The Lexovii were a Celt

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

ic people, on the coast of Gallia

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

, immediately west of the mouth of the Seine

Seine

The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...

. When the Veneti

Veneti (Gaul)

The Veneti were a seafaring Celtic people who lived in the Brittany peninsula , which in Roman times formed part of an area called Armorica...

 and their neighbors were preparing for Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

's attack (56 BC

56 BC

Year 56 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Philippus...

E), they applied for aid to the Osismii

Osismii

The Osismii were a Gaulish tribe on the western Armorican peninsula. They were first described as the Ostimioi by the Greek geographer and traveller Pytheas in the fourth century BC. He situated them at the end of the peninsula of Kabaïon, which is not identifiable today. Their name means "the...

, Lexovii, Namnetes

Namnetes

The Namnetes were a tribe of ancient Gaul, living in the area of the modern city of Nantes near the river Liger .They were neighbours to the Veneti people , the Redones , the Andecavi and the Pictones ....

, and others. (B. G. iii. 9, 11.) Caesar sent Quintus Titurius Sabinus

Quintus Titurius Sabinus

Quintus Titurius Sabinus, one of Caesar's legates during the Gallic Wars. He is first mentioned in Caesar's campaign against the Remi, in 57 BC, and in the following year he was sent by Caesar with three legions against the Venelli, Curiosolitae, and Lexovii , who were led by Viridovix...

 against the Unelli

Unelli

The Unelli or Veneli were one of the Armoric or maritime states of Gallia. Caesar mentions them with the Veneti, Osismi, Curiosolitae, and other maritime states...

, Curiosolites

Curiosolitae

The Curiosolites or Curiosolitae, were a people in the modern geographical area of Brittany in Celtica who are mentioned by Julius Caesar several times ....

, and Lexovii, to prevent their joining the Veneti. A few days after Sabinus reached the country of the Unelli, the Aulerci Eburovices

Eburovices

The Eburovices, or Eburovici, were a Gallic tribe, a branch of the Aulerci. They are mentioned by Julius Caesar with the Lexovii. Pliny speaks of the Aulerci, qui cognominantur Eburovices, et qui Cenomani. Ptolemy makes the extend from the Ligeris to the Sequana , which is not true...

 and the Lexovii murdered their council or senate, as Caesar calls it, because they were against the war; and they joined Viridovix

Viridovix

Viridovix was the chief of Unelli, a Gallic tribe which faced the legions of Julius Caesar at the time of the Roman conquest between 58 and 51 BC.He assumed the command of a Gallic army of Lexovii and Aulerci Eburones against the legate Quintus Titurius Sabinus, against whom he suffered a defeat in...

, the chief of the Unelli. The Gallic confederates were defeated by Sabinus, and compelled to surrender. (B. G. iii. 17-19.) The Lexovii took part in the great rising of the Galli against Caesar (52 BC

52 BC

Year 52 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Scipio...

E); but their force was only 3000 men. (B. G. vii. 75.) Walckenaer supposes that the territory of the Lexovii of Caesar and Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

 comprised both the territories of Lisieux

Lisieux

Lisieux is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.Lisieux is the capital of the Pays d'Auge area, which is characterised by valleys and hedged farmland...

 and Bayeux

Bayeux

Bayeux is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France.Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.-Administration:Bayeux is a sub-prefecture of Calvados...

, though there was a people in Bayeux named Baiocasses

Baiocasses

The Baiocasses were a Celtic tribe in ancient Gaul. They were a tribal division of the civitas of the Lexovii, in the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis....

; and he further supposes that these Baiocasses and the Viducasses

Viducasses

The Viducasses or Viducassii were a Celtic people in Gallia Lugdunensis. The name derives from vidu and casse . The capital of the Viducasses was at Araegenus or Araegenue of the Table, appearing elsewhere as Aragenuae, which was the site of modern-day Vieux.Pliny mentions them before the...

 were dependent on the Lexovii, and within their territorial limits. The capital of the Lexovii, or Civitas Lexoviorum, as it is called in the Notitia Dignitatum

Notitia Dignitatum

The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western empires, listing several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial...

, is Lisieux

Lisieux

Lisieux is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.Lisieux is the capital of the Pays d'Auge area, which is characterised by valleys and hedged farmland...

, in the French department of Calvados

Calvados

The French department of Calvados is part of the region of Basse-Normandie in Normandy. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast...

, where the present-day inhabitants are still called Lexoviens and Lexoviennes. Under the Romans, the oppidum

Oppidum

Oppidum is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome. The word is derived from the earlier Latin ob-pedum, "enclosed space," possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *pedóm-, "occupied space" or "footprint."Julius Caesar described the larger Celtic Iron Age...

of the Lexovii was called Noviomagus

Noviomagus

Noviomagus is a superficially Latinized Celtic placename containing the Celtic words noviios "new" and magos "field", "plain", then "market" '...

Lexoviorum, "Newfield of the Lexovii". The country of the Lexovii was one of the parts of Gallia from which the passage to Britain was made.