TheTuroni orTurones were aGallic tribe of dwelling in the laterTouraine region during theIron Age and theRoman period.
They were among the first tribes to give support to the Gallic coalition against Rome led byVercingetorix in 52 BC, then to therevolt of Sacrovir in 21 AD.[1]
They are mentioned asTuronos andTuronis byCaesar (mid-1st c. BC),[2]Turones byPliny (1st c. AD),[3]Turoni byTacitus (early 2nd c. AD),[4] and asTouroúpioi (Τουρούπιοι,var. τουρογιεῖς) byPtolemy (2nd c. AD).[5][6]
Afolk etymology that the Turoni were named afterTurnus from theAeneid appears in theHistoria Brittonum: "[Brutus of Britain] was exiled on account of the death of Turnus, slain byAeneas. He then went among theGauls and built a city of the Turones, called Turnis [Tours]".Geoffrey of Monmouth later expanded this story in theHistoria Regum Britanniae, where Tours was named after Brutus' nephew, also called Turnus, who had died fighting againstGoffar thePictone, king ofAquitaine.[7]
The city ofTours, attested in the 6th c. AD asapud Toronos (in civitate Turonus in 976,Turonis in 1205,Tors in 1266), and theTouraine region, attested in 774 asTuronice civitatis (in pago Turonico in 983,vicecomes Turanie in 1195–96,Touraine in 1220), are named after the Gallic tribe.[8]
The Turoni on the middle reaches of the Loire river.[1] It spanned the moderndepartment ofIndre-et-Loire, and parts of theIndre andVienne.[citation needed] Their territory was located south of theCenomani, east of theAndecavi and thePictones.[1]
Before the Roman conquest, the mainoppidum of the tribe was probably the oppidum ofFondettes,[9] or possibly the one which was found behind theAmboise Castle, calledOppidum des Châtelliers.[10]
During the Roman era, the chief town of the Turonian territory wasCaesarodunum, corresponding the modern city of Tours.[11]
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