08-02-2010, 08:26 AM
I hope I'm not stupid, because I was in places I couldn't care less about the local history or ethnography or even language. Conversely, I know of foreigners in my own city, businessmen or globe-trotters, who (knowing they won't live a lifetime here) also don't pay much attention to such details. Not everyone is an ethnographer, not everyone is a scholar. It's fallacious to find in every source someone eager to tell an accurate account on what the modern scholar wants to know.
There's a consistent body of literature on Otherness in Greek and Roman writings. Here's a quick find on Germans in Roman eyes, with some considerations on Gauls vs Germans in De Bello Gallico and on ethnography as justification for Roman political and military agenda.
Back to the original question, not only Caesar's claim is disputed by Strabo (probably because they read differently their common source), but the "Kelt" name was known to Greeks for several centuries. Even Strabo acknowledged that: "the people [...] whom the men of former times named Celtae" (IV.1.14).
There's a consistent body of literature on Otherness in Greek and Roman writings. Here's a quick find on Germans in Roman eyes, with some considerations on Gauls vs Germans in De Bello Gallico and on ethnography as justification for Roman political and military agenda.
Back to the original question, not only Caesar's claim is disputed by Strabo (probably because they read differently their common source), but the "Kelt" name was known to Greeks for several centuries. Even Strabo acknowledged that: "the people [...] whom the men of former times named Celtae" (IV.1.14).
Drago?
