“Vocontii”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Vocontii were a Gallic people who lived to the east of the River Rhône in modern south-eastern France.

Location

The territory of the Vocontii was east of the River Rhône, in the Prealps, between the rivers Drôme and Durance. Its northern limit was the valley of the Drôme. Its western limits were the first ridges of the Prealps, from the Forêt de Saou range in the north, the first ridges of the Baronnies Massif in the centre and, in the south, the Dentelles de Montmirail chain, just south of Vaison-la-Romaine, and Mont Ventoux which both form the western end the Monts de Vaucluse. In the south and the east, it was bounded by the Durance, expect for its uppermost tract in the Cottian Alps and its lowest tract in the plain by the Rhone. This area covered parts of the Drôme, Vaucluse and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence departments of modern France.

The area where the Vocontii lived is outlined in two passages by Strabo, who wrote in the first few decades of the 1st century CE:

The Roman town of Noviomagus was probably Nyons. This town and Vasio (Vaison-la-Romaine) were not on the mountains. They were at the foot of the first prealpine ridges, at the edge of the plain of the Rhône (the Dentelles de Montmirail were just to the south of Vasio; the Éssaillon, Garde-Grosse, Saint Jaumes and Vaux formed a half crescent by Noviomagus).

History

During the 4th century BCE, the Celtic Vocontii became settled there, with an oppidum south of modern Vaison (Garcia p. 168); this seems to have been used to control trade between the Rhône and Durance rivers (Meffre).

The earliest historical mention of the Vocontii is from 218 BCE during the crossing of the Alps by Hannibal, as recounted in Livy:

The Vocontii were defeated by Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, a Roman consul, in 125 BCE and by Gaius Sextius Calvinus, a Roman proconsul, in 123 BCE during military campaigns against the Ligurians and Salluvii who lived to their south.^[7]^[8] In 121 BC Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus defeated the Allobroges, who lived to the north of the Vocontii, and the Averni, who lived to the west of the River Rhône.^[9]^[10]^[11] In 118 BC Gnaeus Domitius founded a Roman colony at Narbo, near Hispania.^[12] Southern Gaul came under Roman control and was known as Gallia Transalpina. Over time it came to be organised as a province of the Roman Empire.^[13] With the reorganisation of the provinces of the Roman Empire under Augustus, Gallia Transalpina was renamed Gallia Narbonensis. It was named after Narbo, which became its capital.

Pliny the Elder, who wrote in the 70s AD, referred to the Vocontii as allies.^[5] This means that they were not turned into Roman subjects. They remained autonomous. They were allowed to continue to observe their own laws and did not have to pay a tribute. However, they had to supply auxiliary soldiers to Rome. The date of the grant of an alliance treaty (foedus) is unknown. Goudineau had speculated that it may have been made by Gaius Pomptinus after he suppressed the last rebellion of the Allobroges in 61 BCE when he was the governor of Gallia Transalpina ^[14] However, this is not certain. Pliny also named the town of Vasio in his record of people and places which had Latin rights.

When Marcus Fonteius, was governor of Gallia Transalpina, either in 76-74 or 74-72 BC, he was attacked by the Vocontii. He defeated them.^[15] Cicero did not say why they rebelled. Presumably this was connected to the heavy indebtedness with was incurred by the Gauls in the region which was due to taxes which were levied by Fonteius to raise money for the Roman troops which were fighting in the Sertorian War (80-72 BCE) in Hispania. Pompey, one of the commanders in that war, had crossed Gaul to go to Hispania and subdued some (unspecified) rebellious tribes there. Pompey used Gallia Transalpina, which was on the road to Hispania and, therefore, his line of communications, as a base for his operations in the Iberian Peninsula. He wintered in Gaul in 75/74 BCE. Fonteius also raised corn for the Roman troops and a Gallic cavalry to support them.^[16]^[17]

The Vocontii were mentioned by Julius Caesar (note that Further Province and Hither Province stand for Gallia Transalpina and Gallia Cisalpina; the latter was in northern Italy) :

Caesar was marching from Italy to the vicinity of Lake Geneva to confront the Helvetii.

The historian Pompeius Trogus was a Vocontian. His grandfather served in the army of Pompey in Hispania during the Sertorian War .^[19]

The Vocontii are later mentioned by Tacitus (Histories, in relation to the Revolt of Vitellius, which took place in 69 CE:

The administrative reforms of Diocletian (reigned 284-305) abolished the old provinces and created new, smaller ones. The number of provinces was doubled. The Roman towns built on the site of or near Vocontian settlements close to the Rhône, Vasio and Noviomagus, and those on the River Drôme, Dia Augusta and Lucius Augustii, came under the Provincia Viennensis. Segusturo, and the area in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department came under the Provincia Narbonensis II

Rivet gives an account of the archaeological finds in Roman towns in Vocontian territory.^[21] These towns were:

Dea Auguta and Lucus Augustii were in the north, on the River Drôme. Vasio and Noviomagus were on the southwestern edge of Vocontian territory. Segusturo was in the southeast, on the River Durance.

One finds a praetor and a senate leading the city of Vaison, assisted by praefecti sent to the surrounding districts (pagi), which were advised by local assemblies (vigintiviri). Public municipal officials and slaves supplemented this administrative system.^[22]

Military unit

A 500-strong auxiliary cavalry unit, the Ala Augusta Vocontiorum civium Romanorum, was raised among the Vocontii. The troopers were Roman citizens. From 122, after service in Germania Inferior, it served at Trimontium, a mixed cavalry and infantry fort near Newstead, Scottish Borders. The unit is known by an inscription, (RIB 2121):

(To the sacred Goddesses of the Parade-Ground, Aelius Marcius, decurion¹ of the Vocontian Wing, willingly, gladly and deservedly fulfilled his vow.)

This is also attested in two military diplomas, dated 122 and 126; the former from Brigetio in Pannonia (CIL XVI, 65) and the latter from Britannia (AE 1997.1779a).

References

1. ^Possibly the village of Chamblat de Seugin, which is just past the Montgenèvre pass, slightly off the Valley of Susa and at the foot of the Col des Sestrieres (Colle Sestriere), which leads to the Val Pragelas (Val Chiasone) as argued by D’ Anville
2. ^A village in the valley of Susa, Italy; not to be confused with Uxeau in the Saône-et-Loire department
3. ^Strabo, Geography, 4.3
4. ^Strabo, Geography, 4.6.4
5. ^¹Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 3.37
6. ^Livy, The Hisrory of Rome from its Foundation, 21.31
7. ^Livy, Periochae, 60.1; 61.1
8. ^Ebel, C. Transalpine Gaul. The emergence of a Roman province, pp. 72-73
9. ^Livy, Periochae, 61.5
10. ^Florus> Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 37.4-6
11. ^Strabo, Geography, 4.2.3
12. ^Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 15.5
13. ^Badian, E. “Notes on Provincia Gallia in the Late Republic.” In Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire offerts à André Piganiol, vol. 2, pp. 901-03
14. ^Goudineau, C., Les fouilles de la Maison du Dauphin a Vaison-la-Romaine, in (Suppl. XXXVII to Gallia), 1979, pp.251-64
15. ^Cicero, For Fonteius, 20
16. ^Cicero, Pro Fonteius, 17, 20
17. ^Ebel, C. Transalpine Gaul. The emergence of a Roman province, pp. 78-81
18. ^Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Gallic War, 1.10
19. ^Justinus, Epitome of Trogus' Philippic Histories, 43.3.47, 43.5.11
20. ^Tacitus, Histories, 1.66
21. ^Rivet, A.L.F.,Gallia Narbonensis: Southern Gaul in Roman Times, pp.286-99
22. ^Meffre, JC, L'Âge du Fer dans la région de Vaison, pp. 213–215

Location

History

Military unit

References

External links