Carte du pays de Santones sous les Romains

The Santoni or Santones ( grc, Σαντόνων, Σάντονες) were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the later region of

Saintonge Saintonge may refer to: *County of Saintonge, a historical province of France on the Atlantic coast *Saintonge (region), a region of France corresponding to the historical province Places * Saint-Genis-de-Saintonge, a commune in the Charente-Mar ...

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 ...

Name

These people are noted as ''Santonum'', ''Santonos'' and ''Santonis'' 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), ''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 " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...

(early 1st c. AD), ''Santoni'' by Pliny (1st c. AD), ''Santonis'' by

Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nearly to the year 1500. It occupies less ...

(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. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

(early 2nd c. AD), as ''Sántones'' (Σάντονες, var. Σάντωνες) 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). 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

, 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 (, also , ; Occitan, Catalan, Basque, and es, Garona, ; la, Garumna or ) is a river of 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

region. During the Roman period, their chief town was

Mediolanum Santonum Mediolanum Santonum was a Roman town in Gallia Aquitania, now Saintes. It was founded in about 20 BC in connection with an expansion of the network of Roman roads serving Burdigala. The name means 'centre of the Santones', the tribe that then ...

(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 Juliu ...

circa 58 BC., which they opposed along with the

Pictones The Pictones were a Gallic tribe dwelling south of the Loire river, in the modern departments of Vendée, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne, during the Iron Age and Roman period. Name They are mentioned as ''Pictonibus'' and ''Pictones'' by Julius Caes ...

. Initially, they cooperated with

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 ...

'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 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 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. {{Celts Historical Celtic peoples Gauls Tribes involved in the Gallic Wars