Definition: The Boii were a Celtic group of Transalpine Gaul who helped Hannibal in his crossing from the Pyrenees to the Alps during the Second Punic War. Earlier, some of the Boian tribes migrated to Italy. When the Boii crossed into the Po Valley, they found it inhabited and dislocated Etruscans and Umbrians in their move. In 283 Boii, united with Etruscans, were defeated by the Romans at the Vadimonian Lake. After suffering defeats at Roman hands, they remained hostile to Rome, and so helped Hannibal against the Romans in 218. They continued to resist the Romans until in 191, they were overcome by P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, deprived of half their land, and driven back across the Alps where they may have joined up with their tribemen on the Danube. Caesar, in his Gallic Wars, refers to the Boii whose king Boiorix led the Cimbri.
Examples: The name Bohemian comes from the Boii who resided along the Danube River.
