The Tectosages or Tectosagii (Gaulish: * Textosagioi, 'Dwelling-Seekers', or 'Possessions-Seekers') were one of the three ancient Gauls tribes of Galatia in central Asia Minor, together with the Tolistobogii and Trocmii.[Livy, xxxviii. 16]
Name
The
ethnonym Tectosagii is a latinized form of
Gaulish language *
Textosagioi (
sing. Textosagios), where the voiceless velar fricative ⟨x⟩, unknown in Latin, was replaced with the sound ⟨k⟩. It can be translated as 'those who seek a dwelling', or 'those who seek possessions', from the Celtic stem
*texto- ('goods, property, possessions'; cf.
Old Irish techt 'possession') attached to
sagi- ('who is seeking'). The name can be compared with the Old Irish legal term
techtaigidir, meaning 'to seek to establish (or reestablish) legal claim to land'.
History
According to
Strabo, the Tectosages came originally from the region around
Toulouse in
Gaul, where they had been part of the tribal confederation of the
Volcae. During the Gallic invasion of the Balkans, c. 280 BC, a branch of the Volcae Tectosages, returning from
Delphi, split from the main group and joined two other tribes, the Tolistobogii and the Trocmi. Around 278 BC, they were hired as mercenaries by
Nicomedes I of
Bithynia and crossed the
Bosporus. After leaving Bithynia, they raided in Asia Minor and finally settled in eastern
Phrygia, where they established a new Celtic confederate identity as the Galatians.
The Tectosages occupied the centre of the Galatian territory, round their capital
Ancyra, with the Tolistobogii in the west and the Trocmii to the east.
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