The Adanates or Edenates were a small Gallic tribe dwelling around present-day Seyne, in the Alpes Cottiae, during the Iron Age.

Name

They are mentioned as Edenates (var. edemn-) by Pliny (1st c. AD),[1] and as Adanatium on the Arc of Susa.[2][3]

The etymology of the name Adanates is unclear. Guy Barruol has proposed to compare it with Adenatius (or Adenatis) and Adana, and postulated an original *Senedenates, with loss of the initial s- retained in Sedena.[4] According to Alexander Falileyev, "if the original form was indeed *Sed-, the name could be Celtic, from sedo- 'seat, location'; but in view of the form recorded in inscriptions, it is unlikely. If Eden- is the original form, the name does not appear Celtic."[3] Xavier Delamarre has proposed to interpret the name as Ed-en-ati ('those from the land/country'), from a Gaulish stem edo-(n)- ('space, land').[5]

Geography

The Adanates dwelled around the settlement of Sedena (modern Seyne).[6] Their territory was located south of the Avantici, west of the Savincates, east of the Sebaginni, and north of the Gallitae and Eguiturii.[7]

History

They are mentioned once in ancient texts 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.[1] They also appear on the Arch of Susa, erected by Cottius in 9–8 BC.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:20.
  2. ^ CIL 5:7231.
  3. ^ a b Falileyev 2010, s.v. Edenates.
  4. ^ Barruol 1969, pp. 357–358.
  5. ^ Delamarre 2019, p. 322.
  6. ^ Barruol 1969, p. 390.
  7. ^ Talbert 2000, Map 17: Lugdunum.
  8. ^ Barruol 1969, p. 32.

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.
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2019). Dictionnaire des thèmes nominaux du gaulois. Ab-/Iχs(o)-. Vol. 1. Les Cents Chemins. ISBN 978-1-7980-5040-8.
  • 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.
Categories