CENTRO´NES
Eth.
CENTRO´NES (
Κέντρωνες, Strab. p. 204). The Centrones were an Alpine people, who with the Graioceli and the Caturiges attempted to stop Caesar on his passage over the Alpes Cottiae in B.C. 58 (
B. G. 1.10) from Gallia Cisalpina into the territory of the Allobroges. Caesar gives no exact determination of the position of the Centrones. Pliny (
3.20) places the Centrones next to the Octodurenses, that is the people of Octodurus or
Martigny. The Octodurenses are the Veragri. Ptolemy (
3.1) assigns to the Centrones two towns, Forum Claudii and Axima. Axima is
Aisme in the
Tarentaise [
AXIMA]; and a little place called
Centron in the same valley retains the name of the people. The Centrones occupied the Alpes Graiae (
Ptol. 3.1) which Pliny (
11.42) calls the Alpes Centronicae.
In another passage (34.2) he speaks of copper mines “in Centronum Alpino tractu.”
The pass through the Centrones is mentioned by Strabo (p. 205).
Those who cross the Alps into Gallia from the country of the Salassi, pass up the great valley of the Salassi, the valley
of Aosta, which has a bifurcation: one road passes over the Pennine Alps, and the other, which is more westerly, through the Centrones. Both roads lead to Lugdunum,
Lyon (p. 208).
The, road through the Centrones is the pass of the
Petit St. Bernard. These and other Alpine tribes belong neither to Gallia nor Italy. Strabo gives them a separate description. But Ptolemy includes the Centrones with other Alpine peoples in Italy.
[
G.L]
