Pictons

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Pictonic coin from the 1st century BC. Chr.

The pictones ( Latin Pictones and later Pictavi called) were a Celtic tribe in Gaul . Their settlement area was south of the lower Loire . Its main town was Lemonum or Limonum , today's Poitiers , which derives its name from the Pictons ( renamed Pictavium in Roman times ). According to Ptolemy's Geographike Hyphegesis (Book 2, Chapter 7) , a second city in its area was called Ratiatum (today Rezé ). Their northwestern neighbors were the Namneten , their eastern the Biturigen , their southeastern the Lemoviken and their southwestern the Santonen .

Campaigns of Caesar 57–56 BC - Pictons in the middle of the picture on the left

In 56 BC Caesar ordered the Pictons and Santons to provide him with ships for a campaign against the Venetians and their allies. The Arverni prince Vercingetorix could 52 BC. Chr. Also move the pictons to participate in the all-Gaulish war . For the relief army of Alesia they provided a force of 8,000 warriors. From the year 51 BC They took the side of the Romans. Duratius , a leader of the Pictons, was besieged that year by the leader of the Andecaves , Dumnacus , in Lemonum because of his loyalty to Rome , but was liberated by Caesar's legates Gaius Caninius Rebilus and Gaius Fabius . Since Augustus the Pictons belonged to the province of Gallia Aquitania .

Pictorial coinage was strongly influenced by Mediterranean models. A nymph head, as it is known from coins from Emporiae ( Empúries ) and Rhoda ( Roses ) in Catalonia , is recognizable in a barbaric version on their coins.

Major industries for the Pictons were fishing and shipbuilding. The soil of their territory was suitable for oil and viticulture. The Christianity held early in their field catchment; the Doctor of the Church and Bishop Hilary of Poitiers died in 367.

At Avanton ( canton Neuville-de-Poitou ) in the former settlement area of ​​the Piktonen, Avanton's sheet gold cone from the Bronze Age was found during fieldwork in 1844 .

literature

  • Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 .
  • Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 , p. 268.
  • Harry Mountain: The Celtic Encyclopedia . In: Celtic Encyclopedia Series . tape 1 . Universal-Publishers, 1998, ISBN 1-58112-890-8 , pp. 208 (English, 280 pp., Limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Carl Waldman, Catherine Mason: Encyclopedia of European Peoples . In: Facts on File library of world history . tape 2 . Infobase Publishing, New York 2006, ISBN 1-4381-2918-1 , pp. 588 (English, 479-984 pp., Limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • M. Leglay: Pictones. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 4, Stuttgart 1972, Col. 846 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Caesar, De bello Gallico 3, 11, 5.
  2. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Pp. 223-224.
  3. ^ Caesar, De bello Gallico 7, 4, 6 and 7, 75, 3.
  4. ↑ Harry Mountain: The Celtic Encyclopedia. P. 208.
  5. ↑ Aulus Hirtius , De bello Gallico 8, 26f.
  6. ↑ Strabon , Geographika 4, p. 190; Pliny , Naturalis historia 4, 108.
  7. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 1038.