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), and as Acitavones on the Tropaeum Alpium.
The etymology of the name Acitauones is unclear. The first element, acito-, could mean 'field' (cf. Old Irish ached, achad), or else be a variant of agido- ('face, appearance').
Geography
According to historian Guy Barruol, they may have dwelled in the Aosta Valley, near the Little St Bernard Pass. Their territory was located north of the Medulli and Segusini, south of the Veragri, west of the Salassi, and east of the Ceutrones.
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.
References
- ^ 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
- 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.
