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The Volcae were a great Celtic tribal confederation, divided into Volcae Tectosages (around Tolosa/Toulouse) and Volcae Arecomici (around Nemausus/Nîmes) in southern Gaul.
Famous became the legendary treasure of Tolosa: when the Roman consul Caepio plundered the city in 106 BC, a huge temple hoard vanished mysteriously. "Aurum Tolosanum" – the gold of Tolosa – became a byword for ruinous wealth.
Parts of the Tectosages wandered far: they moved all the way to Asia Minor and belonged to the Galatians, those Celts to whom the biblical Letter to the Galatians is addressed. And their name lives on in another way: from Volcae came the Germanic word for "the foreigners/Romance-speakers" – to this day in "Welsh", "Walloon" and "Wales".
"The Volcae Tectosages once occupied the most fertile parts of Germania around the Hercynian forest."after Caesar, The Gallic War VI (public domain, own translation)
The Volcae show how far Celtic names and people travelled. Continue with the Boii and Celtic warriors.
The Celtic Warriors · Celtic Princely Graves · The Arverni · The Aedui · The Boii.
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