Editing Esus (section)

===Epigraphy===
[[File:MAN - Statue de Mercure de Lezoux b - 46273.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Mercury from [[Lezoux]]]]
The epigraphic evidence for Esus is very limited. There are only two certain attestations of his name in epigraphy and a handful of conjectured ones.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|322}} [[Philippe Leveau]] and Bernard Remy have suggested that this paucity of evidence may be explained by a Roman suppression of the cult of Esus, on the basis of its purported sacrificial practices.<ref name=LeveauRemy/>{{rp|89}}

The first of the two certain inscriptions to Esus is on the Pillar of the Boatmen, below the image of the god. The second was found in 1987 by a [[metal detectorist]], inscribed on a bronze statuette base{{efn|1= {{AE|1997|1210}}: {{lang|la|Adginnos / Vercombogi / {A}Eso v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)}}. For more about this inscription, see {{cite journal |last=Piccottini |first=Gernot |title=Aesus |journal=Carinthia I |volume=186 |date=1996 |pages=97–103 }} = {{cite book |last=Piccottini |first=Gernot |title= Kult der Vorzeit in den Alpen |chapter=Eine neue Esus-lnschrift aus Kärnten  |editor-last= Zemmer-Plank |editor-first=L.  |location= Bolzano |date=2002 |pages=1285–1294 }}}} (the statuette missing). The base was found in [[Gurina]] (part of Roman [[Noricum]], now [[Austria]]), where there was once a Gallo-Roman religious centre. It is a [[votive offering]] to Esus (spelled Aeso, [[dative]] of Aesos) made by an individual with a Celtic name. It dates to the end of the 1st century BCE, which makes it the earliest attestation of the god Esus.<ref>{{cite journal |title=No. 1210 (Provinces danubiennes) |page=404 |date=2000 |journal=L'Année Épigraphique |volume=1997 |jstor=25607834}}</ref><ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|322–323}}

An inscription on a fragment of a stele{{efn|{{AE|1985|934}}: {{lang|la|Peregrinus V[...] / quod Esus fuit iuben[s}}.}} from the necropolis of [[Caesarea in Mauretania]], a Roman city in [[Algeria]], appears to record a votive inscription to Esus from one Peregrinus. The intervention of a Gaulish god in Africa is surprising, and the incomplete preservation of the inscription frustrates interpretation.<ref name=LeveauRemy>{{cite journal |last1=Leveau |first1=Philippe |last2=Remy |first2=Bernard |title=Ésus en Afrique: à propos d'une inscription fragmentaire de Caesarea Mauretaniae commémorant l'exécution d'une injonction d'Ésus |doi=10.3406/antaf.2014.1561 |journal=Antiquités africaines |volume=50 |date=2014 |pages=85–92 }}</ref> Andreas Hofeneder withholds judgement as to whether it is an attestation of the Gaulish god.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|323}} Leveau and Remy dedicate a study to this inscription, where they date it to the first half of the 1st century CE, and consider the possibility that Peregrinus was a Gaulish soldier in North Africa.<ref name=LeveauRemy/>

Two [[Gaulish language]] inscriptions have been conjectured to mention Esus. The well-known statue of Mercury from [[Lezoux]] has a badly weathered inscription on its rear.{{efn|1= {{CIL|13|1514}} = ''[[Recueil des inscriptions gauloises|RIG]]'' II.1 [https://riig.huma-num.fr/documents/PDD-01-01 L-8]}} The text has received several different readings. [[Michel Lejeune (linguist)|Michel Lejeune]]  will only allow {{lang|xtg|a[...] / ie[...] / eso[...]}} to be read.<ref name=L8>''RIG'' II.1 [https://riig.huma-num.fr/documents/PDD-01-01 L-8] via ''Recueil informatisé des inscriptions gauloises''.</ref> [[John Rhŷs]] proposed to read Gaulish {{lang|xtg|Apronios / ieuru sosi / Esu}} ("Apronios dedicated this object to Esus").<ref name=deVries/>{{rp|394}} This reading has been the subject of repeated doubt and was later abandoned by Rhŷs himself.<ref name=Sergent/>{{rp|394}}<ref name=L8/> Another Gaulish inscription, on a [[terrine (cookware)|terrine]] found near Lezoux,{{efn|''[[Recueil des inscriptions gauloises|RIG]]'' II.2 L-67:}} has an unclear initial word which [[Oswald Szemerényi]] proposed to read {{lang|xtg|Esus}}. [[Pierre-Yves Lambert]] and Lejeune prefer {{lang|xtg|eso}} ("this").<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|323}}