The Salyes or Salluvii (Greek: ) were an ancient Celto-Ligurian people dwelling between the Durance river and the Greek colony of Massalia during the Iron Age. Although earlier writers called them 'Ligurian', Strabo used the denomination 'Celto-ligurian' in the early 1st century AD. A Celtic influence is noticeable in their religion, which centred on the cult of the tête coupée ('severed head'), as well as in the names of their towns and leaders. During the 2nd century BC, the Salyes were most likely at the head of a political and military confederation that united both Gallic and Ligurian tribes. During most of their early history, the Salyes were in conflict with the neighbouring Greek inhabitants of Massalia, and later on with their ally the Roman Republic, until the consul Gaius Sextius Calvinus sacked their hill-fort Entremont ca. 122 BC. Revolts against the Roman conquerors were crushed in 90 and 83 BC. Name They are mentioned as Sallyas by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC), Salluvii and Saluum (var. Saluium, Salluuiorum) by Livy (late 1st c. BC), Sálluas (Σάλλυας), Sállues ( Σάλλυες) and Salúōn (Σαλύων) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD), Sallui and Salluuiorum by Pliny (1st c. AD), Sálues (Σάλυες; var. Σάλικες) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD), and as Salyes by Avienius (4th c. AD). The origin of the name remains obscure. The original form was most likely Salyes ≈ Salues (pronounced /Salwes/), later latinized as Salluvii (/Salluwii/). It is the form used by Caesar under the variant Sallyas in the oldest surviving attestation of the name, while Pliny wrote Salluvii some decades later in the late 1st century BC. According to linguist Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, Salues may be a Celtic rendering of an original *Sḷwes, meaning 'the own ones'. In the Celtic context, the name is cognate with the Celtiberian Salluienses and Turma salluitana. It has also been compared with the Italic personal names Salluvius, Sallubius, Salluius, and Sallyius. Geography Territory The Salyes dwelled in the hinterland of Massalia, between the Massif de l'Étoile and the Durance river. Their homeland was located north of the Avatici, Tricores and Segobrigii, south of the Dexivates, west of the Tritolli, and east of the Anatilii. The Salluvian confederation, a political entity dominated by the Salyes that likely emerged in the 2nd century BC, covered a much larger area stretching from the Rhône to the Loup river (just west of the Var), and reaching