Veliocasses

The Veliocasses or Velocasses (Gaulish: *Ueliocassēs) were a Belgic or Gallic tribe of the La Tène and Roman periods, dwelling in the south of modern Seine-Maritime and in the north of Eure. They are mentioned as Veliocasses by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC) and Pliny (1st c. AD), as Ou̓éliokásioi (Οὐέλιοκάσιοι; var. οὐενελιοάσιοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD), and as Velocasses by Orosius (early 5th c. AD). The meaning of the Gaulish ethnonym is uncertain. The first part is certainly the Gaulish stem uelio-, which could either derive from Proto-Celtic *wēliyā- ('modesty'; cf. OIr. féle, OBret. guiled 'honestas'), or else from Proto-Celtic *wēlyo- ('better'; cf. Welsh gwell 'better'). The second etymology is semantically more probable for a tribal name, but the unknown length of the vowel e in uelio- makes it difficult to conclude with certainty. The meaning of the second element -casses, attested in other Gaulish ethnonyms such as Bodiocasses, Durocasses, Sucasses, Tricasses, or Viducasses, has been debated. It has traditionally been interpreted as '(curly) hair, hairstyle' (cf. Old Irish chass 'curl'), perhaps referring to a particular warrior coiffure. On this reading Veliocasses has been rendered as 'the curly ones', or 'those with very curly hair'. Other scholars have instead connected the element with metalworking. Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel interprets the -casses ethnonyms as helmet-names, glossing Veliocasses as 'those with the good (i.e. harder) helmets' and treating such names as evidence that the metalworking era had begun.