The Tricasses were a Gallic tribe dwelling on the upper Seine and the Aube rivers during the Roman period. Until the first century AD, they were probably reckoned among the Senones.[1]

Name

They are mentioned as Tricasses by Pliny (1st c. AD),[2] and as Trikásioi (Τρικάσιοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD).[3][4]

The Gaulish ethnonym Tricasses derives from the root for 'three', tri-.[5] The meaning of the second element -casses, attested in other Gaulish ethnonyms such as Bodiocasses, Durocasses, Sucasses, 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. The name Tricasses may thus be translated as 'the three-braided ones' or 'those of the three (many) curls'.[6]

The city of Troyes, attested ca. 400 AD as civitas Tricassium ('civitas of the Tricasses'; Trecassis in the 7th c., Treci in 890, Troies in 1230), is named after the Gallic tribe.[7]

Geography

The Tricasses dwelled near the Senones, the Parisii, the Meldi, the Remi and the Lingones.[1]

From the reign of Augustus, Augustobona Tricassium (modern Troyes) was the chief town of their civitas.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Polfer 2006.
  2. ^ Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:107.
  3. ^ Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:8:10.
  4. ^ Falileyev 2010, s.v. Tricasses.
  5. ^ Delamarre 2003, p. 301.
  6. ^ 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-)."
  7. ^ Nègre 1990, p. 157.

Bibliography

  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental (in French). 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.
  • Nègre, Ernest (1990). Toponymie générale de la France (in French). Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-02883-7.
  • Polfer, Michel (2006). "Tricasses". Brill's New Pauly. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1220270.
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