The Savincates were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the Ubaye valley, around present-day Faucon-de-Barcelonnette in the Alpes Maritimae, during the Iron Age.
They are mentioned as Savincatium on two inscriptions. [1] [2]
The meaning of the ethnonym remains obscure. [2] The toponym Savines has been traditionally compared with Savincates and associated with their chief town, [3] although this has been criticized by Guy Barruol. [4]
The Savincates dwelled south of the Guil valley, in the Ubaye valley, around the town of Rigomagus (modern Faucon-de-Barcelonnette). [4] Their territory was located west of the Veneni, Soti, and Tyrii, south of the Caturiges, east of the Avantici and Adanates, and north of the Gallitae, Eguiturii, and Nemeturii. [5]
The civitas Rigomagensis, mentioned in 400 AD in the Notitia Galliarum, extended to all the Ubaye valley. In the 8th–9th centuries, it designated a pagus (Rigomagensis) or a vallis (Reumagensis), which corresponded to the middle Ubaye valley. [6]
They appear on the Arch of Susa, erected by Cottius in 9–8 BC. [7]