Celtillus

Celtillus
King of the Arverni
Personal details
Born	Unknown
Died	Gaul
Cause of death	Execution
Children	Vercingetorix

Celtillus was an Gallic nobleman of the Arvernian people and the father of Vercingetorix. He obtained the status of principatum Galliae ('foremost man of all Gaul'), perhaps referring to the office of vergobret, the supreme magistracy exercised through a temporary elective mandate. He was murdered by members of his own people for attempting to replace the existing oligarchic system with kingship.

Name

The Gaulish name Celtillus is an -illus derivative of the stem celt-, as in keltos ('Celt'); the precise meaning of the suffix remains uncertain, though it may have a diminutive value.

Life

Some time around 70–60 BC, Celtillus was murdered by members of his people for attempting to established a kingship regime, a more dictatorial form of rule over the tribe. Celtillus belonged to a group of Gallic populist strongmen who sought to establish monarchies within their communities, comparable to figures such as Orgetorix among the Helvetii.

There, using a similar argument,6 the Arvernian Vercingetorix, Celtillus’ son, a young man with a huge amount of clout—his father had held predominance in Gaul as a whole and was therefore killed by his community, because he was after kingship—, easily inflamed his assembled dependents.

— Caesar, Gallic Wars, VII.2, transl. Loeb

References

Primary sources

• Caesar (1917). The Gallic War. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Edwards, H. J. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-99080-7. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

Bibliography

• Barlow, Jonathan (1998). "Noble Gauls and their other in Caesar's propaganda". In Welch, Kathryn; Powell, Anton (eds.). Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter. Classical Press of Wales. ISBN 978-0-7156-2859-1.
• Evans, D. Ellis (1967). Gaulish Personal Names: A Study of Some Continental Celtic Formations. Clarendon Press. OCLC 468437906.
• Kruta, Venceslas (2000). Les Celtes, histoire et dictionnaire. Robert Laffont. ISBN 2-221-05690-6.
• Thorne, James (2013). "Vercingetorix". In Bagnall, Roger S.; Brodersen, Kai; Champion, Craige B.; Erskine, Andrew; Huebner, Sabine R. (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah20137. ISBN 978-1-4051-7935-5.