The Mandubii (Gaulish: *Mandubioi) were a small Gallic tribe dwelling in and around their chief town Alesia, in modern Côte-d'Or, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.

Name

An oppidum Mandubiorum is mentioned by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC),^[1] and the tribe is designated as Mandoubíōn (Μανδουβίων) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD).^[2][3]

The ethnonym Mandubii is a latinized form of Gaulish *Mandubioi (sing. *Mandubios). It is generally seen as deriving from the stem mandu- ('pony').^[4][5] Alternatively, Pierre-Yves Lambert has proposed to compare the name with the Welsh mathru ('trample upon').^[6]

Geography

The territory of the Mandubii was located in the Haux-Aixois region, between the settlements of Alesia in the north, Blessey in the east, Braux in the west, and Sombernon in the southeast.^[7] This small area

During the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus, their small territory was incorporated into the Lingonian territory.^[8] In the unstable period following the death of Nero in 68 AD, the Mandubii were excluded from the Lingonian territory and attached to the Aedui.^[7]

History

Mandubian ceramics are attested in Villaines-les-Prévôtes by the 2nd century BC. While under the influence of the neighbouring and more powerful Aedui and Lingones, the Mandubii benefited from a relative autonomy (at least economic and cultural) before the Roman conquest.^[9]

Religion

At Alesia, Apollo appears prominently as a local deity, presiding over the monumental sanctuary of Croix-Saint-Charles, a site occupied since the pre-Roman period. There, he is assimilated with Moritasgus, a god attested only at Alesia. Dedications have also been found to Rosmerta, and to the couples Albius and Damona, Ucuetis and Bergusia, and Mars Cicolluis with Litavis.^[10]

References