Bigerriones
The Bigerriones or Begerri were a people of Aquitania, in the Bigorre at the northern foot of the Pyrenees.[1] They were named by Caesar among the peoples who submitted to Publius Crassus in 56 BC, and by Pliny as the Begerri.[2] Their name survives in that of the Bigorre.[3]
Name
[edit]Caesar names the people Bigerriones in his account of the Aquitanian campaign of 56 BC.[4][1] Pliny lists them as the Begerri, with the variants Begerbi, Bebergi and Bergebi.[5][1] Paul-Marie Duval takes the two for one people.[1] In both lists they appear in association with the Tarbelli.[6]
The Bigorre region, attested as Begorra ca. 400 AD, is named after the tribe.[7] Gregory of Tours records the civitas Begorra in 587.[8]
Geography
[edit]The Bigerriones held the Bigorre region, the plain around Tarbes in the northern foreland of the Pyrenees.[2] The Adour formed the backbone of their territory.[9] Their original lands probably covered much of the later civitas, which took in the Lavedan and the upper valley of the Adour.[10] To the east, their boundary with the Convenae has been set short of the Vallée d'Aure.[10]
The seat of the late civitas has been disputed. The Notitia Galliarum reads civitas Turba ubi castrum Bigorra, the "city of Turba (Tarbes) where the fort of Bigorra (Saint-Lézer) stood".[11] Ferdinand Lot held the text corrupt and would read civitas Bigorra ubi castrum Tarba, identifying the chief town Bigorra with Saint-Lézer and Tarbes with their hillfort.[12] Jean-Pierre Bost keeps the text as it stands, and takes Tarbes to be their chief town from the 1st century onward.[11] Philippe Gardes likewise identify the castrum Bigorra of the Notitia Galliarum with the Roman fort of Saint-Lézer.[13]
History
[edit]In 56 BC the legate Publius Crassus subdued Aquitania for Caesar, and the Bigerriones were among the peoples who then sent hostages.[1] Under the Empire they were among the Aquitanian peoples that left the most inscriptions, with some sixteen to their name.[14]
Settlement and material culture
[edit]About a dozen fortified sites are known in the territory of the Bigerriones, some of them strung along the plateau edges above the valley of the Adour.[9] The chief one is the spur of Castetbielh at Saint-Lézer, an enclosure of some 7 hectares commanding the Adour.[13] No protohistoric rampart survives, but the ancient wall and the later motte are thought to have partly reused its line.[15] At Tarbes, traces of early occupation point to an open settlement in the plain, perhaps at the origin of the Roman town.[9]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 Duval 1989, p. 724.
- 1 2 Duval 1989, pp. 724–725.
- ↑ Bost 2009, p. 30.
- ↑ Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico, 3:27.
- ↑ Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:108.
- ↑ Gardes 2002, p. 53.
- ↑ Nègre 1990, p. 1202.
- ↑ Bost 2009, p. 34.
- 1 2 3 Gardes 2002, p. 57.
- 1 2 Gardes 2002, p. 54.
- 1 2 Bost 2009, p. 147.
- ↑ Duval 1989, p. 725.
- 1 2 Gardes 2002, pp. 56–57.
- ↑ Duval 1989, p. 734.
- ↑ Gardes 2002, p. 56.
Primary sources
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]- Bost, Jean-Pierre (2009). L'Empire romain et les sociétés provinciales: recueil d'articles. Scripta Antiqua. Bordeaux: Ausonius. ISBN 978-2-35613-014-3.
- Duval, Paul-Marie (1989) [1955]. "Les peuples de l'Aquitaine d'après la liste de Pline". Travaux sur la Gaule (1946–1986). Publications de l'École française de Rome. Vol. 116. Rome: École française de Rome. pp. 721–737.
- Gardes, Philippe (2002). "Territoires et organisation politique de l'Aquitaine pré-augustéenne. Pour une confrontation des sources". In Garcia, Dominique; Verdin, Florence (eds.). Territoires celtiques. Espaces ethniques et territoires des agglomérations protohistoriques d'Europe occidentale. Paris: Éditions Errance. pp. 48–65. ISBN 978-2-87772-219-3.
- Nègre, Ernest (1990). Toponymie générale de la France. Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-02883-7.