Why did the ancient Greeks and Persians fear the Celtic nations?

Question

Both the Persians and Greek (Macedonians) apparently feared the ancient Celts, since neither group ever attempted to invade north into the granaries of middle europe.What did they fear from the Celtic tribes?

Answer 1

Although we normally associate the Celts with western Europe, especially with the British Isles, from the early iron age (ca 700 BC) Celtic speaking peoples ranged far more widely in Europe including what is now Germany, Eastern Europe, Italy and Iberia. Groups of Celts also journeyed into Greece and Macedonia.

Celts were renowned as fierce warriors and fought as mercenaries in Greek armies. It is thus not unreasonable for them to achieve a fearsome reputation not only with the Greeks but also with the Persians -- long time rivals of the Greeks. Further, in 279 BC, Celts invaded Greece, pillaging Thrace and Macedonia and killing a Macedonian king. They even settled in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) -- land that bordered both Greek and Persian territory -- until a Greek army defeated them in 230 BC.

Answer 2

'The Celtic nations' and indeed the word 'Celtic' is largely a myth. There were Gauls though they never got near Persia, and why would the Greeks have wanted to go to godforsaken places like the so called granaries of middle Europe?

Answer 3

Let's see why would people from the mild weathered Mediterranean and Mideast prefer to focus on the wealthy, settled lands of the Mediterranean, rather than the barbaric (nomadic or at least cityless), poor, cold, and mountainous lands of northern Europe?

Answer enough?

The only reason these peoples went north was to trade for a few luxury goods and necessary materials like amber from the Baltic and tin from Cornwall.

Answer 4

Because the Celts beat the Knicks 104-59 and they did not want any part of Pierce, Garnett and Allen?

Answer 5

Your assumption is wrong, There was no reason or interest on the part of either in distant barbarian peoples.The locations of the Celts during this era is largely unknown.