Aquitani

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The Aquitani (Latin for Aquitanians) were a people living in what is now southwestern France, between the Pyrenees and the Garonne. Julius Caesar, who defeated them in his campaign in Gaul, describes them as not being Celtic but "Iberian".

The presence of what seem to be Basque names of deities or people in late Romano-Aquitanian funerary slabs have led many philologists to conclude that their language was a dialect of Basque. The fact that the region was known as 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.

Although the country was named Novempopulania (9 peoples), the number of tribes varied (about 20 for Strabo); among them:

• Tarbelli in the coastal side of Landes, with Dax (Aquis Tarbellicis)
• Cocosates
• Boiates probably around Arcachon Bay and norwest of Landes departement
• Vasates in the north around Bazas (south of Gironde dep.)
• Sotiates in the north around Sos-en-Albret (south of Lot-et-Garonne dep.)
• Elusates in the northeast around Eauch (former Elusa)
• Ausci in the east around Auch (metropolis of Aquitaine))
• Convenae, a "groupement" in the southeast (high Garonne valley)
• Bigerriones or begerri in the west of the french departement of High Pyrennees (medieval county of Bigorre)
• Sybillates probably around Soule/Xüberoa; the same of Caesar's Sibuzates?

[edit] See also

• Aquitanian language
• Novempopulania
• Gallia Aquitania
• Duchy of Vasconia
• Vascones
• Cantabri
• Gascony
• Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula