὲ Γαλάταις τὰ μὲν τῆς σκευῆς ἀσθενέστερα ἦν—θυρεοὺς γὰρ τοὺς ἐπιχωρίους εἶχον, καὶ ἄλλο σφίσιν οὐκ ἦν ὅπλον σκέπη σώματος—, πλέον δὲ ἔτι ἐμπειρίᾳ τῇ ἐς τὰ πολεμικὰ ἀπέδεον.

Section 3

οἱ δὲ ἐν ὀργῇ τε ἐπὶ τοὺς ἐναντίους καὶ θυμῷ μετὰ οὐδενὸς λογισμοῦ καθάπερ τὰ θηρία ἐχώρουν: καὶ οὔτε πελέκεσι διαιρουμένους ἢ ὑπὸ μαχαιρῶν ἡ ἀπόνοια τοὺς ἔτι ἐμπνέοντας ἔτι ἀπέλειπεν, οὔτε ὅσοι βέλεσι καὶ ἀκοντίοις διεπείροντο, ὑφῄρουν τοῦ θυμοῦ, μέχρι οὗ παρέμενεν ἡ ψυχή: οἱ δὲ καὶ ἐκ τῶν τραυμάτων τὰ δόρατα οἷς ἐβέβληντο ἀνασπῶντες ἠφίεσάν τε ἐς τοὺς Ἕλληνας καὶ ἐχρῶντο ἐκ χειρός.

Section 4

ἐν τούτῳ δὲ οἱ ἐπὶ τῶν τριήρων Ἀθηναῖοι μόγις μὲν καὶ οὐκ ἄνευ κινδύνου, παραπλεύσαντες δὲ ὅμως διὰ τῆς ἰλύος, ἣ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἐπέχει τῆς θαλάσσης, καὶ τὰς ναῦς ὅτι ἐγγύτατα τῶν βαρβάρων σχόντες, βέλεσί τε παντοίοις ἐς τὰ πλάγια καὶ τοξεύμασιν ἐς αὐτοὺς ἐχρῶντο. καμνόντων δὲ λόγου μειζόνως τῶν Κελτῶν καὶ ἅτε ἐν στενοχωρίᾳ μικρὰ μὲν δρώντων, διπλάσια δὲ καὶ τετραπλάσια πασχόντων, ἀναχωρεῖν ἐς τὸ στρατόπεδον ἐσήμαινόν σφισιν οἱ ἡγεμόνες. οἱ δὲ ἀτάκτως καὶ σὺν οὐδενὶ ἀναστρέφοντες κόσμῳ πολλοὶ μὲν συνεπατήθησαν ὑπὸ ἀλλήλων, πολλοὶ δὲ ἐς τὸ τέλμα ἐμπεσόντες ἠφανίσθησαν κατὰ τοῦ πηλοῦ, καὶ ἀπώλεια οὐκ ἐλάσσων ἀναχωροῦσιν αὐτοῖς ἢ ἐν τοῦ ἀγῶνος συνέβη τῇ ἀκμῇ.

Section 5

τοὺς μὲν δὴ Ἕλληνας τὸ Ἀττικὸν ὑπερεβάλετο ἀρετῇ τὴν ἡμέραν ταύτην: αὐτῶν δὲ Ἀθηναίων Κυδίας μάλιστα ἐγένετο ἀγαθός, νέος τε ἡλικίαν καὶ τότε ἐς ἀγῶνα ἐλθὼν πολέμου πρῶτον. ἀποθανόντος δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν Γαλατῶν τὴν ἀσπίδα οἱ προσήκοντες ἀνέθεσαν τῷ Ἐλευθερίῳ Διί, καὶ ἦν τὸ ἐπίγραμμα:“†ημαρλα δὴ ποθέουσα νέαν ἔτι Κυδίου ἥβηνἀσπὶς ἀριζήλου φωτός, ἄγαλμα Διί,ἇς διὰ δὴ πρώτας λαιὸν τότε πῆχυν ἔτεινεν,εὖτ᾽ ἐπὶ τὸν Γαλάταν ἤκμασε θοῦρος Ἄρης.”

Section 6

τοῦτο μὲν δὴ ἐπεγέγραπτο πρὶν ἢ τοὺς ὁμοῦ Σύλλᾳ καὶ ἄλλα τῶν Ἀθήνῃσι καὶ τὰς ἐν τῇ στοᾷ τοῦ Ἐλευθερίου Διὸς καθελεῖν ἀσπίδας: τότε δὲ ἐν ταῖς Θερμοπύλαις οἱ μὲν Ἕλληνες μετὰ τὴν μάχην τούς τε αὑτῶν ἔθαπτον καὶ ἐσκύλευον τοὺς βαρβάρους, οἱ Γαλάται δὲ οὔτε ὑπὲρ ἀναιρέσεως τῶν νεκρῶν ἐπεκηρυκεύοντο ἐποιοῦντό τε ἐπ᾽ ἴσης γῆς σφᾶς τυχεῖν ἢ θηρία τε αὐτῶν ἐμφορηθῆναι καὶ ὅσον τεθνεῶσι πολέμιόν ἐστιν ὀρνίθων.

Section 7

ὀλιγώρως δὲ αὐτοὺς ἐς τῶν ἀπογινομένων ἔχειν τὰς ταφὰς δύο ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν τὰ ἀναπείθοντα ἦν, πολεμίους τε ἄνδρας ἐκπλῆξαι καὶ ὅτι ἔστι τεθνεώτων οὐ δι᾽ ἔθους οἶκτος αὐτοῖς. ἀπέθανον δὲ παρὰ τὴν μάχην τεσσαράκοντα μὲν τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ, τοὺς δὲ τῶν βαρβάρων οὐχ οἷόν τε ἦν ἀκριβῶς ἐξευρεῖν: πολὺ γὰρ καὶ τὸ ἀφανισθὲν κατὰ τῆς ἰλύος ἐγένετο ἐξ αὐτῶν.

Source Colophon

The Greek source was captured from Perseus Digital Library on 2026-05-13 and inspected on disk at Tulku/Tools/celtic/sources/continental_batch_2026-05-13/pausanias_10_21_greek_perseus.html. The source page identifies the Greek edition as Pausaniae Graeciae Descriptio, Teubner, 1903. The English translation is a New Tianmu Anglican Church Good Works Translation made from the Greek source.

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