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).[1]

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').[2]

Geography

The Adunicates lived in the upper Durance valley.[3] They are mentioned as living near the Suetrii and the Quariates, north of the Oxybii and Ligauni.[4]

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

  1. ^ Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:35.
  2. ^ Evans 1967, p. 136.
  3. ^ Barruol 1969, p. 390.
  4. ^ Rivet 1988, p. 34.

Primary sources

  • Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674993648.

Bibliography


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