Rigosages
The Rigosages (Ancient Greek: Ῥιγοσάγες; also Rhigosages) were a Gallic people known from a single mention by Polybius. They served as mercenaries in the army of the Seleucid king Antiochus III in 221 BC, and are not otherwise attested.
Name
They are mentioned as Rigosages (Ῥιγοσάγες) only by Polybius (2nd century BC), who records them as mercenaries in the Seleucid army.[1][2]
The name is formed with the Gaulish suffix sagi- ('seeking'), as in the Galatian tribes Tectosages and Aigosages.[3][4] The meaning of the first element is uncertain. Xavier Delamarre has proposed to see the Gaulish rix ('king'), and tentatively translates the name as 'those who seek a king'.[3]
History
Like the Aigosages, whom Attalus I brought across the Hellespont, the Rigosages formed a band of mercenaries rather than one of the Galatian peoples settled permanently in Galatia in the early 3rd century BC.[5]
They fought as mercenaries in the army of the Seleucid king Antiochus III in 221 BC. Nothing further is recorded of them.[2]
References
- ↑ Polybius. Histories, 5:55:3.
- 1 2 Mitchell 1993, p. 43.
- 1 2 Delamarre 2003, p. 265.
- ↑ Matasović 2009, p. 318.
- ↑ Coşkun 2012, p. 91.
Primary sources
- Polybius (1923). The Histories, Volume III: Books 5–8. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by W. R. Paton. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Bibliography
- Coşkun, Altay (2012). "Belonging and Isolation in Central Anatolia: The Galatians in the Graeco-Roman World". In Ager, Sheila; Faber, Riemer (eds.). Belonging and Isolation in the Hellenistic World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 73–95.
- Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 978-2-87772-369-5.
- Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. 9. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1.
- Mitchell, Stephen (1993). Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor. Volume I: The Celts in Anatolia and the Impact of Roman Rule. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
