Brigantii
The Brigantii (Gaulish: Brigantioi, 'the eminent, high ones') were a Gallic tribe dwelling southeast of Lake Constance, near present-day Bregenz (Vorarlberg), during the Roman era.
Name
[edit]They are mentioned as Brigántioi (Βριγάντιοι) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD).[1][2] An identification with the Brixentes, a tribe listed on the Tropaeum Alpium, has been proposed.[3]
The ethnic name Brigantii is a Latinized form of Gaulish Brigantioi. It derives from the stem briganti-, meaning 'high, elevated', and can be compared with the name of the goddess Brigantia and the various toponyms Brigantio(n) ('eminence'), at the origin of modern Briançon, Brégançon, Briantes, and Bregenz.[4]
Geography
[edit]The Brigantii lived southeast of Lake Constance (Lacus Brigantinus), in Raetia.[5][6] Their territory was located north of the Vennones, west of the Estiones, east of the Lentienses.[7]
Their chief town was known as Brigantium ('high place'; modern Bregenz). The settlement was located on the northeastern bay of Lake Constance, at an intersection of important east–west and north–south traffic routes. Late La Tène finds from the Ölrain plateau suggest the existence of a pre-Roman oppidum in the upper part of town.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ Strabo. Geōgraphiká, 4:6:8.
- ^ Falileyev 2010, s.v. Brigantii.
- ^ Ernst Meyer: Die geschichtlichen Nachrichten über die Räter und ihre Wohnsitze. In: Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte. Vol. 55, 1970, p. 119—125
- ^ Delamarre 2003, p. 87.
- ^ Frei-Stolba 2004.
- ^ a b Dietz 2006.
- ^ Talbert 2000, Map 19: Raetia.
Primary sources
[edit]- Strabo (1923). Geography. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Jones, Horace L. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674990562.
Bibliography
[edit]- Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
- Dietz, Karlheinz (2006). "Brigantium". Brill's New Pauly. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e220090.
- 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.
- Frei-Stolba, Regula (2004). "Brigantii". Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz.
- Talbert, Richard J. A. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691031699.
