Cocosates

Aquitani peoples on both sides of the Pyrenees.

The Cocosates or Cocosates Sexsignani were an Aquitanian people of the Landes, in the Marensin near the Atlantic coast.[1] They are named by Caesar among the peoples who submitted to Publius Crassus in 56 BC, and by Pliny as the Cocosates Sexsignani.[2][3]

Name

Caesar names the people Cocosates in his account of the Aquitanian campaign of 56 BC.[4][5] Pliny lists them among the peoples of Aquitania as the Cocosates Sexsignani, with the variants Cocosetes and Cosates.[6][7]

The name is obscure. Alexander Falileyev allows that it may be Celtic, from a stem coc(c)o- ('scarlet red') attached to the suffix -ates ('belonging to').[5] Red is a colour commonly used in personal names (Cocus, Cocca, Cocidius, etc.) and associated with warfare.[8]

The epithet Sexsignani means 'of the six standards', from Latin sex signa, like the epithet Quattuorsignani borne by the neighbouring Tarbelli. Jean-Pierre Bost reads it as designating the six smaller communities that were attached to the Cocosates under Augustus.[9] Philippe Gardes reads the same epithet as suggesting an organisation in six pagi.[10]

Geography

The Cocosates held the Marensin, the coastal part of the Landes between the Atlantic and the small valley of the Geloux, which divided them from the Tarusates.[11] A run of place-names formed on their name, from Seignosse in the Maremne to Coos in the Brassenx, marks out the area, with a wide empty tract between them and the Boiates to the north.[11]

Their chief town was known as Coequosa.[7] It appears as a road station on the Antonine Itinerary and survives in the modern place-name Coucouse.[12] Jean-Pierre Bost places its site near Castets,[12] while Philippe Gardes suggests Sindères.[10]

History

In 56 BC the legate Publius Crassus subdued Aquitania for Caesar. The Cocosates were among the peoples who then sent hostages.[4][2] Paul-Marie Duval holds them to be clients of the Tarbelli of Dax.[13] Under Augustus they were drawn into the civitas of the Aquenses.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Bost 2009, p. 28.
  2. 1 2 Duval 1989, p. 733.
  3. ↑ Bost 2009, p. 44.
  4. 1 2 Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico, 3:27:1.
  5. 1 2 Falileyev 2010, s.v. Cocosates (Sexsignani).
  6. ↑ Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:108.
  7. 1 2 Duval 1989, p. 725.
  8. ↑ Delamarre 2003, pp. 120–121.
  9. ↑ Bost 2001, p. 30.
  10. 1 2 Gardes 2002, p. 53.
  11. 1 2 Bost 2009, p. 14.
  12. 1 2 Bost 2009, pp. 14, 34.
  13. ↑ Duval 1989, p. 732.
  14. ↑ Bost 2009, p. 34.

Primary sources

  • Caesar (1917). The Gallic War. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Edwards, H. J. Harvard University Press.
  • Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674993648. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

Bibliography

  • Bost, Jean-Pierre (2001). "Dax et les Tarbelles". L'Adour maritime de Dax à Bayonne. Publications de la Maison des sciences de l'homme d'Aquitaine. ISBN 978-2-85892-285-7.
  • Bost, Jean-Pierre (2009). L'Empire romain et les sociétés provinciales: recueil d'articles. Scripta Antiqua. Bordeaux: Ausonius. ISBN 978-2-35613-014-3.
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Paris: Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
  • Duval, Paul-Marie (1989) [1955]. "Les peuples de l'Aquitaine d'après la liste de Pline". Travaux sur la Gaule (1946–1986). Publications de l'École française de Rome. Vol. 116. Rome: École française de Rome. pp. 721–737. Originally published in Revue de philologie, de littérature et d'histoire anciennes 29 (1955), pp. 214–227.
  • Falileyev, Alexander (2010). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-Names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Aberystwyth: CMCS Publications.
  • Gardes, Philippe (2002). "Territoires et organisation politique de l'Aquitaine pré-augustéenne. Pour une confrontation des sources". In Garcia, Dominique; Verdin, Florence (eds.). Territoires celtiques. Espaces ethniques et territoires des agglomérations protohistoriques d'Europe occidentale. Paris: Éditions Errance. pp. 48–65. ISBN 978-2-87772-219-3.

Further reading

  • Lemoine, Jacques (1977). Toponymie du pays basque français et des pays de l'Adour. A. et J. Picard. ISBN 978-2-7084-0003-0.
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