Be a tourist in your own town

Our next-door neighbors just left for Paris and the next leg of their around-the-world trip. Thanks to their visit, I got to become a “tourist in my own town” and took Denise and Paul to see the Roman ruins and other local sites.

     Paul – who has an amazing knowledge of history – had questions about everything. He was trying to integrate the bits and pieces we saw about Vaison la Romaine into his knowledge of ancient history and medieval history. I had few answers but we found some of the answers in the Tourist Guide Vaison la Romaine published by Editions AIO (http://www.aio.fr/).
     Sometime in the 4th century BC, a Celtic tribe called Voconti made the town their capital and called it Vasio.
     “In 124 and 123 BC the Romans conducted two military campaigns in Gaul. The Ligurians, Vocontii and Sullivians were successively vanquished. Since the Vocontii had facilitated pacification of the region, Julius Caesar rewarded them by granting their capital the title of “Federate City,” ally of the Roman people…” (Tourist Guide Vaison la Romaine)
     I wonder if the Sullivians and the Sullivans are related…