Polybius (B.C. 205-123) gives more definite and satisfactory information about the Celts than the somewhat vague references made to them by previous writers. From him we learn[18] [16] C. Elton’s _Origins of English History_, p. 25. [17] A. Bertrand and S. Reinach’s _Les Celtes_, p. 19. [18] _Ibid._, p. 27. (1) That the Celts of upper Italy did not come from the Gaul of Cæsar, but from the valley of the Danube, and more particularly from the countries which border upon the northern slopes of the Julian Alps of Noricum. (2) That these peoples were primarily divided into Cisalpine Celts and Transalpine Celts, that is to say, into the Celts of the Alps and of the north of the Alps. In the third century B.C. these latter were already called, more particularly by Polybius, by the name of Galati. (3) That the Cisalpine Celts, who from a remote period long before the fourth century B.C. inhabited the wide plains of Lombardy from the Alps to the river Pô, were, for the most part, an agricultural and sedentary race living in luxury and in a state of civilisation without any doubt greatly superior to that which could have existed in Gaul at that time. (4) That the Galati, on the contrary, the Transalpine Celts, although kinsmen to the former mountaineers, still half nomads, shepherds and warriors chiefly, always ready to run the risk of a raid, armed from the fourth century with an iron sword, an iron-headed spear and a shield, lived under the régime of a sort of military aristocracy, as proud as they were poor, such as the inhabitants of the Caucasus were not half a century ago. The people who were called _Celtæ_ by the earlier historians, and _Galatæ_ by the more recent writers, were also known to the Romans as _Galli_; but these three separate appellations do not seem to indicate any difference of race, and indeed they all have the same meaning, viz. a warrior. The Gauls of Cæsar’s time preferred to call themselves by the name which he wrote, _Celtæ_.[19] All the Classical authorities are agreed as to the physical characteristics of the Celts with whom they were acquainted. The Celts are invariably described as being tall, muscular men, with a fair skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair tending towards red.[20] Such were the Gauls who conquered the Etruscans of northern Italy in B.C. 396, took Rome under Brennus six years later, sacked Delphi in B.C. 279, and gave their name to Galatia in Asia Minor. [19] Prof. J. Rhys’ _Celtic Britain_, p. 2. [20] C. Elton’s _Origins of English History_, p. 113.