Redones

File:Statère de billon frappé par les Riedones.jpg (ca. 80-50 BC).|276x276px]]

The Redones or Riedones (Gaulish: Rēdones, later Riedones, 'chariot- or horse-drivers') were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the eastern part of the Brittany peninsula during the Iron age and subsequent Roman conquest of Gaul. Their capital was at Condate, the site of modern day Rennes.

In 57 BC they were subjugated by the Romans under forces led by Publius Licinius Crassus, the son of the triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus, but they provided men to the Gallic coalition led by Vercingetorix at the Battle of Alesia in 52.{{Sfn|Kruta|2000|p=790}}

Name

They are mentioned as R[h]edones by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC),Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico. 2:34; 7:75. Rhedones (var. r[h]iedones, s[hi]edones) by Pliny (1st c. AD),Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:107. Rhiḗdones (‛Ριήδονες; var. ‛Ρηήδονες), Rhḗdones (Ῥήδονες) and Rhēḯdones (Ῥηΐδονες) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD),Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:8:2, 2:8:9. and as Redonas in the Notitia Dignitatum (5th c. AD).Notitia Dignitatum, or 42:36.{{Harvnb|Falileyev|2010}}, s.v. Riedones, Condate Redonum and Civitas Riedonum. Their chief town is also attested on inscriptions as civ]itas Ried[onum and [civ]itas Ried[onum].{{CIL|13|03151}}{{CIL|13|03153}}

File:Mowat - Études philologiques sur les inscriptions gallo-romaines de Rennes - 33-2.jpg

The Gaulish ethnonym Rēdones means 'chariot-drivers' or 'horse-riders'. It stems from the Celtic root rēd- ('to ride, esp. a horse or horse-led chariot'; cf. Gallo-Lat. rēda 'chariot', OIr. ríad 'riding, driving, journey'; also Gallo-Lat. paraue-redus 'work-horse' and ue-rēdus 'post horse', MW. gorwydd 'horse') attached to the suffix -ones.{{sfn|Lambert|1994|p=34}}{{sfn|Delamarre|2003|p=256}}{{sfn|Matasović|2009|p=307}}

The original Rēdones led to a form Riedones after diphthongisation.{{Cite journal|last=Delamarre|first=Xavier|author-link=Xavier Delamarre|date=2014|title=Notes d'étymologie gauloise|journal=Wékwos|volume=1|issn=2426-5349}} Following the discovery of inscriptions featuring this variant in the 1960s, some historians, including Anne-Marie Rouanet-Liesenfelt and Louis Pape,{{Sfn|Rouanet-Liesenfelt|Chastagnol|Sanquer|1980|p=5}}{{Sfn|Pape|1995|p=21|ps=; "...graphie qu’il convient d’utiliser de préférence à Redones étant donné les découvertes épigraphiques de Rennes en 1968."}} have argued that the form Riedones should be preferred over Redones in scholarship, which is not necessary according to linguist Pierre-Yves Lambert.{{Sfn|Lambert|1997|p=399|ps=: La découverte de la forme Riedones, sur une inscription de Rennes, a semblé livrer "la vraie forme" de ce nom de peuple, et plusieurs historiens ont abandonné l'usage de Redones pour Riedones ... En fait, il ne parait pas nécessaire de renoncer a la forme traditionnelle Redones, que supposait avoir un -ē- (de *reid- 'aller en char'); mais l'évolution ē > ie est tout à fait isolée, et l'on hésite à la prendre en compte (plus tard, c'est le e bref accentué qui devient -ie- en français ancien)."}}

The city of Rennes, attested ca. 400 AD as civitas Redonum ('civitas of the Redones'; Redonas in 400–441; Rennes in 1294) is named after the Gallic tribe.{{sfn|Nègre|1990|p=156}}

Geography

File:Kartenn Galianed.jpg people of modern Brittany :

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They lived on the peninsula of Brittany in the region which was known at the time as Armorica. Although they controlled a narrow coastline in the southern part of the Mont-Saint-Michel Bay,{{Sfn|Kruta|2000|p=790}} they did not have a direct opening to maritime trade.{{Sfn|Lorho|Monteil|2013|p=351–352}} Caesar mentions them among the civitates maritimae or Aremoricae.{{sfn|Lafond|Olshausen|2006}} Their territory was located east of the Coriosolites, north of the Namnetes, west of the Aulerci Diablintes, and southwest of the Venelli and Abrincatui.{{Harvnb|Talbert|2000}}, Map 7: Aremorica.

Their capital was known as Condate Redonum, and was at the site of modern day Rennes.{{sfn|Lafond|Olshausen|2006}}

History

After the bloody fight on the Sambre (57 BC) Julius Caesar sent Publius Licinius Crassus with a single legion into the country of the Veneti, Redones, and other Celtic tribes between the Seine River and the Loire, all of whom submitted. (B. G. ii. 34.) Caesar here enumerates the Redones among the maritime states whose territory extends to the Atlantic Ocean. In 52 BC the Redones with their neighbors sent a contingent to attack Caesar during the siege of Alesia. In this passage also (B. G. vii. 75), the Redones are enumerated among the states bordering on the ocean, which in the Celtic language were called the Armoric States. D'Anville supposes that their territory extended beyond the limits of the diocese of Rennes into the dioceses of St. Malo and Dol-de-Bretagne.

References

= Bibliography =

{{Cite book|last=Delamarre|first=Xavier|title=Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental|date=2003|publisher=Errance|isbn=9782877723695|author-link=Xavier Delamarre}}

{{Cite book|last=Falileyev|first=Alexander|title=Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World|publisher=CMCS|year=2010|isbn=978-0955718236}}

{{Cite book|last=Kruta|first=Venceslas|title=Les Celtes, histoire et dictionnaire : des origines à la romanisation et au christianisme|publisher=Robert Laffont|year=2000|isbn=2-221-05690-6|author-link=Venceslas Kruta}}

{{Cite journal|last1=Lafond|first1=Yves|last2=Olshausen|first2=Eckart|date=2006|title=Redones|journal=Brill's New Pauly|doi=10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1019800}}
{{Cite book|last=Lambert|first=Pierre-Yves|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TjMcAQAAIAAJ|title=La langue gauloise: description linguistique, commentaire d'inscriptions choisies|date=1994|publisher=Errance|isbn=978-2-87772-089-2|author-link=Pierre-Yves Lambert}}
{{Cite journal|last=Lambert|first=Pierre-Yves|author-link=Pierre-Yves Lambert|date=1997|title=Gaulois tardif et latin vulgaire|journal=Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie|volume=49-50|issue=1|pages=396–413|doi=10.1515/zcph.1997.49-50.1.396|s2cid=162600621|issn=1865-889X}}
{{cite book|last1=Lorho|first1=Thierry|last2=Monteil|first2=Martial|chapter=Entre Loire et baie du mont Saint-Michel (Pays de la Loire et Bretagne, France) : modes d’occupation du littoral au Haut-Empire|title=Anciens peuplements littoraux et relations Homme/Milieu sur les côtes de l'Europe atlantique|year=2013|publisher=Archaeopress|editor-last=Daire|editor-first=Marie-Yvane|isbn=978-1407311913}}

{{Cite book|last=Matasović|first=Ranko|title=Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic|date=2009|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004173361|author-link=Ranko Matasović}}

{{Cite book|last=Nègre|first=Ernest|title=Toponymie générale de la France|date=1990|publisher=Librairie Droz|isbn=978-2-600-02883-7|author-link=Ernest Nègre}}

{{Cite book|last=Pape|first=Louis|title=La Bretagne romaine|date=1995|publisher=Ouest-France|isbn=2-7373-0531-4}}

{{Cite book|last1=Rouanet-Liesenfelt|first1=Anne-Marie|title=La civilisation des Riedones|last2=Chastagnol|first2=André|last3=Sanquer|first3=René|publisher=Éditions Archéologie en Bretagne|year=1980|isbn=2-903399-01-8}}

{{Cite book|last=Talbert|first=Richard J. A.|title=Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0691031699|author-link=Richard Talbert}}

Category:Historical Celtic peoples

Category:Gauls

Category:Tribes in pre-Roman Gaul

Category:Tribes involved in the Gallic Wars

Category:Armorica

Category:History of Rennes