The Ancient Egyptian Celtic Mercenaries
In addition to fighting for the various Greek kingdoms, Celtic warriors also fought for Carthage. Indeed, they formed a significant part of Hannibal’s army when he invaded Italy in the Second Punic War. Celtic mercenaries were also a bulwark of Egypt’s Ptolemaic Dynasty in the third century BC, and were included in the Egyptian army’s order of battle. For example, Ptolemy II Philadelphus hired 4000 Celtic mercenaries, recruited from the Balkans with help from the Anigonids of Macedon. They played a decisive role in beating back a challenge from a half-brother who had tried to seize Ptolemy’s throne.
However, the Celt mercenaries then made a bid of their own to dethrone Ptolemy and seize Egypt for themselves. They failed, and Ptolemy crushed their rebellion. He then dumped the surviving Celts into a small island in a Nile, to die of starvation. Despite that, the Ptolemies continued to hire Celts mercenaries – their lack of local roots made them particularly useful in putting down the frequent native Egyptian uprisings. They remained in Ptolemaic service until the end, and the dynasty’s final ruler, Cleopatra, was known to have employed Celtic mercenaries.
