The Aquitanians (Latin: Aquitani) were a people living in what is now southern Aquitaine and southwestern Midi-Pyrenees, France, called Aquitania by the Romans, in the region between the Pyrenees, the Atlantic ocean, and the Garonne, present-day southwestern France. They were an ancient non-Indo-European, pre-Celtic population, that lived in the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. They spoke the Aquitanian language, related to Basque. Classical authors such as Julius Caesar and Strabo clearly distinguish them from the other peoples of Gaul (Gallia) and Iberia (Hispania). With the process of Romanization, in the centuries of Roman Empire, they adopted the Latin Language (Vulgar Latin) and Roman civilization. Their old language, the Aquitanian language, was the substrate of Gascon language (a romance language) spoken later by the Gascons.

History

At the time of the Roman conquest, Julius Caesar, who defeated them in his campaign in Gaul, describes them as making up a distinct part of Gaul: