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

The 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

Their 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

The 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

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.[7]

References

  1. ^ de Hoz 2005, p. 178.
  2. ^ Delamarre 2003, p. 327.
  3. ^ a b de Hoz 2005, p. 179.
  4. ^ Dietler 2015, p. 359.
  5. ^ Dietler 2015, p. 90.
  6. ^ Dietler 2015, pp. 88–89.
  7. ^ Dietler 2015, p. 91.

Bibliography

  • 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

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