TheSagii were aGallic tribe that lived in and aroundcivitas Saiorum (modernSées,Orne) during the lateRoman period. They succeeded theEsuvii mentioned in the 1st century BC byCaesar andPliny.
Stefan Zimmer has connected the ethnonymSagii to theGaulish verbal rootsag(i)- ('to track, to trace'), yielding the interpretation 'skilled trackers'.[1]
The toponymSées, attested ascivitas Saiorum ca. 400 AD (Sagensis pagus in 854,Sagio, in 991–6,Saxio in 1024) derives from the tribal name through a phonetic development fromSagii toSaii.[2][1]
Their chief town wascivitas Saiorum (modernSées, Orne), which was previously the chief town of theEsuvii.[3]
Another settlement, located atFontaine-les-Bassets, was occupied from the early 1st to the 3rd century AD, with unknown causes for its abandonment.[3] Together with Sées, it represents the largest urban complex known within thecivitas of the Esuvii, and later that of the Sagii. Situated on the Roman road linkingBayeux andVieux toChartres andÉvreux, it was the substantial staging site along this route in the region.[3] The site may have functioned as a secondary settlement near the boundary between the Sagii andLexovii, but it has also been suggested that it served as the chief town of the Esuvii, since the Sagii do not appear in ancient sources before the 3rd–4th centuries. The late attestation of the Sagii raises the possibility that twocivitates existed in succession, or that they were later merged.[3]
