CADURCI
Eth.
CADURCI (Eth.
Καδοῦρκοι), a Celtic people who occupied the basin of the Oltis (
Lot), a branch of the
Garonne, and lay between the Nitiobriges and Ruteni; on the north they bordered on the Arverni. The Cadurci were among the first who joined Vercingetorix (B.C. 52) in his rising against Caesar, and they took an active part in the war (
B. G. 7.4, 64). They are enumerated by Caesar with the Gabali and Velauni or Vellavi (
B. G. 7.75), as accustomed to admit the supremacy of the Arverni over them. In Caesar's text (7.75) they are called Eleutlieri Cadurci; but the reading Eleutheri is doubtful (Oadendorp. ed. Caesar), and the name has never been satisfactorily explained.
The chief town of the Cadurci was Divona, afterwards Civitas Cadurcorum, now
Cahors. Uxellodunum, which was besieged and taken by Caesar (
Caes. Gal. 8.32, &c.), was also a town of the Cadurci.
The territory of the Cadurci became Cadurcinumn in the Latin middle age writers, which was corrupted into
Cahorsin or
Caorsin, whence the name
Querci, in the ante-revolutionary geography of France.
The territory of the Cadurci is supposed to have been co-extensive with the bishopric of
Cahors.
The Cadurci wove linen cloth. (Strab. p. 191,
Plin. Nat. 19.1; and Forcellini,
s. v. Cadurcum.)
[
G.L]
