Ruteni

The Ruteni were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the southern part of the Massif Central, around present-day Rodez, during the Iron Age and the Roman period. They are named in Latin as Ruteni (var. roteni and Rutheni) by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC); Pliny, and Lucan (both 1st c. AD), and in Greek as R̔outēnoì (Ῥουτηνοὶ; var. Ῥουταινοὶ) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD) and R̔outanoì (Ῥουτανοὶ) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD). The Celticity of the name remains uncertain. It has been tentatively translated as 'the blond ones' by extrapolating from a description of the Roman poet Lucan ("The fair-haired Ruteni were freed from the garrison that long had held them"). The city of Rodez, attested ca. 400 AD as civitas Rutenorum ('civitas of the Ruteni'; in urbe Rutena in the 9th c., Rodes ca. 1183), and the region of Rouergue, attested as in pago Rodonico in 767 (Rodengue, Rodergue in 1150, Roengue ca. 1182), are named after the tribe. The Ruteni dwelled in the southern part of the Massif Central, in the later province of Rouergue, north of the river Tarn. Their territory was situated south of the Arverni, east of the Cadurci, west of the Gabali and north of the Volcae. Because they were vassals of the Arveni, part of their territory was taken by the Romans after the defeat of the Arvenian king Bituitus in 121 BC. During the reign of Augustus, Segodunum (modern Rodez) became the main town of their civitas.