The Tricores were a Gauls tribe dwelling near the Mediterranean Sea, between the Rhône river and Massalia (modern Marseille), during the Iron Age.
Name
The Tricores are solely attested by Pliny as
Tricorium in the 1st century AD.
[Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:34.] They must be distinguished from the
Tricorii of the Drac river valley.
The Gaulish name Tricores probably derives from the prefix tri- ('three') attached to corio- ('army').[, s.v. Tricores.]
Geography
Pliny describes the territory of the Tricores as located between the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the
Tritolli to the north, and between the Rhône river to the west and
Massalia to the east. The region of L'Estaque and Vitrolles, to the south and southeast of the Étang de Berre, is a potential candidate.
According to history Guy Barruol, they were part of the Salyes confederation.
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