Ceutrones


The Ceutrones were a Gallic tribe of the La Tène and Roman periods. They controlled the Graian Alps regions of Gallia Viennensis Quinta in Gallia Narbonensis.

Name

They are mentioned as Ceutrones by Caesar, as Keútrōnes by Strabo, as Ceutrones by Pliny, and as Keutrónōn by Ptolemy.

History

According to d’Anville, the Ceutrones occupied most of the Tarentaise Valley in the modern department of Savoie, France. Pliny the Elder called them "borders," that is, people living on the western border of the Alps. Ptolemy places them in the Graian Alps occupying the regions west of the Aosta Valley inhabited by the Salassi.
The Ceutrones had a sizeable population readily willing to defend themselves, probably with well cultivated lands, according to written accounts by great armies that passed through. Polybius describes how the Ceutrones aggressively attacked Caesar’s army on its march through the Alps to Lake Bourget. The onslaught included by an assault by rolling rocks and stones in the mountainous passes, and inflicted great losses of life on the Roman forces. Polybius also describes a meeting by envoys of the Ceutrones with Hannibal.
The Ceutrones are mentioned by Caesar :
A Roman inscription about the Ceutrones from Axima has survived.
Settlements by the tribe were identified by Ptolemy in his Geographia, and some appear on the Tabula Peutingeriana. One of the most important cultural centers was Darantasia, which gave the Tarentaise Valley and region its name. Medieval clergy made this city an important religious center before the end of the first millennium. They called it Monasterium, which became Moûtiers, by which it is now known.
The village of Centron in Montgirod, Savoie, likely the place known as Forum Claudii Ceutronum under the Romans, preserves the tribal name.
Several tribes were immediate neighbors of the Ceutrones and occupied territories that partly overlapped with theirs. These include: