CURIOSOLITAE
CURIOSOLITAE a people of Celtica who are mentioned by Caesar several times (
B. G. 2.34, 3.7, 11, 7.75).
The name only occurs in the accusative form, and as there are variations in the MSS., the nominative is not quite certain. They are mentioned (
B. G. 2.34) with the Veneti, Unelli, Osismi, and others that Caesar calls, “maritimae civitates,” and border on the ocean.
In another place (
B. G. 7.75) he describes the position of the Curiosolitae on the ocean in the same terms, and includes them among the Armoric states, a name equivalent to “maritimae.” The name occurs in Pliny (
4.18) in the form Cariosvelites; and he mentions them with the Unelli, Diablindi, and Rhedones. The Curiosolitae are not mentioned by Ptolemy. No city of these people is mentioned, and the Itins. give no roads in this part of
Bretagne. Accordingly we can only conjecture their position, which is determined with some probability to be the diocese of
St. Malo, the only place that remains for them after fixing the position of the other Armoric nations.
The name seems to be preserved in
Corseult, a village between
Dinan and
Lamballe, where there are the remains of an old Roman town. We may conclude that, after the fashion of Gallic names,
Corseult represents the capital of the Curiosolitae. D'Anville supposes that on the coast they extended west to the neighbourhood of
St. Brieuc, where a place called
Finiac denotes the boundary of an ancient territory, as the name Fines or
Fins denotes in other parts of Gallia.
The neighbours of the Curiosolitae on the east were the Rhedones, and on the south the Veneti. On the west were the Osismi or Osismii, who occupied the extremity of the peninsula of
Bretagne. But Walckenaer places, between the Osismi and the Curiosolitae, the Biducasii of Ptolemy, in the diocese of
St. Bidué or
St. Brieuc; whom he distinguishes from the Viducasses. [
VIDUCASSES] (D'Anville,
Notice, &c.; Walckenaer,
Géog. vol. i. p. 381.)
[
G.L]
