Acitavones

The Acitavones were a small Gallic tribe dwelling in the Alps during the Iron Age.

Name

They are mentioned as Acitavones (var. agitabo-) by Pliny (1st c. AD),[1] and as Acitavones on the Tropaeum Alpium.[2][3]

The etymology of the name Acitauones is unclear. The first element, acito-, could mean 'field' (cf. Old Irish ached, achad),[4] or else be a variant of agido- ('face, appearance').[5]

Geography

According to historian Guy Barruol, they may have dwelled in the Aosta Valley, near the Little St Bernard Pass.[6] Their territory was located north of the Medulli and Segusini, south of the Veragri, west of the Salassi, and east of the Ceutrones.[7]

History

They are mentioned by Pliny the Elder as one of the Alpine tribes conquered by Rome in 16–15 BC, and whose name was engraved on the Tropaeum Alpium.[8][1]

References

  1. Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:20.
  2. CIL 5:7817.
  3. Falileyev 2010, s.v. Acitavones.
  4. Delamarre 2003, p. 31.
  5. Evans 1967, p. 310.
  6. Barruol 1969, p. 179.
  7. Talbert 2000, Map 17: Lugdunum.
  8. Barruol 1969, p. 317.

Primary sources

  • Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674993648.

Bibliography

  • Barruol, Guy (1969). Les Peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: étude de géographie historique. E. de Boccard. OCLC 3279201.
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
  • Evans, D. Ellis (1967). Gaulish Personal Names: A Study of Some Continental Celtic Formations. Clarendon Press. OCLC 468437906.
  • Falileyev, Alexander (2010). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS. ISBN 978-0955718236.
  • Talbert, Richard J. A. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691031699.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.