LEXO´VII
Eth.
LEXO´VII (Eth.
Ληξόβιοι, Strab. p. 189;
Ληξούβιοι,
Ptol. 2.8.2), a Celtic people, on the coast of Gallia, immediately west of the mouth of the
Seine. When the Veneti and their neighbours were preparing for Caesar's attack (B.C. 56), they applied for aid to the Osismi, Lexovii, Nannetes, and others. (
B. G. 3.9, 11.) Caesar sent Sabinus against the Unelli, Curiosolites, and Lexovii, to prevent their joining the Veneti.
A few days after Sabinus reached the country of the Unelli, the Aulerci Euburovices and the Lexovii murdered their council or senate, as Caesar calls it, because they were against the war; and they joined Viridovix, the chief of the Unelli. The Gallic confederates were defeated by Sabinus, and compelled to surrender. (
B. G. 3.17--19.) The Lexovii took part in the great rising of the Galli against Caesar (B.C. 52) ; but their force was only 3000 men. (
B. G. 7.75.) Walckenaer supposes that the territory of the Lexovii of Caesar and Ptolemy comprised both the territories
of Lisieux and
Bayeux, though there was a people in
Bayeux named Baiocasses; and he further supposes that these Baiocasses and the Viducasses were dependent on the Lexovii, and within their territorial limits. [
BAIOCASSES] The capital of the Lexovii, or Civitas Lexoviorum, as it is called in the Notit. Provine, is
Lisieux, in the French department of
Calvados. [
NOVIOMAGUS] The country of the Lexovii was one of the parts of Gallia from which the passage to Britain was made.
[
G.L]
