Vellaunus is a Celtic god known from two inscriptions.

Epigraphy

The deity Vellaunus is known from two inscriptions. The first, found at

Caerwent Caerwent ( cy, Caer-went) is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and 11 miles east of Newport. It was founded by the Romans as the market town of ''Venta Silurum'', an important sett ...

, is the base of a state recording the dedication of the statue to: : EOMARTI LENO : VE OCELO VELLAVN ET NVM AVG :M NONIVS ROMANVS OB :IMMVNITATEM COLLEGNI :D D S D :GLABRIONE ET H MLO COS D X K SEPT :"To the god Mars Lenus, otherwise known as Ocelus Vellaunus, and to the Imperial ''numen'', M. Nonius Romanus, by privilege of the college, dedicated this gift using his own funds during the consulship of Glabrio and Homulo ten days before the kalends of September." Above this base there survives only a pair of human feet and those of a goose. The dedication dates to AD 152. Mars Lenus was a god of the

Treveri The Trēverī ( Gaulish: *''Trēueroi'') were a Celtic tribe of the Belgae group who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle from around 150 BCE, if not earlier, until their displacement by the Franks. Their domain lay within the southern fri ...

with great cult centres at

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

and

Pommern Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

; Ocelus was a local British deity, to whom another stone was inscribed at Caerwent, and who was also worshipped at Carlisle. Mars Lenus was clearly equated in Britain with other, localised Celtic divinities. The second inscription dedicated to Vellaunus was located at Hières-sur-Amby in the territory of the

Allobroges The Allobroges (Gaulish: *''Allobrogis'', 'foreigner, exiled'; grc, Ἀλλοβρίγων, Ἀλλόβριγες) were a Gallic people dwelling in a large territory between the Rhône river and the Alps during the Iron Age and the Roman period. ...

in southern Gaul. It reads: :AVG SACR DEO :MERCVRIO :VICTORI MAC :NIACO VEILAVNO :C CAPITOIVS MACRI :NVS RESTITVIT :"To Augustus and the god Mercury the Victor Macniacus Vellaunus, C. Capitojus Macrinus restored this sacred object." Here Vellaunus occurs as one of several epithets of Mercury.

Name

The root ''uellauno-'' is attested in compounds of Celtic onomastics. Some examples include toponym Vellaunodunum, and ethnonyms

Segovellauni The Segovellauni (Gaulish: ''*Segouellaunoi'', 'chiefs-of-victory') were a small Gallic tribe dwelling in the modern Drôme department, near the present-day city of Valence, during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Little is known about the ea ...

and

Catuvellauni The Catuvellauni (Common Brittonic: *''Catu-wellaunī'', "war-chiefs") were a Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest, attested by inscriptions into the 4th century. The fortunes of the Catuvellauni and their ...

, a tribe of southeastern Britain, whose name may also be cognate with Catalauni ( Châlons-sur-Marne) and Catalaunia (

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

).Xavier Delamarre (2003). ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise : Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental,'' 2^e édition. Éditions Errance. . p. 310. Individual names include goddess Icovellauna; British leader Cassivellaunos, later famous in Welsh legend as Caswallawn;

Vercassivellaunos Vercassivellaunus (?- 46 BC) was a Gaulish commander of the Arverni who led a relief force to assist Vercingetorix, who was besieged and low on supplies, in the Battle of Alesia. Caesar refers to him as a cousin of Vercingetorix. He encamped wit ...

Dubnovellaunus Dubnovellaunus or Dumnovellaunus was the name of at least one, and possibly several kings of south-eastern Britain in the late 1st century BC/early 1st century AD, known from coin legends and from a mention in the ''Res Gestae Divi Augusti''. *Dubn ...

and Cadwallon.

Etymology

The meaning of ''uellauno-'' has been variously interpreted. It has been glossed by Pierre-Henri Billy as "bon" (good); however, Pierre-Yves Lambert derives it from *''uelna-mon-'', meaning "chef, commandant, dirigeant" (chief, commander, leader). The latter derivation has been accepted as definitive by

Xavier Delamarre Xavier Delamarre (; born 5 June 1954) is a French linguist, lexicographer, and diplomat. He is regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on the Gaulish language. Since 2019, he has been an associate researcher for the CNRS- PSL AOrOc ...

and accords well with the Latin epithet ''victor'' found alongside ''vellaunus'' in the Hières inscription. Celticist

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 ...

also translated ''Vellaunus'' as "Führer" ('leader').Stempel, Patrizia de Bernardo. "Keltische Äquivalente klassischer Epitheta und andere sprachliche und nicht-sprachliche Phänomene im Rahmen der sogenannten ‚interpretatio Romana‘". In: ''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie'' 61, no. 1 (2014): 19. https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1515/zcph.2014.003

References

{{Celtic mythology (ancient) Celtic gods