TheVarduli were a pre-Roman tribe[1] settled in the north of theIberian Peninsula, in what today is the western region of theBasque Country.
Their historical territory corresponds with the currentBasque area; however, it is not entirely clear whether the Varduli were actuallyAquitanians, related to theVascones,[2] orCelticized tribes, related toCantabri orCeltiberians[3] which later underwentBasquisation.[4] It seems probable the group shared the proto-Basque cultural-ethnic identity of the people of this region.
Their ethnonymVarduli is connected with an area that is referred to in documents from the earlyMiddle Ages asBardulia, which is mentioned as the cradle ofOld Castile, following the decline of theNavarrese Kingdom.
Julio Caro Baroja, a Basque anthropologist and linguist asserted in his works that the termVarduli was not ofBasque origin.[5]
The Varduli are mentioned for the first time duringRoman times, byStrabo, who called themBardyetai, and placed them on the Basque coast, between theCantabri andVascones; they are also mentioned by the geographerPtolemy, who placed them roughly in present-dayGipuzkoa, and by Roman historians, notablyPliny the Elder in hisNaturalis Historia,[6] where he reported thatAmanum Portus (Roman name:Flaviobriga), present-dayCastro Urdiales, was a Varduli settlement. The Roman geographerPomponius Mela located them also on the coast, but west of the Vascones and east of theCaristii. This lack of agreement about their exact position may have been caused by the continuous movement of the tribes of the northern Iberian Peninsula during events such as theCantabrian Wars. The first census of the Varduli population took place under the orders ofAugustus.[7]
According toPliny the Elder,[8][9] the main Vardulian settlement wasTullonium,[8] that was in the present-dayZadorra river basin, on a mainRoman road fromVirovesca (capital of theAutrigones), toPompaelo (Pamplona orIruña) inVasconian land. According to several authors inClassical antiquity, such asPtolemy,Pliny the Elder andPomponius Mela[9] other Vardulian cities wereAlba andGebala (today'sGebara), in the interior; whileTritium Tuboricum, a little west of theDeba river (Deva,Deua orDeba = Goddess),Menosca andMorogi orMorosgi, were on the Atlantic coast (on the south coast of theBay of Biscay).
In 114 BC,Gaius Marius had a personal guard composed of Varduli people, (who were calledBarduaioí) as slaves inRome. By the year 44, according to Pomponius Mela, the Varduli inhabited lands close to thePyrenees and composed a united society. The defeat of theCantabri by Augustus did not have any effect on the Varduli, as they had not joined the wars. The Varduli served incohorts in the invasion ofBritannia: Varduli are mentioned in an inscription on a Roman altar at Rochester, (Roman Bremenium) and atMilecastle 19 alongHadrian's Wall, where an altar inscription made by members of the First Cohort of Varduli cavalrymen is one of the few dedications to theMatres, or mother goddesses, found in Roman Britain. The First Cohort of the Varduli are also mentioned in inscriptions at theAntonine Wall,Longovicium in Durham,Bremenium andCorstopitum in Northumberland and on theDere Street in Cappuck in the Scottish Borders.[10]
As with theCaristii, it is not totally clear whether the Varduli were anAquitanian tribe or aCelticized one, related to theCantabri andCeltiberians. Some of theirToponyms were clearly of Indo-European origin (probably in theProto-Celtic language), asUxama (comes fromUpsama, meaning "the highest"),Deobriga (comes fromDeiuo-Briga, meaning "holy hill"),Tullonium (comes fromTullo, meaning "valley"), among others.Hydronyms, such asDeva (Deua orDeba for "Goddess") were also considered of Indo-Europeanetymology. As with theCaristii, not a single toponym related to theAquitanian-Basque languages has been found, further supporting the theory of their Celtic origin and possiblelate Basquisation.[2][3][4] However, apart from a few exceptions (Deba,Zegama,Arakama) present-day place-names show a clear prevalence of the Basque linguistic element (sometimes mixed with Latin/Romance lexical roots).
The last reference to the Varduli appears on a chronicle fromHydatius, in which he narrates the devastations that theHeruli suffered when, in the year 400, they attacked theCantabrian coast and again in 456 after attackingBardulia.
Ad sedes propias redeuntes, Cantabriarum et Vardaliarum loca maritima crudelissime deproedatio sunt.
— Fontes Hispaniae Antiquae, IX, p. 74
Later in the next century, Saxons established on the Bordeaux estuary also were known to raid along the coast.
Some studies theorize that the Varduli underwent alate Basquisation process, as a result of the continuous presence of theVascones on their territory. They are mentioned again in theEarly Middle Ages in the area considered to be the precursors of the modernBasque province ofGipuzkoa. Other authors[11] guessed, following Classical references, the existence of some degree of ethnic, cultural or political affinity between theVardulii, theCaristii and theAutrigones, tribes who, later Roman sources, grouped under the nameVarduli; this would explain later events in this region, for example, why, once the Caristii and Varduli were moved out of their original territories by theVascones in the Early Middle Ages, these groups lost their names and were grouped together with the Varduli in the territory of the Autrigones. The tribes took refuge in their coastal areas behind the mountains from the Islamic military depredations of the new powers down the Ebro in Al-andalus. Eventually, after a century of resettlement, this area, along with the Meseta plains, became a frontier march or county of the Kingdom ofAsturias in the middle years of the 8th century, the original core of the territory which would become Castile. The union, whatever the causes, between Varduli, Caristii and Autrigones in a single territory would later create the obscureCounty of Bardulia, mentioned as part of the cradle of Proto-Castile.
The coat of arms of theBasque province ofGipuzkoa reads"Fidelissima Bardulia, Nunquam Superata",[12] meaning "Most loyal Bardulia, never conquered".