Caturiges
Gallic tribe
title: "Caturiges" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["caturiges", "historical-celtic-peoples", "gauls", "tribes-in-pre-roman-gaul", "ancient-peoples", "history-of-hautes-alpes"] description: "Gallic tribe" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caturiges" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Gallic tribe ::
The Caturiges (Gaulish: Caturīges, 'kings of combat') were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the upper Durance valley, around present-day towns of Chorges and Embrun, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Name
They are mentioned as Caturiges by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC) and Pliny (1st c. AD), and as Katourgídōn (Κατουργίδων) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD).
The Gaulish ethnonym Caturīges (sing. Caturix) literally means 'kings of combat'. It stems from the Celtic root catu- ('combat, battle') attached to rīges ('kings').
The city of Chorges, attested in the 4th c. AD as Caturrigas (Cadorgas in 1062, Chaorgias in 1338), is named after the tribe.
Geography
Territory
The Caturiges dwelled in the upper course of the Durance river. Their territory was located east of the Tricorii, Avantici and Edenates (further west lived the Vocontii), south of the Brigianii and Quariates, west of the Veneni and Soti, and north of the Savincates. They were probably clients to the larger Vocontian people as part of their confederation.
Initially part of the province of Alpes Cottiae after the Roman conquest, the Caturiges were integrated into the province of Alpes Maritimae during the reign of Diocletian (284–305 AD).
Settlements
Their chief town was known as Eburodunum (modern Embrun), located on a rocky plinth that dominated the Durance river. It was an important station on the route between Gaul the Italian Peninsula. After the western part of the province of Alpes Cottiae was transferred to the Alpes Maritimae under Diocletian (284–305), Eburodunum replaced Cemenelum as the capital of the Alpes Maritimae.
Caturigomagus ('market of the Caturiges'; modern Chorges) was a frontier city located on the route to Italy via the Col de Montgenèvre, in the western part of the Caturigian territory near the border between the Regnum Cottii and the Vocontian confederation. Probably outshined by the neighbouring Eburodunum and Vappincum (Gap), the city declined in the 4th century AD and was not listed as civitates by the Notitia Galliarum ca. 400.
History
Origin
According to Pliny, the Caturiges originated as a group of exiles from the Insubres of northern Italy. The presence of a cult to Mars Caturix in a town also named Eburodunum (Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland) on the southern shore of Lac Neuchâtel of has been noted. Further occurrences in the Barrois region (Caturrigis, the ancient name of Bar-le-Duc), and possibly in Haute-Savoie, have been interpreted as traces of ancient migrations, although neither their chronology nor their direction can be determined.
Roman conquest
In the mid-first century BC, the Caturiges are mentioned by Julius Caesar as a tribe hostile to Rome. In what appears to be a concerted attack, they attempted to prevent his passage through the upper Durance along with the Ceutrones and Graioceli in 58 BC.
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. They also appear on the Arch of Susa, erected by Cottius in 9–8 BC.
References
Primary sources
Bibliography
References
- [[Julius Caesar. Caesar]]. ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'', [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/caesar-gallic_wars/1917/pb_LCL072.17.xml 1:10:4]; [[Pliny the Elder. Pliny]]. ''Naturalis Historia'', [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL352.93.xml 3:125], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL352.103.xml 3:137].
- [[Ptolemy]]. ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'', 3:1:35.
- {{harvnb. Falileyev. 2010, s.v. ''Caturiges''.
- {{harvnb. Talbert. 2000, Map 17: Lugdunum.
- Graßl, Herbert. (2006). "Alpes Maritimae". Brill's New Pauly.
- [[Pliny the Elder. Pliny]]. ''Naturalis Historia'', [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL352.103.xml 3:20].
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