TheMedulli (Gaulish:Medulloi) were aGallic tribe dwelling in the upper valley ofMaurienne, around present-dayModane (Savoie), during theIron Age andRoman period.
They are mentioned asMedullorum byVitruvius (late 1st c. BC),[1]Méd(o)ulloi (Μέδ<ο>υλλοι) byStrabo (early 1st c. AD),[2]Medulli byPliny (1st c. AD),[3] and asMedoúllous (Μεδούλλους) byPtolemy (2nd c. AD).[4][5]
TheethnonymMedulli is a latinized form ofGaulishMedulloi. It is generally derived from theCeltic rootmedu-, meaning 'mead, alcoholic drink' (cf.Olr.mid,MW.medd,OBret.medot), and thus may be translated as 'those who drinkmead'. This interpretation is encouraged by the mention, inVitruvius'De architectura, of a "kind of water" (genus aquae) drunk by the Medulli.[6][5] Alternatively, Javier de Hoz has proposed to glose the name as 'those who lived in the middle', or 'in the border woods', by connecting it to the root *medhi/u- ('middle').[7]
The Medulli dwelled in the upperMaurienne valley, along the upper course of theArc river, near the modern town ofModane (Amonada).[8][9][10] Their territory was located east of theGraioceli (themselves east of theVocontii), north of theBrigianii andQuariates, west of theSegusini, and south of theCeutrones (themselves south of theAllobroges).[11]
They belonged to the tribes governed byCottius in Alpes Taurinae and were later integrated into the province ofAlpes Cottiae.[10]
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.[10][3] They also appear on theArch of Susa, erected byCottius in 9–8 BC.[12]
According toVitruvius, they were particularly prone to suffer fromgoitre.[10]
Among the Aquiculi in Italy and among the tribe of the Medulli in the Alps, there is a kind of water which causes goitre among those who drink it.
— Vitruvius 1934,De Architectura,8:3:20.
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