VIDUCASSES
Eth.
VIDUCASSES a Celtic people in Gallia Lugdunensis. Pliny (
4.18) mentions them before the Bodiocasses, who are supposed to be the Baiocasses [
BAIOCASSES]. Ptolemy (
2.8.5) writes the name
Οὐιδουκαίσιοι or
Οὐιδουκάσσιοι, for we must assume them to be the Viducasses, though he places the Viducassii next to the Osismii, and the Veneti between the Viducassii and the Lexovii.
But the Viducasses are between the Baiocasses and the Lexovii.
The boundary between the Viducasses and the Baiocasses is indicated by a name
Fins (Fines), which often occurs in French geography.
There is a place named
Vieux SW. of
Caen, in the department of
Calvados, some distance from the left bank of the river
Orne. This place is mentioned in the titles or muniments of the neighbouring abbey of
Fontenai, on the other side of the
Orne, under the name of Videocae or Veocae, of which
Vieux is a manifest corruption, as D'Anville shows, like Tricasses, Trecae,
Troies, and Durocasses, Drocae,
Dreux. There is or was a stone preserved in the
château of Torigni, in the arrondissement of
Saint Lô, in the department of
Manche, which contains the inscription ORDO CIVITATIS VIDVCAS. This marble, which was found at
Vieux in 1580, is said to be the pedestal of a statue placed in the third century of our aera in honour of T. Sennius Solemnis.
In the excavations made at
Vieux in 1705 were found remains of public baths, of an aqueduct, a gymnasium, fragments of columns, of statues, and a great number of medals of the imperial period, besides other remains. Inscriptions, of the date A. D 238, found on the spot show that this city had temples and altars erected to Diana, to Mars, and to Mercury. (
Nouveaux Essais sur la Ville de Caen, par M. L'Abbé Delarue, 2 vols. Caen, 1842, cited by Richard et Hocquart,
Guide du Voyageur）
The name of this old town is unknown, but the remains show that it was a Roman city, probably built on a Celtic site; and several Roman roads branch off from it. Some geographers suppose it to be the Araegenus or Araegenue of the Table, which D'Anville would fix at
Bayeux. But the site of Araegenus is doubtful. [
AUGUSTODURUS]
[
G.L]
