Segusiavi

The Segusiavi (Gaulish: Segusiaui) were a Gallic tribe dwelling around the modern city of Feurs, in the modern Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in central France.

A map of Gaul in the 1st century BC, showing the relative positions of the Celtic tribes.

Name

They are mentioned as Segusiavis by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC),[1] as Segosianō͂n (Σεγοσιανῶν) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD),[2] as Segusiavi by Pliny (1st c. AD),[3] and as Segousō̃antoi (Σεγουσῶαντοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD).[4][5]

The etymology of the ethnonym Segusiaui remains unclear. It probably stems from the Gaulish root sego- ('victory, force'),[6] but the second element is problematic.[5] Irish folklorist Dáithí Ó hÓgáin tentatively translates their name as the 'Victorious Ones'.[7] Since the Segusiavi possessed a wide area just north of the Greek colony of Massalia (Marseille) at the time of Aristotle, he has proposed to see their name as an alternative ethnonym of the Segobriges, the tribe involved in the foundation myth of Massalia.[7]

The city of Feurs, attested by Ptolemy as Phóros Segousiántōn (Φόρος Σεγουσιάντων, 'forum, market of the Segusiavi'; Forum in 950, Fuer in 1227), is indirectly named after the tribe.[8][5]

Geography

The chief town of the Segusiavi was Forum Segusiavorum (modern Feurs), erected on a pre-Roman settlement which had been occupied from the 2nd century BC onwards. The city lost its local preeminence in the 3rd–4th centuries AD. Under Diocletian, in 297/298, Forum Segusiavorum was incorporated into the province of Lugdunensis Prima.[9]

The Segusiavi also held a fortress at Lugdunum (modern Lyon).[10]

References
  1. Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico, 7:64:4, 7:75:2.
  2. Strabo. Geōgraphiká, 4:1:11.
  3. Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:18:107.
  4. Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:8:11.
  5. Falileyev 2010, s.v. Segusiavi and Forum Segusiavorum.
  6. Delamarre 2003, p. 269.
  7. Ó hÓgáin 2003, pp. 27, 127.
  8. Nègre 1990, p. 359.
  9. Valette 2004, pp. 423–424.
  10. Ó hÓgáin 2003, p. 127.

Bibliography
  • 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.
  • Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí (2003). The Celts: A History. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-923-2.
  • Nègre, Ernest (1990). Toponymie générale de la France. Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-02883-7.
  • Valette, Paul (2004). "Feurs / Forum Segusiavorum (Loire)". Supplément à la Revue archéologique du centre de la France. 25 (1): 423–426. ISSN 1951-6207.

See also
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