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previous: previous chapter This webpage reproduces a section of The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy published in English translation by Dover Publications, 1991 The text is in the public domain. This text has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: next Chapter

 p58  Book II, Chapter 6

Location of Aquitania Gallia
(from the Third Map of Europe)

My notes on the Map: No information has been added to Ptolemy's text as I have it, although I took the boundaries from other chapters. Thus there is no topographic information, and only 2 rivers are sketched in. This is not one of Ptolemy's better maps. Inexplicably, this picture of SW Gaul is not as good as his representation of the much remoter Ireland. Only the Loire is clearly recognizable; to a lesser degree, the Garonne and its estuary the Gironde. Relative positions are often way off: Avaricum (Bourges) and Aginnum (Agen) for example are by no means neighbors as shown here; Lugdunum Convenarum is actually on the Garumna, near its source. Ptolemy's own description does not bound the map as it does elsewhere — somewhat excusably since the part of Aquitaine offscreen south is remote mountain and even today has no major towns. Tolosa, an important city in his time, is not shown, unless it lurks under Tasta, in more or less the right place; neither are several large Atlantic islands. Finally, although I suspect manuscript corruption, the non-existent western promontory (not a 1932 mistake, since it appears on the medieval maps) is probably best viewed as an expressionistic psychological statement about the dangerous Bay of Biscay that mariners have always sought to avoid.

Gallia is divided into four provinces, Aquitania, Lugdunensis, Belgica, and Narbonensis, and the places along its coast follow in this order:

On the north it is bounded by that part of the Lugdunensis province which is along the river we call the Liger (Loire) as far as

The eastern boundary is the Lugdunensis province running along the river Liger as far as

The south is bounded in part by the Pyrénées, and extends along Narbonensis from the source of the Liger river to that terminus in the Pyrénées to which we have referred, then along that part of the Pyrénées which extends to the Oeasso promontory.

The Pictones inhabit that part of Aquitania farthest north along the river and the sea, whose towns are

Below these are the Santones, and the interior town is

Below these are the Bituriges Vibisci whose towns are

 p59  Below these extending as far as the Pyrénées are the Tarbeli and their town is

Inland below the Pictones are the Limovici and the town

Below these are the Cadurci and the town

Below these are the Petrocori and the town

The Bituriges Cubi extend along the eastern border of those we have named and touch the region located across the Liger river whose town is

Below the Petrocori are the Nitiobriges and the town

Below these are the Vassari and the town

Below whom are the Gabali and the town

Below the Gabali are the Dati and the town

Below these are the Ausci and the town

From these toward the east are a part of the Averni among whom is the town

Below the Ausci are the Velauni whose town is

Below these are the Rutani and the town

Bordering on the Pyrénées are the Convenae and the town

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Thayer's Note:

a In Book II, Chapter 5 (Tarraconensis) the promontory at the west end of the Pyrénées, delimiting Spain from Gaul, is given as Oeasso promontory at the slightly different longitude of 15*10. On the map above, I've shown both.

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