Volcae
|
showing the relative position of the Volcae tribe. |
The
Volcae in the
2nd century BC were a large and powerful nation of
Gaul.
They mainly lived in the province of
Gallia Narbonensis, and occupied the district between the
Garonne River (
Garumna), the
Cévennes (
Cebenna mons), and the
Rhône River (or even farther to the east in earlier times), corresponding roughly to the old province of
Languedoc. They were divided into two tribes, the Arecomici on the east and the Tectosages (whose territory included that of the Tolosates) on the west, separated by the
Hérault River (
Arauris) or a line between the Hérault River and the
Orbe River (
Orbis). The Volcae were free and independent, had their own laws, and possessed the
jus Latii. The chief town of the Tectosages was
Toulouse (
Tolosa); of the Arecomici,
Nîmes (
Nemausus); the capital of the province and residence of the governor was
Narbonne (
Narbo Martius). It was said that there was an early settlement of Volcae Tectosages near the
Hercynian Forest (
Hercynia Silva) in Germany; Tectosages was also the name of one of the three great communities of Gauls who invaded and settled in
Asia Minor in the country called after them
Galatia.
Some believe that the name
Volcae is related in some manner to the
English word "folk", derived from
Proto-Germanic *fulka "people" or "host". This is dubious, since it would imply a loan from Germanic to Celtic. Another posibility would be derivation from
PIE ulkwos "
wolf" (c.f. Russian
volk). This is also unlikely, since the expected
P-Celtic form of the word would be
volp-. A more likely suggestion is a derivation from
PIE *velk, a word for water or dampness (
Old Irish failc "bathe"; cognate to English
wallow,
welkin [
1]; c.f.
Volga), according to which the Volcae would have been the "river people" [
2]. The
Proto-Germanic sound change that changed
Volcae into
*walha is known as
Grimm's law, so that the contact between the Volcae and the early Germanic tribes would have occurred before that sound change, in the later
1st millennium BC.
The Volcae are consequently believed to have originally been settled north-east of the
Rhine, in what is now western and central
Germany in the basin of the
Weser River where there are toponyms of supposed Celtic origin.
Julius Caesar mentioned the
Volcae Tectosages as a
Celtic tribe which still remained in western Germany. For some time, the Volcae would have blocked Germanic expansion southwards. It is consequently not surprising that it became the generic name for Celts and later also for the Romans, contained in
Wales,
Wallachia,
Wallonia, and
walnut (see also
Etymology of Vlach).
The Volcae Arecomici of their own accord surrendered to the
Roman Republic in
121 BC, after which they occupied the
Roman province of
Gallia Narbonensis (the area around modern day
Narbonne), the southern part of
Gallia Transalpina. They held their assemblies in the sacred wood of
Nemausus, the site of modern
Nîmes.
The territory of the Volcae Tectosages lay outside the Roman Republic, to the southwest of the Volcae Arecomici. From the
3rd century BC, the
capital city of the Volcae Tectosages was
Tolosa (modern
Toulouse), which was incorporated into the
Roman Republic as part of the province of
Gallia Aquitania with the conquest of
Gaul by
Julius Caesar in
52 BC.
