Ligauni

The Ligauni were a Celto-Ligurian tribe dwelling near the Mediterranean coast during the Iron Age and the Roman period.

Name

They are mentioned as Ligaunorumque by Pliny (1st c. AD).^[1][2] A (colonia) in Liga in also attested in the Early Middle Ages (814 AD).^[3]

The ethnic name Ligauni is probably Celtic, stemming from an earlier *Ligamnī. It has been derived from the root līg- ('to strike'), with Ligauni as 'the beating ones',^[4] or from liga- ('mud, sediment, silt').^[2] According to Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, such linguistically Celtic tribal names suggest that a Celto-Ligurian dialect played an important role among the languages spoken in ancient Ligury.^[4]

Geography

Their territory was located east of the Deciates, west of the Verucini, south of the Suetrii, and north of the Oxybii.^[5] According to historian Guy Barruol, they were part of the Saluvian confederation.^[6][7]

References

1. Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:35.
2. Falileyev 2010, s.v. Ligauni.
3. Barruol 1969, p. 215.
4. de Bernardo Stempel 2006, p. 46.
5. Talbert 2000, Map 16: Col. Forum Iulii-Albingaunum.
6. Barruol 1969, p. 188.
7. Rivet 1988, p. 16.

Bibliography

• Barruol, Guy (1969). Les Peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: étude de géographie historique. E. de Boccard. OCLC 3279201.
• de Bernardo Stempel, Patrizia (2006). "From Ligury to Spain: Unaccented *yo > (y)e in Narbonensic votives ('gaulish' DEKANTEM), Hispanic coins ('iberian' -(sk)en) and some theonyms". Palaeohispanica. 6: 45–58. ISSN 1578-5386.
• 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.
• Rivet, A. L. F. (1988). Gallia Narbonensis: With a Chapter on Alpes Maritimae : Southern France in Roman Times. Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-5860-2.
• Talbert, Richard J. A. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691031699.