The Arvernes (Arverni in Latin) were a Gallic people from the Massif Central. They were one of the most powerful peoples of central Gaul, opposing Roman power on several occasions. The “Arvernes” bequeathed their name to Auvergne. Their name would mean "those who are superior".
Their capital, during the Gallic Wars, Gergovie, was on a plateau overlooking the current city of Clermont-Ferrand. Previously, their capital seems to have been in the oppida of Corent and Gondole. Excavations currently being carried out on these sites have yielded exceptional discoveries:collective burials of horses and riders, religious enclosure intended for banquets given by the Arverni kings with temples, monetary material and remains of offerings (animal bones and amphoras).
Arvernian Hegemony and Monarchy[edit]
The difficult knowledge of a people of protohistory
As for the other Gallic peoples of Antiquity, the Arverni have left us no written sources. They are therefore known to us only through the stories told by foreign peoples, Greeks and Romans. If it is Julius Caesar who allows us above all to know them in the 1st century BC. J.-C., the Arverni appear earlier in our sources, on the occasion of their confrontation with the Romans during the 2nd century BC. J.-C. (see below) and by the stories of the Greek Poseidonios. The latter having traveled to Celtic Gaul at the beginning of the 1st century BC. BC, collected earlier traditions there. His work has been lost but extracts have been saved by Strabo, Diodorus of Sicily and Athenaeus. Together with other Greek (Appian) and Latin sources (see below), it allows us to go back to the middle of the 2nd century BC. The first mention of the Arvernes in our sources is even earlier:according to Livy, during the Second Punic War, an Arverne ambassador would have met, on the Languedoc coast, the Carthaginian Hasdrubal, who came to support Hannibal in Italy and would have welcomed him, notably by guiding him (XXVII, 39). These literary sources marked by the prejudices of their time must be confronted with the increasingly rich lessons that archeology delivers to us.
So when the Arvernes enter history, around -200 - -150, they already constitute a well-identified, politically powerful and organized people. The establishment of the Arverne cultural entity is therefore much earlier. Archeology can confirm this antiquity:Arverne ceramics are quite specific and have very elaborate decorations. Its antecedents probably date back to the beginning of the 3rd century BC. J.-C..
A hegemony and not an empire
The Greco-Roman sources present us for the middle of the 2nd century BC. AD a monarchy imposing its hegemony on the peoples of central and southern Gaul. According to Strabo (IV, 2, 3) the Arvernian hegemony would have extended from Languedoc and the territory of Marseilles, to the ocean and the Rhine. The Greek term that can be understood as hegemony, or power, has sometimes been translated as territory, or empire. Thus was born the erroneous idea of an Arverne empire which would have had an immense extension in the second century, prefiguring French national unity. It was nothing. We must understand the passage from Strabo as describing a hegemony, that is to say the temporary diplomatic, military and political superiority of a city, like the hegemonies that classical Greek history knew around the cities of Athens, Sparta and Thebes. It should also be remembered that the Roman generals who defeated the Arvernes also had an interest, after -121, in amplifying their past power to better bring out their present glory.
That the Arverni were an unavoidable political and military power in Gaul at this time is however indisputable, and it is probable that they held for a rather long period the summit of the powers of central Gaul, directing a rather vast network of alliances with peoples more or less close and powerful and exerting a more direct constraint on the small peoples who were their neighbors, such as the Gabales. This hegemony was of course military and warlike - war playing a central social and political role in the Gallic aristocracies. Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Beaulieu hypothesized that this hegemony could be perceived through the Gallic coins of this period. If his hypotheses have been partly corrected, the fact remains that the Arverne coinage is indeed the reflection of a prosperous and rich people. The Arvernian coins are clearly individualized no later than the middle of the 2nd century BC. Their iconography is typical and was developed from a prestigious Greek model, staters bearing the head of Apollo.
The wealth and fame of the Arvernian kings is then at its height, the prodigality of Luernios has thus remained legendary, and his banquets, his distributions of money are known to us by the testimony of Poseidonios. The excavations of Corent have undoubtedly found a sanctuary which was the place of such practices. It is a vast quadrilateral space of about fifty meters on each side, surrounded by a covered gallery and a high palisade. Forty-eight posts supported a portico six meters wide. Two twin buildings were built there, and libation tanks, numerous animal remains and monetary material have been found. The Arvernian monarchy was a charismatic power strongly based on personal prestige gained in war and the redistribution of wealth to the community, in carefully organized ceremonies. The ancient texts also show us on this occasion the importance of the bards:their talent is there to relay the power of the king, to affirm it, to perpetuate it. The charisma gained in war could be manifested by the severed heads of the vanquished, the Greek texts telling us of the pride of the Gallic leaders displaying the skulls of the vanquished enemies. Here again, archeology gives them a remarkable echo:a ceramic was found in Aulnat where we see the drawing of an Arverne warrior on horseback, the neck of the mount being decorated with severed heads. The king therefore seems to have preserved his power by asserting his warlike power against the other aristocrats and by cultivating his generosity for the greater part of the people, essential support for his power.
The sources of power
It is now clear that Arverne power was primarily agricultural and demographic. As in the other regions of Gaul, the habitat was organized in the second century in fairly large hamlets. But in Auvergne, in the very fertile plain of Limagne, they are extremely close and dense. This then explains the magnitude of the troops mobilized by the Arverni kings. This can then explain the richness of their coinage, in particular that of gold. The Arverne territory is not one of the most auriferous, unlike that of their Lemovice neighbors. The gold of the Arverne coinage therefore seems to have been acquired either by commercial exchanges, or by the taking of war, or even by mercenary operations, sometimes very far from Gaul. However, the Arvernian military and diplomatic power was undermined by the Roman victories linked to the conquest of Narbonne between -124 and -121:Bituitos, son of Luernios was defeated and captured there.
The Arvernes from -121 to Julius Caesar
From monarchy to an aristocratic government
If the Roman victories of the end of the second century put an end to the Arverne hegemony, they did not however put an end either to the power or to the independence of the city which ceased only with the Gallic war. But the exile of Bituitos and his son after the defeat of -121 had undoubtedly had important political consequences in the heart of the Arverne city. As for many other Celtic peoples at that time, royalty gave way to an aristocratic government:in the first century before the Christian era, the Arverni were ruled by an assembly of magistrates who were perhaps called Vergobret as for other Gallic peoples. It is possible that this rise to power of the aristocracy corresponded to a relative concentration of land ownership for the benefit of the wealthiest (see below). The large number of personal names on first-century Arverni coins and the mobility of settlement suggest that political power was both unstable and contested. Still, this aristocratic regime was not unanimous, that the supporters of a popular royalty were probably still numerous. Political tensions remained very high. Celtillos, father of Vercingetorix, finding himself in a position of power, would, according to Caesar, have aspired to royalty:his companions then put him to death.
A hegemony always sought after
Caesar at the beginning of his account of the Gallic Wars tells us that the Arverni had not abandoned their claims to military and diplomatic power in Gaul. Since -121 at least, their rivals were the Aedui. In the first half of the 1st century BC. J.-C., two systems of alliances seem to have opposed around the Arverni and the Aedui. Caesar tells us how the latter were defeated when the Arverni allied with the Sequani and the Germans. Shortly before Caesar's arrival in Gaul, the Aedui had found themselves subject to the Sequani and then to the German chief Ariovist. The Arverni, on the other hand, seem less present - perhaps a sign of internal dissension, or that they were content with the lowering of their enemy? In any case, they initially observed a cautious and distant neutrality in the face of Caesar.
The Gallic Wars is also a political conflict between Gauls
During the last part of the Gallic Wars, Vercingetorix, Arvernian nobleman, once again claims the kingship for himself. He also clashes with other aristocrats, and in particular his uncle Gobannitio. Taking flight, he relies on the people of the countryside to impose himself and take the title of king. This political change obtained, he takes the head of the Gallic coalition against Caesar. When Caesar comes to challenge him on his land, during the siege of Gergovia, he knows how to repel the Roman army. Defeated at Alesia, he is captured by Caesar.
Caesar after his victory shows clemency and political sense, he spares the Arvernes and gives them back twenty thousand prisoners, no doubt he wants to rely on the part of the aristocracy which had previously been favorable to him. The Arvernes therefore found a government directed by an assembly of magistrates and notables. It is Epasnactos who takes the head of the city. Described as a great friend of Rome by Caesar, he is also known to us through coins marked EPAD, a very large number of which were found in Gergovie. Epasnactos proves his loyalty to Rome by delivering the Cadurque leader Lucterios to Caesar.
The Arverne city integrated into the Roman Empire
A new capital
The city of Arvernes is then integrated into the new province of Aquitaine. It seems to have known a certain prosperity then. Gergovie its capital is moved to Augustonemetum, current Clermont-Ferrand, towards the end of the 1st century BC. J.-C.:the century of Augustus marks a period of relative rupture. Ancient town planning remains little known, but it was organized according to an orthogonal plan, like many Roman cities. Today only one ancient vestige is still visible in the city, it is the "Sarrazin Wall", so named in medieval times.
Thermal establishments have been found near Clermont-Ferrand, in Royat and in Chamalières - a sanctuary associated with springs has preserved many ex-votos, now visible in the Bargoin museum in Clermont-Ferrand, with one of the longest inscriptions in the Gallic language.
There is therefore no solution of continuity with the past:Romanization is built on the Gallic past and not against it. Thus the sanctuary of Corent is reorganized on the basis of the previous plan, but with Roman construction techniques, and a fanum is erected, in addition to the two small temples. The abandonment of Corent for Gergovie, then for Clermont, did not mean the end of the religious role of this sanctuary.
Discreet notables, an industrious people
Few Arvernes are known under the empire, and if some integrated the equestrian order or the senatorial order, they remained unknown to us. In the third century we know that an Arvernian notable had links with the powerful Timesitheus. At the end of antiquity, however, the character of Sidonius Apollinaris shows the importance and wealth of the Arverne nobility and its links with Rome.
Recent archaeological surveys carried out around Clermont-Ferrand have revealed a dense network of agricultural establishments (villae) which structured the rural area of Limagne and was set up in the 1st century. Very many villae have been identified within a radius of 20 to 30 km from the city, with high densities for the most fertile land, attesting to intense agricultural development and significant demographic occupation. A fairly large number of these villae in fact take over the site of a La Tène period farm. Other signs of continuity exist, it would seem in fact that a period of concentration of rural properties took place at the beginning of the 1st century BC. J.-C.:there would therefore have been a relative social continuity of the Arvernian elites between the end of the period of independence and the time of the Roman Empire.
Moreover, agricultural production seems to have taken on greater importance in the 1st century, the preceding period showing predominantly pastoral practices. Production was probably initially oriented towards cereals, as the discovery of a hydraulic mill at Martres de Veyre may suggest. It is possible that there was also viticulture. The maximum densities seem to have been reached in the 2nd century. A rather strong continuity is however noted in the occupation of the villae, in particular for the richest, which is maintained in the Lower Empire and even sometimes in the High Middle Ages
At the end of the 1st century, the ceramic workshops of Lezoux enjoyed considerable success, exporting their sigillated ceramics to a large part of the Roman West, like other Gallic ceramic workshops such as that of La Graufesenque. The shapes of these ceramics, the potters' signatures, are valuable clues for archaeologists, especially for dating the site where the ceramics were found.
These testimonies of an undeniable prosperity, of an important Romanization and of a good insertion in the exchanges which animated the empire, thus make all the more enigmatic our weak knowledge of the elites of the Arverne city under the empire. But it is true that this is also the case for other Gallic cities.
The cult of Mercury
During the 1st century, the city acquired a rich temple dedicated to Mercury, which undoubtedly corresponds to the one whose remains were found at the top of the Puy de Dôme. Pliny the Elder has preserved for us the description of the colossal statue that the sculptor Zenodorus had erected for this sanctuary[1]. It is possible that it is also the Vassogalate sanctuary mentioned by Gregory of Tours. According to the latter, it was looted and burned by the Alamanni led by King Chrocus in 259[2]. However, it is generally considered that the Vassogalate temple corresponds to the structures found in the current district of Jaude. Interest in the statue of Zenodore was rekindled in April 2007 by the discovery, south of the ancient city of Clermont-Ferrand, of a foot of a large ancient monumental statue (60cm, i.e. a statue of 4 meters approximately) and an achievement of exceptional quality:if there is nothing to indicate that it is a fragment of the statue of Zenodore, this discovery testifies to the presence of a great statuary of quality in the Arverne capital in Roman times[3].
The Arverne Mercury was the direct heir of the Gallic god Lug. Inscriptions - found in sites sometimes very far from Auvergne - qualify it as Arvernus or Arvernorix.
Famous Arvernes
* Bituitos:king of Arvernes from the 2nd century BC. J.-C., son of Luernios.
* Luernios:king of Arvernes from the 2nd century BC. AD, father of Bituitos.
* Celtillos:Arverne notable from the 1st century BC. AD, father of Vercingetorix.
* Gobannitio:first half of the 1st century BC. J.-C., uncle of Vercingetorix.
* Vercingetorix
* Vercassivellaunos:first half of the 1st century BC. AD, cousin of Vercingetorix.
* Epasnactos:first half of the 1st century BC. J.-C., Arvernian leader favorable to Caesar.