Adunicates

The Adunicates were a small Gallic tribe dwelling in the upper Durance valley during the Roman era.

Name

They are mentioned as Adunicates by Pliny (1st c. AD).

The etymology of the name is unclear. If Celtic, it may be interpreted as a haplology (loss of syllable) of Gaulish *Andedunicates, based on the intensifying prefix ande-. In this view, it could be compared to the personal names Andedunis and Atedunus ('big fort').

Geography

The Adunicates lived in the upper Durance valley. They are mentioned by Pliny as living near the Suetrii and the Quariates, north of the Oxybii and Ligauni.

On the coast too are Athenopolis of the Massilians, Fréjus, a colony of the eighth legion, called Pacensis and Classica, a river named Argenteus, the district of the Oxubii and Ligauni, beyond whom come the Suebri, Quariates and Adunicates.

— Pliny 1938, Naturalis Historia, 3.35.

References

Primary sources

• Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674993648. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

Bibliography

• Barruol, Guy (1969). Les Peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: étude de géographie historique. E. de Boccard. OCLC 3279201.
• Evans, D. Ellis (1967). Gaulish Personal Names: A Study of Some Continental Celtic Formations. Clarendon Press. OCLC 468437906.
• Rivet, A. L. F. (1988). Gallia Narbonensis: With a Chapter on Alpes Maritimae : Southern France in Roman Times. Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-5860-2.