Aquitani


The Aquitani were a tribe that lived in the region between the Pyrenees, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Garonne, in present-day southwestern France in the 1st century BC. The Romans dubbed this region Gallia Aquitania. Classical authors such as Julius Caesar and Strabo clearly distinguish the Aquitani from the other peoples of Gaul, and note their similarity to others in the Iberian Peninsula.
Their old language, the Aquitanian language, was a precursor of the Basque language and the substrate for the Gascon language spoken in Gascony. Between the 1st century and the 13th century, the Aquitani gradually adopted the Gascon language while part of the Roman Empire, then the Duchy of Gascony and the Duchy of Aquitaine.

History

At the time of the Roman conquest, Julius Caesar, who defeated them in his campaign in Gaul, describes them as making up a distinct part of Gaul:
Despite apparent cultural and linguistic connections to, the region of Aquitania extended only to the Pyrenees according to Caesar:

Relation to Basque people and language

Late Romano-Aquitanian funerary slabs and altars contain what seem to be the names of deities or people similar to certain names in modern Basque, which has led many philologists and linguists to conclude that Aquitanian was closely related to an older form of Basque. Julius Caesar draws a clear line between the Aquitani, living in present-day south-western France and speaking Aquitanian, and their neighboring Celts living to the north. The fact that the region was known as the Vasconia in the Early Middle Ages, a name that evolved into the better known form of Gascony, along with other toponymic evidence, seems to corroborate that assumption.

Tribes

Although the territory originally inhabited by the Aquitani came to be known as Novempopulania in the late Roman Empire and the Early Middle Ages, this administrative designation does not reflect the earlier ethnic diversity of the region.
Ancient sources indicate that the number of Aquitanian tribes was considerably higher. Strabo mentions about twenty peoples in his Geography.
The lists provided by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy, supplemented by scattered information in the works of Julius Caesar, allow the identification of more than thirty distinct ethnonyms.
By comparing these classical sources and incorporating epigraphic evidence, modern scholars generally estimate that pre-Roman Aquitania comprised approximately thirty-two or thirty-three tribes.

Aquitani tribes

  • Apiates or Aspiates in the Aspe Valley
  • Aturenses in the banks of the Adour river
  • Arenosii or Airenosini in Aran valley,, part of Aquitania and not of Hispania in the Roman Empire
  • Ausci in the east around Auch
  • Benearni or Benearnenses/Venarni in and around low Béarn, Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques
  • Bercorates/Bercorcates
  • Bigerriones or Begerri in the west of the French département of High Pyrenees
  • Boiates/Boates Boii Boiates/Boviates in the coastal region of Pays de Buch and Pays de Born, in the Northwest of Landes
  • Camponi
  • Cocosates or Sexsignani in the west of Landes département
  • Consoranni in the tributary streams of the high Garonne river in the former province of Couserans, today's west half of the Ariège department and extreme south of Haute-Garonne
  • Convenae, a “groupement” in the southeast in and around Lugdunum Convenarum
  • Datii, in the Ossau Valley, high Béarn
  • Elusates in the northeast around Eauze
  • Gates between the Elusates and the Ausci
  • Iluronenses in and around Iluro
  • Lactorates or Lectorates in and around Lectoure
  • Monesii, Osii, or Onesii in the high Garonne river valley, only mentioned in Strabo's Geographica
  • Onobrisates in Nébouzan in the high Garonne river valley and its tributaries, possibly the same tribe as the Onesii, Osii, or Monesii.
  • Oscidates in several valleys and slopes of the west Pyrenees, high Béarn, south of the Iluronenses
  • * Oscidates Campestres
  • * Oscidates Montani
  • Ptianii in Orthez
  • Sassumini/Lassumini/Lassunni
  • Sibyllates or Suburates probably around Soule/Xüberoa and also Saubusse; the same of Cæsar’s Sibuzates/Sibusates?
  • Sotiates in the north around Sos-en-Albret
  • Succasses
  • Tarbelli or Tarbelii/Quattuorsignani in the coastal side of Landes, with Dax
  • Tarusates in the Midou, Douze and Midouze valley, east of Cocosates and Tarbelli
  • Tarusci in the high Ariège river valley in the former province of Foix, today's east half of the Ariège department
  • Umbranici
  • Vellates in high Bidassoa river valley
  • Venami/Venarni in and around Beneharnum
  • Vasates/Volcates in the north around Bazas

    Aquitani related peoples or tribes

In the southern slopes of western Pyrenees Mountains, not in Aquitania but in northern Hispania Tarraconensis:
  • Iacetani in high Aragon River valley, in and around Jaca, in the southern slopes of western Pyrenees Mountains in today's northwestern Aragon, Spain
  • Vascones in the southern slopes of western Pyrenees Mountains in today's Navarra, Spain