LIBICII
Eth.
LIBICII or
LIBICI (Eth.
Λεβέκιοι, Pol.;
Λιβικοί, Ptol.), a tribe of Cisalpine Gauls, who inhabited the part of Gallia Transpadana about the river Sesia and the neighbourhood of Vercellae. They are first mentioned by Polybius (
2.17), who places them, together with the
LAEVI (
Λάοι), towards the sources of the Padus, and W. of the Insubres.
This statement is sufficiently vague: a more precise clue, to their position is supplied by Pliny and Ptolemy, both of whom notice Vercellae as their chief city, to which the latter adds Laumellum also. (
Plin. Nat. 3.17. s. 21;
Ptol. 3.1.36.) Pliny expressly tells us that they were descended from the Sallyes, a people of Ligurian race; whence it would appear probable. that the Libicii as well as the Laevi were Ligurian, and not Gaulish tribes [
LAEVI], though settled on the N. side of the Padus. Livy also speaks, but in a passage of which the reading is very uncertain (5.35), of the Salluvii (the same people with the Sallyes) as crossing the Alps, and settling in Gaul near the Laevi.
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E.H.B]
