Audio reading of this section (English)
Our journey through the time of the Senogalatîs now takes us to the completion of the shift in power to the new groups that were led into this new period over a century after folks like Ambicatus. Roughly 120 AAC or around 450 BCE, in a period that the Nouiogalatîs call Aisson Laticon, or the age of heroes. Otherwise, called the LaTène period. The former for the simple fact that most recorded deeds by Senogalatis heroes occurred in this age. The latter is named for the location in which the first artefacts related to this period were discovered. Another Nouiogalaticos name for the age is Aisson Uection – the age of raids/voyages. A fitting description of the times!
At this point, much of the documented happenings of the Senogalatîs in their homeland is extremely sparse. The Senogalatîs could write. There are a few scripts (North Italic, Greek, and Latin) that they would use at different places and times. However, these were generally for inscriptions related to the Dêuoi (the beings they worshipped), or for graves and transactions. The kind of historical chronicling present in the Mediterranean world is as of yet (to our knowledge) nonexistent among the Senogalatîs. For this reason, virtually all accounts of them relate specifically to the interactions Greek and Roman societies had to them. This means that these accounts can in many cases shed light on our ancestors. However, this also means that they’re accounts of outsiders writing of a foreign people.
This means the biases of Greek and Roman writers certainly shine through in many of these accounts. They have to be taken with a “grain of salt”. Just as any discerning mind does with any source written of one group of people by another. Critical thinking is necessary for engagement with these sources. As is to be expected, mistakes and wrongs of the Senogalatîs are likely to be exaggerated while their own are either set to blaming an individual or excusing it some other way. Their own achievements were often exaggerated or overblown, with the Senogalatîs either minimised in theirs or of course written negatively as it came at the expense of one or the other group doing the writing. That is not to say the Senogalatîs didn’t do wrong by ancient or modern standards at times. Simply that we should not consider Greek or Roman sources to be objective, any more than we should consider writings from the Senogalatîs had they too been into making chronicles or writing histories. Everyone has biases, this was as true then as it is now.
We could hazard a guess that in their homeland, raiding, trading, and periods of peace went on as it always had. Though, if burial records tell us anything, with less people around to do these things. The appeal of traversing other lands appears to have had quite an effect. From many of the old nations, young fighters and sometimes whole nations embarked on voyages to new lands. Activity certainly did not stop as archaeological finds have confirmed, we simply have far less written record to describe what had happened there. The bulk of accounts focus mainly on two fronts of expansion: to the east, culminating in great waves of movement to and through what is now the Balkan region – as well as to the south, Italy. We will start with the latter.
Bessus Nouiogalation 