Licates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Licates (Gaulish: *Licatis 'those of the Licca' or 'those of the rock') were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the upper valley of the Lech river during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
They are mentioned as Likátioi (Λικάτιοι; var. -ττ-) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD),[1] as Licates by Pliny (1st c. AD),[2] and as Likátoi (Λικάτοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD).[3][4]
The ethnic name Licates has been traditionally compared to the river name Licca (modern Lech), and translated as 'those of the Licca'. According to Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, however, "the word formations of the ethnonym and hydronym suggest that they originated independently of each other, even though they both contain the same Celtic lexeme lic(c)a ('rock'). One would therefore assume that Licates simply denoted the 'rock dwellers' and thus inevitably represented a relatively old ethnic designation."[5]
