BOII
Eth.
BOII a Celtic people (Eth.
Βοῖος) who emigrated from Transalpine Gaul to Italy in company with the Lingones (
Liv. 5.35) by the pass of the Pennine Alps or the Great
St. Bernard. Their original abode seems, therefore, to have been near the territory of the Lingones, who were between the upper
Saône and the highest parts of the
Seine and
Marne. Those Boii who joined the Helvetii in their march to the country of the Santones, had crossed the Rhine (
B. G. 1.5), and it seems that they came from Germany to join the Helvetii.
After the defeat of the Helvetii Caesar gave them a territory in the country of the Aedui (
B. G. 1.28, 7.9), which territory D'Anville supposes to be in the angle between the
Allier and the
Loire. The Boia of Caesar (7.14) may be the country of these Boii; if it is not, it is the name of a town unknown to us. Walckenaer places these Boii in the modern diocese of
Auxerre (Autesiodurum), which he supposes to be part of their original territory that had been occupied by the Aedui.
But this supposition is directly contradicted by the narrative of Caesar (
Caes. Gal. 7.9,
10,
11).
The town of the Boii was Gergovia according to the common texts of Caesar, but the name is corrupt, and the site is unknown. No conclusion can be derived as to the position of these Boii from the passage of Tacitus (
Tac. Hist. 2.61), except that they were close to the Aedui, which is known already. Pliny's enumeration (4.18), under Gallia Lugdunensis, of “intus Hedui federati, Carnuti federati, Boii, Senones, Aulerci,” places the Boii between the Carnutes and the Senones, and agrees with Walckenaer's conjecture; but this is not the position of the Boii of Caesar.
The name Boii also occurs in the Antonine Itin. on the road from Aquae Augustae or Tarbellicae (
Dax) to
Bordeaux. The name is placed 16 Gallic leagues or 24 Roman miles from
Bordeaux, These Boii are represented by the Buies of the
Pays de Buch, or
Bouges, as Walckenaer calls them (
Géog. &c. vol. i. p. 303).
The name Boii in the Itin. ought to represent a place, and it is supposed by D'Anville that
Tête de Buch, on the
Bassin d'Arcachon, may represent it; but he admits that the distance does not agree with the Itin.: and besides this, the
Tête de Buch seems to lie too much out of the road between
Dax and
Bordeaux. [
G.L]
