A Sotiate coin

This bronze coin dated 56 BC, with a diameter of 14mm and a

Weighing 1.84g, it is kept at the Alfred Danicourt Museum in Péronne.

>> Visualiser en 3D la pièce de monnaie Sotiate <<

A king and a wolf

The obverse (front) of the coin shows a group of five globules surrounded by the inscription REX ADIETVANVS FF. The reverse (back) shows an animal resembling a wolf walking to the left with its right front paw raised. Above it is the inscription SOTIO[TA].

What is the connection with Albret?

This denarius, according to the obverse, was minted by Adietuanus (named Adcantuan by Julius Caesar), chief of the Sotiates, who bore the title of rex, king in Latin. His people possessed a fortified town called Oppidum Sotiatum, Sos, located between the Elusates (Eauze) and the Nitiobroges (Agen). In 56 BC, Adietuanus was subjugated by Publius Licinius Crassus, Caesar's lieutenant.

The Sotiates in The Gallic War

Julius Caesar, in his book The Gallic War, comments on the fierce resistance of the Sotiates:

"Upon hearing of his arrival (Publius Licinius Crassus), the Sotiates gathered considerable troops and cavalry, which was their main strength, attacked our army on the march, and engaged in a cavalry battle with them, in which, having been repulsed and pursued by ours, they suddenly brought out their infantry, which had been lying in ambush in a valley. They attacked our scattered soldiers and resumed the battle.

It was long and stubborn: the Sotiates, proud of their past victories, believed that the salvation of all Aquitaine depended on their valor; our soldiers wanted to show what they could do, in the absence of their general, without the help of the other legions, under the leadership of a young commander. Covered in wounds, the enemies finally turned their backs; many were killed, and Crassus, without stopping, laid siege to the capital of the Sotiates. Their courageous resistance forced him to use shields and towers. Sometimes they made sorties, sometimes they dug tunnels under our trenches (a type of work at which they are very skilled, their country being full of copper mines that they exploit); but seeing all their efforts fail in the face of our soldiers' activity, they sent a delegation to Crassus to ask him to accept their surrender. Crassus agreed, on condition that they surrender their weapons, which they did.

While all of our men were busy executing this treaty, on the other side of the city appeared General-in-Chief Adcantuan, with six hundred devoted men, whom these peoples call mercenaries. Such is the condition of these men that they enjoy all the goods of life with those to whom they have devoted themselves by a pact of friendship; if their leader dies a violent death, they share his fate and kill themselves with their own hands; and it has never happened, in living memory, that any of those who had devoted themselves to a leader by a similar pact refused, upon his death, to die immediately. It was with this escort that Adcantuan attempted a sortie: the cries that rose from this part of the rampart caused the troops to rush to arms; and after a bloody battle, Adcantuan, driven back into the city, nevertheless obtained from Crassus that he be included in the general surrender."