Sequani

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A portion of the map, Gallia, from Butler's 1907 atlas showing the divisions of the diocese of Gaul in the late Roman Empire.[1] According to the key, the map depicts 17 Provinciae Galliae, "Provinces of Gaul," of which the 17th, [Provincia] Maxima Sequanorum, "Greater Sequania," identified with an XVII shown in the Jura Mountains, contains the Sequani and Helvetii.
Gold coins of the Sequani Gauls, 5-1st century BC. Early Gallic coins were often inspired by Greek coinage.[2]
Silver coins of the Sequani Gauls, 5–1st century BC.
A map of Gaul in the 1st century BC, showing the locations of the Celtic tribes.

The Sequani were a

Roman period.[3]

Name

They are mentioned as Sequanos by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC) and Ammianus Marcellinus (4th c. AD),[4] Sequanis by Livy (late 1st c. BC),[5] Sēkoanoús (Σηκοανούς) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD),[6] and as Sequani by Pliny (1st c. AD).[7][8]

The Gaulish ethnonym Sequani (sing. Sequanos) stems from the Celtic name of the Seine river, Sequana.[9] This may indicate that their original homeland was located by the Seine.[10]

Geography

The country of the Sequani corresponded to

Rhone, as the Helvetii plundered the lands of the Aedui there.[13] Extending a line westward from the Jura estimates the southern border at about Mâcon, but Mâcon belonged to the Aedui.[14] Strabo says that the Arar separates the Sequani from the Aedui and the Lingones, which means that the Sequani were on the left, or eastern, bank of the Saône only.[15] On the northeast corner the country of the Sequani touched on the Rhine.[16]

History

Notitia dignitatum
.

Before the arrival of Julius Caesar in Gaul, the Sequani had taken the side of the Arverni against their rivals the Aedui and hired the Suebi under Ariovistus to cross the Rhine and help them (71 BC). Although his assistance enabled them to defeat the Aedui, the Sequani were worse off than before, for Ariovistus deprived them of a third of their territory and threatened to take another third,[11] while subjugating them into semi-slavery.

The Sequani then appealed to Caesar, who drove back the Germanic tribesmen (58 BC), but at the same time obliged the Sequani to surrender all that they had gained from the Aedui. This so exasperated the Sequani that they joined in the revolt of

Belgica. After the death of Vitellius (69 AD), the inhabitants refused to join the Gallic revolt against Rome instigated by Gaius Julius Civilis and Julius Sabinus, and drove back Sabinus, who had invaded their territory. A triumphal arch at Vesontio (Besançon), which in return for this service was made a colony, possibly commemorates this victory.[11]

Julian, it recovered some of its importance as a fortified town, and was able to withstand the attacks of the Vandals. Later, when Rome was no longer able to afford protection to the inhabitants of Gaul, the Sequani became merged in the newly formed Kingdom of Burgundy.[11]

Major settlements

References

  1. ^ Butler, Samuel; Rhys, Ernest (1907). "Map 4, Gallia". The Atlas of Ancient and Classical Geography. Everyman. London; New York: J.M. Dent; E.P. Dutton.
  2. ISBN 0691036802
    .
  3. ^ Schön, Franz (Regensburg) (2006-10-01), "Sequani", Brill’s New Pauly, Brill, retrieved 2023-12-16
  4. ^ Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico, 1:33:4.; Ammianus Marcellinus. Res Gestae, 15:11:17.
  5. ^ Livy. Perioch., 104
  6. ^ Strabo. Geōgraphiká, 4:1:11.
  7. ^ Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:106.
  8. ^ Falileyev 2010, s.v. Sequani.
  9. ^ Lambert 1994, p. 34.
  10. ^ Kruta 2000, p. 71.
  11. ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911.
  12. ^ Caesar & BG, Book I, Section 6.
  13. ^ Caesar & BG, Book I, Section 11.
  14. ^ Caesar & BG, Book VII, Section 90
  15. ^ Strabo & Geography, Book 4, Chapter 1, Section 11.
  16. ^ Caesar & BG, Book I, Section 1.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Further reading

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sequani". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • T. Rice Holmes, Caesar's Conquest of Gaul (1899), p. 483
  • A. Holder, Altceltischer Sprachschatz, ii. (1904).
  • Mommsen, Hist. of Rome (Eng. trans.), bk. v. ch. vii.
  • Dunod de Charnage, Hist. des Séquanois (1735)
  • J. D. Schöpflin, Alsatia illustrata, i. (1751; French trans. by L. W. Ravenèz, 1849).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sequani&oldid=1197449056"