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The Avantici (Gaulish: *Auanticoi) were a small Gallic tribe dwelling around present-day Gap, in the western part of the modern Hautes-Alpes department, during the Roman period.

Name

They are only mentioned once as Avanticos (var. acanticos, aganticos) by Pliny (1st c. AD).^[1]^[2]

The Gaulish ethnonym Avantici is a latinized form of the Gaulish *Auanticoi (sing. Auanticos), deriving from the stem auant- ('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 stem auant- is probably a term of pre-Celtic Indo-European origin (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 later Gapençais [fr] region.^[6] It stretched between present-day La Roche-des-Arnauds (Ad Finem) and Le Fein (south of Chorges). To the south, they must have controlled the land immediately opposite Segustero (Sisteron), between the Durance and the Bès [fr], as suggested by the name of the Vançon [fr] river.^[7] The Avantici dwelled east of the Vocontii, north of the Edenates, west of the Caturiges, and south of the Tricorii.^[8] They were probably part of the Vocontian confederation.^[9]^[10]

Settlements

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

During the Roman period, their capital was known as Vapincum (modern Gap), a station on the route between the Rhône Valley and the Italian Peninsula.^[12]^[13] In 69 AD, the territory of the Avantici was transferred, along with that of the Bodiontici, to the province of Gallia Narbonensis by Galba. They probably belonged to the Alpes Maritimae or to the Alpes Cottiae prior to that event.^[12] During the Late Empire, Vapincum became the chief town of the civitas Vappencensium (var. uappin-) in Narbonensis Secunda, as documented by the Notitia 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 ^b Rivet 1988, p. 251.
^ ^a ^b Barruol 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.

Avantici