Orobii
The Orobii (also Orumobii or Orumbovii) were a Celtic-Ligurian tribe dwelling northern Italian valleys of Bergamo, Como and Lecco during the Iron Age.
Name
The name Orobii can be explained as the Gaulish orbioi (sing. orbios), meaning 'the heirs'. It is comparable with the feminine forms Orobia and Urbia (earlier *Orbia), the ancient names of the Orge river and Orge stream, and with the i-stem Orobis, now the Orb river.[1]
Classical historians such as Pliny the Elder himself thought them as of Greek origin, tracing the etymology of their ethnonym from the Greek "Ορων βιον".[2]
History
Modern archaeologists and linguists see the Orobii as a population of celticized Ligurians, or Celtic-Ligurians, formed with the contribution of Celtic immigrants from the Rhine and the Danube areas[3] in an early historical period preceding the Gallic invasions of the 4th century BC[4] who settled in north-west Italy between the Oglio and the Ticino rivers.
Pliny the Elder ascribes to them the foundation of the cities of Como, Bergamo, Licini Forum[5] and Parra.[6]
See also
References
- ^ Delamarre 2003, p. 243.
- ^ C. Cantù, Storia di Como e sua provincia, Como, 1859.
- ^ M. Gianoncelli, "Vecchie e nuove ipotesi sulla stirpe degli Orobi", in Oblatio; A. Noseda ed, Como, 1971.
- ^ R. de Marinis, "La civiltà di Golasecca", in La Lombardia, Jaka book, 1985.
- ^ Probably near the modern city of Erba.
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, III, 124-125.
Bibliography
Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
