The Greek geographer Strabo (63 B.C.-24 A.D.) indicated us the location of the following tribes, which are considered Basques according to the current information available: Aquitanians, Autrigones, Caristii, Varduli and Vascones.

Those tribes extended north to near Bordeaux, southwards to the river Ebro, to the west up to part of eastern Cantabria and eastwards to part of northwest Aragon, although people of Basque speech already spread through the peninsular Pyrenees up to Catalonia at least since the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C..

Aquitanians: this tribe extended through southeast France, northwards to the river Garonne (to near Bordeaux) and southeast up to the Pyrenees, in the Arán Valley (current province of Lleida). The geographer Strabo clearly differentiated between the Aquitanians and the northern Gauls, precisely mentioning their languages as a distinguishing mark, while he pointed out the similarities of the Aquitanians and the inhabitants of southern Pyrenees.

Strabo (who died approximately in A.D. 24) says in his 'Geography': 'The Aquitainians are completely different (from the rest of the Gauls) not only linguistically, but bodily and they are more like the Iberians than like the Gauls'. Further on, he writes: 'To express it clearly: the Aquitanians differ from the tribe of the Gauls in their body constitution and in their language and are more similar to the Iberians'. In those sentences, it is commonly explained that instead of referring to the Iberians themselves, Strabo was talking about the whole population of southern Pyrenees, especially Iberians and Basques.

The Aquitanians were not a compact people, but a population which was in turn divided into different ethnic groups. The most important of them, from north to south, were the following ones: Boiates, Vasates, Lactorates, Elusates, Tarusates, Biguerri, Tarbelli, Auscii, Venarni, Ilurones, Convenae and Consoranni.

One of those Aquitanian groups were the Sibulates, also documented as Sibyllates or Sybillates. The suffix -ates was used in Latin to denominate the peoples, while the roots sibul- sibyll- or sybill- refer to the land in which that people inhabited. Sibul, as well as the rest of the forms, were the Latin adaptations of the archaic Basque toponym Zubel, which possibly meant 'black or dark wood'. This toponym acquired over time the Basque suffix -oa, with the meaning of 'land' or 'region', the same as other Basque toponyms (Gipuzkoa, Nafarroa, Aezkoa....) and became Zubeloa ('the land of the black or dark wood'). In the Middle Ages, the intervowel /l/ became /r/ as a common evolution in the Basque phonetics: Zubeloa > Zuberoa; ili > hiri (town, city); Alaba > Araba (Álava). As we can see, the toponym we are referring to finally evolved to the current Zuberoa, which is one of the territories of the Basque Country.

As a consequence of the Romanisation of the Basque-speech population of Aquitaine, there arose the current Gascon people and its Latin language.

 

 

Autrigones: they spread from the river Asón in Cantabria to the river Nervión in Bilbao, and southwards, to part of Álava, La Rioja and Burgos. The current Castilian people and its Latin Language arose by means of the Romanisation of this tribe.

Caristii: this tribe spread from the river Nervión (west) to the river Deva in Guipúzcoa (east) and southwards, to part of Álava. The impact of Christianity in the ancient Caristia introduced a great number of Latin words. Therefore, the current Euskara that is spoken today in this territory (western dialect or Biscayan) is the dialect that keeps more terms of Latin origin in comparison with the others.

Varduli: settled in the west area, they spread from the river Deba (Guipúzcoa) to part of Navarre and southwards, to part of Álava. The dialect of Guipúzcoa, also known as Central dialect of Euskara, is spoken today in this territory.

The term 'Varduli', of Celtic origin, possibly come from the root 'Bar-' (´limit', 'end', 'march' in this case) and therefore, Vardulia would mean 'borderland'. This translation is also supported by the current toponym 'Guipúzcoa', which comes from the Basque root 'Ipu-' ('border', 'limit') to which the suffix '-oa' is added (that means 'region, 'land', as stated above). The union of both morphemes results in the word Ipuzkoa (it was written for the first time in A.D. 1025 as the toponym 'Ipuçcoa'). The initial /g/ is a sound that was included to help the pronunciation of the term. Furthermore, the word Bardulia / Vardulia, also with the meaning of 'borderland', was found in the Chronicles of Alfonso III of Asturias when referring to the initial Castile, known as well as Castella Vétula (Old Castile) in the 8th century A.D..

Vascones: it was the tribe in which Common Euskara arose. The Vascones covered the whole territory of Navarre and part of Álava, Guipúzcoa and La Rioja.

The cities of Kalagorri (Latin > Calagurris; Castilian > Calahorra, a locality of La Rioja), Tutera (Latin > Tutela; Castilian > Tudela, a locality of the Navarrese Riverbank) and Iruñea (Latin > Pompaelo; Castilian > Pamplona, the capital of Navarre) were Vascon settlements.

The term 'Vascones', which come from the Celtic word 'Barskunes', has the root 'Bhar-s-' that is proven in the Celtic language with the meaning of 'summit', 'tip', 'foliage'. According to this, the possible meaning of the word would be 'the highlanders', 'the tall ones' or 'the arrogant ones'. Today, it is commonly accepted as valid the translation of Vascones as 'the highlanders', although the names for the rest of the tribes do not have a widely accepted translation, with the exception of the Varludi.

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