Baiokassen

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Coin (stater) of the Celtic Bajo coffers from the 1st century BC

The Baiokassen ( Latin Baiocasses ), also Bodiokassen (Latin Bodiocasses ) were a Celtic tribe who lived in the area of ​​today's Bayeux .

Tribal area

The tribal area of Baiokassen belonged to the by the Romans in ancient times with Armorica designated northwestern coast of Gaul , now Normandy in northwestern France. It later became part of the province of Gallia Lugdunensis after the conquest by the Roman Empire . One of its cities, the city of Augustodurum, today's Bayeux , whose name derives from Civitas Baiocassium , the "city of the Baiokassen", developed into one of the most important places in this province during the Gallo-Roman period.

The neighbors of the Baiokassen were the Lexovians and the Venellers , they are called the Esuvians as a client base .

Ancient written sources

The Baiokassen were probably part of a people around the Lexovians . These are first used around 58 BC. Called by the Roman general and author Gaius Iulius Caesar in De Bello Gallico . In this report of his wars in Gaul, Caesar does not mention the Baiocasses , but these are said to be identical to the Bodiocasses that Pliny the Elder called in the 1st century AD . The name Baiocasses can then be found in a Roman state manual, the Notitia dignitatum , which was probably written at the beginning of the 4th century AD.

In a poem by the late ancient Roman poet Ausonius from the 4th century there is a reference to the descent of a rhetoric professor "from the druid family of the Baiokassen".

Tribal names

It is believed that the first part of the tribal name of the Baiokassen goes back to the Celtic word for yellow or blond badios , which is also found as a proper name on some Gallic grave inscriptions. The origin of the other part of the name, however, is uncertain. At one point it could be combined with the word for hair or hairstyle casses , which could not undoubtedly result in the overall name as blond curly . But the word for oak cassano could also explain the second part.

Coins

The Baiokassen beat even before arrival of the Romans numerous gold and silver coins, called staters , and in gold and 1/24 Stater . The Celtic coinage used Greek or Roman coin models for the choice of motifs. Typical gold staters of the Baiokassen from the years 60 to 50 BC B.C. for example show a boar or a horse and a representation of a human head surrounded by ribbons, reminiscent of Greek coins. The spread of coin finds indicates the region's intensive trade relations with Europe and, above all, England.

Remarks

  1. ^ Wilhelm GL von Donop: Oldest and old times. Volumes 4–5, Hanover 1841.
  2. ^ Johann Martin Lappenberg : History of England. Volume 2. Hamburg 1837.
  3. ↑ For the German spelling, see also Baiocasses . In: Karl Ernst Georges: Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary. 8th edition. Volume 1. Hahn, Hanover 1913, Sp. 778 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Baiocasses . In: Karl Ernst Georges: Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary. 8th edition. Volume 1. Hahn, Hanover 1913, Sp. 778 ( online ).
  5. ^ Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 ; P. 46.
  6. ↑ Pliny: Naturalis historia 4, 107 .
  7. ↑ Commemoratio professorum Burdigalensiom IV, 7ff., 104. In: Ausonius: Opera. Edited by Hugh G. White. Cambridge, Mass., London 1919.
  8. ↑ Altay Coskun: Cover Names and Nomenclature in Late Roman Gaul. The Evidence of the Bordelaise Poet Ausonius . Oxford 2003.
  9. ↑ hair . In: Bernhard Maier: Small lexicon of names and words of Celtic origin . 3. Edition. Munich 2003.
  10. ^ Xavier Delamarre: Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental . Paris 2003.
  11. ^ Pierre-Yves Lambert: La langue gauloise, Description linguistique, commentaire d'inscriptions choisies . Paris 1994.

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