Coriosolites

The Coriosolites or Curiosolitas were a Gallic people dwelling on the northern coast of present-day Brittany, in Celtica, who are mentioned by Julius Caesar several times.

Map of the Gallic people around 150 AD.

  Osismii

  Veneti

  Coriosolites

  Redones

  Namnetes

Coins of the Curiosolitae, 5th-1st century BC.

Name

They are mentioned as Coriosolitas (var. Coriosolitos, Curiosolitas) and Coriosolites by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC),[1] and as Coriosvelites by Pliny (1st c. AD).[2][3]

The meaning of the name Coriosolites is uncertain. The first element is certainly the Gaulish word corios ('army'),[4] but the interpretation of solites is unclear. It could stem from the Gaulish root sūli- ('[good] sight'; cf. Old Irish súil, 'sight', Brittonic Sulis), with corio-soli-tes as the 'troop-watchers' or 'those who watch over the troop', or from solitu- ('purchase or salary of mercenaries'; cf. Gaulish soldurio < *soliturio- 'body-guard, loyal, devoted'; Old Bret. solt 'sou, solidus'), with curio-solit-es as 'those who purchase soldiers or mercenaries'.[5][6]

The city of Corseul, attested as civitas Coriosolitum ca. 400 AD ('civitas of the Curiosolites', Aecclesia Corsult ca. 869, Corsout in 1288) is named after the Gallic tribe.[7][8] The ancient Corseul is generally identified with the settlement of Fanum Martis ('temple of Mars') mentioned on the Tabula Peutingeriana (5th c. AD). Due to the lack of early epigraphic record, however, the original Gaulish name of the town remains unknown.[8]

Geography

Territory

They are mentioned by Caesar with the Veneti, Unelli, Osismi, and others that Caesar calls maritimae civitates, "maritime cities", and border on the Atlantic Ocean.[9] In another place he describes the position of the Curiosolitae on the ocean in the same terms, and includes them among the Armoric states, a name equivalent to maritimae.[10] Pliny mentions them with the Unelli, Diablindi, and Rhedones.[2]

Settlements

The ancient settlement of Corseul was most likely established ex nihilo by the Roman authorities during the reign of Augustus, as the capital of the civitas Coriosolitum.[11] It reached at size of 47ha in the first centuries of the Common Era.[12]

Around 340 AD, the capital of the civitas was moved to Aleth (Saint-Servan), situated on the coast.[8]

Notes

1. Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico, 2:34; 3:7:4; 7:75:4
2. Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:18
3. Falileyev 2010, entry 1002b.
4. Delamarre 2003, p. 125.
5. Delamarre 2003, p. 287.
6. Lambert 2008, pp. 96–97.
7. Nègre 1990, p. 153.
8. Kerébel 2004, p. 411.
9. Caesar, B. G. ii. 34.
10. Caesar, B. G. vii. 75.
11. Kerébel 2004, pp. 412–413.
12. Kerébel 2004, p. 414.

Bibliography

• Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental (in French). Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Falileyev, Alexander (2010). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS. ISBN 978-0955718236.
• Kerébel, Hervé (2004). "Corseul / Fanum Martis (Côtes-d' Armor)". Supplément à la Revue archéologique du centre de la France. 25 (1): 411–415.
• Lambert, Pierre-Yves (2008). "Gaulois Solitumaros". Études celtiques. 36 (1): 89–101. doi:10.3406/ecelt.2008.2303.
• Nègre, Ernest (1990). Toponymie générale de la France (in French). Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-02883-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)