TheCaturiges (Gaulish:Caturīges, 'kings of combat') were aGallic tribe dwelling in the upperDurance valley, around present-day towns ofChorges andEmbrun, during theIron Age and theRoman period.
They are mentioned asCaturiges byCaesar (mid-1st c. BC) andPliny (1st c. AD),[1] and asKatourgídōn (Κατουργίδων) byPtolemy (2nd c. AD).[2][3]
TheGaulishethnonymCaturīges (sing.Caturix) literally means 'kings of combat'. It stems from theCeltic rootcatu- ('combat, battle') attached torīges ('kings').[4][5]
The city ofChorges, attested in the 4th c. AD asCaturrigas (Cadorgas in 1062,Chaorgias in 1338), is named after the tribe.[6]
The Caturiges dwelled in the upper course of theDurance river.[7] Their territory was located east of theTricorii,Avantici andEdenates (further west lived theVocontii), south of theBrigianii andQuariates, west of theVeneni andSoti, and north of theSavincates.[8] They were probably clients to the larger Vocontian people as part of their confederation.[9]
Initially part of the province ofAlpes Cottiae after the Roman conquest, the Caturiges were integrated into the province ofAlpes Maritimae during the reign ofDiocletian (284–305 AD).[7]
Their chief town was known asEburodunum (modernEmbrun), located on a rocky plinth that dominated the Durance river. It was an important station on the route between Gaul theItalian Peninsula.[10][11] After the western part of the province ofAlpes Cottiae was transferred to theAlpes Maritimae underDiocletian (284–305), Eburodunum replacedCemenelum as the capital of the Alpes Maritimae.[12]
Caturigomagus ('market of the Caturiges'; modernChorges) was a frontier city located on the route to Italy via theCol de Montgenèvre, in the western part of the Caturigian territory near the border between theRegnum Cottii and theVocontian confederation. Probably outshined by the neighbouring Eburodunum and Vappincum (Gap), the city declined in the 4th century AD and was not listed ascivitates by theNotitia Galliarum ca. 400.[13]
According to Pliny, the Caturiges were originally part of theInsubres.[7] The presence of aMars Caturix in another town named Eburodunum (Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland), as well as other mentions nearBarrois, in thePo Valley, and perhaps inHaute-Savoie, may indicate ancient migrations, although their period and direction remain unknown.[14]
Other communities that have perished are the Caturiges, an exiled section of the Insubrians...
— Pliny 1938,Naturalis Historia,3:125.
In the mid-first century BC, the Caturiges are mentioned byJulius Caesar as a tribe hostile to Rome. In what appears to be a concerted attack, they attempted to prevent his passage through the upperDurance along with theCeutrones andGraioceli in 58 BC.[15][16]
There [Titus Labienus] enrolled two legions, and brought out of winter quarters three that were wintering about Aquileia; and with these five legions made speed to march by the shortest route to Further Gaul, over the Alps. In that region the Ceutrones, the Graioceli, and the Caturiges, seizing points on the higher ground, essayed to stop the march of his army. They were repulsed in several actions; and on the seventh day he moved from Ocelum, the last station of Hither Gaul, into the borders of the Vocontii in Further Gaul.
— Caesar 1917,Commentarii de Bello Gallico,1:10:4.
They are mentioned by Pliny the Elder as one of the Alpine tribes conquered by Rome in 16–15 BC, and whose name was engraved on theTropaeum Alpium.[7][17] They also appear on theArch of Susa, erected byCottius in 9–8 BC.[18]
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