The tribal territories of the Galatians were each divided into 4 cantons or tetrarchies. The Trocmi were on the east around the chief town of Tavium. The Tolistbobii were on the west with Pessinus as their main center. And the Tectosages were in the center, at Ancyra. Each of the twelve tetrachs had under them a judge and a general. A council of the Galatian nation consisted of the tetararchs and 300 senators, who assembled at certain times of the year at the Drynemeton twenty miles SW of Ancyra.

The eastern part of the Anatolian Plateau is rugged and harsh. The area sees considerable snow in the winter, and the summers are hot and dry. Most of the land is given over to pasturage of sheep and goats. Some wheat and other cereal grains are grown on the rolling hills and the flatlands.


Tavium was the chief city of the Trocmii. It was an important trading post at the intersection of roads leading to all parts of Asia Minor. The exact site of the city is debatable but it is generally thought to be the ruins near the village of Nefex Keui. Today the site is inhabited during the winter by nomadic Turkish tribes. It is in a fertile plain east of Halys. Bits and pieces of the ruins were used in building the nearby village of Yuzgad (Yozgat). There are remains of a theater and what was probably a temple dedicated to Jupiter/Zeus, with inscriptions mostly in Byzantine.



There is very little archaeological evidence of the Celtic presence in Anatolia. This may be because it has not yet been looked for systematically, but on the other hand it may be a sign that the Galatians were very quick to adopt the material culture of the native peoples, among which they were surely a minority. Recent computer terrain mapping by a team of Germans has identified two hills near the "amphitheater" as the most likely site of the original Celtic settlement.

One of the few things we do know about Tavium was that there was metalworking, because coins have been found that were minted there in the early first century AD bearing the likenesses of Marcus Aurelius and Elagabalus. Copper, tin, iron and silver were mined in the nearby mountains. If we can draw parallels with other Celtic sites of the time, the smelting and stamping was done by a small group of artisans working in one or two stone huts.