The Veneni were a Ligurian tribe dwelling in the Varaita Valley during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Name
They are mentioned as Veneni by Pliny (1st c. AD).1
The ethnic name Veneni has been compared with the Indo-European stem uen- ('clan, family'). This interpretation depends on phonetic details that cannot be securely established, such as the quantity of the second -e-. According to Jean Loicq, if the name should be read instead as Venenni, by analogy with the neighbouring Vagienni listed by Pliny, the formation could be "palaeo-Ligurian".2
Geography
Their territory has been identified with the Varaita Valley, a right-bank tributary of the Po river in Piedmont, slightly south of Cuneo.34
References
References
- Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:47.
- Loicq 2003, p. 158.
- Racke 1955.
- Barruol 1969, p. 345.
- Primary sources
- Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674993648.
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- Bibliography
- Barruol, Guy (1969). Les Peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: étude de géographie historique. E. de Boccard. OCLC 3279201.
- Loicq, Jean (2003). "Sur les peuples de nom « vénète » ou assimilé dans l'Occident européen". Études celtiques. 35 (1): 133–165. doi:10.3406/ecelt.2003.2153.
- Racke, G. (1955). "Veneni". Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Vol. VIII A.