The Nitiobroges (Gaulish language: * Nitiobrogis, 'the indigenous') were a Gauls tribe dwelling on the middle Garonne, around their chief town Aginnon (modern-day Agen), during Iron Age and the Roman period.
Name
They are mentioned as
Nitiobroges (
var. nitiobriges,
iciobriges),
Nitiobrogum and
Nitiobrogibus (
var. nithiobrigibus,
nithiobrogibus) by
Julius Caesar (mid-1st c. BC),
[Julius Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico, 7:7:2, 7:31:5, 7:46:5, 7:75:3.] Nitiobroges (var.
antobroges) by Pliny (1st c. AD),
[Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:109.] Nitióbriges (Νιτιόβριγες) by
Ptolemy (2nd c. AD),
[Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:7:11.] and as
Nisiobroges by Sidonius Apollinaris (5th c. AD).
[Sidonius Apollinaris. Epistles 8:11:1.][, s.v. Nitiobroges.] The name is also attested as
Nitiobrogeis (νιτιοβρογεις) on an inscription written on a
torc with the Greek alphabet, found in
Mailly-le-Camp and dated to the mid-1st century BC.
The ethnonym Nitiobroges is a latinized form of the Gaulish language * Nitiobrogis (sing. Nitiobrox), which literally means 'those who have their own country/territory', that is to say the 'indigenous', presumably in opposition to their neighbours that were not. It stems from the Celtic prefix nitio- ('from here, proper') attached to brogi-s ('territory, region, march'). The same stem is found in the personal name Nitio-genus ('son of the country'). Their name can be contrasted with that of the Allobroges ('foreigners'), who lived further northeast between the Rhône and the Alps, and also be compared with the Old Welsh * Kom-brogi-s ('from the same country'), which is at the origin of the ethnonym Cymru ('Welsh').
Geography
The Nitiobroges dwelled in the modern-day
Lot-et-Garonne department. Their territory was located south of the Bituriges Vivisci, west of the
Cadurci and
Ruteni, north of the
Sotiates, Volcae Tectosages and the
Ausci, and east the Vasates.
[, Map 14: Caesarodunum-Burdigala, Map 25: Hispania Tarraconensis.]
Their chief town was Aginnon (Lat. Aginnum; modern Agen), erected on the middle Garumna (Garonne).
History
The Nitiobroges settled in their attested homeland during the 4th century BC. They participated in the Gallic coalition of
Vercingetorix against Rome, providing 5,000 men led by the Nitiobrogian king
Teutomatos at the Battle of Gergovia in 52 BC.
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