The Viducassēs (Gaulish: *Uiducassēs/Widucassēs) were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the modern Calvados department during the Iron Age and the Roman period.

Name

They are mentioned as Viducasses by Pliny (1st c. AD),[1] and as Bidoukesíōn (Βιδουκεσίων; var. Βιδουκασίων, Βιδουκαίσιων) and Bidoukésioi (Βιδουκέσιοι; var. Οὐιδουκαίσιοι, Οὐιδουκέσιοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD).[2][3]

The Gaulish ethnonym derives from the root *uidu-/widu ('tree, wood'). The meaning of the second element -casses, attested in other Gaulish ethnonyms such as Bodiocasses, Durocasses, Sucasses, Tricasses, or Veliocasses, has been debated, but it probably signifies '(curly) hair, hairstyle' (cf. Old Irish chass 'curl'), perhaps referring to a particular warrior coiffure. The name may thus be translated as 'the tangled-hair ones', that is to say 'those with the hair tangled like a tree'.[4] Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel has proposed to interpret the name as 'those with wooden helmets'.[5]

The city of Vieux, attested in the 3rd century AD as Civitas Viducassium ('civitas of the Viducasses'; Veiocae in 1180, Vieux in 1294), is named after the Gallic tribe.[6][7]

Geography

Northwestern Gaul

The Viducasses dwelled south of the Bodiocasses, north of the Aulerci Diablintes, southeast of the Venelli, northeast of the Abrincatui, west of the Lexovii, and northwest of the Sagii.[8]

During the Roman period, their chief town was known as Aregenua ('by the Guigne river'; modern Vieux), whose area roughly corresponded to the plain of Caen. The city grew from the first half of the 2nd century and reached its height during the Severan period (193–235). In an inscription dated to 238 AD, the settlement is called both a 'free city' and a 'colony'. In the 3rd century, Aregenua became Civitas Viducassium, although it was probably absorbed by the civitas of the Bodiocasses in the early 4th century, for the Civitas Viducassium is not mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum and the Notitia Galliarum.[9]

Religion

A sanctuary from the end of the 1st century BC is known at Baron-sur-Odon, 2.5km west of Aregenua.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:107.
  2. ↑ Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:8:2, 2:8:5.
  3. ↑ Falileyev 2010, Viducasses.
  4. ↑ Delamarre 2003, pp. 109–110: "H. Birkhan parvient cependant à la conclusion raisonnable que -casses et cassi- sont deux mots différents, que -casses signifie probablement 'au cheveux bouclés / crépus' ("mit wirrem Kraushaar") et s'explique par la coiffure spéciale des Celtes au combat (une forme celto-germanique *kazdh- permettrait d'unifier le celtique -cass- et les mots v.norr. haddr 'longs cheveux de femme', ags. heord 'chevelure' < *kazdh-to-/ti-)."
  5. ↑ de Bernardo Stempel 2015, p. 85.
  6. ↑ Nègre 1990, p. 158.
  7. ↑ Delaval 2004, p. 497.
  8. ↑ Talbert 2000, Map 7: Aremorica.
  9. 1 2 Delaval 2004, pp. 497–498.

Bibliography

  • de Bernardo Stempel, Patrizia (2015). "Zu den keltisch benannten Stämmen im Umfeld des oberen Donauraums". In Lohner-Urban, Ute; Scherrer, Peter (eds.). Der obere Donauraum 50 v. bis 50 n. Chr. Frank & Timme. ISBN 978-3-7329-0143-2.
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
  • Delaval, Eric (2004). "Vieux / Aregenua (Calvados)". Supplément à la Revue archéologique du centre de la France. 25 (1): 497–500. ISSN 1951-6207.
  • Falileyev, Alexander (2010). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS. ISBN 978-0955718236.
  • Nègre, Ernest (1990). Toponymie générale de la France. Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-02883-7.
  • Talbert, Richard J. A. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691031699.
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