Veragri


The Veragri were a Gallic tribe located in present-day Switzerland. The Veragri are placed by Julius Caesar in the canton of Valais between the Nantuates and the Seduni. Their chief town was Octodurus, whence the Veragri are called Octodurenses by Pliny. Dio Cassius, claiming Caesar as his source, says that the Veragri extended from the territory of the Allobroges and Lake Geneva to the Alps; which is likely not true. Strabo mentions the "Varagri", as he calls them, between the Caturiges and the Nantuatae; and Pliny between the Seduni and the Salassi: the Salassi were on the Italian side of the Alps in the Val d'Aosta. Livy places the Veragri among the Alps and on the road to the pass of the Pennine Alps, or the Great St. Bernard Pass, which is correct. He says that the pass was occupied by "half German tribes", leaving the ethnic affiliation of the Veragri in some doubt.