Everything about The Volcae totally explained
The
Volcae were a
Celtic tribal confederation constituted sometime before the Gallic raid of combined Gauls that invaded
Macedon in the 270s and defeated the assembled Greeks at the
Battle of Thermopylae in 279. Though our view of Celtic tribal configuations has to be pieced together from mentions in Greek and Latin sources, for archaeology determines no tribal identities purely through
material culture of the late
La Tène Celts, tribes called
Volcae were to be found simultaneously in southern
France,
Moravia, the
Ebro River valley, and
Galatia in
Asia Minor (
Anatolia).
Driven by highly mobile groups operating outside the tribal system and comprising diverse elements, the Volcae were one of the new
ethnic entities formed during the Celtic military expansion at the beginning of the third century BC. Collecting in the famous excursion into the
Balkans, ostensibly, from the Hellene point-of-view, to raid
Delphi, a branch of the Volcae split from the main group on the way into the Balkans and joined two other tribes, the Tolistobogii and the Trocmi, to settle in central
Asia Minor and establish a new Gaulish identity as the
Galatians.
Volcae of the Danube
Julius Caesar was convinced that the Volcae had originally been settled north-east of the
Rhine, in what is now western and central
Germany in the basin of the
Weser River, for he mentioned the Volcae Tectosages as a
Celtic tribe which still remained in western Germany in his day (
Gallic War 6.24):
» "And there was formerly a time when the Gauls excelled the Germans in prowess, and waged war on them offensively, and, on account of the great number of their people and the insufficiency of their land, sent colonies over the Rhine."
» "Accordingly, the Volcae Tectosages, seized on those parts of Germany which are the most fruitful [andlie] around the Hercynian forest, (which, I perceive, was known by report to Eratosthenes and some other Greeks, and which they call Orcynia), and settled there. Which nation to this time retains its position in those settlements, and has a very high character for justice and military merit; now also they continue in the same scarcity, indigence, hardihood, as the Germans, and use the same food and dress; but their proximity to the Province and knowledge of commodities from countries beyond the sea supplies to the Gauls many things tending to luxury as well as civilization. Accustomed by degrees to be overmatched and worsted in many engagements, they don't now even compare themselves to the Germans in prowess."
Caesar related a tradition associating the Celtic tribe of the Volcae to the vast
Hercynian forest, though they were more probably to be located in the eastern range of the
Mittelgebirge; yet, Volcae of his time were settled in
Moravia, east of the
Boii. Their apparent movement may indicate that the Volcae were newcomers to the region. Caesar's remark about the wealth of this region may have referred not only to agriculture but also to the mineral deposits there, while the renown attributed to the Volcae "in peace and in war" resulted from their metallurgical skills and the quality of their weapons, both attracting the attention of their northern neighbors . Together with the
Boii in the upper basin of the
Elbe river to the west and the
Cotini in
Slovakia to the east, this area of Celtic settlement in
oppida led to the exploitation of natural resources on a grand scale and the concentration of skilled craftsmen under the patronage of strong and wealthy chieftains. This culture flourished from the mid second to the mid first century BC, until it buckled under the combined pressure of the
Germans from the North and the
Dacians from the East.
Allowance must be made for Julius Caesar's usual equation of primitive poverty with admirable hardihood and military prowess and his connection of luxurious imports and the proximity of "civilization", meaning his own, with softness and decadence. In fact, long-established trading connections furnished Gaulish elites with Baltic amber and Greek and Etruscan wares.
Caesar took it as a given that the Celts in the Hercynian Forest were emigrant settlers from Gaul who had "seized" the land, but modern archeology identifies the region as part of the
La Tène homeland. As Henry Howarth noted a century ago, "The Tectosages reported by Caesar as still being around the Hercynian forest were in fact living in the old homes of their race, whence a portion of them set out on their great expedition against Greece, and eventually settled in
Galatia, in Asia Minor, where one of the tribes was called Tectosages."
Volcae of Gaul
Volcae Arecomisci
The
Volcae Arecomisci (Οὐόλκαι Ἀρικόμιοι of Ptolemy's
Geography ii), according to Strabo, dwelt on the western side of the lower
Rhone, with their metropolis at
Narbo (Narbonne): "Narbo is spoken of as the naval-station of these people alone, though it would be fairer to add "and of the rest of Celtica", so greatly has it surpassed the others in the number of people who use it as a trade-centre." They were not alone in occupying their territory, with its capital at
Nemausus (Nîmes).
The Volcae Arecomisci of their own accord surrendered to the
Roman Republic in
121 BC, after which they occupied the
Roman province of
Gallia Narbonensis (the area around modern day
Narbonne), the southern part of
Gallia Transalpina. They held their assemblies in the sacred wood of
Nemausus, the site of modern
Nîmes.
In Roman times, the Volca Arecomici occupied the district between the
Garonne River (
Garumna), the
Cévennes (
Cebenna mons), and the
Rhône River;, corresponding roughly to the Roman province of
Gallia Narbonensis. In Gaul they were divided into two tribes in widely separated regions, the Arecomici on the east, living among the
Ligures, and the Tectosages (whose territory included that of the Tolosates) on the west, living among the
Aquitanians; the territories were separated by the
Hérault River (
Arauris) or a line between the Hérault River and the
Orbe River (
Orbis).
Volcae Tectosages
West of the Arecomici the
Volcae Tectosages (whose territory included that of the Tolosates) lived among the
Aquitanians; the territories were separated by the
Hérault River (
Arauris) or a line between the Hérault River and the
Orbe River (
Orbis). Strabo says the Volcae Tectosages came originally from the region near modern
Toulouse, in
France, and they were a
sept or
clan of the Volcae.
The territory of the Volcae Tectosages (Οὐόλκαι Τεκτόσαγες of Ptolemy's
Geography ii) lay outside the Roman Republic, to the southwest of the Volcae Arecomici. From the
3rd century BC, the
capital city of the Volcae Tectosages was
Tolosa (modern
Toulouse). When the
Cimbri and
Teutones invaded Gaul, the Tectosages allied themselves with them, and their town Tolosa was sacked in retribution by
Servilius Caepio in 106 BC. Tolosa was incorporated into the
Roman Republic as part of the province of
Gallia Aquitania with the conquest of
Gaul by
Julius Caesar in 52 BC. The Roman conquest of Tolosa ended the cultural identity of the Volcae Tectosages.
According to Ptolemy's
Geography, their inland towns were
Illiberis,
Ruscino,
Tolosa colonia,
Cessero,
Carcaso,
Baetirae, and
Narbon colonia.
The Volcae Tectosages were among the successful raiders of the Delphi expedition and were said to have transported their booty to Tolosa. Venceslas Kruta suggests that their movement into this region was probably motivated by a
Carthaginian recruiting-post situated close by, a main attraction of the region for Celtic mercenaries eager for more campaigning. Indeed, after crossing the Pyrenees in 218 BC,
Hannibal in travelling through southern Gaul was greeted by warlike tribes: the Volcae, the
Arverni, the
Allobroges, and the
Gaesatae of the
Rhône Valley, who rose to prominence around the middle of the 3rd century BC. From around that time, this part of
Gaul underwent a process of stabilization buttressed by the formation of new and powerful tribal confederations as well as the development of new-style settlements resembling the urban centers of the
Mediterranean world, of which Tolosa and
Nemausus (Nîmes) were no exception .
In 107, the Volcae, allies of the
Tugurni, a branch of the
Helvetii who belonged to a coalition that formed around the Cimbri and the Teutons, defeated a Roman army at Tolosa . In 106-5, Q. Servilius Caepio was sent with an army to put down the revolt, and as a result, Tolosa was sacked, and thereafter the town and its territory were absorbed into the Roman
Province, thereby establishing firm control over the western Gallic trade corridor along the
Carcassonne Gap and
Garonne river .
Etymology
Traditional etymologies have attributed
Volcae to a word akin to
Welsh golchi "to wash" and
Irish folc "to bathe" (
Proto-Celtic *
volkiō), making this tribe the "river people" after a rough semantic adjustment. A more likely scenario is that this or a cognate in Pannonian Illyrian was used to name the river Volcos, from which the Volcae took their name.
C.W. von Glückderived the name from a word related to Old Irish
folg "agile, energetic".
Most Celticists today seem to agree that the tribal name Uolcae is related to Welsh
gwalch "hawk" (and they compare the Gaulish personal name Catuuolcus to Welsh
cadwalch "hero", literally "battle-hawk"), though some prefer to translate Gaulish *uolco- as "wolf" and, by semantic extension, "errant warrior"
The name
Tectosages, literally "possession-seekers", meant "claim-stakers", perhaps closer in sense to "claim-jumper" or "land grabber", and a direct cognate is found in Old Irish
techtaigidir "he/she seeks to (re)establish a land claim" .
Namesake
The Volcae were highly influential in Moravia, and together with the Boii and the Cotini and other Danubian tribes, they controlled a highly active network of trade routes connected to the Mediterranean and the German lands. The prowess of these tribes and their proximity led to the their name being borrowed into Germanic as *
walha, a generic term for "Celt" and eventually "Roman" as the two cultures merged in time. (See also
Walha.) This word has been applied vigorously to any former Roman provincials, including the Welsh, Italians, and French, and was borrowed by the Slavs who used it to refer to the
Vlachs. Compare: English
Welsh, Flemish Dutch
waalsch "Walloons", German
welsch "Italian", Swiss German
Chürwältsch "Romansch", Old Norse
Valir "Roman; French".
Further Information
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