The Tricastini were a small
Gallic tribe dwelling in the modern
Tricastin region, near present-day
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, during the
Iron Age and the
Roman period
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
.
The Tricastini were probably one of the most ancient Celtic tribes of
Gaul. They are first mentioned in
Livy's legendary narration of
Bellovesus' expedition from Gaul into Italy, then in his historical account of
Hannibal's crossing of the Alps in 218 BC, when the Tricastini let the Carthaginian troops move across their land. After 121 BC, their territory was annexed to the province of
Gallia Transalpina by the
Roman Republic. By the 1st century AD, the Tricastini were part of the
Cavarian confederation.
Name
Attestations
They are mentioned as ''Tricastinos'' by
Livy (late 1st century BC),
[. ''Ab Urbe Condita Libri'']
5:34
21:31
and as ''Trikastínoi'' (Τρικαστίνοι;
var. Τρικαττίνοι, Τριστακηνοὶ, Τρικαστηνοὶ) by
Ptolemy (2nd century AD).
[, s.v. ''Tricastini'', ''Noiomagos'' and ''Col. Augusta Tricastinorum''.] Their chief town is documented as ''Augusta Tricastinorum'' by
Pliny (1st century AD).
The Tricastini were also known as ''Tricassis'' during the Roman period.
Etymology
The
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
ethnonym ''Tricastini'' derives from the root ''tri-'' ("three"). The second element, -''casti-'', is an archaic form of -''cassi''-, which possibly means "tin, bronze" (cf. Gaul. ''Cassi-dannos'', "magistrate in charge of bronze coins",
Britt. ''
Cassivellaunus'', "Chief-of-Tin"; also Greek κασσίτερος, "tin"). Alternatively, ''Tricastini'' may be interpreted as an older variant of ''
Tricasses'', meaning "those of the three (many) curls" or the "three-braided ones".
The city of
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, attested as ''Augusta Tricastinorum'' in the 1st century AD and as ''Civitas Tricastinorum'' in the 4th century, is named after the tribe. It appears as ''civitate Tricastrina'' in 1136, and most likely evolved into ''Sanctum Paulum *Tricastrum'' during the Middle Ages, then into ''Sainct Pol Trois Chasteaux'' by 1545. The insertion of an
epenthetic ''r'' that changed ''Tricastini'' to ''Tricastrini'', a form attested by the 12th century, caused a
semantic
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
reinterpretation of the name, leading eventually to the
modern French ''Trois-Châteaux'', meaning "three-castles" (
Latin ''Tria-Castra''). The region of
Tricastin, attested as ''Tricassinus'' during the Roman era, also takes its name from the tribe.
Geography
Territory
During the Roman period, the Tricastini dwelled in the modern
Tricastin region, between the
Rhône river
The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...
and the , south of the Jabron river (near present-day
Montélimar), and north of the
Uchaux
Uchaux (; oc, Uchau) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.
Population
Geography
Uchaux is close to the town of Bollène, and 20 minutes north of the town of Orange.
Sights
Uc ...
Massif, located between
Mornas and
Lagarde-Paréol
Lagarde-Paréol (; oc, La Gàrda Pariòu) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.
Name
The settlement is attested as ''seignoriu de la Garda Pariol'' ca. 1180.
See also
*Commu ...
. Their territory was situated west of the
Vocontii, north of the
Cavares, south of the
Segovellauni, and east of the
Helvii.
[, Map 17: Lugdunum.] Like the Segovellauni, they were clients of the Cavari as part of their confederation.
Some scholars have proposed that the original territory of the Tricastini was located further east of their attested homeland, in a mountainous region near the settlement of Altonum (
Le Pègue
Le Pègue (; oc, Lo Pègue) is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Drôme department
The following is a list of the 363 communes of the Drôme department of France.
The communes ...
). Principally occupied from the late 6th to the 3rd century BC, La Pègue represented the eastern frontier of their territory in the late 1st century BC. In this view, the Tricastini could have moved towards the Rhône valley in the 3rd–early 2nd century in search for economic opportunities.
When the colony of
Arausio (
Orange) was founded c. 36/35 BC, a very large part of their territory was given to the Roman colonists. An eastern portion of this area was then handed back to the Tricastini, apparently corresponding the less fertile lands that were not attributed to the settlers.
Settlements
Early Roman period
During the
Republican period (121–27 BC), their chief town was the
oppidum of Barry (
Saint-Restitut), one of the largest of southern Gaul (40ha), and possibly mentioned as ''Aeria'' by
Apollodorus
Apollodorus (Ancient Greek, Greek: Ἀπολλόδωρος ''Apollodoros'') was a popular name in ancient Greece. It is the masculine gender of a noun compounded from Apollo, the deity, and doron, "gift"; that is, "Gift of Apollo." It may refer to: ...
in the mid-2nd century BC. The site of Barry was located on a commercially strategic position in the Rhône Valley, a natural corridor linking the Greek colony of
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 An ...
to northern Gaul. Other oppida are known at Saint-Saturnin (
Donzère) and Moulon (
Roussas
Roussas is a Communes of France, commune in the Drôme Departments of France, department in southeastern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Drôme department
References
Communes of Drôme
{{Drôme-geo-stub ...
). The settlement of Senomagos ("old market"), which corresponds to modern Saint-Pierre-de-Sénos (
Bollène), was located at the foot of the oppidum of Barry.
Another town, Novem Craris (now Logis-de-Berre, in
Les Granges-Gontardes
Les Granges-Gontardes is a Communes of France, commune in the Drôme Departments of France, department in southeastern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Drôme department
References
Communes of Drôme
{{Drôme-geo-s ...
), was located in the plain. It occupied an important position on the trade route of the Rhône Valley even before the Roman period. Destroyed by fire in the 3rd century AD, the settlement was rebuilt on a neighbouring site.
Roman Empire

Both Senomagos and Barry (Aeria) were likely abandoned after the foundation of Augusta Tricastinorum by the Romans in the late 1st century BC. By the first century AD, the settlement was referred to as ''Augusta Tricastinorum'', then elevated to ''Colonia Flavia Tricastinorum'' in
Flavian times.
In the 2nd century AD,
Ptolemy mentioned a ''Noiomagos'' ("new market") as the capital of the Tricastini, but this is probably a confusion with modern
Nyons, in
Vocontian lands, which was known as Noviomagos in ancient times. Alternatively some scholars have argued that it was the name originally given to Augusta Tricastinorum. In this view, the double toponym may suggest that the settlement was originally founded during the Republican period, before it took its attested name under
Augustus (27 BC–14 AD), although available archaeological evidence do not predate the late 1st century BC.
History
Origin
The Tricastini are mentioned by
Livy in the late 1st century BC, in connection with the legendary Celtic invasion of Italy said to have been led by
Bellovesus around 600 BC.
Since the myth was probably based on historical events, this could indicate that the Tricastini were already living in Gaul, possibly near their attested homeland, at the time of the
Battle of the Allia (387 BC), from which the legend is apparently inspired, although the tribal names may also have been taken from names current at the time of Livy.
At any rate, the archaic form of the name ''Tricastini'' probably indicates an ancient
ethnogenesis. Although it is attested in the Roman era, the name is not affected by the well-known Gaulish -''st''- > -''ss''-
sound shift
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
, which suggests a
fossilization
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...
of the ancestral
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 ...
, possibly in a mountainous area.
Early history
In Livy's account of
Hannibal's crossing of the Alps in 218 BC, the Carthaginian general is said to have "veered to the left into the lands of the Tricastini" after setting a dispute between Allobrogian chieftains.
After 121 BC, their territory was annexed by the
Roman Republic into the province of
Gallia Transalpina.
References
Footnotes
Citations
Primary sources
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Bibliography
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Further reading
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{{Gallic peoples
Historical Celtic peoples
Gauls
Gallia Narbonensis