Viducasses

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The Viducasses were a Gallic tribe living in what is now the Calvados department in northwestern France, during the Iron Age and the Roman period. They are named Viducasses by Pliny and appear as Bidoukesíōn or Bidoukésioi in Ptolemy’s writings. Their Gaulish name comes from uidu- meaning “wood,” with a second part that likely refers to hair or a hairstyle, so the name is often read as “the tangled-hair ones” (or, by some scholars, as “those with wooden helmets”). The city of Vieux, attested in the 3rd century as Civitas Viducassium, is named after the tribe and lies in the area of the modern Caen plain.

In the Roman era, the Viducasses’ main town was Aregenua, near the Guigne river. It grew from the early 2nd century and reached its height during the Severan period (193–235 AD). An inscription from 238 AD calls Aregenua both a free city and a colony. In the 3rd century it was known as Civitas Viducassium, but in the early 4th century it was probably absorbed by the civitas of the Bodiocasses. A sanctuary dates to the end of the 1st century BC at Baron-sur-Odon, about 2.5 km west of Aregenua.

Geographically, the Viducasses lay south of the Bodiocasses, north of the Aulerci Diablintes, southeast of the Venelli, northeast of the Abrincatui, west of the Lexovii, and northwest of the Sagii.