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The Veragrī (Gaulish: * Ueragroi, 'super-warriors'; Greek language: Οὐάραγροι) were a Gauls tribe dwelling around present-day Martigny, in the Pennine Alps, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Along with the Nantuates, Seduni and Uberi, they were part of the Vallenses, a group of tribes living between Lake Geneva and the Pennine Alps, in the modern Canton of Valais (Switzerland).
The ethnonym Veragrī is a Latinized form of Gaulish Ueragroi (sing. Ueragros). It has been translated as 'super-warriors'. It stems from the Celtic root * uer(o)- ('super'; cf. Old Irish for-, Old Welsh guar; from PIE * uper-) attached to the noun agros ('battle, carnage'; cf. Old Irish ár, Old Breton air; from PIE * h₂eǵro- 'hunt'). Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc'h has also proposed to interpret the name as 'great hunters'.
The river-name Veraglasca, located in their settlement area, derives from the ethnic name Veragri extended by a sko-suffix.
After the Roman conquered the region in 16–15 BC, their territory was initially administered in common with the province of Raetia et Vindelicia under a legatus, when they had their own civitas within the administrative region of Vallis Poenina. Following their integration into the Alpes Graiae et Poeninae by Claudius (41–54 AD), whose procurator occasionally had a residence in Octodurus, their chief town became the capital of the newly created civitas Vallensium, shared with the other Vallensian tribes.
Between 41 and 47 AD, the Romans founded a new settlement in the vicinity of Octodurus. Initially called Forum Claudii Augusti and soon renamed Forum Claudii Vallensium, it became the chief town of the civitas Vallensium and the Alpes Poeninae, one of the two divisions of the province of Alpes Graiae et Poeninae. During the Late Roman Empire, the name Octodurus, which had never ceased to be used by locals, came to designate the Roman settlement in official documents. Still prosperous by the late 4th century thanks to its strategic position near the Great St Bernard Pass, the settlement eventually declined from the early 5th century onwards, probably due to economic decline and insecurity. Between 549 and 585, Octodurus was eventually outshined by the nearby Sion, which replaced it as the host of the local episcopal see.; .
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.
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