The Veneni were a Ligurian tribe dwelling in the Varaita Valley during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Name
[edit]They are mentioned as Veneni by Pliny (1st c. AD).[1]
The ethnic name Veneni has been compared with the Indo-European stem uen- ('clan, family'). This interpretation depends on phonetic details that cannot be securely established, such as the quantity of the second -e-. According to Jean Loicq, if the name should be read instead as Venenni, by analogy with the neighbouring Vagienni listed by Pliny, the formation could be "palaeo-Ligurian".[2]
Geography
[edit]Their territory has been identified with the Varaita Valley, a right-bank tributary of the Po river in Piedmont, slightly south of Cuneo.[3][4]
References
[edit]- ^ Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:47.
- ^ Loicq 2003, p. 158.
- ^ Racke 1955.
- ^ Barruol 1969, p. 345.
- Primary sources
- Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674993648.
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- Bibliography
- Barruol, Guy (1969). Les Peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: étude de géographie historique. E. de Boccard. OCLC 3279201.
- Loicq, Jean (2003). "Sur les peuples de nom « vénète » ou assimilé dans l'Occident européen". Études celtiques. 35 (1): 133–165. doi:10.3406/ecelt.2003.2153.
- Racke, G. (1955). "Veneni". Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Vol. VIII A.