Tasgetius, the Latinized form of Gaulish Tasgetios or Tasgiitios (d. 54 BC), was a ruler of the Carnutes, a Celtic polity whose territory corresponded roughly with the modern French departments of Eure-et-Loir, Loiret, and Loir-et-Cher. Julius Caesar says that as Roman proconsul he made Tasgetius king in reward for his support during the Gallic Wars.Julius Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 5.25.2. Although Tasgetius is conventionally called a "king," Caesar uses verbal phrases in reference to his rule rather than the noun rex: his ancestors regnum obtinuerant, "had held the kingship," and Tasgetius was in his third year of ruling at the time of his murder: tertium iam hunc annum regnantem. His reign would have begun in late 57 BC, following Caesar's campaign against the Belgic civitates in northern Gaul that year; it ended with his assassination in 54 BC. The overthrow of a king appointed by Caesar was one of the precipitating events that led to the pan-Gallic rebellion of 52 BC under the Arvernian leader Vercingetorix.Stephen L. Dyson, "Native Revolts in the Roman Empire," Historia 20 (1971), p. 242.
Caesar's account Caesar gives only a succinct account of Tasgetius's reign and death:
Political background
The land of the Carnutes was regarded as the sacred center of Gaul where each year the druidry held their pan-Gallic synod.Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 6.13.10. The late-19th-century historian of religion Alexandre Bertrand believed that the religious institution of the druids in Gaul, described most fully among the extant Greek and Latin sources by Caesar (BG 6.13–14), had a direct influence on the reception of Christianity in Western Europe, particularly in regard to the organization of monastic communities; see La religion des Gaulois: Les druides et le druidisme (Paris, 1897), appendix 2, pp. 417–424 online. Although Bertrand's highly conjectural argument was the object of immediate and vigorous attack — see review by Gaston Boissier, Journal des Savants (1898) 574–580, especially 578ff. online — the 20th-century art historian Walter Horn drew on scientific methodologies to trace pre-Christian influences on medieval architecture in the regions formerly inhabited by Celts; see "On the Origins of the Medieval Cloister," Gesta 12 (1973) 13–52, and for discussion and major works, Academic career and scholarship. At any rate, the organization of the druids, with their oversight of religious matters, had existed in Gaul, and the medieval dioceses to which modern French departments more or less correspond were formed along pre-Roman political boundaries (see also Diocese: History) — boundary disputes (de finibus controversia) being one of the juridical functions of the druids, according to Caesar (BG 6.13.5). Like several other of the larger polities in Gaul,Elections held by the Aedui are a major part of Caesar's narrative in Book 7; see 7.32–33 in particular. The last king of the Sequani was Catamantaloedes, whose son Casticus was accused of attempting to restore the monarchy (1.3.3). The kingship of the Arverni had evidently given way to oligarchy or a proto-republic after their defeat by the Romans in the 120s BC; in BG 7.4.1, Caesar says that Celtillus, the father of Vercingetorix, had been put to death by his people for his imperial ambitions (see also Bituitos, the last known Arvernian king). the Carnutes had once been ruled by kings, but seem to have adopted an oligarchic or proto-republican form of government. Rome often found it more convenient to deal with client states through centralizing power in a king rather than a fractious council or "senate," as Caesar often refers to such bodies on analogy with the Roman Senate.Sean B. Dunham, "Caesar's Perception of Gallic Social Structures," in Celtic Chiefdom, Celtic State: The Evolution of Complex Social Systems in Prehistoric Europe (Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 110–115; David C. Braund, Rome and the Friendly King: The Character of the Client Kingship (Croom Helm, 1984) passim. The ancestors of Tasgetius had held supreme power, and his ascent was presented as a restoration. The Carnutes had perhaps preferred not to live under a monarchy again, since Caesar's royal appointment was assassinated by his fellow citizens. Caesar attributes opposition to Tasgetius to an anti-Roman faction among the Carnutes, but it has been arguedSerge Lewuillon, "Histoire, société et lutte des classes en Gaule: Une féodalité à la fin de la république et au début de l'empire. Tasgétios et César," Aufstieg under Niedergang der römische Welt (1975), pp. 463–465 online. that the normal internal politics of Gaul were at play, which Caesar chose to exploit for his own purposes and propagandize as symptoms of a brewing rebellion.
Caesar saysCaesar, Bellum Gallicum 6.4. that the Carnutes were assigned to the Remi, Rome's most loyal Belgic ally, as a client state; George Long thought this was probably a consequence of Tasgetius's murder. These formal relations existed usually among contiguous polities, but the territory of the Remi (roughly modern-day Champagne) was at some remove from that of the Carnutes.George Long, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, edited by William Smith (London, 1872), vol. 1, p. 523 online.
Personal characteristics Caesar acknowledged the loss of Tasgetius by taking note of the goodwill (benevolentia) he had shown the proconsul. The word benevolentia appears only twice in the Bellum Gallicum; in Book 7, Caesar insists on his own goodwill toward the Aedui, despite their having joined the opposition to Rome.BG 7.43.4. In Latin usage contemporary with Caesar, the word is common in the letters and philosophical works of Cicero, who prefers it to the benignitas ("kindness") more likely to be encountered in other sources. Beneficia are kindnesses or good deeds, favors or good works; benevolentia is a cast of mind, a voluntary state of inclination that makes friendship possible. Writing about ten years after the death of Tasgetius, Cicero defines friendship as "a relationship based on agreement about all human and divine matters, together with goodwill (benevolentia) and affection."Cicero, De amicitia 6.20: Omnium divinarum humanarumque rerum cum benevolentia et caritate consensio. But benevolentia, as a predisposition to form social relationships, also has an inherently utilitarian side, and after noting the benevolentia of Tasgetius, Caesar immediately remarks on his usefulness (usus).Wilkie Collins, The Brothers of Romulus: Fraternal pietas in Roman Law, Literature, and Society (Princeton University Press, 1997), pp. 67–69 online; Gloria Vivenza, "Classical Roots of Benevolence in Economic Thought," in Ancient Economic Thought (Routledge, 1997), pp. 198–199, 204–208 online; Cicero's influence on patristic views, Carolinne White, Christian Friendship in the Fourth Century (Cambridge University Press, 1992, 2002), pp. 16–17 online, 32, and 255, note 13. It is equivalent to Greek eunoia.
Tasgetius is one of only six individualsThree of the possessors of virtus are the Roman officers Gaius Volusenus (BG 3.5.2), Quintus Cicero (5.48.6), and Titus Labienus (7.59.6); a fourth is the Romanized Celt Valerius Troucillus, who held Roman citizenship and acted as diplomatic envoy and interpreter for Caesar. See Myles Anthony McDonnell, Roman Manliness: virtus and the Roman Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 308 online. The centurions Vorenus and Pullo dispute each other's claim to virtus at 5.44. that Caesar praises in his Gallic war commentaries for virtus, the quality of true manhood (Latin vir, "man"), usually translated as "virtue" or "valor." The only other man from independent Gaul said to possess virtus is Commius of the Atrebates, whom Caesar also installed as king but who chose during the Gallic uprising to assert the sovereignty of his people.Commios's virtus at Bellum Gallicum 4.21.7, the only instance of the word in Book 4. Caesar uses the word frequently in other books, most often to describe Roman soldiers collectively (for instance, in Book 1 at 40.4, 51.1, 40.15) or Celtic polities as a whole (again taking Book 1 as an example, the Helvetii at 1.4, 2.2, 13.4 thrice; Boii,1.28.4; Aedui, 1.31.7). The German king Ariovistus claims virtus for himself and his Germani at 1.36.7 and 1.44.1. See further discussion at Valerius Troucillus: Humanitas, virtus and becoming Roman. Although virtus is an active and potentially aggressive quality, benevolentia belongs to a class of Roman virtues characteristic of those who are kind, generous, and humane.Edwin S. Ramage, "Aspects of Propaganda in the De bello gallico: Caesar’s Virtues and Attributes," Athenaeum 91 (2003) 331–372.
Name and Celtic badger lore The name Tasgetius derives from Gaulish tasgos, also tascos or taxos, "badger,"Taisson is a French dialectal variant for "badger," usually blaireau; see also Italian tasso and Spanish tejon. These are often derived from late Latin taxus, but the usual word for badger in Latin is meles, maeles or melo, melonis (mil, millonis in the Gallic medical writer Marcellus Empiricus, De medicamentis 33.7), and taxus is likely a borrowing from Gaulish. The word has also been related to Basque azkoin or asku, "badger," with loss of the initial t from a reconstructed "pre-Basque" form *(t)askone. The Gaulish is sometimes thought to have been borrowed from Germanic (modern German Dachs), but the borrowing is more likely to have gone the other way. See discussion by Victor Hehn, The Wanderings of Plants and Animals from Their First Home (John Benjamins, 1976), pp. 493–494 online. an element found in many other Celtic personal names from inscriptions, such as Tascos, Tasgillus, Tassca, and Tasciovanus ("Badger Killer"), as well as in place names.Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), pp. 292–293. Moritasgus ("Great Badger" or "Sea Badger"If Moritasgus is construed as "Sea Badger," it may be a name for another animal (cf. "sea lion" in English) such as a seal or sea otter; see John T. Koch, Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-Clio, 2006), p. 231 online.) was the name of a ruler of the Senones contemporary with Tasgetius,Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 5.54. and was also the name of a Celtic healing deity in territory within the Aeduan sphere of influence (see Moritasgus). Another Celtic word for "badger," broccos, also yields a number of personal and place names.Delmarre, Dictionnaire pp. 90–91.