Arecomici
The Arecomici or Volcae Arecomici were a Gallic tribe dwelling between the Rhône and the Hérault rivers, around present-day Nîmes, during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Name. The meaning of the ethnonym "Arecomici" remains unclear. The Gaulish prefix "are-" means 'in front of, in the vicinity of', but the translation of the second element, -"comici", is unknown. The name "Volcae" stems from Gaulish "uolcos" ('hawk'). Geography. Their chief town Nemausus was inhabited since the Bronze Age; its original name was possibly forgotten after the takeover of the settlement by the Celtic Volcae. Another settlement was known  as Vindomagus ('white market'). History. The Arecomici were probably first officially recognized or defined by Rome as a political entity around 75 BC. According to anthropologist Michael Dietler, the Roman colonization of the region, which led to the organization of Nemausus as a "colonia Latina" in the late 1st century AD, "resulted in the ethnogenesis of the Volcae Arecomici out of a formerly fluid coalition of different polities and ethnic groups". They were indeed part of a political confederation encompassing multiple smaller tribes. By the early first century AD, the Volcae Arecomici were the dominant force of the confederation, ruling  over twenty-four subject towns ("oppida ignobilia") from their capital Nemausus. Economy. The Roman conquest was soon followed up by the first emissions of coins in Nemausus. Coins with the legend 'Volcae Arecomici' (AR/VOLC or VOLC/AREC) are dated to 70 BC.