User:Alfred le thug/Condate Riedonum

Condate Riedonum is the gallo-roman name of the actual city of Rennes. It was the main city and capital of the civitas Riedonum.

Ethymology
Condate is a toponym of gaulish origin which refers to a confluence. This name was used alone during the Gaulish era. Many other cities had the name of Condate.

Riedonum comes from the tribe of the Riedones which Condate was the capital. This epithet has been only used after the roman conquest, circa III A.D. . The attestations of the gallo-roman era all use the same writing Riedonum with an « i ».

History
The first traces on the Rennes site date from prehistoric and protohistoric era. It corresponds to isolated cases near the confluence of the Ille and theVilaine. Concerning these periods, archaeologists have collected evidences of human presence, with artifacts found during ancient urban planning work. Polishes stone axes, arrowheads and worked flint flake have been exhumed. These isolated elements only attest a passage and not a regular presence on the territory. Hypothesis of abandoned artifacts (intentionally or not) or lost is considered. Very few archaeological vestiges are known in Condate before the arrival of the Romans. However, the gaulish period is still studied by archaeologists. They identified, 250 meters north of the perimeter of the antic city, along the Ille, a small exploitation dating from the IV - III B.C.. A gaulish habitat was also spotted a hundred meters downstream from the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine, at Vieuxville-Beaurade, in 1993. Finally, in 1941, at Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, near Rennes, some artifacts have been exhumed including silver and billon staters. The iconography is typical of the Rédones. However, the existence of a real agglomeration remains uncertain. After the roman conquest, Condate Riedonum became the main city of civitas. His name is mentioned on Antonine itinerary and Tabula Peutingeriana.

During the two first centuries of our era, pax romana allow the development of the city. But tensions within the Roman Empire between III and IV B.C. had repercussion on the economy and expansion of the city, now reduced to a core. Around this core, the medieval city organize under the influence of christianity.

The city became christian during VI - VII B.C. The creation of a bishopric in Rennes led to the multiplication of monastic settlements: christianization of necropolises and construction of worship ( Saint-Martin-des-Vignes church, Saint-Melaine abbey).

Capital of the duchy of Brittany, city of Rennes is in full urban development.