Brigantii
The Brigantii (Gaulish: Brigantioi, 'the eminent, high ones') were a Gallic tribe dwelling southeast of Lake Constance, near present-day Bregenz (Vorarlberg), during the Roman era.
Name
They are mentioned as Brigántioi (Βριγάντιοι) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD).[1][2] An identification with the Brixentes, a tribe listed on the Tropaeum Alpium, has been proposed.[3]
The ethnic name Brigantii is a latinized form of Gaulish Brigantioi. It derives from the stem briganti-, meaning 'high, elevated', and can be compared with the name of the goddess Brigantia and the various toponyms Brigantio(n) ('eminence'), at the origin of modern Briançon, Brégançon, Briantes, and Bregenz.[4]
Geography
The Brigantii lived southeast of Lake Constance (Lacus Brigantinus), in Raetia.[5][6] Their territory was located north of the Vennones, west of the Estiones, east of the Lentienses.[7]
Their chief town was known as Brigantium ('high place'; modern Bregenz). The settlement was located on the northeastern bay of Lake Constance, at an intersection of important east-west and north-south traffic routes. Late La Tène finds from the Ölrain plateau suggest the existence of a pre-Roman oppidum in the upper part of town.[6]
References
- Strabo. Geōgraphiká, 4:6:8.
- Falileyev 2010, s.v. Brigantii.
- Ernst Meyer: Die geschichtlichen Nachrichten über die Räter und ihre Wohnsitze. In: Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte. Vol. 55, 1970, p. 119—125
- Delamarre 2003, p. 87.
- Frei-Stolba 2004.
- Dietz 2006.
- Talbert 2000, Map 19: Raetia.
Primary sources
Bibliography
- Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
- Dietz, Karlheinz (2006). "Brigantium". Brill's New Pauly. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e220090.
- 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.
- Frei-Stolba, Regula (2004). "Brigantii". Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz.
- Talbert, Richard J. A. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691031699.
