(...) Peoples speaking Celtic languages were prolific throughout the Roman Empire. Apart from their obvious 'heartland' in Britain and Gaul, they could be found throughout northern Italy, Spain, and the Balkans. A Gaulish-speaking community existed in central Asia minor (the 'Galatians') and there was (or historically had been) a small Celtic community in northern Africa, including Egypt. Several Roman emperors, including the Antonines, the Severans, several 3rd Century usurpers, and possibly even Trajan and Hadrian all had partly Celtic roots. Individuals who were Celtic by culture and language were common recruits into both the legions and the auxiliary units of Imperial Rome – in fact, if we count persons hailing from Celtic-influenced regions, they were the single largest contributor of recruits. The following are a couple of basic figures supporting the stance that Celtic-speaking peoples were prominent in the Imperial Roman Army: Ann Hyland, in Equus: The Horse in the Roman World, provides a chart describing the recruitment of auxiliary cavalry during the Flavian Dynasty. She claims that 33% of all recruits hailed from Gallia Lugdunensis ("longhaired Gaul"), with another 9% from Gallia Belgica, 4% from Brittanica, and 2.5% from Gallia Narbonensis. Another 11.5% of recruits came from Thrace, 10% more from Pannonia, and 2.5% from Moesia. In other words, in the Flavian period 49% of all auxiliary cavalrymen were recruited in exclusively Celtic-speaking provinces, and 74% of all auxiliary cavalrymen came from provinces that were under large degrees of Celtic cultural, linguistic, and military influence. (...)