Calucones

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The Calucones were a Gallic or Rhaetian tribe dwelling around present-day Chur (eastern Switzerland) during the Roman period.

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Name

They are mentioned as Calucones (var.Callucones, Allucones) by Pliny (1st c. AD), [1] and as kaloúkōnes (καλούκωνες; var. καλούκονες, κουλούκωνες) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD). [2] [3]

The etymology of the name remains debated. It could go back to a Celtic form calo-uco-on-, derived from the stem calo- ('call'). [3] Alternatively, it may be derived from a stem *calu- ('hard') attached to -cones ('wolves'), and translated as 'hard wolves'. [4]

An homonym tribe, the Kaloukones, lived further north, near the Germanic Suebi. [3]

Geography

The Calucones probably dwelled around present-day Chur (Curia), in the Canton of Grisons. [5] [6]

Their territory was located north of the Suanetes and Rugusci, west of the Focunates and Venostes, south of the Vennones. [7]

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. [1] [6]

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References

  1. 1 2 Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:20.
  2. Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:12:2.
  3. 1 2 3 Falileyev 2010, s.v. Calucones.
  4. Delamarre 2019, p. 174.
  5. Pauli 1980, pp. 54–55.
  6. 1 2 Frei-Stolba 2003.
  7. Talbert 2000, Map 19: Raetia.

Primary sources

  • Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0674993648.

Bibliography

See also