Aquitani

Quick Facts: Who was Aquitani?

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Aquitani

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Ancient peoples of south-western Gaul, distinct in language and culture from the Gauls.

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Origins & Early Life

The Aquitani (also Aquitanians; Ancient Greek: Ἀκουιτανοί, romanized: Akouitanoí) were a group of peoples dwelling in the south-west of Gaul, between the Garonne, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic Ocean, during the late Iron Age and the Roman period. Caesar set them apart from the Gauls and the Belgae by their language, institutions and laws, and Strabo held that they resembled the Iberians rather than the Gauls in both language and physique. Their indigenous language, Aquitanian, is recorded almost entirely through personal and divine names in Latin inscriptions. It was closely related to Basque and is generally taken for an early form or close relative of it. Many of the region's divine names show the same Basque affinity, alongside a Celtic layer.

Career & Major Achievements

The Aquitani belonged to a cultural area that straddled the western Pyrenees and kept close ties with the peoples of northern Iberia. In the late Iron Age this area stood apart from Celtic Gaul in its material culture, marked by handmade pottery and by a coinage of silver and bronze rather than gold. Politically they were a mosaic of many small peoples and never formed a single state. Their shared identity found its main expression in the coalition raised against Rome in 56 BC, when Caesar's legate Publius Crassus conquered them. Under Augustus the name Aquitania was extended to a much larger, largely Gaulish-speaking province, and the older, ethnic Aquitania was later restored as Novempopulania.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The Aquitani are named by Caesar (mid-1st century BC), who at the opening of his account of the Gallic War places them in the part of Gaul reaching from the Garonne to the Pyrenees and to the ocean towards Hispania, and states that they differed from the Gauls and the Belgae in language, institutions and laws. Strabo (early 1st century AD) gives the name as Akouitanoí (Ἀκουιτανοί) and reports that they differed from the Gaulish stock in the build of their bodies and in their speech, resembling the Iberians more closely. Pliny (1st century AD) adds further peoples to the Aquitanian list. In the strict sense used by Caesar, the name denotes the peoples of the roughly triangular territory closed by the Garonne, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic, an area sometimes called the "Aquitanian triangle" in modern scholarship. Under Augustus the name was extended to a much wider and largely Gaulish-speaking territory, and in the late 3rd century AD the older, ethnic Aquitania was restored as a distinct province under a new name.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Aquitani

True or False: “The Aquitani were culturally uniform throughout their entire territory during the Iron Age.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): The region was not culturally uniform; scholars usually distinguish between Eastern Aquitania (near the Garonne) and Western Aquitania (the Adour basin).

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Frequently Asked Questions about Aquitani