The Arecomici or Volcae Arecomici were a Gallic tribe dwelling between the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

and the

Hérault Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of ...

, 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 ...

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

The meaning of the

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 us ...

''Arecomici'' remains unclear. 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 Switze ...

prefix ''are-'' means 'in front of, in the vicinity of', but the translation of the second element, -''comici'', is unknown. The name ''

Volcae The Volcae () were a Gallic tribal confederation constituted before the raid of combined Gauls that invaded Macedonia c. 270 BC and fought the assembled Greeks at the Battle of Thermopylae in 279 BC. Tribes known by the name Volcae were found si ...

'' stems from

''uolcos'' ('hawk').

Geography

Their chief town Nemausus was inhabited since the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

; its original name was possibly forgotten after the takeover of the settlement by the Celtic Volcae. Another settlement was known as Vindomagus ('white market').

History

The Arecomici were probably first officially recognized or defined by Rome as a political entity around 75 BC. According to anthropologist Michael Dietler, the Roman colonization of the region, which led to the organization of Nemausus as a ''colonia Latina'' in the late 1st century AD, "resulted in the

ethnogenesis Ethnogenesis (; ) is "the formation and development of an ethnic group". This can originate by group self-identification or by outside identification. The term ''ethnogenesis'' was originally a mid-19th century neologism that was later introd ...

of the Volcae Arecomici out of a formerly fluid coalition of different polities and ethnic groups". They were indeed part of a political confederation encompassing multiple smaller tribes. By the early first century AD, the Volcae Arecomici were the dominant force of the confederation, ruling over twenty-four subject towns (''oppida ignobilia'') from their capital Nemausus.

Economy

The Roman conquest was soon followed up by the first emissions of coins in Nemausus. Coins with the legend 'Volcae Arecomici' (AR/VOLC or VOLC/AREC) are dated to 70 BC.

References

Bibliography