Page 78 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 7 8

Galatia, historical landscape in Central Anatolia designated in Hellenistic, Roman and
Byzantine times a landscape in Central Anatolia inhabited by the Celtic Galatians with
the centres Gordion and Ankyra (today's Ankara) [53].

They were very popular as mercenaries and even Cleopatra VII had a bodyguard of 400
Galatians. The Galatians were largely Graecianised, not for nothing did the Apostle Paul

write to the Galatians in Greek [54]. In Asia Minor, today's Turkey, Greek was spoken until
the 20th century AD. The Galatians, however, also saw it as a source of income to demand
money from neighbours so that they would not be raided and plundered.

In Galatia (today's Turkey, Central Anatolia), the climate is cold in winter and hot,
continental in summer. The steppe-like plateaus are poor in water according to the
climatic conditions and have no natural vegetation [55].