The Arecomici or Volcae Arecomici were a Gallic tribe dwelling between the Rhône and the Hérault rivers, around present-day Nîmes, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Name
editThe meaning of the ethnonym Arecomici remains unclear. The Gaulish prefix are- means 'in front of, in the vicinity of', but the translation of the second element, -comici, is unknown.[1] The name Volcae stems from Gaulish uolcos ('hawk').[2]
Geography
editTheir chief town Nemausus was inhabited since the Bronze Age; its original pre-Celtic name was likely forgotten after the takeover of the settlement by the Celtic Volcae.[3]
Another settlement was known as Vindomagus ('white market').[3]
History
editThe Arecomici were probably first recognized or defined as a political entity by Rome around 75 BC.[4] 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 of the Volcae Arecomici out of a formerly fluid coalition of different polities and ethnic groups".[5]
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.[6]
Economy
editThe 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.[7]
References
edit- ^ de Hoz 2005, p. 178.
- ^ Delamarre 2003, p. 327.
- ^ a b de Hoz 2005, p. 179.
- ^ Dietler 2015, p. 359.
- ^ Dietler 2015, p. 90.
- ^ Dietler 2015, pp. 88–89.
- ^ Dietler 2015, p. 91.
Bibliography
edit- de Hoz, Javier (2005). "Ptolemy and the linguistic history of the Narbonensis". In de Hoz, Javier; Luján, Eugenio R.; Sims-Williams, Patrick (eds.). New approaches to Celtic place-names in Ptolemy's Geography. Ediciones Clásicas. pp. 173–188. ISBN 978-8478825721.
- Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
- Dietler, Michael (2015). Archaeologies of Colonialism: Consumption, Entanglement, and Violence in Ancient Mediterranean France. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-28757-0.
Further reading
edit- Dupraz, Emmanuel. "Commémorations cultuelles gallo-grecques chez les Volques Arécomiques". In: Etudes Celtiques, vol. 44, 2018. pp. 35-72. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/ecelt.2018.2180; www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_2018_num_44_1_2180
External links
edit
Media related to Arecomici at Wikimedia Commons