Posidonius et les passions de l’or chez les Gaulois

Abstract

The fragment from Posidonius which deals with Tolosa and the treasures the Tectosages had hoarded there (fr 273 EK = Strabo IV 1,13) conjures up the image of an “area rich in gold”. Semantic and syntactic correspondences with other fragments relative to the Helvetes and Iberians light up the meaning of that passage. Those correspondences reveal the complexity of Posidonius’ethnographic and historic approach, half way between moral discourse and geographic determinism, against a background of stoic philosophy.

Keywords

• Posidonius
• Celts
• stoicism
• ethnography
• Tolosa
• Helvetes