Vascones
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The Vascones (Latin, singular VASCO[1][2]) were an ancient people who, at the arrival of the Romans, inhabited the region of present day Navarre, Lower La Rioja and north-western Aragon. It is likely that they are ancestors of the present-day Basques, to whom they left their name.
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[edit] Roman period
Unlike the Aquitanians or Cantabrians, the Vascones seem to have negotiated their status in the Roman Empire. In the Sertorian War, Pompey established his headquarters in their territory, founding Pompaelo. Romanization was rather intense in the area known as Ager Vasconum (the Ebro valley) but limited in the mountainous Saltus, where evidence of Roman civilization appears only in mining places, like Oiasso. The territory was also important for Romans as a communication knot between northern Hispania and southwestern Gallia.
The Vasconian area presents indications of upheaval (burnt villas, an abundance of mints to pay the garrisons) during the 4th and 5th centuries that have been linked by many historians to the Bagaudae rebellions against feudalization. By this time, it was already impossible to differentiate between the tribal Vascones and the rest of the Basque-speaking peoples, collectively called Vascones.
[edit] Early Middle Ages
In the year 407, Vascon troops fought on the orders of Roman commanders Didimus and Verinianus, repelling an attack by Vandals, Alans and Sueves. In 409, their passage toward Hispania went unhindered. The Germans did not pretend to stay but left to conquer richer lands south of the Basque area.
The Roman reaction to this invasion and Vascon unrest was to give Aquitania and Tarraconensis to the Visigoths, in return for their services as allies by treaty (foederati). The Visigoths soon managed to expel the Vandals to Africa.
The independent Vascones stabilised their first polity under the Merovingian Franks: the Duchy of Vasconia, whose borders to the south remained unclear. This duchy would eventually become Gascony. After the Muslim invasions and the re-incorporation of Gascony to the Frankish Kingdom under Charles Martel, the territory south of the Pyrenees was reorganized around Pamplona. When Charlemagne destroyed the walls of this city after a failed attempt to conquest Zaragoza, the Vascons annihilated his rearguard in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. Some decades later the Kingdom of Pamplona was founded.
[edit] References
- Sorauren, Mikel. Historia de Navarra, el Estado Vasco. Pamiela Ed., 1998. ISBN 84-7681-299-X.
[edit] See also
- Basque people
- Duchy of Vasconia
- Kingdom of Navarre
- Pamplona
- Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
[edit] External link
- Vascones in the Auñamendi Encyclopedia, by Bernardo Estornés Lasa.
