What caused the massive expansion of the Celts around the 5th and 4th century BC? Going from a small group in Southern Germany to covering much of Europe in just 250 years.

by lameskiana

I'm mainly referring to this map: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Celtic_expansion.PNG from wikipedia's 'Pre-Celtic' page.

Dark green = Celtic distribution by 500BC

Light green = Celtic distribution by 250BC

Dongly_mc_dongerson

One thing to think about- what is a 'celt'. More importantly, what would contemporary writers have considered a Celt-its not like Caesar was performing genetic and cultural studies of every 'celt' tribe he was wiping out. There certainly wasn't any unified celtic empire, like that map might lead people to believe.

All that means was that contemporaries called anyone living within that region a Celt- regardless of what language, government, religion, culture or technology each individual tribe, city or village may have had.