Boii

Encyclopedia : B : BO : BOI : Boii

-->

Boii is the Roman name of three ancient Celtic tribes, living in Transalpine Gaul (modern France), Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy), and Bohemia, Moravia and western Slovakia. The European region of Bohemia owes its name to the Boii.

Historians in the 19th and earlier 20th centuries also sometimes linked the Boii to the origins of the Bavarians (Lat. Baioari), although that particular link is seldom accepted today.

Despite the derivation of the name, the ancient Boii should neither be confused with the present-day inhabitants of what it now the state of Bavaria in Germany, nor with those of Bohemia in the Czech Republic. An argument can be made for an early intermixing with Etruscans from Italy; however, the same argument can also be made for the Celtic tribes in any area they inhabited.

Sometime between 205 and 184 BC, T. Maccius Plautus refers to the Boii in his work, Captivi:

But now he is not a Sicilian — he is a Boian; he has got a Boian woman.

Another reference to Boii is dated sometime between 100 and 44 BC, when Julius Caesar refers to the Boii in his work, De Bello Gallico. written c. 50 BC:

They persuade the Rauraci, and the Tulingi, and the Latobrigi, their neighbours, to adopt the same plan, and after burning down their towns and villages, to set out with them: and they admit to their party and unite to themselves as confederates the Boii, who had dwelt on the other side of the Rhine, and had crossed over into the Norican territory, and assaulted Noreia.

It seems quite clear that Caesar here refers to the historic Cimbrian War of c. 115 - 101 BC, during which the Cimbri and Teutons attacked the Roman frontier. The Cimbri were led by the king Boiorix whose name means "King of the Boii". Thus it appears we are dealing with a confederation of the Cimbri and Boii led by the Boii King as over lord. That the Boii survived until the time of Caesar (50 years after the Cimbrian War) indicates that, perhaps, the Roman propaganda of their crushing defeat against the barbarians may be overstated. The inferred motive is clear: Roman propaganda would not allow the barbarians to inflict two crushing defeats on their forces without returning the favor.

Sometime between 59 BC and AD 17, in volume 21 of his work Ab Urbe Condita, Livy says that it was a Boii that offered to show Hannibal the way across the Alps.

When, after the action had thus occurred, his own men returned to each general, Scipio could adopt no fixed plan of proceeding, except that he should form his measures from the plans and undertakings of the enemy: and Hannibal, uncertain whether he should pursue the march he had commenced into Italy, or fight with the Roman army which had first presented itself, the arrival of ambassadors from the Boii, and of a petty prince called Magalus, diverted from an immediate engagement; who, declaring that they would be the guides of his journey and the companions of his dangers, gave it as their opinion, that Italy ought to be attacked with the entire force of the war, his strength having been no where previously impaired.

References

T. Maccius Plautus, The Captiva and the Mostellaria, as published by Project Gutenberg, as published 1 January 2005 (EBook #7282) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7282 Accessed 29 January 2005.
Caius Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico and Other Commentaries, as published by Project Gutenberg, 9 January 2004 (EBook #10657) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10657 Accessed 29 January 2005.
Titus Livius, The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty-Six, as published by Project Gutenberg, 1 February 2004 (eBook #10907) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10907 Accessed 31 January 2005.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~kmacfarl/CLASS_355/9.LivyI.html. Says Livy wrote his famous work over 45 years from c. 29 BC - 17 AD.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.