1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Scordisci

SCORDISCI, in ancient geography, a Celtic tribe inhabiting the southern part of lower Pannonia between the Savus, Dravus and Danuvius. Some Roman authorities consider them a Thracian stock, because of their admixture with an older Thraco-Illyrian population. As early as 175 B.C. they came into collision with the Romans by assisting Perseus, king of Macedonia; and after Macedonia became a Roman province they were for many years engaged in hostilities with them. In 135 they were defeated by M. Cosconius in Thrace (Livy, epit. 56); in 118, according to a memorial stone discovered near Thessalonica (W. Dittenberger, Sylloge inscriptionum Graecarum, i. No. 247, 1883 edition), Sextus Pompeius, probably the grandfather of the triumvir, was slain fighting against them near Stobi. In 114 they surprised and destroyed the army of Gaius Porcius Cato in the Servian mountains, but were defeated by Q. Minucius Rufus in 107. Nevertheless, they still from time to time gave trouble to the Roman governors of Macedonia, whose territory they invaded in combination with the Maedi and Dardani. They even advanced as far as Delphi and plundered the temple; but Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus finally overcame them in 88 and drove them across the Danube. In Strabo's time they had been expelled from the valley of the Danube by the Dacians (Strabo vii. pp. 293, 313).

See Mommsen, Hist. of Rome (Eng. trans.), bk. iv. ch. 5, who puts the final conquest of the Scordisci by the Romans not later than 91. Also H. Pomtow, “ Die drei Brände des Tempels zu Delphi " in Rheinisches Museum, li. p. 369 (1896); A. Holder, Altceltischer Sprachschatz, ii. (1904).