Tricastini

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography

TRICASTI´NI(Τρικαστινοί), a Gallic people between the Rhone and the Alps. Livy (Liv. 5.34) describing the march of Bellovesus and his Galli into Italy, says they came to the Tricastini: The Alps next were opposed to them;from which it is inferred that the Tricastini were near the Alps. But nothing exact can be inferred from the narrative, nor from the rest of this confused chapter. In the description of Hannibal's march (Liv. 21.34) it is said that Hannibal, after settling the disputes of the Allobroges, being now on his road to the Alps, did not; make his march straight forward, but turned to the left into the territory of the Tricastini; and from the country of the Tricastini he went through the uttermost part of the territory of the Vocontii into the country of the Tricorii, and finally reached the Druentia ( Durance. ) It would be out of place to examine this question fully, for it would require some pages to discuss the passages in Livy. He means, however, to place the Tricastini somewhere between the Allobroges and part of the border of the Vocontian territory. The capital of the Vocontii is Dea Vocontiorum, or Diein the department of Drome;and the conclusion is that the Tricastini were somewhere between the Isara ( Isère) and the Druna ( Drome). This agrees with the position of Augusta Tricastinorum [AUGUSTA TRICASTINORUM] as determined by the Itins.
Ptolemy (Ptol. 2.10.13) places the Tricastini east of the Segallauni, whose capital is Valentia, and he names as the capital of the Tricastini a town Noeomagus, which appears to be a different place from Augusta Tricastinorumn. D'Anville places the Tricastini along the east bank of the Rhone, north of Arausio ( Orange), a position which he fixes by his determination of Augusta Tricastinorum; and he adds, that the name of the Tricastini has been preserved pure in that of Tricastin. But the Tricastini of Livy and Ptolemy are certainly not where D'Anville places them.
[G.L]