The Parisii (or Quarisii) were a Celtic Iron Age people that lived on the banks of the river Seine (in Latin, Sequana) in Gaul from the middle of the third century B.C. until the Roman era.

Their chief city (oppidum) was Lutetia Parisiorum, which later became an important city in the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis and ultimately the modern city of Paris. (The name Paris is derived from Parisii).

With the Suessiones , the Parisii participated in the general rising of Vercingetorix against Julius Caesar in 52 B.C. Following their defeat some may at this time have fled to Britain although it is more likely that Parisii had already colonised part of the island before this time and preceding the waves of Belgic immigration.

The Romano-British Parisii tribe of East Yorkshire and Humberside in Britain was in any case comprised of emigrants from the tribe of the same name based in Gaul. The burial processes of the Gaulish and British tribes differ slightly but the Iron Age Arras Culture which settled around East Yorkshire in the early La Tene period shows distinctive continental influence. Burials involving placing the deceased in a wheeled vehicle beneath square barrows are found in both the Marne region of France and in the British Parisii homeland too.

There is some speculation by genealogists that the modern surnames Paris, Parrish, O'Parish, etc. have origins in the Parisii. [1] http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sroots/parish.htm . The successive waves of immigration and invasion in Britain since the Iron Age, however, tend to argue against the idea that it was preserved as a surname.

See also

• List of peoples of Gaul

External link

1. The Origins of the Family Names of Paris, Parish, Parrish, Pary, Parys, Etc. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sroots/parish.htm