Bigerriones

Bigerriones

Bigerriones

Aquitani tribe

The Bigerriones or Begerri were an Aquitani tribe dwelling in present-day Bigorre during the Iron Age.

Aquitani tribes at both sides of the Pyrenees.

They were subjugated in 56 BC by the Roman forces of Caesar's legatus P. Licinius Crassus.

Name

They are mentioned as Bigerriones by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC),[1] and as Begerri (var. Begerbi, Bebergi, Bergebi) by Pliny (1st c. AD).[2][3]

The Bigorre region, attested as Begorra ca. 400 AD, is named after the tribe.[4]

Geography

The Bigerriones lived in the Bigorre region, in the northern foreland of the Pyrenees.[5][6] Their territory was located north of the Onobrisates, south of the Atures, Elusates and Auscii, east of the Venarni, and west of the Volcae Tectosages.

Their chief town was known as Bigorra Castrum (modern Saint-Lézer).[5]

Culture

It is believed the Bigerriones spoke a form or dialect of the Aquitanian language, a precursor of the Basque language.[7]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico, 3:27.
  2. [2]
    Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:108.
  3. [3]
    Duval 1989, pp. 724–725, 736.
  4. [4]
    Nègre 1990, p. 1202.
  5. [5]
    Duval 1989, pp. 724–725.
  6. [6]
    Frezouls 2006.
  7. [7]
    Jacques Lemoine, Toponymie du Pays Basque Français et des Pays de l'Adour, Picard 1977, ISBN 2-7084-0003-7

Bibliography
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