Rigosages
The Rigosages (Ancient Greek: Ῥιγοσάγες; also Rhigosages) were a Gallic people known from a single mention by Polybius. They served as mercenaries in the army of the Seleucid king Antiochus III in 221 BC, and are not otherwise attested.
Name
[edit]They are mentioned as Rigosages (Ῥιγοσάγες) only by Polybius (2nd century BC), who records them as mercenaries in the Seleucid army.[1][2]
The name is formed with the Gaulish suffix sagi- ('seeking'), as in the Galatian tribes Tectosages and Aigosages.[3][4] The meaning of the first element is uncertain. Xavier Delamarre has proposed to see the Gaulish rix ('king'), and tentatively translates the name as 'those who seek a king'.[3]
History
[edit]Like the Aigosages, whom Attalus I brought across the Hellespont, the Rigosages formed a band of mercenaries rather than one of the Galatian peoples settled permanently in Galatia in the early 3rd century BC.[5]
They fought as mercenaries in the army of the Seleucid king Antiochus III in 221 BC. Nothing further is recorded of them.[2]
References
[edit]- ↑ Polybius. Histories, 5:55:3.
- 1 2 Mitchell 1993, p. 43.
- 1 2 Delamarre 2003, p. 265.
- ↑ Matasović 2009, p. 318.
- ↑ Coşkun 2012, p. 91.
Primary sources
[edit]- Polybius (1923). The Histories, Volume III: Books 5–8. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by W. R. Paton. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Bibliography
[edit]- Coşkun, Altay (2012). "Belonging and Isolation in Central Anatolia: The Galatians in the Graeco-Roman World". In Ager, Sheila; Faber, Riemer (eds.). Belonging and Isolation in the Hellenistic World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 73–95.
- Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 978-2-87772-369-5.
- Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. 9. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1.
- Mitchell, Stephen (1993). Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor. Volume I: The Celts in Anatolia and the Impact of Roman Rule. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
