Vascones

VA´SCONES(Οὐάσκωνες, Strab. iii. pp. 155, 116; Οὐάσκονες, Ptol. 2.8. § § 10, 67), a people in the NE. part of Hispania Tarraconensis, between the Iberus and the Pyrenees, and stretching as far as the N. coast, in the present Navarreand Guipuscoa. Their name is preserved in the modern one of the Basques;although that people do not call themselves by that appellation, but Euscalduqac, their country Euscaleria, and their language Euscara. (Ford's Handbook of Spain, p. 557; cf. W. v. Humboldt, Untersuch. &100. p. 54.) They went into battle bareheaded. (Sil. Ital..) They passed among the Romans for skilful soothsayers. (Lamp. Alex. Sev. 27.) Their principal town was Pompelo ( Pamplona). (Cf. Malte-brun, Moeurs et Usages des anciens Habitans d'Espagne, p. 309.)
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