Albiones

The Nicer Clutosi stele inscription.

The Albiones were a Pre-Roman Celtic tribe of the Iberian Peninsula living the north coast of modern Spain in western Asturias, probably belonging to the Gallaeci and Astur group, and mentioned by Pliny.[1] They are generally included in maps of Roman Spain.[2]

The name Albiones is also attested on the "stele of Nicer Clutosi" found near Vegadeo, which has the inscription:

☧ NICER CLUTOSI (filius) C(astello) CARIACA PRINCIPIS ALBIONUM AN(norum) LXXV HI(c) S(itus) EST, which can be translated as " Nicer, [son] of Clutoso of the castle of Cariaca, [of the house] of the prince of the Albiones, [died aged] 75 years, lies here." [3]

This same area was settled by a group of Britons in the post-Roman period, from whom the region took the name Britonia or Bretoña, mentioned in ecclesiastical sources as Britonensis ecclesia ("British church") and an episcopal see called the sedes Britonarum - see the History of Galicia.

References

  1. ↑ Pliny. "Narural History Book 4". University of Chicago. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
  2. ↑ Tabula Imperii Romani K-29, Porto: Conimbriga, Bracara, Lucus, Asturica, (Madrid, 1991) 20-21; Richard J.A. Talbert (ed.), Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, map 24, E1.
  3. ↑ L'Année épigraphique (1946), 121.

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