As we all know, the Celtic languages are the majority language in Western Europe. Could this be changed so that Germanic or Italic languages could displace Celtic languages, perhaps even as far as Gaeldom (I'd include Greek, but historically I feel like they've already been pretty wanked)? Maybe if Gallia fell completely to Germanic invaders? Though I dunno about that, considering the Normans were pretty much assimilated into Gallic culture. Maybe a Roman equivalent of Alexander the Great could conquer Celtiberia and Gallia? The likeliest PoD for that seems to be when the Celtic Empire was still united, but in a weakened state, so that it could be conquered in one go, rather than piecemeal. Just throwing out ideas, feel free to explore other possibilities, like a Numidian or Punic invasion.
DBHC: Celt-Screw
- Thread starter Tripledot
- Start date
Well, there's already a fairly popular Italic(North Talentian scholars would prefer to call it "Romance", though) language still spoken as the primary language in much of southern and central Gallia today, called Gallois, and don't forget Hispanola in most of Iberia; although that mainly came around through trading and immigration instead of conquest, much like the Frisians and Angles of what's now western Germania(and rather unlike the Saxons, a culture that's now, today, almost extinct outside of mainly southeast Britannia and the nation of New Wessex here in North Talentia, and their Jutish friends from Danemark; but at least the modern day New Wessexers are nice folks! Nothing like their Edwardian cousins to their south, who eventually destroyed themselves through their worship of African slavery.....and irrational hatred of the Gallic and Britannic-descended nations in their general area). So I don't think that it would be too difficult to expand the Italic-speaking area of influence-maybe Julius Caesar, or one of his immediate predecessors does a bit better during the Gallic Wars?
OOC: New Wessex is basically OTL New England minus most of Vermont, northern Maine, and western Conn.-Edwardsland was a now-defunct nation that included OTL Virginia, the Carolinas, a section of northern Georgia, and a large portion of both Tennessee and Kentucky.
yourworstnightmare
Banned
The whole "if the Celtic Empire was still together it could be conquered in one go" bullshit completely ignores that the Celtic Empire was never really together. The High King/ Emperor was a symbolic title that held together an alliance of kingdoms. And since it was more an alliance than anything else at one point it fell apart (though it did exist in name up to the Sarmathian wars).
Erm.....what? That's not supported by what I've read. In fact, according to most modern historians, they were actually a fairly minor nation for the most part-now, granted, they did provide a couple of famous generals, but their role outside the armed forces was fairly minimal, to be honest, based on what we know now.
Also, the Romans, as powerful as they got, did not always have an easy time holding down the nations that they conquered; indeed, there is a reason why the people of Misratah still hold Hannibal to be one of their national heroes.....and Carthage was actually a bit weaker than the Celtic Empire, so I'll have to concur with you on this.
Not even close; you're thinking of the Bononian Boii, who barring their early threat to Rome mostly became subservient to the Insubres of Medolanum after they were kicked out of Felsina and fled into the Alps. They were the group you're thinking of since by the time of the Gallu Empire's formations, they were a rather weak tribe well known for their axes. I was talking about their source; The Bohemian Boii. They formed the first Confederation of Gallic tribes to deal with their numbers, and in many ways was the first step to an empire. I mean, the Empire itself cited them as their birthplace for Teutatis' sake.
OOC: Misrata didn't exist back then by the by. In fact, the city was founded either by the Romans (Thubactis), or by the Arabs (Thubaqt); Carthage had nothing to do with its creation.
OOC: Good point re: OTL Misrata, although what I actually had in mind was a modern-day civilization spanning from eastern Algeria to just west of *Benghazi that, while not entirely directly descended from the old Carthaginians, still considered themselves to be their cultural successors. Does that make sense?
Well, yeah, that's the Catalan name for it(a large Gallian community does, in fact, exist in that part of Iberia), and the Germans call it Gallisch, etc.-all depends on one's perspective, IMO. Gallois really is the native name for it, though-I actually visited one summer some years ago, and some more nationalist folks can get a little picky about it-much like how most folks in my home country of New Wales prefer to call Britannic Patois by it's proper name, instead of "British" as it is in much of the rest of the world.
Emperor RyRy
Banned
I suppose a different diplomatic scene could do the trick. If the Gauls hadn't united to fight the Germans and Latins then I'd bet they would have been at least somewhat colonized, enough to not be considered Celtic at least.