Perigord
Under year 768, the Royal Frankish Annals contain the following statement:
“Here [in Saintes] he [Pepin] left the queen with her retinue and entered Perigord. When Waifar had been killed, Pepin returned in triumph to Saintes.”
Putting aside the unhappy end of Waifar’s life (he was a duke of rebellious Acquitannians who the Frankish Pepin apparently felt he just had to deal with), one must ask what is a Perigord?
Well, it’s a region of France. Its capital is Périgueux. Périgueux’s name comes from the Latin Petrocorii. Petrocorii is a Latinization of Celtic words meaning “the four tribes”. Perigord is supposedly also derived from these Petrocorii. Thus, the Petrocorii were translated once into Périgueux and once into Perigord.
It seems then this cannot have anything to do with Slavs. While the suffix -gord may mean walled off burgh, this was a country not an actual gord.
But just to not let any stone lie unturned, we will look at this in some detail.
One has to ask first, who are these Petrocorii? They are mentioned only twice. First, in Caesar’s Gallic Wars, Book 7, chapter 75 where the glorious one says:
“While those things are carried on at Alesia, the Gauls, having convened a council of their chief nobility, determine that all who could bear arms should not be called out, which was the opinion of Vercingetorix, but that a fixed number should be levied from each state; lest, when so great a multitude assembled together, they could neither govern nor distinguish their men, nor have the means of supplying them with corn. They demand thirty-five thousand men from the Aedui and their dependents, the Segusiani, Ambivareti, and Aulerci Brannovices; an equal number from the Arverni in conjunction with the Eleuteti Cadurci, Gabali, and Velauni, who were accustomed to be under the command of the Arverni; twelve thousand each from the Senones , Sequani, Bituriges, Sentones, Ruteni, and Carnutes; ten thousand from the Bellovaci; the same number from the Lemovici; eight thousand each from the Pictones, and Turoni, and Parisii , and Helvii; five thousand each from the Suessiones, Ambiani, Mediomatrici, Petrocorii, Nervii, Morini, and Nitiobriges; the same number from the Aulerci Cenomani; four thousand from the Atrebates; three thousand each from the Bellocassi, Lexovii, and Aulerci Eburovices; thirty thousand from the Rauraci, and Boii; six thousand from all the states together, which border on the Atlantic, and which in their dialect are called Armoricae (in which number are comprehended the Curisolites, Rhedones, Ambibari, Caltes, Osismii, Lemovices, Veneti, and Unelli). Of these the Bellovaci did not contribute their number, as they said that they would wage war against the Romans on their own account, and at their own discretion, and would not obey the order of any one: however, at the request of Commius, they sent two thousand, in consideration of a tie of hospitality which subsisted between him and them.”
We note first that many of these names sound suspiciously similar to Slavic tribes (e.g., Osismii in Armorica who were also called Ostimi (as per Pytheas via Strabo), the “last ones”; not to mention the Lemovices who sound very much like the Lemovii of Tacitus). For more of these see here.
More importantly, however, it is not clear where these Petrocorii should be located. Caesar mentions “Suessiones, Ambiani, Mediomatrici, Petrocorii, Nervii, Morini, and Nitiobriges.” Other than the Nitiobriges (or Nitiobroges) none of the above tribes seems to have been located anywhere near the Petrocorii (they all seem to be placed in northeastern France or Belgium).
We have, however, another source to work with and that is Strabo who says in Book 4, chapter 2 of his Geography:
“Those tribes between the Garumna and the Liger that belong to Aquitania are, first, the Elui, whose territory begins at the Rhodanus, and then, after them, the Vellavii, who were once included within the boundaries of the Arverni, though they are now ranked as autonomous; then the Arverni, the Lemovices, and the Petrocorii; and, next to these, the Nitiobriges, the Cadurci, and those Bituriges that are called “Cubi”; and, next to the ocean, both the Santoni and the Pictones, the former living along the Garumna, as I have said, the latter along the Liger; but the Ruteni and the Gabales closely approach Narbonitis. Now among the Petrocorii there are fine iron-works, and also among the Bituriges Cubi; among the Cadurci, linen factories; among the Ruteni, silver mines; and the Gabales, also, have silver mines. The Romans have given the “Latin right” to certain of the Aquitani just as they have done in the case of the Auscii and the Convenae.”
It is thus Strabo that places the Petrocorii somewhere between the Liger and the Garumna.
Strabo was likely right but even so, does that mean that Perigord refers to Petrocorii? Where is the “t”? Gone to the ages we suppose. We do have a Peiragastus… but we’ll tentatively let this one go.
Conclusion: probably Celtic.
So we’re done with France for now… almost
Gordes
In southeastern France we have the town of Gordes. From a 1987 book about local history (Gordes notes d’histoire by Jean-Louis Morand) we learn that the name derives from the Celtic “Vordense”. But that’s not quite the end of it. We also learn that “Vordense was pronounced Gordenses, then Gordae/Gordone, and finally Gòrda then translated into French ‘Gordes’.” All that is well and quite good but a few questions need to be asked.
What is Vordense? This is, apparently, a reference to a “Celto-Ligurian” people. How do we know such people existed? Well, in the nearby Apt Cathedral there is a Roman inscription that says the following:
C. ALLIO. C. F VOLT. CELERI nn. VIR. FLAM AVGVR. COL. I APTA. EX. V. DEC . VORDENSES PAGANI PATRONO
But then Mr. Generat in his 1860 ethnographic study of the peoples in the area suggested that Vordenses was a geographic description not necessarily a name of a tribe.
There is also no reason to believe that Vordenses has anything to do with Gordes. It was just an idea of how to explain Gordes. Gordes needed explaining apparently, there was a nearby inscription with Vordenses and perhaps one w-ord led to another.
Two things are worth noting:
First, Generat’s study was regarding the geography & ethnography of the villages Aeria and… Vindalium.
Vindalium (noted by Strabo – see post scriptum below) is the site of a 120 BC battle between between the Romans and the Gallic army of the Allobroges and Voconces. It is commonly identified with Vedene in France and it is Vedene (Vaucluse) that Generat was studying. Both Gord and Vedene are near to each other (in the area of Avignon):
So now we have some form of Vindi.
Second, what is this Gord (if not related to any Vordense)? Well, Gordes was apparently (and here Morand agrees) the site of an oppidum. What is an oppidum? Well, it’s basically a Latin word for a large fortified settlement – typically associated with “Celts”. Now the word “guard” is common to Indo-European languages (e.g., Garda Síochána of Ireland) but the word “gord” or “gard” as a designation of an enclosed “burgh” is a Slavic word. The German peoples may have had “garden” but that referred to a vegetable or flower patch rather than an enclosed settlement. There also are no “gords” or “gards” in countries known to speak Celtic languages so what gives?
And BTW, the Tabula Peutingeriana shows a tribe named Veliate in this area:
Post Scriptum
We note here what Strabo says of Vindalium (Book 4, chapter 1):
“…Between the Druentia and the Isar there are still other rivers which flow from the Alps to the Rhodanus, namely, two that flow round a city of the Cavaran Vari, and coming together in a common stream empty into the Rhodanus; and a third, the Sulgas, which mingles its waters with the Rhodanus near the city of Undalum [elsewhere Vindalium], where in a great battle Gnaeus Ahenobarbus turned many myriads of Celti to flight.”
A few observations:
- That Druentia has to have something to do with Drwęca in northern Poland (sources in Masuria – former territory of the Prussians) is likely. Whether this means that there were Celts in northern Poland or Slavs in France or something else altogether (Veneti?) is, of course, up for grabs;
- We also encourage you to read the rest of Strabo’s passage, including mentions of:
- Vienna (Vienne)
- Segusiavi
- Lugdunum
If you keep reading you will also come to this passage of interest, we think, to anyone interested in Paphlagonian connections to Balts (or Slavs):
“The people who are called Tectosages closely approach the Pyrenees, though they also reach over small parts of the northern side of the Cemmenus; and the land they occupy is rich in gold. It appears that at one time they were so powerful and had so large a stock of strong men that, when a sedition broke out in their midst, they drove a considerable number of their own people out of the homeland; again, that other persons from other tribes made common lot with these exiles; and that among these are also those people who have taken possession of that part of Phrygia which has a common boundary with Cappadocia and the Paphlagonians. Now as proof of this we have the people who are still, even at the present time, called Tectosages; for, since there are three tribes, one of them — the one that lives about the city of Ancyra — is called “the tribe of the Tectosages,” while the remaining two are the Trocmi and the Tolistobogii. As for these latter peoples, although the fact of their racial kinship with the Tectosages indicates that they emigrated from Celtica, I am unable to tell from what districts they set forth; for I have not learned of any Trocmi or Tolistobogii who now live beyond the Alps, or within them, or this side of them. But it is reasonable to suppose that nothing has been left of them in Celtica on account of their thoroughgoing migrations — just as is the case with several other peoples. For example, some say that the second Brennus who made an invasion against Delphi was a Prausan, but I am unable to say where on earth the Prausans formerly lived, either.“
All this may also be of interest to anyone looking at ancient Anatolia and the capital of Phrygia – Gordion. Now this was supposedly named after one (there were at least two) of the Phrygian rulers – Gordias (he of the Gordian knot) – but who knows where the truth may be here (did Slavs get the idea for a burgh to be called a gord from having lived near (or in) Gordion?
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