The Santoni or Santones () were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the later region of Saintonge during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Name These people are noted as Santonum, Santonos and Santonis by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC),Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico, 1:10:1, 1:11:6, 7:75:3. Santónōn (Σαντόνων) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD),Strabo. Geōgraphiká, 4:2:1. Santoni by Pliny (1st c. AD),Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 4:108. Santonis by Pomponius Mela (mid-1st c. AD) and Tacitus (early 2nd c. AD),Pomponius Mela. De situ orbis, 3:2:23; Tacitus. Annales, 6:7. as Sántones (Σάντονες, var. Σάντωνες) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD).Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 2:7:6., s.v. Santones.
The city of Saintes, attested in the 1st c. AD as Mediolanum Santonum (a Sanctone in the 10th c., Xainctes 11th c.) and the region of Saintonge, attested in the 4th c. AD as Santonica tellus (Xanctonia in 1242, Zantonge ca. 1370), are named after the Gallic tribe.
Geography The Santoni lived in the north of the Garonne estuary, in the modern Saintonge region.
During the Roman period, their chief town was Mediolanum Santonum (modern Saintes).
History Their territory was the destination of the failed migration of the Helvetii circa 58 BC, which they opposed along with the Pictones. Initially, they cooperated with Julius Caesar's navy and traded goods.'A history of ancient geography among the Greeks and Romans', Sir Edward Herbert Bunbury, p.117, Oxford Press, 1879 Later, Caesar's plans for conquest of the Gallic tribes divided them.
They provided 12,000 men to the Gallic coalition against Rome at the Battle of Alesia in 52 BC.
References
Bibliography
External links Laurence Tranoy, « Mediolanum Santonum, Saintes : de la fondation à l’époque julio-claudienne », Roma. La época de la expansión exterior de Roma. Cartago. Alicante : Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, 2007, p 226.