Libicii

LIBICIIor LIBICI(Λεβέκιοι, Pol.; Λιβικοί, Ptol.), a tribe of Cisalpine Gauls, who inhabited the part of Gallia Transpadana about the river Sesia and the neighbourhood of Vercellae. They are first mentioned by Polybius (Plb. 2.17), who places them, together with the LAEVI(Λάοι), towards the sources of the Padus, and W. of the Insubres. This statement is sufficiently vague: a more precise clue, to their position is supplied by Pliny and Ptolemy, both of whom notice Vercellae as their chief city, to which the latter adds Laumellum also. (Plin. Nat. 3.17. s. 21; Ptol. 3.1.36.) Pliny expressly tells us that they were descended from the Sallyes, a people of Ligurian race; whence it would appear probable. that the Libicii as well as the Laevi were Ligurian, and not Gaulish tribes [LAEVI], though settled on the N. side of the Padus. Livy also speaks, but in a passage of which the reading is very uncertain (5.35), of the Salluvii (the same people with the Sallyes) as crossing the Alps, and settling in Gaul near the Laevi.