ASPA LUCA
ASPA LUCA in Aquitania, is mentioned in the Anton. Itin., on the road between Caesaraugusta (
Saragossa), and Beneharmum, on the Gallic side of the Pyrenees. Walckenaer (
Géog. &c, vol. i. p. 304) fixes this place at
Accous, in the valley of
Aspe; the river
Aspe is a branch of the
Adour. At
Pont Lesquit, near
Accous, the valley contracts, but it opens again, and forms a pass into Spain. Walckenaer conjectures that the Apiates, mentioned by Dio Cassius (39.46), among the people of Aquitania, whom P. Crassus subdued during Caesar's Gallic wars, are the Aspiates, or inhabitants of the valley of Aspe, and that there is no reason to correct Apiates into Sotiates. But Caesar's narrative (
B. G. 3.20) applies to the Sotiates, and Dion has the same story in substance with the name Apiates in the present text, instead of Sotiates.
[
G.L]