TheCaletes orCaleti (Gaulish:Caletoi "the hard [stubborn, tough] ones";Latin:Calētēs orCalētī) were a Celtic tribe dwelling inPays de Caux, in present-dayNormandy, during theIron Age and theRoman period.
They are mentioned asCaletes (var.Caletos,Cadetes) byCaesar (mid-1st c. BC),[1] asKáletoi (Κάλετοι) andKalétous (Καλέτους) byStrabo (early 1st c. AD),[2] asGaletos (var.Galletos) byPliny (1st c. AD),[3] asKalē̃tai (Καλη̃ται) byPtolemy (2nd c. AD),[4] and asCaleti byOrosius (early 5th c. AD).[5][6]
TheGaulishethnonymCaletoi literally means 'the hard ones', that is to say 'the stubborn' or 'the tough'. It derives from theProto-Celtic stem*kaleto- ('hard, cruel, strong'; cf.Old Irishcalath 'heroic',Middle Welshcaled 'hard'), itself fromProto-Indo-European*ḱelto-, meaning 'cold' (cf.Avest.sarǝta- 'cold',OEng.haeled 'hero',Lat.callēre 'to be hardened [by the experience], insensible').[7]
ThePays de Caux, attested in 843 asPago Calcis (Kaleto in 1206), is named after the tribe.[8][9]
The Calates occupied the coastal part of what is now theSeine-Maritime department, namely thePays de Caux and thePays de Bray.[10] They dwelled north of the neighbouringVeliocasses, and were separated from theAmbiani in the northeast by a minor tribe, theCatoslugi.[9]
Their pre-Romanoppida were the Cité de Limes atBracquemont, a cliff-edge site, and the Camp du Canada atFécamp, which is often regarded as a representative example of so-called 'Belgic-type' fortifications.[10]
In the early Roman Empire, the capital of the Caletes was Juliobona (modernLillebonne). Founded in the Augustan period, the city developed mainly during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, before being destroyed by a fire toward the end of the 3rd century and subsequently losing its status as a civitas capital.[11] Another Caletes settlement was located on the Seine estuary at Caracotinum/Gravinum (modernHarfleur), founded around 15 AD.[12]
During theGallic Wars, the Caletes are said to have supplied a contingent of ten thousand men to the Belgic coalition in 57 BC, but this force appears to have been markedly smaller in 52 BC, when they are recorded as being associated with the Armorican peoples lining the Ocean, for a total of twenty thousand men. They reappear the following year in the Belgic coalition formed around the Bellovaci.[10]
Whether the Catales should be regarded asGallic orBelgic is debatable.[9] Caesar appears to attribute them to Belgica, their coins were of Belgic type, and they joined the Belgic opposition to Rome 57 BC. But, elsewhere, Caesar lists them alongArmorican peoples, and they were not, unless briefly, part of the province ofGallia Belgica under theRoman Empire.[9]
