The Quariates or Quadiates were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the valley of Queyras, in the Alps, during the Iron Age.
Name
They are mentioned as Quariates (var. quadr-) by Pliny (1st c. AD),[1] and as Quadiatium and Quariat(ium?) on inscriptions.[2][3]
The etymology of the name is obscure. Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc'h and Xavier Delamarre proposed to derive it from Celtic *kwario- ('cauldron'), with sporadic preservation of the initial kw, attached to the suffix -ati- ('belonging to').[4] Alexander Falileyev notes that the q-Celtic reflex remains problematic in this scenario.[3]
The region of Queyras, whose castle is attested as Quadratum in the 12th century, may be named after the Gallic tribe.[5]
Geography
The Quariates dwelled in the valley of Queyras, in the Alps.[6] Their territory was located south of the Brigianii, east of the Segovii, and north of the Caturiges and Veneni.[7]
Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN978-0674993648.
Bibliography
Barruol, Guy (1969). Les Peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: étude de géographie historique. E. de Boccard. OCLC3279201.
Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN9782877723695.
Falileyev, Alexander (2010). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS. ISBN978-0955718236.
