Vascones

[7] Pliny the Elder, on his work Natural History, mentioned a text prior to 50 BC that located the Vascones at the western end of the Pyrenees, neighbors of the Varduli and extended to the mountains of Oiarso and into the coasts of the Bay of Biscay, in an area he called Vasconum saltus.

This same region is crossed by the road that comes from Terrakon and goes to the ouáskones, in the border of the Ocean, to Pompélon and Oiáson, city built above the very same Ocean.This information is found again in the works of Ptolemy, who lived during the 1st and 2nd Century AD.

In his book, Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, chapter 6, he relates the names of 15 cities inside the territory of the Vascones, besides Oiarso:[10] Iturissa, Pompaelo, Bituris, Andelos, Nemanturissa, Curnonium, Iacca, Graccurris, Calagurris, Cascantum, Ercavica, Tarraga, Muscaria, Seguia and Alavona.

[16][full citation needed] Schulten considers this to be the reason for the adoption of the name Gascony, which derives from Gascon, which comes from Vascon, and used to denominate a region that includes the present-day Northern Basque Country.

Claudio Sánchez Albornoz, Spanish historian (1893–1984), on his work "Los vascones vasconizan la depresión vasca" (The Vascones "basquize" the Basque depression) published in 1972 expanded upon this hypothesis, relying on linguistic analysis: when invading the territories of what today is Biscay, Gipuzkoa and Álava displaced to Castile part of the Caristii, Varduli and Autrigones, who took refuge in the mountains; the ones who had not been displaced were "Basquized",[17] while perhaps the Caristii, Varduli and Autrigones already spoke languages similar or related to the Basque language.

The inroad of the Vascones onto the plains of Aquitaine in 587 seems to be short-lived—they make their way back to the mountains—and archaeological findings in Eauze or Auch do not reveal instability or destruction during the alleged expanding period up to the mid-7th century.

[18] Schulten also quotes the chronicle from Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni, dated in 810, where for the first time is used the term navarrese to define the people living in the former territories of the Vascones near the Ebro.

[21] The Vasconian area presents indications of upheaval (burnt villas, an abundance of mints to pay the garrisons) during the 4th and 5th centuries that have been linked by many historians to the Bagaudae rebellions against feudalization, but also to the depredations of migrating Germanic and Asian tribes—Vandals, Alans, Sueves, Visigoths, possibly Heruls—into Hispania.

The Roman reaction to this invasion and unrest related to the Bagaudae was to give Gallia Aquitania and Hispania Tarraconensis to the Visigoths in return for their services as allies by treaty (foederati).

Between 581-7, chronicles start to mention the Vascones again, this time hailing from the wilderness, as opposed to the towns, which remained attached to Roman culture or were under Germanic influence.

During the reincorporation of Vasconia into Francia after 769, Charlemagne destroyed the walls of Pamplona after a failed attempt to conquer Zaragoza, the Vascones annihilated his rearguard in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778—referred as "wasconicam perfidiam" by Frankish chroniclers.

[25] Some decades later, in 824, a second battle of Roncevaux took place that led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Pamplona, founded with Eneko Arista as head of the new polity, presented by Arab sources as leader of the Vascones (al-Baskunisi).