TheEleuteti were a small ancientGallic tribe living in what is now Central France during theIron Age. They were clients of the most powerfulArverni.
They are attested asEleuteti byCaesar (mid-1st c. BC).[1][2]
Based onCaesar's account, their territory was located somewhere in the vicinity of theArverni territory.[3]
The linguist Raymond Sindou has connected the nameEleuteti with the toponymLieutadès (southernCantal), attested asLhautades in 1381 AD. He proposes that their territory corresponded to the earlyarchdeaconry ofSaint-Flour, and that their absence from Imperial-period sources resulted from their incorporation into the Arverniancivitas after the Roman conquest.[4]
Jean-Luc Boudartchouk, by contrast, has associated the Eleutetes with one of "the neighbouring districts of the Arverni" (proximosque pagos Arvernorum) mentioned by Caesar, identifying their territory with theCarolingiancomitatus Cartlatensis (Carladez), situated between theCère andTruyère valleys, and placing them between theCadurci and theRuteni.[5] This interpretation has been criticised by Frédéric Trément and Jean-Pierre Chambon, who note that Caesar's list of dependent peoples does not follow a strict geographical order and that his account implies contact between the Eleutetes and theGabali, which Boudartchouk's proposed location would exclude. Trément and Chambon therefore favour Sindou's hypothesis.[4]
During theGallic Wars (58–50 BC), they are cited byCaesar as long-standing clients of theArverni.[2]
From the Arverni, along with the Eleuteti, Cadurci, Gabali, and Vellavii, who were regularly under Arvernian hegemony: the same number.
— Caesar,Gallic Wars, VII 75
