Vocontii
- a people in Gallia Narbonensis, between the rivers Isara and Druentius, now Vaison, Caes. B. G. 1, 10; Mel. 2, 5, 2; Plin. 3, 4, 5, § 34; Liv. 21, 31, 9; Planc. ap. Cic. Fam. 10, 32, 2.
- —Hence, Vŏ-contĭus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to the Vocontii, Vocontian: rura, Sil. 3, 467.
VOCO´NTII (Οὐκόντιοι), a people of Gallia Narbonensis, between the Rhône and the Alps. The only city which Ptolemy (Ptol. 2.10.17) assigns to them is Vasio [VASIO]. On the north they bordered on the Allobroges, as we learn from Caesar's march (B. G. 1.10). Strabo places the Cavares west of the Vocontii, but he has not fixed the position of the Cavares well [CAVARES]. The position of the Vocontii, and the extent of their country, are best shown by looking at the position of Vasio, which was in the south part of their territory, and of Dea [DEA], which is in the north part, and Lucus Augusti, which lies between them [LUCUS AUGUSTI].
In the Notitia of the Gallic Provinces we find both Civitas Deentium and Civitas Vasiensium or Vasionensium.
The Vocontii were between the Isère and the Durance, their southern limit being probably a little south of Vaison. D'Anville supposes that the Vocontii occupied the dioceses of Vaison and Die, and also a part of the country comprised in the diocese of Gap [VAPINCUM], and a part of the diocese of Sisteron, which borders on Vaison. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 3.4) calls the Vocontii a Civitas foederata,a people who had a foedusw ith Rome; and besides the chief places, Vasio and Lucus Augusti, he says they have nineteen small towns. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 2.58) mentions that he had been in the country of the Vocontii, where he saw an aerolite which had lately fallen ( delatums hould perhaps be delapsum). The Vocontii occupied the eastern part of the department of Drôme, which is a mountainous country, being filled with the lower offsets of the Alps, and containing numerous valleys drained by mountain streams. Part of the country is fitted for pasture. Silius Ital. (3.466) has:--Turn faciles campos, jam rura Vocontia carpit;
for he makes Hannibal pass through the Vocontii to the Alps, as Livy (Liv. 21.31) does.
[G.L]A powerful and important people in Gallia Narbonensis, inhabiting the southeastern part of Dauphiné and a part of Provence between the Drac and the Durance, bounded on the north by the Allobroges, and on the south by the Salyes and Albioeci. They were allowed by the Romans to live under their own laws, and as the allies rather than the subjects of Rome.