Bodiocasses

The Bodiocasses or Baiocasses were an ancient Gallic tribe of the Roman period. They were a tribal division of the civitas of the Lexovii, in the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis.

A stater of the Baiocasses depicting a human profile with a boar set within whirls of pattern that extend from the stylized hair. The Celtic war locks are clearly represented and could justify the etymology Bodio-cassi

Name

Attestations

They are mentioned as Bodiocasses by Pliny (1st c. AD),^[1] as Baiocassi by Ausonius (4th c. AD),^[2] and as Baiocas in the Notitia Dignitatum (5th c. AD).^[3][4]

In Pliny's Natural History, various manuscripts refer to this tribe as the Vadiocasses, Bodiocasses, or Bodicasses, likely due to a copyist’s mistake.^[5]

The Vadicassii (Οὐαδικάσσιοι) cited by Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD are probably a separate tribe, since he places them near the Meldi (Meaux), in the direction of Belgica.^[5]

Etymology

The Gaulish ethnonym Bodiocasses derives from the Proto-Celtic stem *bodyo- ('yellow, blond'; cf. Old Irish buide 'yellow').^[6][7] The meaning of the second element -casses, attested in other Gaulish ethnonyms such as Durocasses, Sucasses, Tricasses, Veliocasses or Viducasses, has been debated, but it probably signifies '(curly) hair, hairstyle' (cf. Old Irish chass 'curl'), perhaps referring to a particular warrior coiffure. Rudolf Thurneysen has compared the name with the Old Irish buide-chass ('blond curls'), and suggested to translate Bodiocasses as 'those who have blond curls/braids'.^[8] Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel has proposed to interpret the name as 'those with shining helmets'.^[9]

The city of Bayeux, attested ca. 400 AD as civitas Baiocassium ('civitas of the Baiocasses'; Baiocas in 400–410, Baieus in 1155), and the region of Bessin, attested in 840 AD as pagus Baiocassinus ('pagus of the Baiocasses'; Beissin in 1050–66), all stem from the Gallic tribe.^[10]

Geography

The Baiocasses dwelled in a region located around modern-day Bayeux in western Normandy.^[6]

History

Julius Caesar does not mention the tribe in his commentaries on the Gallic Wars (58–50 BCE), but they are later mentioned by Ausonius (4th c. AD) and in the Notitia Dignitatum (5th c. AD).^[4] They are probably the same people Pliny calls Bodiocasses.^[6]

The Baiocasses minted base gold, silver and billon (base silver) coins in the denomination of one stater and in the case of gold coins sometimes quarter staters. Most of the coins show a Celtic-style male head with elaborated hair on the obverse, and on the reverse a horse with a chariot rider above or behind, and below usually either a lyre or small boar. A number of these are in existence.^{[11][unreliable source?]}

The 4th-century Bordelaise poet Ausonius teases a friend as a Baiocassis who claimed to be of druidic heritage and descended from priests of Belenus.^[12]