BRATUSPA´NTIUM
BRATUSPA´NTIUM a town of the Bellovaci. Caesar (
Caes. Gal. 2.13), in B.C. 57, marched from the territory of the Suessiones into the territory of the Bellovaci, who shut themselves up and all they had in Bratuspantium.
After the surrender of the place he led his troops into the territory of the Ambiani, The old critics concluded that Bratuspantium was the chief town of the Bellovaci, but D'Anville (
Notice, &c.) being informed that there existed two centuries before his time some traces of a town called
Bratuspante, one quarter of a league from
Breteuil, was inclined to suppose that this was the Bratuspantium of Caesar. But Walckenaer (
Géog. vol. i. p. 423) shows that there is not sufficient authority, indeed, hardly anything that can be called authority, to prove the existence of this name
Bratuspante, or
Bransuspans, before the 16th century, though there has been undoubtedly a Roman town near
Breteuil. Now as Caesar mentions no town of the Bellovaci except Bratuspantium,and as everything that he says seems to show that was their chief place, even if they had other towns, it is a reasonable conclusion that this town was the place which Ptolemy calls Caesaromagus, which is the Bellovaci of the late empire,and the modern
Beauvais. It is true, that we cannot determine what Roman town occupied the site near
Breteuil, and this is a difficulty which is removed by the supposition of its being Bratuspantium, a name however which occurs only in Caesar.
[
G.L]
