CAVARES
Eth.
CAVARES or
CAVARI (Eth.
Καούαροι, Eth.
Καύαροι), a people of Gallia Narbonensis. Strabo (p. 186) says that the Volcae on the west bank of the Rhine have the Salyes and Cavari opposite to them on the east side;
[p. 1.577]and that the name of Cavari was given indeed to all the barbari in these parts,though they were in fact no longer barbari, but most of them had adopted the Roman language and way of living, and some had obtained the Roman citizenship.
He says (p. 185), that as a man goes from Massalia (
Marseille), into the interior, he comes to the country of the Salyes, which extends to the Druentia (
Durance); and then having crossed the river at the ferry of Cabellio (
Cavaillon), he enters the country of the Cavari, which extends along the river to the junction of the Rhone and the Isara (
Isère), a distance of 700 stadia.
But the extent which Strabo gives to the Cavari can only be considered correct by understanding him to comprehend other peoples under this name.
The town of Valentia (
Valence), which is south of the
Isère, is placed by Ptolemy (
2.10) in the country of the Segalauni, the Segovellauni of Pliny (
3.4). Between the Segalauni and the Cavari most geographers place the Tricastini; and thus the territory of the Cavari is limited to the parts about
Cavaillon, Avenio (
Avignon), and Arausio (
Orange); and perhaps we may add Carpentoracte (
Carpentras), though this town is placed in the territory of the Memini [
CARPENTORACTE]. But Ptolemy, who places the Cavari next to the Segalauni, assigns to them “Acusiorum Colonia,” a place otherwise unknown. Walckenaer (
Geog. &c. vol. ii. p. 209) endeavours to show, and with some good reason for his opinion, that the Acusiorum Colonia is
Montélimart on the east bank of the Rhone, about half way between
Valence and
Orange, and that it is not another form or a corruption of Acunum, as D'Anville supposes. Accordingly, the Cavari would extend from the
Durance to
Montélimart at least. If this is right, the Tricastini are wrongly placed by D'Anville along the Rhone between the Segalauni and the Cavares; for they are east of the Segalauni [
TRICASTINI]. Pliny (
3.4), however, places Valentia in the territory of the Cavares, though it has been proposed to make him say something else by a different pointing of his text, the result of which is that Valentia is not placed anywhere, or, if it is, it is placed in the territory of the Allobroges, which is false.
[
G.L]
