Bodiocasses

The Bodiocasses or Baiocasses were an ancient Gallic tribe of the Roman period. They were a tribal division of the civitas of the Lexovii, in the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis.

A stater of the Baiocasses depicting a human profile with a boar set within whirls of pattern that extend from the stylized hair. The Celtic war locks are clearly represented and could justify the etymology Bodio-cassi

Name

They are mentioned as Bodiocasses by Pliny (1st c. AD),[1] Ou̓adikássioi (Οὐαδικάσσιοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD),[2] Baiocassi by Ausonius (4th c. AD),[3] and as Baiocas in the Notitia Dignitatum (5th c. AD).[4][5]

The Gaulish ethnonym Bodiocasses derives from the Proto-Celtic stem *bodyo- ('yellow, blond'; cf. Old Irish buide 'yellow').[6][7] The meaning of the second element -casses, attested in other Gaulish ethnonyms such as Durocasses, Sucasses, Tricasses, Veliocasses or Viducasses, has been debated, but it probably signifies '(curly) hair, hairstyle' (cf. Old Irish chass 'curl'), perhaps referring to a particular warrior coiffure. Rudolf Thurneysen has compared the name with the Old Irish buide-chass ('blond curls'), and suggested to translate Bodiocasses as 'those who have blond curls/braids'.[8] Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel has proposed to interpret the name as 'those with shining helmets'.[9]

The city of Bayeux, attested ca. 400 AD as civitas Baiocassium ('civitas of the Baiocasses'; Baiocas in 400–410, Baieus in 1155), and the region of Bessin, attested in 840 AD as pagus Baiocassinus ('pagus of the Baiocasses'; Beissin in 1050–66), all stem from the Gallic tribe.[10]

Geography

The Baiocasses dwelled in a region located around modern-day Bayeux in western Normandy.[6]

History

Julius Caesar does not mention the Baiocasses in his commentaries on the Gallic Wars (58–50 BCE), but they are listed in the Notitia dignitatum and are probably the same people Pliny calls Bodiocasses.[11][6]

The Baiocasses minted base gold, silver and billon (base silver) coins in the denomination of one stater and in the case of gold coins sometimes quarter staters. Most of the coins show a Celtic-style male head with elaborated hair on the obverse, and on the reverse a horse with a chariot rider above or behind, and below usually either a lyre or small boar. A number of these are in existence.[12]

The 4th-century Bordelaise poet Ausonius teases a friend as a Baiocassis who claimed to be of druidic heritage and descended from priests of Belenus.[13]

References
  1. Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:107.
  2. Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:8:11.
  3. Ausonius. Professores, 11, 4:7.
  4. Notitia Dignitatum, oc. 42, 34.
  5. Falileyev 2010, s.v. Bodiocasses.
  6. Delamarre 2003, p. 63.
  7. Matasović 2009, p. 70.
  8. Delamarre 2003, pp. 109–110: "H. Birkhan parvient cependant à la conclusion raisonnable que -casses et cassi- sont deux mots différents, que -casses signifie probablement 'au cheveux bouclés / crépus' ("mit wirrem Kraushaar") et s'explique par la coiffure spéciale des Celtes au combat (une forme celto-germanique *kazdh- permettrait d'unifier le celtique -cass- et les mots v.norr. haddr 'longs cheveux de femme', ags. heord 'chevelure' < *kazdh-to-/ti-)."
  9. de Bernardo Stempel 2015, p. 85.
  10. Nègre 1990, pp. 152, 424.
  11. Pliny, Natural History 4.107 (Latin edition).
  12. BAIOCASSES - BAIOCASSES - (Région de BAYEUX) - (Ier siècle avant J.-C.) - Statère d'argent fourré - c. 60-50 AC. - VSO 15.
  13. Ausonius, Commemoratio professorum Burdigalensium 4.7; Altay Coşkun with Jürgen Zeidler, "'Cover Names' and Nomenclature in Late Roman Gaul: The Evidence of the Bordelaise Poet Ausonius" (2003), pp. 6–7.

Bibliography
  • de Bernardo Stempel, Patrizia (2015). "Zu den keltisch benannten Stämmen im Umfeld des oberen Donauraums". In Lohner-Urban, Ute; Scherrer, Peter (eds.). Der obere Donauraum 50 v. bis 50 n. Chr. Frank & Timme. ISBN 978-3-7329-0143-2.
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
  • 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.
  • Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Brill. ISBN 9789004173361.
  • Nègre, Ernest (1990). Toponymie générale de la France. Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-02883-7.

See also
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