LAEVI
Eth.
LAEVI or LAÏ (
Λάοι), a tribe of Cisalpine Gauls, who dwelt near the sources of the river Padus.
This is the statement of Polybius (
2.17), who associates them with the Libicii (
Λεβέκιοι), and says that the two tribes occupied the part of the plains of Cisalpine Gaul nearest to the sources of the Padus, and next to them came the Insubres.
He distinctly reckons them among the
Gaulish tribes who had crossed the Alps and settled in the plains of Northern Italy: on the other hand., both Livy and Pliny call them Ligurians. (
Liv. 5.35;
Plin. Nat. 3.17. s. 21.)
The reading in the passage of Livy is, indeed, very uncertain; but he would appear to agree with Pliny in placing them in the neighbourhood of Ticinum. Pliny even ascribes the foundation of that city to the Laevi, in conjunction with the Marici, a name otherwise wholly unknown, but apparently also a Ligurian tribe.
There can be no doubt that in this part of Italy tribes of Gaulish and Ligurian origin were very much intermixed, and probably the latter were in many cases confounded with the Gauls. [
LIGURIA]
