Ceutrones

The Ceutrones (variant: Centrones) were a pre-Roman Celtic tribe of ancient Gaul that controlled the Graian Alps regions of Gallia Viennensis Quinta in Gallia Narbonensis.

History

According to d’Anville, the Ceutrones occupied most of the Tarentaise Valley in the modern department of Savoie, France. Pliny the Elder called them "borders," that is, people living on the western border of the Alps. Ptolemy places them in the Graian Alps occupying the regions west of the Aosta Valley inhabited by the Salassi.

The Ceutrones had a sizeable population readily willing to defend themselves, probably with well cultivated lands, according to written accounts by great armies that passed through. Polybius describes how the Ceutrones aggressively attacked Caesar’s army on its march through the Alps to Lake Bourget. The onslaught included by an assault by rolling rocks and stones in the mountainous passes, and inflicted great losses of life on the Roman forces. Polybius also describes a meeting by envoys of the Ceutrones with Hannibal.