Avantici

TheAvantici(Gaulish:*Auanticoi) were a smallGallictribe dwelling around present-dayGap,in the western part of the modernHautes-Alpes department,during theRoman period.

Name

They are only mentioned once asAvanticos(var.acanticos,aganticos) byPliny(1st c. AD).^[1]^[2]

TheGaulish ethnonymAvanticiis a latinized form of theGaulish*Auanticoi(sing.Auanticos), deriving from the stemauant- ('source') attached to the adjectival suffix -ico-.^[3]^[4]The stem does not appear to be Celtic. As the hydronymic lexicon is particularly resistant to name changes, the stemauant- is probably a term of pre-CelticIndo-Europeanorigin (cf.Latv.avuots'source',Skr.avatá- 'well, cistern'), which eventually came to be adopted by the Celts; the latter may have made use of it in proper names only.^[5]

Geography

Territory

The territory of the Avantici roughly corresponded to the laterGapençais[fr]region.^[6]It stretched between present-dayLa Roche-des-Arnauds(Ad Finem) and Le Fein (south ofChorges). To the south, they must have controlled the land immediately opposite Segustero (Sisteron), between theDuranceand theBès[fr],as suggested by the name of theVançon[fr]river.^[7]The Avantici dwelled east of theVocontii,north of theEdenates,west of theCaturiges,and south of theTricorii.^[8]They were probably part of theVocontian confederation.^[9]^[10]

Settlements

The pre-Roman chief town of the Avantici was probably theoppidumof the hill of Saint-Mens, located 1km southeast of Vapincum.^[11]

During the Roman period, their capital was known as Vapincum (modernGap), a station on the route between theRhône Valleyand theItalian Peninsula.^[12]^[13]In 69 AD, the territory of the Avantici was transferred, along with that of theBodiontici,to the province ofGallia NarbonensisbyGalba.They probably belonged to theAlpes Maritimaeor to theAlpes Cottiaeprior to that event.^[12]During the Late Empire, Vapincum became the chief town of thecivitas Vappencensium(var.uappin-) inNarbonensis Secunda,as documented by theNotitia Galliarum.^[11]

References

^Pliny.Naturalis Historia,3:37.
^Falileyev 2010,s.v.Avantici.
^de Hoz 2005,p. 178.
^Delamarre 2019,p. 93.
^Delamarre 2003,p. 61;Delamarre 2019,p. 93.
^Barruol 1969,p. 289.
^Rivet 1988,pp. 251–252.
^Talbert 2000,Map 17: Lugdunum.
^Barruol 1969,pp. 278–284.
^Rivet 1988,pp. 16, 286.
^^a ^bRivet 1988,p. 251.
^^a ^bBarruol 1969,p. 287.
^Winkle 2006.

Primary sources

Pliny(1938).Natural History.Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0674993648.

Bibliography

Barruol, Guy(1969).Les Peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: étude de géographie historique.E. de Boccard.OCLC 3279201.
de Hoz, Javier(2005). "Ptolemy and the linguistic history of the Narbonensis". In de Hoz, Javier; Luján, Eugenio R.; Sims-Williams, Patrick (eds.).New approaches to Celtic place-names in Ptolemy's Geography.Ediciones Clásicas. pp. 173–188.ISBN 978-8478825721.
Delamarre, Xavier(2003).Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental.Errance.ISBN 9782877723695.
Delamarre, Xavier (2019).Dictionnaire des thèmes nominaux du gaulois. Ab-/Iχs(o)-.Vol. 1. Les Cents Chemins.ISBN 978-1-7980-5040-8.
Falileyev, Alexander (2010).Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World.CMCS.ISBN 978-0955718236.
Rivet, A. L. F.(1988).Gallia Narbonensis: With a Chapter on Alpes Maritimae: Southern France in Roman Times.Batsford.ISBN 978-0-7134-5860-2.
Talbert, Richard J. A.(2000).Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World.Princeton University Press.ISBN 978-0691031699.
Winkle, Christian (2006). "Vapincum".Brill's New Pauly.doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1228400.