Curiosolites coinage 5th 1st century BCE

The Coriosolites or Curiosolitae were a Gallic people dwelling on the northern coast of present-day

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period o ...

during the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

and the

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

Name

They are mentioned as ''Coriosolitas'' (var. ''coriosolitos'', ''curiosolitas'', ''curiosolitas'') and ''Coriosolites'' (var. ''coriosultes'', ''coricoriosuelites'', ''cariosu''-) by

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, an ...

(mid-1st c. BC), and as ''Coriosvelites'' by Pliny (1st c. AD). Pliny. ''Naturalis Historia,'' 4:18., s.v. ''Coriosolites''. The etymology of the ethnonym ''Coriosolites'' remains uncertain. The first element is certainly the

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient 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, most of Switzerl ...

root ''corio-'' ('army, troop'), derived from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...

*''

kóryos The ''kóryos'' (Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European: "army, people under arms" or "detachment, war party") refers to the theoretical Proto-Indo-Europeans, Proto-Indo-European brotherhood of warriors in which unmarried young males se ...

'' ('army, people under arms'). However, the meaning of the second element is unclear.

Pierre-Yves Lambert Pierre-Yves Lambert (born 30 May 1949) is a French linguist and scholar of Celtic studies. He is a researcher at the CNRS and a lecturer at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Celtic linguistics and philology. Lambert is the director of the ...

has proposed to interpret ''corio-solit-es'' as 'those who purchase (or sell) mercenaries', by positing a Gaulish root ''solitu-'' ('purchase/salary of mercenaries'; cf. Gaul. ''soldurio-'' < 'body-guard, loyal, devoted', OBret. ''solt'' '

solidus Solidus (Latin for "solid") may refer to: * Solidus (coin), a Roman coin of nearly solid gold * Solidus (punctuation), or slash, a punctuation mark * Solidus (chemistry) In chemistry, materials science, and physics, the solidus is the locus ...

'). Alternatively, a connection with the Gaulish root ''sūli-'' (' oodsight'; cf. OIr. ''súil'', 'sight', Britt. ''

Sulis In the localised Celtic polytheism practised in Great Britain, Sulis was a deity worshiped at the thermal spring of Bath (now in Somerset). She was worshiped by the Romano-British as Sulis Minerva, whose votive objects and inscribed lead tab ...

'') has also been conjectured, with ''corio-soli-tes'' as the 'troop-watchers', 'those who watch over the troop'. The city of Corseul, attested ca. 400 AD as ''civitas Coriosolitum'' ('

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 () o ...

of the Curiosolites', ''Aecclesia Corsult'' ca. 869, ''Corsout'' in 1288) is named after the Gallic tribe.

Geography

Territory

The Coriosolites are mentioned by Caesar together with the Veneti,

Unelli The Venellī or Unellī (Gaulish: *''Uenellī/Wenellī'') were a Gallic tribe dwelling on the Cotentin peninsula, in the northwest of modern Normandy, during the Iron Age and the Roman period. In 57 BC, they capitulated to Caesar's legate Publiu ...

, Osismi, and others that Caesar calls ''maritimae civitates'', "maritime cities" which border on the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

. In another place he describes the position of the Coriosolites on the ocean in the same terms, and includes them among the Armoric states, a name equivalent to ''maritimae''.Caesar, ''B. G.'' vii. 75. Pliny mentions them with the Unelli, Diablindi, and

Rhedones The Redones or Riedones (Gaulish: ''Rēdones'', later ''Riedones'', 'chariot- or horse-drivers') were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the eastern part of the Armorican peninsula (modern Brittany), around their chief town Condate (modern Rennes), duri ...

Settlements

The ancient settlement of Corseul was most likely established ''

ex nihilo (Latin for "creation out of nothing") is the doctrine that matter is not eternal but had to be created by some divine creative act. It is a theistic answer to the question of how the universe comes to exist. It is in contrast to ''Ex nihilo n ...

'' by the Roman authorities during the reign of

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

, as the capital of the ''

'' Coriosolitum. The town is generally identified with the settlement of ''Fanum Martis'' ('temple of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmos ...

') mentioned on the ''

Tabula Peutingeriana ' (Latin for "The Peutinger Map"), also referred to as Peutinger's Tabula or Peutinger Table, is an illustrated ' (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the '' cursus publicus'', the road network of the Roman Empire. The map is a 13th-ce ...

'' (5th c. AD). Due to the lack of early

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

record, however, the original Gaulish name of the town remains unknown. Corseul reached at size of 47ha in the first centuries of the

Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the ...

. Around 340 AD, the capital of the ''civitas'' was moved to Aleth (

Saint-Servan Saint-Servan (often abbreviated as St. Servan; br, Sant-Servan) is a town of western France, in Brittany, situated 2 miles from the ferry port of Saint-Malo. It is renowned for its shops and restaurants. History In June 1758, during the Seven Ye ...

), situated on the coast.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Authority control Historical Celtic peoples Gauls Tribes of pre-Roman Gaul Curiosolitae History of Brittany