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The Caturiges (Gaulish language: Caturīges, 'kings of combat') were a Gauls tribe dwelling in the upper Durance valley, around present-day towns of Chorges and Embrun, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
The Gaulish language ethnonym Caturīges (sing. Caturix) literally means 'kings of combat'. It stems from the Celtic root catu- ('combat, battle') attached to rīges ('kings').
The city of Chorges, attested in the 4th c. AD as Caturrigas ( Cadorgas in 1062, Chaorgias in 1338), is named after the tribe.
Initially part of the province of Alpes Cottiae after the Roman conquest, the Caturiges were integrated into the province of Alpes Maritimae during the reign of Diocletian (284–305 AD).
Caturigomagus ('market of the Caturiges'; modern Chorges) was a frontier city located on the route to Italy via the Col de Montgenèvre, in the western part of the Caturigian territory near the border between the Alpes Cottiae and the Vocontii. Probably outshined by the neighbouring Eburodunum and Vappincum (Gap), the city declined in the 4th century AD and was not listed as civitates by the Notitia Galliarum ca. 400.
The presence of a cult to Mars Caturix in a town also named Eburodunum (Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland) on the southern shore of Lac Neuchâtel of has been noted. Further occurrences in the Barrois region ( Caturrigis, the ancient name of Bar-le-Duc), and possibly in Haute-Savoie, have been interpreted as traces of ancient migrations, although neither their chronology nor their direction can be determined.
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.Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:20. They also appear on the Arch of Susa, erected by Cottius in 9–8 BC.
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