Calucones
The Calucones were a Gallic or Rhaetian tribe dwelling around present-day Chur (eastern Switzerland) during the Roman period.
Name
They are mentioned as Calucones (var. Callucones, Allucones) by Pliny (1st c. AD), and as kaloúkōnes (καλούκωνες; var. καλούκονες, κουλούκωνες) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD).
The etymology of the name remains debated. It could go back to a Celtic form calo-uco-on-, derived from the stem calo- ('call'). Alternatively, it may be derived from a stem *calu- ('hard') attached to -cones ('wolves'), and translated as 'hard wolves'.
An homonym tribe, the Kaloukones, lived further north, near the Germanic Suebi.
Geography
The Calucones probably dwelled around present-day Chur (Curia), in the Canton of Grisons.
The Barrington Atlas locates their territory north of the Suanetes and Rugusci, west of the Focunates and Venostes, south of the Vennones.
History
They are mentioned by Pliny the Elder as one of the Alpine tribes conquered by Rome in 16–15 BC, and whose name was engraved on the Tropaeum Alpium.
References
- 1 2 Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:20.
- ↑ Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:12:2.
- 1 2 3 Falileyev 2010, s.v. Calucones.
- ↑ Delamarre 2019, p. 174.
- ↑ Pauli 1980, pp. 54–55.
- 1 2 Frei-Stolba 2003.
- ↑ Talbert 2000, Map 19: Raetia.
Primary sources
- Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674993648.
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Bibliography
- Delamarre, Xavier (2019). Dictionnaire des thèmes nominaux du gaulois. Ab-/Iχs(o)-. Vol. 1. Les Cents Chemins. ISBN 978-1-7980-5040-8.
- 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.
- Frei-Stolba, Regula (2003). "Calucones". Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz.
- Pauli, Ludwig (1980). Die Alpen in Frühzeit und Mittelalter: die archäologische Entdeckung einer Kulturlandschaft. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-07598-8.
- Talbert, Richard J. A. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691031699.
