Turoni

Turones coinage, 5th–1st century BCE

The Turoni or Turones were a Gallic tribe of dwelling in the later Touraine region during the Iron Age and the Roman period.

They were among the first tribes to give support to the Gallic coalition against Rome led by Vercingetorix in 52 BC, then to the revolt of Sacrovir in 21 AD.^[1]

Name

They are mentioned as Turonos and Turonis by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC),^[2] Turones by Pliny (1st c. AD),^[3] Turoni by Tacitus (early 2nd c. AD),^[4] and as Touroúpioi (Τουρούπιοι, var. τουρογιεῖς) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD).^[5][6]

A folk etymology that the Turoni were named after Turnus from the Aeneid appears in the Historia Brittonum: "[Brutus of Britain] was exiled on account of the death of Turnus, slain by Aeneas. He then went among the Gauls and built a city of the Turones, called Turnis [Tours]". Geoffrey of Monmouth later expanded this story in the Historia Regum Britanniae, where Tours was named after Brutus' nephew, also called Turnus, who had died fighting against Goffar the Pictone, king of Aquitaine.^[7]

The city of Tours, attested in the 6th c. AD as apud Toronos (in civitate Turonus in 976, Turonis in 1205, Tors in 1266), and the Touraine region, attested in 774 as Turonice civitatis (in pago Turonico in 983, vicecomes Turanie in 1195–96, Touraine in 1220), are named after the Gallic tribe.^[8]

Geography

Civitas of the Turones (red) during the Roman period, compared to the modern Indre-et-Loire department (green).

The Turoni on the middle reaches of the Loire river.^[1] It spanned the modern department of Indre-et-Loire, and parts of the Indre and Vienne.^{[citation needed]} Their territory was located south of the Cenomani, east of the Andecavi and the Pictones.^[1]

Before the Roman conquest, the main oppidum of the tribe was probably the oppidum of Fondettes,^[9] or possibly the one which was found behind the Amboise Castle, called Oppidum des Châtelliers.^[10]

During the Roman era, the chief town of the Turonian territory was Caesarodunum, corresponding the modern city of Tours.^[11]

References

1. Demarolle 2006.
2. Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico, 2:35:3, 8:46:4.
3. Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:107.
4. Tacitus. Annales, 3:41.
5. Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:8:11.
6. Falileyev 2010, s.v. Turones.
7. Matter, Hans (1922). Englische Gründungssagen von Geoffrey of Monmouth bis zur Renaissance (in German). Heidelberg: Carl Winter's Universitätsbuchhandlung. p. 80.
8. Nègre 1990, p. 158.
9. Ancient Society (in French). Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven. 1970. p. 158.
10. Adolph, Anthony (2015-11-30). Brutus of Troy: And the Quest for the Ancestry of the British. Pen and Sword. p. 80. ISBN 9781473849204.
11. Brooke, Anna E.; Jordi, Nathalie; Sommer, Lauren; Sussman, Anna (2007-06-05). MTV France. John Wiley & Sons. p. 149. ISBN 9780764587702.

Bibliography

• Demarolle, Jeanne-Marie (2006). "Turoni". Brill's New Pauly. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1223080.
• Falileyev, Alexander (2010). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS. ISBN 978-0955718236.
• Nègre, Ernest (1990). Toponymie générale de la France (in French). Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-02883-7.