The Aquitani were a tribe that lived in the region between the Pyrenees, the Atlantic ocean, and

the Garonne, in present-day southwestern France[1] in the 1st century BCE. The Romans dubbed this
region Gallia Aquitania. Classical authors such as Julius Caesar and Strabo clearly distinguish the
Aquitani from the other peoples of Gaul, and note their similarity to others in the Iberian Peninsula.
During the process of Romanization, the Aquitani gradually adopted Latin (Vulgar Latin) and
the Roman civilization. Their old language, the Aquitanian language, was a precursor of the Basque
language[2] and the substrate for the Gascon language (one of the Romance languages) spoken
in Gascony.

History[edit]
At the time of the Roman conquest, Julius Caesar, who defeated them in his campaign in Gaul,
describes them as making up a distinct part of Gaul:
All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who
in their own language are called Celts, in ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in
language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the Aquitani[3]
Despite apparent cultural and linguistic connections to (Vascones), the area of Aquitania, as a part
of Gaul ended at the Pyrenees according to Caesar:
Aquitania extends from the river Garonne to the Pyrenaean mountains and to that part of the ocean
which is near Hispania: it looks between the setting of the sun, and the north star.[4]

Relation to Basque people and language[edit]

The presence, on late Romano-Aquitanian funerary slabs and altars, of what seem to be the names
of deities or people similar to certain names in modern Basque have led
many philologists and linguists to conclude that Aquitanian was closely related to an older form of
Basque. Julius Caesar draws a clear line between the Aquitani, living in present-day south-western
France and speaking Aquitanian, and their neighboring Celts living to the north.[5] The fact that the
region was known as Vasconia in the Early Middle Ages, a name that evolved into the better known
form of Gascony, along with other toponymic evidence, seems to corroborate that assumption.

Tribes[edit]
 Tribes in Aquitania (as was defined in the 1st century

BCE) Late distribution of tribes in Novempopulania at

the end of the 6th century CE, former Aquitania proper (as was defined in the 1st century BCE)
Although the country where the original Aquitanians lived came to be named Novempopulania (nine
peoples) in the late years of the Roman Empire and Early Middle Ages (up to the 6th century), the
number of tribes varied (about 20 for Strabo, but comparing with the information of other classical
authors such as Pliny, Ptolemy and Julius Caesar, the total number were 32 or 33):[citation needed]

Aquitani tribes[edit]
 Apiates/Aspiates in the Aspe Valley (Gave d'Aspe Valley)
 Aturenses in the banks of the Adour (Aturus) river
 Arenosii or Airenosini in Aran valley, (high Garonne valley), part of Aquitania and not
of Hispania in the Roman Empire
 Ausci in the east around Auch (Elimberris, metropolis of Aquitania)
 Benearni or Benearnenses/Venarni in and around low Béarn, Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques
 Bercorates/Bercorcates
 Bigerriones or Begerri in the west of the French département of High
Pyrenees (medieval county of Bigorre)
 Boiates/Boates/Boii Boiates/Boviates in the coastal region of Pays de Buch and Pays de
Born, in the Northwest of Landes
 Camponi (may have been the same tribe as the Oscidates Campestres)
 Cocosates/Sexsignani in the west of Landes département
 Consoranni in the tributary streams of the high Garonne river in the former province
of Couserans, today's west half of the Ariège department and extreme south of Haute-
Garonne
 Convenae, a “groupement” in the southeast (high Garonne valley) in and
around Lugdunum Convenarum
 Datii, in the Ossau Valley, high Béarn