Riedones


The Riedones were a Gallic tribe, dwelling around their capital Condate. Caesar mentions the Redones among the civitates maritimae or Aremoricae.

Name

They are mentioned as Redones by Caesar, as Rhedones by Pliny, as Rhiḗdones, Rhḗdones and Rhēḯdones by Ptolemy, and as Redonas in the Notitia Dignitatum. Their chief town is also attested on inscriptions as civ]itas Rieditas Ried.
The name Redones stems from the Gaulish root rēdo-, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *rēdo-.
The city of Rennes, attested as civitas Redonum ca. 400 AD is named after the Gallic tribe.

Geography

In the Celtogalatia Lugdunensis of Ptolemy, he placed them west of the Senones and along the Liger. But other authors contend that the Redones were not on the Loire. Pliny enumerates the Redones among the peoples of Gallia Lugdunensis: Diablindi, Rhedones, Turones.

History

After the bloody fight on the Sambre Julius Caesar sent Publius Licinius Crassus with a single legion into the country of the Veneti, Redones, and other Celtic tribes between the Seine River and the Loire, all of whom submitted. Caesar here enumerates the Redones among the maritime states whose territory extends to the Atlantic Ocean. In 52 BCE the Redones with their neighbors sent a contingent to attack Caesar during the siege of Alesia. In this passage also, the Redones are enumerated among the states bordering on the ocean, which in the Celtic language were called the Armoric States. D'Anville supposes that their territory extended beyond the limits of the diocese of Rennes into the dioceses of St. Malo and Dol-de-Bretagne.