Galatia, an ancient province of Asia Minor, bounded N. by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, E. by Pontus, S. by Cappadocia and Lycaonia, and W. by Phrygia, of which it was once a part. The Halys traversed it from S. to 1ST. It was called Gallo-Graecia or Galatia from the Gauls, who conquered this region and settled in it in the latter part of the 3d century B. C. They were divided into three great tribes and twelve tetrarchies, each under a separate chief. They aided Antiochus the Great against the Romans, but the latter against Mithridates, for which one of their tetrarchs, Deiotarus, was made king, receiving also Pontus and Armenia Minor. He fought with Pompey against Caesar at Phar-salia, was accused of an attempt on the life of Caesar and defended by Cicero, and at the close of his life sided with Brutus and Cassius. On the death of his successor, King Amyntas, the country was annexed to the Roman empire, 25 B. C. Its inhabitants, though intermixed with Greeks, retained their native Gallic language at the time of St. Jerome, and, according to him, were in the 4th century the only people in Asia Minor who could not speak Greek. Roman writers call the inhabitants Galli. Theodosius I. divided the province into Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda. Famous cities of Galatia were Ancyra, now Angora, Pcssinus, and Gor-dium, where Alexander the Great cut the knot.

Galatia forms now part of the Turkish vilayet of Angora.-The Galatians were less effeminate and less debased by superstition than the natives of Phrygia, and therefore more ready to receive the gospel. Paul first preached Christianity and organized churches in Galatia. He was there once with Silas and Timothy (Acts xvi. 6), about A. D. 53, and again several years later, on his return from Corinth (Acts xviii. 23).