COSSIO
COSSIO or
COSSIUM (
Κόσσιον), a town of the Vasates, a people in Gallia on the Garumna, above Burdigala (
Bordeaux). The Vasates of Ptolemy (
2.7), and the Vocates of Caesar (
Caes. Gal. 3.27), an Aquitanian people, seem to be the same. They are also perhaps the Basabocates of Pliny (
4.19), unless the name indicates two conterminous peoples.
The latter part of Pliny's name is clearly Vocates, and the former part (Basa) happens to be the modern name of Cossio, which is
Bazas, in the department of
Gironde. The diocese of
Bazas probably corresponds to the territory of the Vasates. Walckenaer (
Géogr. &c., vol. i. p. 302) conjectures, that as the Garonne cuts this diocese into two parts, the southern part was the country of the Vasates, and the northern part between the Garonne and the
Dordogne was the country of the Vocates.
In the Antonine Itin., Cossio, named “Civitas Vasatas,” is on the road from
Bordeaux to
Narbonne, and 37 1/2 M. P. from
Bordeaux. The name Vasates occurs in Ausonius (
Id. 2.4), who says that his family was from this place, though settled at Burdigala.
In another passage (
Parent. 24.8), he speaks of “Cossio Vasatum.” Ammianus Marcellinus (
15.11) has the name Vasatae.
Bazas is in a dry sandy country.
There is a description of the place by Sidonius Apoll. (Lib. viii. Ep.12).
[
G.L]
