TheAusuciates (Gaulish: *Ausuciatis) were a smallGallic tribe dwelling around present-dayOssuccio, on the western shore ofLake Como, during theRoman period.
They are mentioned asAusuciatium on an inscription dated to the early 1st millennium AD and found inOssuccio (Ausucum).[1][2]
TheethnonymAusuciates may be derived from the Gaulish rootaus(i)- ('ear'), and possibly translated as 'those having big ears'. It could be compared with theOld Irishóach ('with big ears'), from an earlier *ausākos.[3][2] Alternatively, it may be derived from a hypothetical deity named *Ausucos ('The Golden One'), from the root *aus- ('gold'). The place-nameAusucum has been translated as the 'domain of *Ausucos'.[4][5]
The Ausuciates dwelled on the western shore ofLake Como, around the settlement ofAusucum (modernOssuccio). Their territory was located north of theGallianates andInsubres, northeast of theSubinates, east of theOrobii, and south theAneuniates.[6]
