Sequani

The Sequani were a Gallic people of eastern Gaul during the Iron Age and the Roman period, in what is now the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. Their chief stronghold was the oppidum of Vesontio (modern Besançon), set in a loop of the Doubs. They took their name from the river Seine (Sequana), and are known mainly from Caesar's account of the Gallic Wars. A long rivalry with the neighbouring Aedui over control of the Saône valley led the Sequani to call in the Germanic king Ariovistus, who then seized much of their territory and held it until Caesar defeated him in 58 BC. The episode broke the standing the Sequani had held among the peoples of eastern Gaul, and their lands passed under Roman control. Under the Empire the territory became a civitas with its capital at Vesontio and a second major town at Epomanduodurum (modern Mandeure). In Late Antiquity their territory gave its name to the frontier province of Maxima Sequanorum.