Calucones

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

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]

References

^ ^a ^b Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:20.
^ Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:12:2.
^ ^a ^b ^c Falileyev 2010, s.v. Calucones.
^ Delamarre 2019, p. 174.
^ Pauli 1980, pp. 54–55.
^ ^a ^b Frei-Stolba 2003.
^ 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

Delamarre, Xavier (2019). Dictionnaire des thèmes nominaux du gaulois. Ab-/Iχs(o)-. Vol. 1. Les Cents Chemins. ISBN 978-1-7980-5040-8.
Falileyev, Alexander (2010). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS. ISBN 978-0955718236.
Frei-Stolba, Regula (2003). "Calucones". Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz.
Pauli, Ludwig (1980). Die Alpen in Frühzeit und Mittelalter: die archäologische Entdeckung einer Kulturlandschaft. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-07598-8.
Talbert, Richard J. A. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691031699.