Ethnicity of extinct populations: the case of the Cisalpine Boii on the basis of the textual sources

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the various attestations of the ethnonym “Boii” in the ancient world, this work aims to explore the subject of the Cisalpine boicity on the basis of textual sources consisting of epigraphs written in different languages and, above all, of Greek and Latin literary passages. We will analyse both the exoethnic representation of the Cisalpine Boii recorded in classical literature and, as far as possible, the ethnic phenomena inside the human community made up of the Cisalpines who, in Antiquity, were defined and/or possibly defined themselves as Boii. The investigation will be conducted by applying the analytical tools of a post-essentialist, relational and dynamic theory of ethnicity.