Diablintes

The Diablintes or Diablintres or Diablindi or Aulerci Diaulitae were an ancient people of Gaul, a division of the Aulerci. Julius Caesar (B. G. iii. 9) mentions the Diablintes among the allies of the Veneti and other Armoric states whom Caesar attacked. The Diablintes are mentioned between the Morini and Menapii. The territory of the Diablintes seems to have been small, and it may have been included in that of the Cenomanni, or the former diocese of Mans. (D'Anville, Notice, &c.; Walekenaer, Géog., &c. vol. i. p. 387.)

The true form of the name in Caesar is doubtful. Schneider, in his edition of the Gallic War, has adopted the form Diablintres, and there is good manuscriptual authority for this. The Diablintes are the Diablindi, whom Pliny (iv. 18) places in Gallia Lugdunensis; and probably the Aulerci Diaulitae of Ptolemy (ii. 8).

Their position can be calculated from Pliny's enumeration, Cariosvelites, Diablindi, Rhedones. The capital of the Diablintes, according to Ptolemy, was Noeodunum, probably the Nudium of the Table. The Notitia of the Gallic provinces, which belongs to the commencement of the fifth century, mentions Civitas Diablintum among the cities of Lugdunensis Tertia. A document of the seventh century speaks of condita Diablintica as situated in Pago Cenomannico (about modern Le Mans), and thus one location of the Diablintes is clear. This document also helps explain why Ptolemy used the name Aulerci for both the Diablintes and Cenomanni. Another document of the seventh century speaks of oppidum Diablintes juxta ripam Araenae fiuvioli; where the Arena (araenae) is recognised as the Aron, a branch of the Mayenne River. The small town of Jublains (or Jubleins), where Roman remains have been found, not far from the town of Mayenne to the southeast, is probably the site of the Civitas Diablintum and Noeodunum (also rendered Noiodunum).