Marici (tribe) explained

The Marici were a Celto-Ligurian tribe dwelling around present-day Pavia (Lombardy) during the Iron Age.

Name

The ethnic name Marici can be translated as 'the big ones', from the Celtic stem maro- ('tall'). According to Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, such linguistically Celtic tribal names suggest that a Celto-Ligurian dialect played an important role among the languages spoken in ancient Ligury.

Geography

The Marici lived around the modern town of Pavia. Their territory was located south of the Laevi, west of the Ladatini, north of the Anamares.^[1]

History

In the Third Book of his Natural History, Pliny the Elder identifies them as the co-founders, along with the Laevi, of Ticinum, the modern Pavia.^[2]

Bibliography

• de Bernardo Stempel. Patrizia. 2006. From Ligury to Spain: Unaccented *yo > (y)e in Narbonensic votives (‘gaulish’ DEKANTEM), Hispanic coins (‘iberian’ -(sk)en) and some theonyms. Palaeohispanica. 6. 45–58. 1578-5386. Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel.
• Book: Talbert, Richard J. A.. Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. 2000. 978-0691031699. Richard Talbert.

Notes and References

1. , Map 39: Mediolanum.
2. The text, in Philemon Holland’s 1601 English translation, is available online at http://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/pliny3.html