VA´SCONES
Eth.
VA´SCONES (
Οὐάσκωνες, Strab. iii. pp. 155, 116;
Οὐάσκονες,
Ptol. 2.8. § § 10, 67), a people in the NE. part of Hispania Tarraconensis, between the Iberus and the Pyrenees, and stretching as far as the N. coast, in the present
Navarre and
Guipuscoa. Their name is preserved in the modern one of the
Basques; although that people do not call themselves by that appellation, but
Euscalduqac, their country
Euscaleria, and their language
Euscara. (Ford's
Handbook of Spain, p. 557; cf. W. v. Humboldt,
Untersuch. &c. p. 54.) They went into battle bareheaded. (
Sil. Ital. 3.358.) They passed among the Romans for skilful soothsayers. (Lamp.
Alex. Sev. 27.) Their principal town was Pompelo (
Pamplona). (Cf. Malte-brun,
Moeurs et Usages des anciens Habitans d'Espagne, p. 309.)
[
T.H.D]
