The Bodiocasses or Baiocasses were an ancient Gallic tribe of the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

. They were a tribal division of the ''

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...

'' of the

Lexovii The Lexovii (Gaulish: *''Lexsouioi'', 'the leaning, lame'), were a Gallic tribe dwelling immediately west of the mouth of the Seine, around present-day Lisieux, during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Name They are mentioned as ''Lexovii'' (v ...

, in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Gallia Lugdunensis Gallia Lugdunensis ( French: ''Gaule Lyonnaise'') was a province of the Roman Empire in what is now the modern country of France, part of the Celtic territory of Gaul formerly known as Celtica. It is named after its capital Lugdunum (today's Lyon ...

Name

They are mentioned as ''Bodiocasses'' by

Pliny Pliny may refer to: People * Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'') * Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...

(1st c. AD), ''Ou̓adikássioi'' (Οὐαδικάσσιοι) by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

(2nd c. AD), ''Baiocassi'' by

Ausonius Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine, modern Bordeaux, France. For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. H ...

(4th c. AD), and as ''Baiocas'' in the ''

Notitia Dignitatum The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of ...

'' (5th c. AD). The

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium ...

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

''Bodiocasses'' derives from the

Proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly Linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed through the compar ...

stem *''bodyo-'' ('yellow, blond'; cf.

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...

''buide'' 'yellow'). The meaning of the second element ''-casses'', attested in other Gaulish ethnonyms such as ''

Durocasses The Durocasses were a Gallic tribe dwelling around present-day Dreux during the Roman period. Name They are mentioned ''Durocasis'' (var. ''durocacasis'') on the ''Itinerarium Antonini'' (early 3rd c. AD), as ''Durocassio'' on the ''Tabula ...

'', '' Sucasses'', ''

Tricasses The Tricasses were a Gallic tribe dwelling on the upper Seine and the Aube rivers during the Roman period. Until the first century AD, they were probably reckoned among the Senones. Name They are mentioned as ''Tricasses'' by Pliny (1st c. AD), ...

'', ''

Veliocasses The Veliocasses or Velocasses (Gaulish: *''Weliocassēs'') were a Belgic or Gallic tribe of the La Tène and Roman periods, dwelling in the south of modern Seine-Maritime and in the north of Eure. Name They are mentioned as ''Veliocasses'' by ...

'' or ''

Viducasses 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), and as ''Bidoukes� ...

'', has been debated, but it probably signifies '(curly) hair, hairstyle' (cf. Old Irish ''chass'' 'curl'), perhaps referring to a particular warrior coiffure.

Rudolf Thurneysen Eduard Rudolf Thurneysen (March 14, 1857 – 9 August 1940) was a Swiss linguist and Celticist. Biography Born in Basel, Thurneysen studied classical philology in Basel, Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. His teachers included Ernst Windisch and H ...

has compared the name with the

''buide-chass'' ('blond curls'), and suggested to translate ''Bodiocasses'' as 'those who have blond curls/braids'.

Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel (born 5 April 1953) is an Italian philologist, linguist and scholar of Celtic studies. Biography Patrizia de Bernardo was born on 5 April 1953 in Milan, Italy, the daughter of Mario de Bernardo and Adriana Marra. She ...

has proposed to interpret the name as 'those with shining helmets'. The city of

Bayeux Bayeux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados Departments of France, department in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in northwestern France. Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts ...

, attested ca. 400 AD as ''civitas Baiocassium'' ('

of the Baiocasses'; ''Baiocas'' in 400–410, ''Baieus'' in 1155), and the region of

Bessin Bessin () is an area in Normandy, France, corresponding to the territory of the Bajocasses, a Gallic tribe from whom Bayeux, its main town, takes its name. History The territory was annexed by the count of Rouen in 924. The Bessin corresponds t ...

, attested in 840 AD as ''pagus Baiocassinus'' ('

pagus In ancient Rome, the Latin word (plural ) was an administrative term designating a rural subdivision of a tribal territory, which included individual farms, villages (), and strongholds () serving as refuges, as well as an early medieval geogra ...

of the Baiocasses'; ''Beissin'' in 1050–66), all stem from the Gallic tribe.

Geography

The Baiocasses dwelled in a region located around modern-day

in western

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

History

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

does not mention the Baiocasses in his commentaries on the

Gallic Wars The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland). Gallic, Germanic, and British tribes fought to defend their homela ...

(58–50 BCE), but they are listed in the ''

Notitia dignitatum The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of ...

'' and are probably the same people

calls ''Bodiocasses''. The Baiocasses minted base gold, silver and billon (base silver) coins in the denomination of one

stater The stater (; grc, , , statḗr, weight) was an ancient coin used in various regions of Ancient Greece, Greece. The term is also used for similar coins, imitating Greek staters, minted elsewhere in ancient Europe. History The stater, as a Gr ...

and in the case of gold coins sometimes quarter staters. Most of the coins show a Celtic-style male head with elaborated hair on the obverse, and on the reverse a horse with a chariot rider above or behind, and below usually either a

lyre The lyre () is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a yoke ...

or small boar. A number of these are in existence. The 4th-century Bordelaise poet

teases a friend as a Baiocassis who claimed to be of

druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...

ic heritage and descended from priests of Belenus.

, ''Commemoratio professorum Burdigalensium'' 4.7; Altay Coşkun with Jürgen Zeidler, "'Cover Names' and Nomenclature in Late Roman Gaul: The Evidence of the Bordelaise Poet Ausonius" (2003), pp. 6–7.

References

Bibliography

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Name

Geography

History

References

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See also