The Caerosi (orCaeroesi) were a small Belgic-Germanic tribe that lived in Gallia Belgica during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their ethnic identity remains uncertain. Caesar described them as part of the Germani Cisrhenani, but their tribal name is probably of Celtic origin.[1][2][3] Like other Germani Cisrhenani tribes, it is possible that their old Germanic endonym came to be abandoned after a tribal reorganization, that they received their names from their Celtic neighbours, or else that they were fully or partially assimilated into Celtic culture at the time of the Roman invasion of the region in 57 BC.[2]
They are mentioned as Caerosos (var. ceroesos, caeroesos, cerosos) by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC),[4] and as CaerosibyOrosius (early 5th c. AD).[5][6][2]
The ethnonymCaerosi probably derives from a Proto-Celtic stem reconstructed as *caer- ('sheep'; cf. Old Irishcaera), itself from an earlier *caper- (cf. Latincaper, Old Norsehafr, 'billy goat', Greek kápros 'boar'). The variant Caeroesi has an unexplained suffix (-oeso-), which is not found in either Celtic or Germanic languages, although -oso- is a known suffix in Gaulish (e.g. Laudosa, Iboso). It may be translated as 'the sheep', 'the rams', or else 'rich in sheep', although its exact meaning remains unclear.[7] It is linguistically related to other Celtic ethnonyms such as Caeracates, Caereni, and Kairènoi (Καιρηνοί).[1][3]
Boundary marker of the Pagus Carucum.
Alternative comparisons with the Old Irish cáera ('berry'),[8][9] the Middle Irishcéar ('dark brown'),[2] or the Proto-Germanic *haira- ('worthy, exalted, *grey-haired’; cf. Mod. High German hehr 'noble') have also been proposed by some scholars.[9]
The region of pagus Carucum, a Roman-era subdivision of the Treveri later known under the FranksasPagus Coroascus, may be named after the tribe,[10] although the linguistic connection remains uncertain.[11] The name has been discovered on a Roman era boundary marker carved with the inscription 'FINIS PAGI CARV CVM' ('boundary or end of the pagus Carucum'), located in a wooded area near Neidenbach and Kyllburg.[12]
^Matijević, Krešimir (2010). Römische und frühchristliche Zeugnisse im Norden Obergermaniens: epigraphische Studien zu unterer Mosel und östlicher Eifel. Verlag Marie Leidorf. pp. 237–239. ISBN978-3-86757-255-2.
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.
Neumann, Günter (1981), "Caeroesi", Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA), vol. 4 (2 ed.), Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 309–310, ISBN3-11-006513-4
von Petrikovits, Harald (1999), "Germani Cisrhenani", in Beck, H.; Geuenich, D.; Steuer, H. (eds.), Germanenprobleme in heutiger Sicht, Walter de Gruyter, ISBN978-3110164381
