The Acitavones were a small Gallic tribe dwelling in the Alps during the Iron Age.
Name
editThey 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
editAccording 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
editThey 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
edit- ^ a b Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:20.
- ^ CIL 5:7817.
- ^ Falileyev 2010, s.v. Acitavones.
- ^ Delamarre 2003, p. 31.
- ^ Evans 1967, p. 310.
- ^ Barruol 1969, p. 179.
- ^ Talbert 2000, Map 17: Lugdunum.
- ^ Barruol 1969, p. 317.
Primary sources
edit- Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674993648.
Bibliography
edit- 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.