The Sotiates were a Gallic-Aquitani tribe dwelling in the region surrounding the modern town of Sos (Lot-et-Garonne) during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
They were subjugated in 56 BC by the Roman forces of Caesar's legatus P. Licinius Crassus.
They are mentioned as Sotiates (var.sontiates, sociates) by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC), [1] and as Sottiates by Pliny (1st c. AD). [2] [3]
The meaning of the ethnonym Sotiates remains unclear. The suffix is possibly the Gaulish -ates ('belonging to'), which appears in the names of many Gallic tribes across Europe (e.g., Atrebates , Nantuates , Caeracates). [4] The origin of the first element Soti- is still unknown. [3]
The city of Sos, attested in the 1st c. BC as oppidum Sotiatum ('oppidum of the Sotiates'; archidiaconatus Socientis in the late 13th c. AD) is named after the ancient tribe. [5]
The Sotiates dwelled north of the Elusates and Tarusates, south of the Oscidates, west of the Lactorates, and east of the Cocosates. [6]
Their pre-Roman chief town was the oppidum Sotiatum (Sot(t)ium; modern Sos), located at the confluence of the Gueyze and Gélise rivers. [7] [3]
The Sotiates are mentioned in two classical sources: Caesar's Bellum Gallicum and Cassius Dio's History of Rome. [8] [9]
In 56 BC, the Sotiates were led by their chief Adiatuanos in the defence of their oppidum against the Roman officer P. Licinius Crassus. After a failed sortie attempt with 600 of his soldurii, Adiatuanos had to capitulate to the Romans. [10]
[Cassius] then marched his army into the borders of the Sotiates. Hearing of his approach, the Sotiates collected a large force, with cavalry, in which lay their chief strength, and attacked our column on the march. First of all they engaged in a cavalry combat; then, when their cavalry were beaten, and ours pursued, they suddenly unmasked their infantry force, which they had posted in ambush in a valley. The infantry attacked our scattered horsemen and renewed the fight.
The battle was long and fierce. The Sotiates, with the confidence of previous victories, felt that upon their own courage depended the safety of all Aquitania: the Romans were eager to have it seen what they could accomplish under a young leader without the commander-in-chief and the rest of the legions. At last, however, after heavy casualties the enemy fled from the field. A large number of them were slain; and then Crassus turned direct from his march and began to attack the stronghold of the Sotiates. When they offered a brave resistance he brought up mantlets and towers.
The enemy at one time attempted a sortie, at another pushed mines as far as the ramp and the mantlets—and in mining the Aquitani are by far the most experienced of men, because in many localities among them there are copper-mines and diggings. When they perceived that by reason of the efficiency of our troops no advantage was to be gained by these expedients, they sent deputies to Crassus and besought him to accept their surrender.
Their request was granted, and they proceeded to deliver up their arms as ordered. Then, while the attention of all our troops was engaged upon that business, Adiatunnus, the commander-in-chief, took action from another quarter of the town with six hundred devotees, whom they call vassals. The rule of these men is that in life they enjoy all benefits with the comrades to whose friendship they have committed themselves, while if any violent fate befalls their fellows, they either endure the same misfortune along with them or take their own lives; and no one yet in the memory of man has been found to refuse death, after the slaughter of the comrade to whose friendship he had devoted himself. With these men Adiatunnus tried to make a sortie; but a shout was raised on that side of the entrenchment, the troops ran to arms, and a sharp engagement was fought there. Adiatunnus was driven back into the town; but, for all that, he begged and obtained from Crassus the same terms of surrender as at first.
— Julius Caesar. Bellum Gallicum. 3, 20–22. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by H. J. Edwards, 1917.
The ethnic identity of the Sotiates is debated. Their lifestyle was very similar to that of the Gauls, which led some scholars to postulate that they were originally a Gallic people that had settled at the frontier of Aquitania. In the mid-first century BC, led by their chief Adiatuanos, the Sotiates fought alone against the Roman armies of Crassus, whereas other Aquitani tribes had formed a coalition against the foreign invader. [11] Furthermore, the name Adiatuanos is probably related to the Gaulish root adiantu- ('eagerness, desire, ambition'; perhaps cognate with the Middle Welsh add-iant 'wish'), and thus may be translated as 'zealously striving (for rulership)'. [12] [10] [13]
Caesar mentions that their chief was protected by a troop of 600 men named soldurii, which could be a Latinized form of Gaulish *soldurio- ('body-guard, loyal, devoted') according to Xavier Delamarre and Pierre-Yves Lambert. [14] [15] Theo Vennemann argues on the contrary that the term may be of Aquitanian (Vasconic) origin, since it is used by the local people (illi), and that the first element of sol-durii could be related to the Basque zor ('debt'). [16] In any case, the soldurii of Adiatuanos were probably involved in a patron-client relationship that has been compared to the Gallic ambactus, and the size of his army (600 men) illustrates the concentration of a personal power ruling over different clans. [17]
The Sotiates may be also interpreted as an Aquitanian tribe that had been Celticized before Caesar's coming in the region. A sword found in a funeral near Sotiatum, dated to the 3rd century BC, attests the diffusion of prestigious items of Celtic (La Tène) type among the local population. [18] Joaquín Gorrochategui notes that the province of Aquitania experienced "a profound Gallic influence, which becomes more evident as one moves away from the Pyrenees northwards and eastwards. Evidence of this penetration are the names of Gallic persons and deities, the names of tribes in -ates, and later the Romance toponyms in -ac". [4]
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