The Segusiavī (

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient 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, most of Switzerl ...

: *''Segusiauī/Segusiawī'') were a Gallic tribe dwelling around the modern city of

Feurs Feurs (; frp, Fuèrs) is a commune in the department of Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. History Antiquity The city was founded by the Romans. The name Feurs is a contraction of ''Segusiavorum Forum''. With a forum the Gallo-Roman era, ...

( Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) during the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

and the Roman period.

Name

They are mentioned as ''Segusiavis'' by

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 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 a civil war, an ...

(mid-1st c. BC), as ''Segosianō͂n'' (Σεγοσιανῶν) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD), as ''Segusiavi'' by Pliny (1st c. AD), and as ''Segousō̃antoi'' (Σεγουσῶαντοι) by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of import ...

(2nd c. AD).

. ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'', 2:8:11., s.v. ''Segusiavi'' and ''Forum Segusiavorum''. The etymology of the

ethnonym *''Segusiauī/Segusiawī'' is unclear. It probably stems from the Gaulish root ''sego-'' ('victory, force'), but the second element is problematic. Irish folklorist Dáithí Ó hÓgáin tentatively translates their name as the 'Victorious Ones'. Since the ''Segusiavi'' possessed a wide area just north of the

Greek colony Greek colonization was an organised Colonies in antiquity, colonial expansion by the Archaic Greece, Archaic Greeks into the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea in the period of the 8th–6th centuries BC. This colonization differed from the Iron Ag ...

Massalia Massalia (Greek: Μασσαλία; Latin: Massilia; modern Marseille) was an ancient Greek colony founded ca. 600 BC on the Mediterranean coast of present-day France, east of the river Rhône, by Ionian Greek settlers from Phocaea, in Western ...

(Marseille) at the time of

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...

, he has proposed to see their name as an alternative ethnonym of the '' Segobriges'', the tribe involved in the foundation myth of Massalia. The city of

, attested by Ptolemy as ''Phóros Segousiántōn'' (Φόρος Σεγουσιάντων, '

forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses *Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...

, market of the Segusiavi'; ''Forum'' in 950, ''Fuer'' in 1227), is indirectly named after the tribe.

Geography

The chief town of the Segusiavi was known as Forum Segusiavorum (modern

), erected on a pre-Roman settlement which had been occupied from the 2nd century BC onwards. The city lost its local preeminence in the 3rd–4th centuries AD. Under Diocletian, in 297–298, Forum Segusiavorum was incorporated into the province of Lugdunensis Prima. The Segusiavi also held a fortress at

Lugdunum Lugdunum (also spelled Lugudunum, ; modern Lyon, France) was an important Roman city in Gaul, established on the current site of Lyon. The Roman city was founded in 43 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, but continued an existing Gallic settleme ...

(modern

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

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Geography

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See also