They are mentioned as AbrincatuosbyPliny (1st c. AD),[1]’Abrinkátouoi (’Aβρινκάτουοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD),[2] and as Abrincatis and Abrincateni in the Notitia Dignitatum (5th c. AD).[3][4]
The city of Avranches, attested in the 6th c. AD as civitasAbrincatum ('civitas of the Abrincatui', Abrincae ca. 550, de Avrenchis in 1055–66), and the region of Avranchin, are named after the Gallic tribe.[5]
The territory of the Abrincatui mostly corresponded the later regions of Avranchin and Mortainais. It was inherited with only slight border changes by the civitasAbrincatum and, later, by the diocese of Avranches.[6] However, the area of Mortainais was mostly uninhabited until the Roman period, and remained sparsely populated at the turn of the first millennium AD.[7]
Falileyev, Alexander (2010). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS. ISBN978-0955718236.
Levalet, Daniel (1979). "De la cité des Abrincates au diocèse d'Avranches. 1) L'environnement archéologique". Annales de Normandie. 29 (1): 3–22. doi:10.3406/annor.1979.5313.
Levalet, Daniel (2011). Avranches et la cité des Abrincates (Ier siècle avant J.-C.-VIIe siècle après J.-C.) recherches historiques et archéologiques. Société des antiquaires de Normandie. ISBN978-2-919026-03-6.
