Osismii

Coins of the Osismii.

Map of the Gallic people of modern Britanny :

  Osismii

  Veneti

  Coriosolites

  Redones

  Namnetes

The Osismii were a Gaulish tribe on the western Armorican peninsula. They were first described as the Ostimioi by the Greek geographer and traveller Pytheas in the fourth century BC. He situated them at the end of the peninsula of Kabaïon, which is not identifiable today. Their name (Ostimioi) means "the farthest" or "those at the end of the world". Their territory corresponded broadly to the modern French département of Finistère, whose name reflects the same meaning in Latin Finis Terræ, i.e. end of the earth. Their chief city was Vorgium, modern Carhaix.

They survived into Roman times and are found in the texts of Julius Caesar, Pliny the Elder, and Strabo. They submitted to Caesar during the Gallic Wars, in 57 BC. The next year, they revolted along with the Veneti, but were put down. They became a Roman civitas and their identity survived into Late Antiquity, but their Romanisation wore off.

Sources

• Smith, Julia M. H. Province and Empire: Brittany and the Carolingians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

See also

• Veneti (Gaul)
• List of Celtic tribes