Caunians | Department of Linguistics

Nomenclature

Greek Name: Καύνιος

Latin Name: Caunii

Toponyms: Caunus

Cultural Notes

In Herodotos's opinion they are indigenous, though they say they came originally from Crete. Their language has come to approximate that spoken by the Carians, although their way of life is quite different from everyone else's including the Carians. They used to import their religious rituals from abroad, but turned against this.

Geographical Notes

Caunus, near Caria and Lycia

Citations in Herodotos

1.171 Hapagus' expedition against Carians, Caunians, and Lycians; 1.172 origin and customs; 1.176 fall to Xanthus: 5.103 joinging campaign against Persians

Key Passages in English Translation

[1.172] I think the Caunians are aborigines of the soil, but they say that they came from Crete. Their speech has become like the Carian, or the Carian like theirs (for I cannot clearly decide), but in their customs they diverge widely from the Carians, as from all other men. Their chief pleasure is to assemble for drinking-bouts in groups according to their ages and friendships: men, women, and children. [2] Certain foreign rites of worship were established among them; but afterwards, when they were inclined otherwise, and wanted to worship only the gods of their fathers, all Caunian men of full age put on their armor and went together as far as the boundaries of Calynda, striking the air with their spears and saying that they were casting out the alien gods.

English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920. Retreived from <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu>

Key Passages in Greek

[1.171] οἱ δὲ Καύνιοι αὐτόχθονες δοκέειν ἐμοὶ εἰσί, αὐτοὶ μέντοι ἐκ Κρήτης φασὶ εἶναι. προσκεχωρήκασι δὲ γλῶσσαν μὲν πρὸς τὸ Καρικὸν ἔθνος, ἢ οἱ Κᾶρες πρὸς τὸ Καυνικόν （τοῦτο γὰρ οὐκ ἔχω ἀτρεκέως διακρῖναι）, νόμοισι δὲ χρέωνται κεχωρισμένοισι πολλὸν τῶν τε ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων καὶ Καρῶν. τοῖσι γὰρ κάλλιστον ἐστὶ κατ᾽ ἡλικίην τε καὶ φιλότητα εἰλαδὸν συγγίνεσθαι ἐς πόσιν, καὶ ἀνδράσι καὶ γυναιξὶ καὶ παισί. [2] ἱδρυθέντων δέ σφι ἱρῶν ξεινικῶν, μετέπειτα ὥς σφι ἀπέδοξε, ἔδοξέ δὲ τοῖσι πατρίοισι μοῦνον, χέασθαι θεοῖσι, ἐνδύντες τὰ ὅπλα ἅπαντες Καύνιοι ἡβηδόν, τύπτοντες δόρασι τὸν ἠέρα, μέχρι οὔρων τῶν Καλυνδικῶν εἵποντο, καὶ ἔφασαν ἐκβάλλειν τοὺς ξεινικοὺς θεούς.

Other Testimonia

Diodorus Siculus, Library: Book 4, Chapter 79

Strabo, Geography: Book 14, Chapter 2

Polybius, Histories: Book 30, Chapter 5; Book 30, Chapter 9; Book 31, Chapter 16

Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 45 (ed. Rev. Canon Roberts): Book 45, Chapter 25

Plutarch, Artaxerxes: Chapter 11, 12

Plutarch, Nicias (ed. Bernadotte Perrin): Chapter 29

Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists (ed. C. D. Yonge, B.A.): Book 6, Chapter 38

Pausanias, Description of Greece: Book 1, Chapter 3

Other Commentary

Perseus Encyclopedia: Caunus, near Caria and Lycia

W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotos: Book 1, Chapter 172

Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898):

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed.: CAUNUS (ἡ Καῦνος: Eth.Καύνιος and Eth. Καυναῖος), a city of Caria, in the Peraea. [CARIA] Strabo (p. 651) places Caunus west of Calynda. Caunus had dockyards and a closed harbour, that is, a harbour that could be closed. Above the city, on a height, was the fort Imbrus...Herodotus (1.172) says that the habits of the Caunii were very different from those of the Carians and other people. It was their fashion for men, women, and children to mingle in their entertainments. They had once some foreign deities among them, but they expelled them in singular fashion. The Caunii made a desperate resistance to the Persian general Harpagus, like their neighbours the Lycians. (Herod.1.176.) The Caunii also joined the Ionians in their revolt against the Persians after the burning of Sardis, B.C. 499. (Hdt. 5.103.).

Bibliography

Munson, Rosaria Vignolo. 2005. Black Doves Speak: Herodotus and the Languages of Barbarians. Harvard University Press. 24.

David Asheri, Alan Lloyd, Aldo Corcella. 2007. A Commentary on Herodotus Books I-IV. 193-194

Disambiguation

No information available at this time.