Boii (
Latin plural, singular
Boius;
Greek ?????) is the
Roman name of an
Iron age tribe located at the beginning of their history in central Europe, perhaps in or including the regions that still bear their name
Bavaria and
Bohemia. The Roman and Greek historians of the late
Roman Republic and
Roman Empire considered them to be a Gallic or
Celtic tribe; that is, a member of a larger ethnic group in Europe termed the
Celts or
Gauls. Inscriptions from various locations in their range indicate that the latter spoke languages of the
Celtic family. The language of the Boii specifically, however, is not known.
The tribe has been located at various times by various historians in Transalpine Gaul (southeastern France), Pannonia (today's Western Hungary), Bohemia, Moravia and western Slovakia. In addition the archaeological evidence indicates that in the 2nd century BC Celts expanded from Bohemia (home of the Boii) through the Klodzko valley into Silesia, now part of Poland.[1]
They first appear in history in connection with the Gallic invasion of north Italy, 390 BC, which displaced some Etruscans in the Po Valley and resulted in the assimilation of the rest. After a series of wars in which they were defeated by the Romans they became part of the province of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy). The Boii and other Celts of the Danube region may have been part of the ill-fated Celtic invasion of Greece a century after the invasion of Italy. They were defeated, but not before they had settled central Anatolia, which became known as Galatia. Over two centuries later Julius Caesar recorded the final displacement of the Boii from the Danube region by the Germanic Suebi, the loss of most of their population in battle with the Romans, and the dispersal of the survivors among other tribes.
Remnant populations of the Boii under that or other names were now widely spread. By the time of the Roman empire they had assimilated to the dominant cultures in their regions. The tribal structure was replaced by imperial or monarchical types of government and the Boii vanished except for local names or traditions, which persisted for a time.
