Marici (tribe)

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The Marici were a

Celto-Ligurian tribe dwelling around present-day Pavia (Lombardy) during the Iron Age
.

Name

The ethnic name Marici can be translated as 'the big ones', from the Celtic stem maro- ('tall'). According to Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, such linguistically Celtic tribal names suggest that a Celto-Ligurian dialect played an important role among the languages spoken in ancient Ligury.[1]

Geography

The Marici lived around the modern town of Pavia. Their territory was located south of the Laevi, west of the Ladatini, north of the Anamares.[2]

History

In the Third Book of his Natural History, Pliny the Elder identifies them as the co-founders, along with the Laevi, of Ticinum, the modern Pavia.[3]

References

  1. ^ de Bernardo Stempel 2006, p. 46.
  2. ^ Talbert 2000, Map 39: Mediolanum.
  3. ^ The text, in Philemon Holland’s 1601 English translation, is available online at http://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/pliny3.html

Bibliography

  • ISSN 1578-5386
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