Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/392

 858 plint's nattjeal histoet. [Book IV. Pictones the Santoni^, a free people, the Bituriges^, sur- named Yivisci, the Aquitani^ from whom the province derives its name, the Sediboviates^ the Convense^, who together form one town, the Begerri^, the Tarbelli Quatuorsignani^, the Cocosates Sexsignani^, the Venami^^, the Onobrisates", to have occiipied the department of the Haute- Vienna, and portions of the departments of La "Vendee, the Loire Inferieure, the Maine et Loire, the Deux-Sevi-es, and La Vienne. • 2 They gave name to the former Saintonge, now the department of Charente and Charente Inferieure. The town of Saintes occupies the site of their cliief town. 3 They occupied the modem department of the Gironde. The city of Bordeaux occupies the site of their chief town. Phny is the only author that makes the Aquitani a distinct people of the province of Aquitanica. The Tarusates are supposed to have after- wards occuj)ied the site here referred to by him, with Atures for theu' cliief town, afterwards called Aire, in the department of the Landes. 5 Their locahty is unknown, but it has been suggested that they occupied the departments of the Basses Pyi'enees, or Lower Pyrenees. ^ So called from the Latin verb convenire, "to assemble" or "meet together." They are said to have received this name from the circum- stance that Ptolemy, after the close of the Sertorian war, finding a pas- toral people of predatory habits inhabiting the range of the Pyrenees, ordered them to unite together and form a community in a town or city. From them the present town of Saint Bertrand de Comminges, in the S.W. of the department of the Haute Garonne, derives its Latin name ' By Csesar called the Bigerriones. Their name was preserved in that of the district of Bigorre, now the department of the Hautes-Pyrenees. Their cliief town was Turba, now Tarbes. ^ By calling the Tarbelli Quatuorsignani, he seems to imply that their cliief town was a place garrisoned by four maniples of soldiers, each ■with a signiim or standard. Aquse Tarbelhcse was their chief town, the modern Acqs or Dax, in the S.W. of the department of the Landes. ^ Their chief town was probably garrisoned by six signa or maniples. Cocosa, or Coequosa, as it is written in the Antonine Itinerary, is the first place on a road from Aquae Tarbelhcse or Dax to Burdegala or Bordeaux, now called Marensin. Their locality was in the southern part of the department of the Landes, the inhabitants of which are still divided into two classes, the Bouges, those of the north, or of the Tete de Buch ; and the Cousiots, those of the south. ^"^ Their locahty is unknown. ^' D'Anvillc would read " Onobusates," and thinks that they dwelt in the district called Nebousan, in the department of the Hautes Pyrenees. JTe is also of opinion that tlioir town stood on the site of the modem Cioutat, between the rivers Adour and Neste.
 * From them ancient Poitou received its name. They are supposed
 * They gave name to Aquitame, wliioh became corrupted into Gruyenne.
 * 'Lugdunum Convenarum,"