Lingones


The Lingones were a Gallic tribe of the La Tène and Roman periods. They dwelled in the region surrounding the present-day city of Langres, between the provinces of Gallia Lugdunensis and Gallia Belgica.

Name

Attestations

They are mentioned as Língōnes by Polybius, as Lingones by Caesar, Pliny and Tacitus, as Díngones by Strabo, and as Lóngōnes by Ptolemy.

Etymology

The name Lingones stems from the Gaulish ling-, ultimately from the Proto-Celtic verbal base *leng-. Lingones thus probably meant "the jumpers", perhaps "good at jumping ", or "the dancers".
The city of Langres, attested as civitas Lingonum ca. 400 AD, is named after the Gallic tribe.

Geography

The territory of the Lingones was situated on the border separating Gallia Lugdunensis from Gallia Belgica, between the Senones and the Sequani.

Settlement

Their capital Andematunnum is attested from 43 AD on boundary markers. It was built on a Bajocian limestone promontory, overlooking the Marne valley to the east and north, and the Bonnelle valley to the west. Only the southern part, open to the Langres plateau, did not possess natural defences. Archeological evidence have demonstrated a continuity between the La Tène and Roman periods on the site of Langres, and the city of Andematunnum appears to have been built at the turn of the 1st century BC on a previous Gallic settlement. The Roman-era civitas of the Lingones was located at the crossroad of the modern départments of Aube, Haute-Marne, Côte d’Or and Yonne.
The Cathedral St-Mammes, built in the Burgundian Romanesque style for the ancient diocese that was referred to as Lingonae and rivalled Dijon. Three of its early bishops were martyred by the invasion of the Vandals, about 407.

History

Some of the Lingones migrated across the Alps and settled near the mouth of the Po River in Cisalpine Gaul of northern Italy around 400 BC. These Lingones were part of a wave of Celtic tribes that included the Boii and Senones. The Lingones may have helped sack Rome in 390 BC.
The Gaulish Lingones did not participate in the battles of the Gauls against Caesar. They gained Roman citizenship at the end of the first century CE, living in a rich and urbanized society in the region of Langres and Dijon and minting coins. They were caught up in the Batavian rebellion described by Tacitus.
The strategist Sextus Julius Frontinus, author of the Strategemata, the earliest surviving Roman military textbook, mentions the Lingones among his examples of successful military tactics:
In Roman Britain, at least three named cohorts of Lingones, probably subscripted from among the Lingones who had remained in the area of Langres and Dijon are attested in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, from dedicatory inscriptions and stamped tiles. The 1st cohort of Lingones is attested at Bremenium, the 2nd cohort of Lingones is attested at Ilkley Roman Fort by their Prefect, and the fourth cohort built part of Hadrian's Wall near Carlisle.

Religion

During the Roman period, Mars Cicolluis was the main god of the Lingones.