Tectosages

The Tectosages or Tectosagii (Gaulish: *Textosagii, 'Dwelling-Seekers', or 'Possessions-Seekers') were one of the three ancient Gallic tribes of Galatia in central Asia Minor, together with the Tolistobogii and Trocmii.[1]

Strabo's supposed emigration of the Tectosages

Name

The Gaulish ethnonym *Textosagii (sing. Textosagios) means 'those who seek a dwelling', or 'those who seek possessions'. It is composed of the root texto- ('goods, property, possessions'; cf. Old Irish techt 'possession') attached to sagi- ('who is seeking'), and can be compared with the Old Irish legal term techtaigidir, meaning 'to seek to establish (or reestablish) legal claim to land'.[2][3] The form Tectosages is a Latinized variant of the Celtic name where the voiceless velar fricative ⟨x⟩, unknown in Latin, was replaced with the sound ⟨k⟩.[2]

History

According to Strabo, the Tectosages came originally from the region around Tolosa in Gaul, where they had been part of the tribal confederation of the Volcae. During the Gallic invasion of the Balkans, c. 280 BC, a branch of the Volcae Tectosages, returning from Delphi, split from the main group and joined two other tribes, the Tolistobogii and the Trocmi. Around 278 BC they were hired as mercenaries by Nicomedes I of Bithynia and crossed the Bosporus. After leaving Bithynia they raided in Asia Minor and finally settled in eastern Phrygia, where they established a new Celtic confederate identity as the Galatians. The Tectosages occupied the centre of the Galatian territory, round their capital Ancyra, with the Tolistobogii in the west and the Trocmii to the east.

References
  1. Livy, xxxviii. 16
  2. Lambert 1994, p. 35.
  3. Delamarre 2003, pp. 265, 294.

Bibliography
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
  • Lambert, Pierre-Yves (1994). La langue gauloise: description linguistique, commentaire d'inscriptions choisies. Errance. ISBN 978-2-87772-089-2.

Further reading
  • John King, Celt Kingdoms From Indo European Root tag- To touch, handle. and ‌‌sāg-To seek out.
  • COŞKUN, ALTAY. "Belonging and Isolation in Central Anatolia: The Galatians in the Graeco-Roman World." In Belonging and Isolation in the Hellenistic World, edited by AGER SHEILA L. and FABER RIEMER A., 73-95. University of Toronto Press, 2013. www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442699441.11.
  • Maier, Bernhard, and Kevin Windle. "The Celts in Asia Minor." In The Celts: A History from Earliest Times to the Present, 90-96. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003. www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1r2bc7.12.
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