Garoceli

GAROCELI or GRAIOCELI, an Alpine people, who with the Centrones and Caturiges attacked Caesar (B.C. 58) in his march from Ocelum, the most western place in Gallia Cisalpina, over the Alps into the country of the Vocontii. (B. G. 1.10.) The reading Graioceli is said to have the best authority for it. (Schneider, ed. Caes. B. G. 1.10.) These people are mentioned by no other writer; but, as we know where the Centrones and Caturiges lived, we may suppose that the Garoceli were near them. D'Anville, as he often does, determines their position simply by the aid of a name. The resemblance between the names Ocelum and Garoceli, he says, fixes the place of the Garoceli in the valley of Pragelas and of Cluson, and consequently in Gallia Cisalpina. But it is clear that Caesar means that they were an Alpine people, whom he met after leaving Ocelum. Walckenaer has a conjecture about them which is ingenious; and it may also be true. He says that they occupied the Maurienne and the valley which is contiguous to the. Maurienne, to the east of Mont Celts, the Val di Viù, which contains a place called Usseglio and a canton of the same name. And he adds, what is more to the purpose, that in an ancient document, St. Jean de Maurienne is called Johannes Garocellius. He has other arguments also. (Geog., &c. des Gaules, vol. 1. p. 542.)