VETTONES
Eth.
VETTONES (
Οὐέττωνες,
Strab. iii. p.152;
Οὐέττονες,
Ptol. 2.5.9), one of the principal peoples of Lusitania. (Caes.
B.C. 1.38;
Plin. Nat. 4.21. s. 38; Grut.
Inscr. p. 383. 7.) Strabo alone (
l.c.) assigns them to Hither Iberia, or the Provincia Tarraconensis. We find their country called Vettonia by Prudentius (
Hymn. in Eulal. 5.186) and in an inscription. (Orelli, no. 3664.)
It was watered by the Tagus, and separated by the Durius from Asturia on the N. On the W., where their boundary corresponded very nearly with that of modern
Portugal, they adjoined the proper Lusitani. On the E. they neighboured on the Carpetani in Hispania Tarraconensis, and their boundary would be described by a line drawn from the modern
Simancas in a SW. direction over
Puente del Arzobispo to
Truxillo. On the S. they were bounded by the province of Baetica, so that their country comprehended a part of
Estremadura and
Leon. Their principal towns were Salmantica (
Salamanca), Cecilionicum (
Baños?), Capara (
las Ventas de Capara), Sentice (in the neighbourhood of
Los Santos), Cottaeobriga (
Almeida), Augustobriga (
Ciudad Rodrigo?), &c.
In their country grew the herba Vettonica (
Plin. Nat. 25.7. s. 46), still known under the name of
betony; an account of which is given in the treatise
De Herba Betonica, ascribed to Antonius Musa.
[
T.H.D]
