Santones
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The Santoni or Santones () were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the later region of Saintonge during the
Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
and the
Roman period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
.


Name

These people are noted as ''Santonum'', ''Santonos'' and ''Santonis'' by
Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He ...
(mid-1st c. BC), ''Santónōn'' (Σαντόνων) by
Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...
(early 1st c. AD), ''Santoni'' by Pliny (1st c. AD), ''Santonis'' by
Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest known Roman geographer. He was born at the end of the 1st century BC in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died  AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nea ...
(mid-1st c. AD) and
Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...
(early 2nd c. AD), as ''Sántones'' (Σάντονες, var. Σάντωνες) by
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...
(2nd c. AD). The city of Saintes, attested in the 1st c. AD as ''Mediolanum Santonum'' (''a Sanctone'' in the 10th c., ''Xainctes'' 11th c.) and the region of Saintonge, attested in the 4th c. AD as ''Santonica tellus'' (''Xanctonia'' in 1242, ''Zantonge'' ca. 1370), are named after the Gallic tribe.


Geography

The Santoni lived in the north of the
Garonne The Garonne ( , ; Catalan language, Catalan, Basque language, Basque and , ; or ) is a river that flows in southwest France and northern Spain. It flows from the central Spanish Pyrenees to the Gironde estuary at the French port of Bordeaux ...
estuary, in the modern Saintonge region. During the Roman period, their chief town was Mediolanum Santonum (modern Saintes).


History

Their territory was the destination of the failed migration of the
Helvetii The Helvetii (, , Gaulish: *''Heluētī''), anglicized as Helvetians, were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. According to Ju ...
circa 58 BC., which they opposed along with the Pictones. Initially, they cooperated with
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
's navy and traded goods.'A history of ancient geography among the Greeks and Romans', Sir Edward Herbert Bunbury, p.117, Oxford Press, 1879
/ref> Later, Caesar's plans for conquest of the Gallic tribes divided them. They provided 12,000 men to the Gallic coalition against Rome at the
Battle of Alesia The Battle of Alesia or siege of Alesia (September 52 BC) was the climactic military engagement of the Gallic Wars, fought around the Gauls, Gallic ''oppidum'' (fortified settlement) of Alesia (city), Alesia in modern France, a major centre ...
in 52 BC.


References


Bibliography

* * * *


External links

* Laurence Tranoy
« Mediolanum Santonum, Saintes : de la fondation à l’époque julio-claudienne »
Roma. La época de la expansión exterior de Roma. Cartago. Alicante : Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, 2007, p 226. {{Authority control Historical Celtic peoples Gauls Tribes involved in the Gallic Wars