Condate Riedonum is the gallo-roman name of the actual city of Rennes. It was the main city and capital of the civitas Riedonum.
Ethymology
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Condate is a toponym of Gallic origin designating a confluence [1] . This name was used alone in the Gallic era. Many other towns have been named after Condate .
Riedonum comes from the Riedones people of which Condate was the main center. This epithet was only used after the Roman conquest, around the III century. century[2]. The attestations from the Gallo-Roman period all use the Riedonum spelling with a “ i ".
History
editThe first traces on the Rennes site date back to prehistoric and protohistoric times. These correspond to isolated cases near the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine . Concerning these periods, archaeologists have collected evidence of human presence through artifacts found during ancient town planning works. Polished stone axes, arrowheads and retouched flint flakes have been unearthed. These are isolated elements and only attest to a passage and not to a regular presence in the territory. The trail of objects abandoned (intentionally or not) or lost is mentioned[3].
Very few archaeological vestiges are known in Condate before the arrival of the Romans. However, the gaulish period is still studied by archaeologists. They identified, 250 meters north of the perimeter of the antic city, along the Ille, a small exploitation dating from the IV - III B.C.. A gaulish habitat was also spotted a hundred meters downstream from the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine, at Vieuxville-Beaurade, in 1993[4]. Finally, in 1941, at Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, near Rennes, some artifacts have been exhumed including silver and billon staters. The iconography is typical of the Rédones[5]. However, the existence of a real agglomeration remains uncertain.
The current state of knowledge of Condate Riedonum is mainly the result of the various excavation campaigns carried out by the SRA (Regional Archeology Service) and the INRAP (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research). The Riedons and their capital are not known to us before the Roman conquest. It is through the writings of Julius Caesar that this population is known to us. In the Commentary on the Gallic War, Caesar tells us that, like the peoples of Armorica, the Riedons would have sent part of their soldiers to help Vercingetorix besieged at Alésia. In total, 20,000 Armorican soldiers were sent to Vercingétorix: “twenty thousand to all the peoples located along the Ocean, and whom the Gauls are accustomed to calling Armoricans, among whom are the Curiosolites, the Redons , the Ambibarii, the Calètes, the Osismes, the Lémovices, the Unelles”. Julius Caesar mentions the Riedons on another occasion to state the tribes having submitted to Rome: "At the same time, Caesar was informed by P. Crassus, sent by him, with a single legion, against the Veneti, the Unelles, the Osismes, the Curiosolites, the Esuvii, the Aulerques, the Redons, maritime peoples on the coasts of the Ocean, that they had all submitted to the power of the Roman people. »
If we have very little textual information on the Riedons, the case is much worse for their capital: Condate Riedonum. The place is almost unknown during the period preceding Roman invasions of Gaul. Claudius Ptolemy (100 - 168 AD) mentions the city but places it on the banks of the Liger (i.e. the Loire): “Below these, on the banks of the Liger, the Rhedones, whose capital is Condate. »
After the roman conquest, Condate Riedonum became the main city of civitas. His name is mentioned on Antonine itinerary and Tabula Peutingeriana[6].
During the two first centuries of our era, pax romana allow the development of the city. But tensions within the Roman Empire between III and IV B.C. had repercussion on the economy and expansion of the city, now reduced to a core. Around this core, the medieval city organize under the influence of christianity.
The city became christian during VI - VII B.C. The creation of a bishopric in Rennes led to the multiplication of monastic settlements: christianization of necropolises and construction of worship ( Saint-Martin-des-Vignes church, Saint-Melaine abbey)[7].
Capital of the duchy of Brittany, city of Rennes is in full urban development.
References
edit- ^ Berretrot 2004, p. 138.
- ^ Dominique Pouille; Manon Six (2018). "La muraille du castrum". Rennes, les vies d'une ville. p. 132.
- ^ "Avant l'Antiquité". Inrap (in French). Retrieved 2024-01-17.
- ^ Leroux, Gilles; Le Boulanger, Françoise; Blanchet, Stéphane (1998). "Les occupations anciennes des rives de la Vilaine à Vieuxville-Beaurade (Rennes, Ille-et-Vilaine), de la Préhistoire à la fin du Moyen-Age". Revue Archéologique de l'Ouest. 15 (1): 173–199. doi:10.3406/rao.1998.1077. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
- ^ "Deux trésors gaulois retrouvés". musee-archeologienationale.fr (in French). Retrieved 2024-01-17.
- ^ Gaétan Le Cloirec (2015). "Rennes/Condate, cité des Riédons : aux origines d'une ville-capitale". Gallia. LXXII (1): alinéa 8. doi:10.4000/gallia.1424..
- ^ Julien Bachelier; Manon Six (2018). "De la cité médiévale à la ville moderne". Rennes, les vies d'une ville. p. 50.