Statère de billon frappé par les Riedones

The Redones or Riedones (

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...

: ''Rēdones'', later ''Riedones'', 'chariot- or horse-drivers') were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the eastern part of the

Armorica Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; br, Arvorig, ) is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic Coast ...

n peninsula (modern

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

), around their chief town Condate (modern

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine departme ...

), during the

Iron age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

and the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

. They subjugated to the Roman forces of Publius Licinius Crassus (son of the triumvir

Marcus Licinius Crassus Marcus Licinius Crassus (; 115 – 53 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome." Wallechinsky, David & Wallace, I ...

) in 57 BC, but provided men to the Gallic coalition led by

Vercingetorix Vercingetorix (; Greek: Οὐερκιγγετόριξ; – 46 BC) was a Gallic king and chieftain of the Arverni tribe who united the Gauls in a failed revolt against Roman forces during the last phase of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. Despite ha ...

at the

Battle of Alesia The Battle of Alesia or Siege of Alesia (September 52 BC) was a military engagement in the Gallic Wars around the Gallic '' oppidum'' (fortified settlement) of Alesia in modern France, a major centre of the Mandubii tribe. It was fought b ...

in 52.

Name

They are mentioned as ''R dones'' by

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 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, an ...

(mid-1st c. BC), ''Rhedones'' (var. ''r edones'', ''s idones'') by Pliny (1st c. AD), ''Rhiḗdones'' (‛Ριήδονες; var. ‛Ρηήδονες), ''Rhḗdones'' (Ῥήδονες) and ''Rhēḯdones'' (Ῥηΐδονες) by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

(2nd c. AD), and as ''Redonas'' in the ''

Notitia Dignitatum The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents o ...

'' (5th c. AD)., s.v. ''Riedones,'' ''Condate Redonum'' and ''Civitas Riedonum''. Their chief town is also attested on inscriptions as ''civ]itas Ried num''_and_''[civtas_Ried[onum.html" ;"title="iv.html" ;"title="num'' and ''[civ">num'' and ''[civtas Ried[onum">iv.html" ;"title="num'' and ''[civ">num'' and ''[civtas Ried[onum'. The

ethnonym ''Rēdones'' means 'chariot-drivers' or 'horse-riders'. It stems from the Proto-Celtic language, Celtic root ''rēd-'' ('to ride, esp. a horse or horse-led chariot'; cf. Gallo-Lat. ''rēda'' 'chariot', OIr. ''ríad'' 'riding, driving, journey'; also Gallo-Lat. ''paraue-redus'' 'work-horse' and ''ue-rēdus'' 'post horse', MW. ''gorwydd'' 'horse') attached to the suffix -''ones''. The original ''Rēdones'' led to a form ''Riedones'' after

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...

isation. Following the discovery of inscriptions featuring this variant in the 1960s, some historians, including Anne-Marie Rouanet-Liesenfelt and Louis Pape, have argued that the form ''Riedones'' should be preferred over ''Redones'' in scholarship, which is not necessary according to linguist

Pierre-Yves Lambert Pierre-Yves Lambert (born 30 May 1949) is a French linguist and scholar of Celtic studies. He is a researcher at the CNRS and a lecturer at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Celtic linguistics and philology. Lambert is the director of the ...

. The city of

, attested ca. 400 AD as ''civitas Redonum'' ('

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...

of the Redones'; ''Redonas'' in 400–441; ''Rennes'' in 1294) is named after the Gallic tribe.

Geography

They dwelled in the eastern part of the

n peninsula (modern

). Although they controlled a narrow coastline in the southern part of the

Mont-Saint-Michel Bay The Mont-Saint-Michel Bay (french: baie du Mont-Saint-Michel, br, Bae Menez-Mikael) is located between Brittany (to the south west) and the Normandy peninsula of Cotentin (to the south and east). The bay was listed as a UNESCO world heritage site ...

, they did not have a direct opening to maritime trade.

mentions them among the ''civitates maritimae'' or '' Aremoricae''. Their territory was located east of the

Coriosolites The Coriosolites or Curiosolitae were a Gallic people dwelling on the northern coast of present-day Brittany during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Name They are mentioned as ''Coriosolitas'' (var. ''coriosolitos'', ''curiosolitas'', ''curi ...

, north of the

Namnetes The Namnetes were a Gallic tribe dwelling near the modern city of Nantes during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Name They are mentioned as ''Namnitō͂n'' (Ναμνιτῶν) by Polybius (2nd c. BC) and Strabo (early 1st c. AD), ''Namnete ...

, west of the

Aulerci Diablintes The Diablintes or Aulerci Diablites (also ''Diablintres'' or ''Diablindes'') were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the north of the modern Mayenne department during the Iron Age and the Roman period. They were part of the Aulerci. Name They are menti ...

, and southwest of the

Venelli The Venellī or Unellī (Gaulish: *''Uenellī/Wenellī'') were a Gallic tribe dwelling on the Cotentin peninsula, in the northwest of modern Normandy, during the Iron Age and the Roman period. In 57 BC, they capitulated to Caesar's legate Publi ...

and

Abrincatui The Abrincatui were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the south of the Cotentin Peninsula during the Roman period. Name They are mentioned as ''Abrincatuos'' by Pliny (1st c. AD), ''’Abrinkátouoi'' (’Aβρινκάτουοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. A ...

., Map 7: Aremorica. Their chief town was known as Condate Redonum (modern

History

After the bloody fight on the

Sambre The Sambre (; nl, Samber, ) is a river in northern France and in Wallonia, Belgium. It is a left-bank tributary of the Meuse, which it joins in the Wallonian capital Namur. The source of the Sambre is near Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache, in the Ais ...

(57 BC)

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 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, an ...

sent Publius Licinius Crassus with a single legion into the country of the Veneti, Redones, and other

Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...

ic tribes between the

Seine River ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributaries ...

and the Loire, all of whom submitted. ( ''B. G.'' ii. 34.) Caesar here enumerates the Redones among the maritime states whose territory extends to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. In 52 BC the Redones with their neighbors sent a contingent to attack Caesar during the

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...

of Alesia. In this passage also (''B. G.'' vii. 75), the Redones are enumerated among the states bordering on the ocean, which in the Celtic language were called the Armoric States.

D'Anville Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (; born in Paris 11 July 169728 January 1782) was a French geographer and cartographer who greatly improved the standards of map-making. D'Anville became cartographer to the king, who purchased his cartographic ...

supposes that their territory extended beyond the limits of the diocese of Rennes into the dioceses of St. Malo and

Dol-de-Bretagne Dol-de-Bretagne (, literally ''Dol of Brittany''; br, Dol; Gallo: ''Dóu''), cited in most historical records under its Breton name of Dol, is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine ''département'' in Brittany in northwestern France. Geography Dol-d ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * {{Gallic peoples Historical Celtic peoples Gauls Tribes of pre-Roman Gaul Tribes involved in the Gallic Wars Armorica