The Aulerci were a group of Gallic peoples dwelling in the modern region of

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

, between the

Loire The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the so ...

(Liger) and the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

(Sequana) rivers, during the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

and the Roman period. They were divided into the Cenomani, the most powerful of them, the Eburovices, the Diablintes, and the Brannovices. The relationship that linked them together remains uncertain. According to historian Venceslas Kruta, they could have been ''pagi'' that got separated from a larger ethnic group of the pre-Roman period.

Name

The

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...

ethnonym ''Aulerci'' is generally interpreted as meaning 'those who are far away from their traces' (tracks, paths), composed of the ablative prefix ''au''- ('out of, away from') attached to the root ''lerg''- ('trace', cf. MIr. ''lorg'', OBret. ''lerg'').

Pierre-Yves Lambert Pierre-Yves Lambert (born 30 May 1949) is a French linguist and scholar of Celtic studies. He is a researcher at the CNRS and a lecturer at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Celtic linguistics and philology. Lambert is the director of the j ...

has also proposed a comparison with the

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

''lerg'' ('slope, brink'), or with the Welsh/ Breton ''alarch'' ('swan').

History

According to

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

, they joined Bellovesus' legendary migrations towards Italy ca. 600 BC, along with the Aeduii, Ambarri, Arverni, Carnutes and

Senones The Senones or Senonii (Gaulish: "the ancient ones") were an ancient Gallic tribe dwelling in the Seine basin, around present-day Sens, during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Part of the Senones settled in the Italian peninsula, where the ...

.Livius, ''

Ab Urbe condita ''Ab urbe condita'' (; 'from the founding of Rome, founding of the City'), or (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is ...

'' 5.34-35.3.

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

(''B. G.'' ii. 34) names the Aulerci with the Veneti and the other maritime states. In ''B. G.'' vii. 75, he enumerates, among the clients of the Aedui, the Aulerci Brannovices and Brannovii, as the common text stands; but the names in this chapter of Caesar are corrupt, and Brannovii does not appear to be genuine. If the name Aulerci Brannovices is genuine in vii. 75, this branch of the Aulerci, which was dependent on the Aedui, must be distinguished from those Aulerci who were situated between the Lower

and the

, and separated from the Aedui by the

, Carnutes, and Bituriges Cubi. Again, in vii. 75, Caesar mentions the Aulerci Cenomani and the Aulerci Eburovices. In ''B. G.''vii. 75 Caesar mentions the maritime states (ii. 34) under the name of the Armoric states; but his list does not agree with the list in ii. 34, and it does not contain the Aulerci as the Aulerci were not regarded a maritime tribe. Caesar (iii. 17) mentions a tribe of Diablintes or Diablintres, to whom

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

gives the generic name of Aulerci. It seems, then, that Aulerci was a general name under which several tribes were included.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{Gallic peoples Historical Celtic peoples Gauls Tribes in pre-Roman Gaul Tribes involved in the Gallic Wars History of Normandy