Curiosolites coinage 5th 1st century BCE

The Coriosolites or Curiosolitae were a Gallic people dwelling on the northern coast of present-day

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

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.

Name

They are mentioned as ''Coriosolitas'' (var. ''coriosolitos'', ''curiosolitas'', ''curiosolitas'') and ''Coriosolites'' (var. ''coriosultes'', ''coricoriosuelites'', ''cariosu''-) by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC), and as ''Coriosvelites'' by Pliny (1st c. AD). Pliny. ''Naturalis Historia,'' 4:18., s.v. ''Coriosolites''. The etymology of the

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

''Coriosolites'' remains uncertain. The first element is certainly 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, ...

root ''corio-'' ('army, troop'), derived from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

*'' kóryos'' ('army, people under arms'). However, the meaning of the second element is unclear.

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 proposed to interpret ''corio-solit-es'' as 'those who purchase (or sell) mercenaries', by positing a Gaulish stem ''solitu-'' ('purchase/salary of mercenaries'; cf. Gaul. ''soldurio-'' < 'body-guard, loyal, devoted', OBret. ''solt'' ' solidus'). Alternatively, a connection with the Gaulish stem ''sūli-'' (' oodsight'; cf. OIr. ''súil'', 'sight', Britt. '' Sulis'') has also been conjectured, with ''corio-soli-tes'' as the 'troop-watchers', 'those who watch over the troop'. The city of Corseul, attested ca. 400 AD as ''civitas Coriosolitum'' ('

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by Roman law, law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilitie ...

of the Curiosolites', ''Aecclesia Corsult'' ca. 869, ''Corsout'' in 1288) is named after the Gallic tribe.

Geography

Territory

The Coriosolites are mentioned by Caesar together with the Veneti, Unelli, Osismi, and others that Caesar calls ''maritimae civitates'', "maritime cities", which border on the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. Elsewhere he describes the position of the Coriosolites on the ocean in the same terms, and includes them among the Armoric states, a name equivalent to ''maritimae''.Caesar, ''B. G.'' vii. 75. Pliny mentions them with the Unelli, Diablindi, and Rhedones.

Settlements

The ancient settlement of Corseul was most likely established '' ex nihilo'' by the Roman authorities during the reign of

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

, as the capital of the ''

'' Coriosolitum. The town is generally identified with the settlement of ''Fanum Martis'' ('temple of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

') mentioned on the ''

Tabula Peutingeriana ' (Latin Language, Latin for 'The Peutinger Map'), also known as Peutinger's Tabula, Peutinger tablesJames Strong (theologian) , James Strong and John McClintock (theologian) , John McClintock (1880)"Eleutheropolis" In: ''The Cyclopedia of Bibli ...

'' (5th c. AD). Due to the lack of early

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

record, however, the original Gaulish name of the town remains unknown. Corseul reached at size of 47ha in the first centuries of the

Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the ...

. Around 340 AD, the capital of the ''civitas'' was moved to Aleth (

Saint-Servan Saint-Servan (; often abbreviated as St. Servan; ) is a town of western France, in Brittany (administrative region), Brittany, situated 2 miles from the ferry port of Saint-Malo. It is renowned for its shops and restaurants. History In June 1758, ...

), situated on the coast.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Authority control Historical Celtic peoples Gauls Tribes in pre-Roman Gaul Curiosolitae History of Brittany