In today's world, Aquitani is a topic that has gained great relevance and has captured the attention of a wide audience. Whether due to its impact on society, its relevance in the professional field or its influence on popular culture, Aquitani has become a fundamental aspect in the current panorama. In this article, we will thoroughly explore all facets of Aquitani, from its origin to its evolution today, offering a comprehensive perspective that allows us to understand its importance and scope in different contexts.
Group of non Indo-European peoples who inhabited between the Pyrenees and the Garonne
The Aquitani were a tribe that lived in the region between the Pyrenees, the Atlantic ocean, and the Garonne, in present-day southwestern France in the 1st century BCE. The Romans dubbed this region Gallia Aquitania. Classical authors such as Julius Caesar and Strabo clearly distinguish the Aquitani from the other peoples of Gaul, and note their similarity to others in the Iberian Peninsula.
At the time of the Roman conquest, Julius Caesar, who defeated them in his campaign in Gaul, describes them as making up a distinct part of Gaul:
All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the Aquitani
Despite apparent cultural and linguistic connections to (Vascones), the area of Aquitania, as a part of Gaul ended at the Pyrenees according to Caesar:
Aquitania extends from the river Garonne to the Pyrenaean mountains and to that part of the ocean which is near Hispania: it looks between the setting of the sun, and the north star.
Relation to Basque people and language
The presence, on late Romano-Aquitanian funerary slabs and altars, of what seem to be the names of deities or people similar to certain names in modern Basque have led many philologists and linguists to conclude that Aquitanian was closely related to an older form of Basque. Julius Caesar draws a clear line between the Aquitani, living in present-day south-western France and speaking Aquitanian, and their neighboring Celts living to the north. 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.
Tribes
Although the country where the original Aquitanians lived came to be named Novempopulania (nine peoples) in the late years of the Roman Empire and Early Middle Ages (up to the 6th century), the number of tribes varied (about 20 for Strabo, but comparing with the information of other classical authors such as Pliny, Ptolemy and Julius Caesar, the total number were 32 or 33):[citation needed]
Boiates/Boates Boii Boiates/Boviates in the coastal region of Pays de Buch and Pays de Born, in the Northwest of Landes
Camponi (may have been the same tribe as the Oscidates Campestres)
Cocosates or Sexsignani in the west of Landes département
Consoranni in the tributary streams of the high Garonne river in the former province of Couserans, today's west half of the Ariège department and extreme south of Haute-Garonne
^Waldman, Carl; Mason, Catherine (2006). Encyclopedia of European Peoples. Infobase Publishing. p. 38. ISBN9781438129181. The Aquitani lived in Gaul in the region between the Garonne River and the Pyrenees in present-day southwestern France .
^These are indeed the opening lines of Caesar’s account of his war in Gaul: Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt. Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen dividit. Julius Caesar, De bello Gallico 1.1, edition of T. Rice Holmes
^Aquitania a Garumna flumine ad Pyrenaeos montes et eam partem Oceani quae est ad Hispaniam pertinet; spectat inter occasum solis et septentriones.