VOCO´NTII
Eth.
VOCO´NTII (Eth.
Οὐκόντιοι), a people of Gallia Narbonensis, between the
Rhône and the Alps.
The only city which Ptolemy (
2.10.17) assigns to them is Vasio [
VASIO]. On the north they bordered on the Allobroges, as we learn from Caesar's march (
B. G. 1.10). Strabo places the Cavares west of the Vocontii, but he has not fixed the position of the Cavares well [
CAVARES].
The position of the Vocontii, and the extent of their country, are best shown by looking at the position of Vasio, which was in the south part of their territory, and of Dea [DEA], which is in the north part, and Lucus Augusti, which lies between them [
LUCUS AUGUSTI].
In the Notitia of the Gallic Provinces we find both Civitas Deentium and Civitas Vasiensium or Vasionensium.
The Vocontii were between the
Isère and the
Durance, their southern limit being probably a little south of
Vaison. D'Anville supposes that the Vocontii occupied the dioceses of
Vaison and
Die, and also a part of the country comprised in the diocese of
Gap [
VAPINCUM], and a part of the diocese of
Sisteron, which borders on
Vaison. Pliny (
3.4) calls the Vocontii a “Civitas foederata,” a people who had a “foedus” with Rome; and besides the chief places, Vasio and Lucus Augusti, he says they have nineteen small towns. Pliny (
2.58) mentions that he had been in the country of the Vocontii, where he saw an aerolite which had lately fallen ( “delatum” should perhaps be “delapsum” ). The Vocontii occupied the eastern part of the department of
Drôme, which is a mountainous country, being filled with the lower offsets of the Alps, and containing numerous valleys drained by mountain streams. Part of the country is fitted for pasture. Silius Ital. (3.466) has:--“Turn faciles campos, jam rura Vocontia carpit;”
for he makes Hannibal pass through the Vocontii to the Alps, as Livy (
21.31) does.
[
G.L]
