Abrincatui


The Abrincatui were a Gallic tribe living in the south of the Cotentin Peninsula. They became a client tribe of the Venelli until the Roman occupation in 49 BCE, when they were separated.

Name

They are mentioned as Abrincatuos by Pliny, as Abrincatouoi by Ptolemy, and as Abrincatis in the Notitia Dignitatum.
The city of Avranches, attested as civitas Abrincatum in the 6th c. CE, and the region of Avranchin, are named after the Gallic tribe.

Geography

The territory of the Abrincatui mostly corresponded the areas of Avranchin and Mortainais. It was inherited with only slight border changes by the civitas Abrincatum and, later, by the diocese of Avranches. However, the area of Mortainais was mostly uninhabited until the Roman period, and remained sparsely populated at the turn of the first millennium AD.
Two pre-Roman oppida were located in Le Petit-Celland and Carolles, with other settlements in Montanel and near Mortain.