title: Ligauni
text: # Ligauni
  
  The Ligauni were a Celto-Ligurian tribe dwelling near the Mediterranean coast during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
  
  ## Name
  
  They are mentioned as Ligaunorumque by Pliny (1st c. AD). A (colonia) in Liga in also attested in the Early Middle Ages (814 AD).
  
  The ethnic name Ligauni is probably Celtic, stemming from an earlier *Ligamnī. It has been derived from the root līg- ('to strike'), with Ligauni as 'the beating ones', or from liga- ('mud, sediment, silt'). According to Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, such linguistically Celtic tribal names suggest that a Celto-Ligurian dialect played an important role among the languages spoken in ancient Ligury.
  
  ## Geography
  
  Their territory was located east of the Deciates, west of the Verucini, south of the Suetrii, and north of the Oxybii. According to historian Guy Barruol, they were part of the Saluvian confederation.
  
  