Aquitani in the context of "Substratum (linguistics)"

The first written records for the history of France appeared in the Iron Age. What is now France made up the bulk of the region known to the Romans as Gaul. Greek writers noted the presence of three main ethno-linguistic groups in the area: the Gauls, Aquitani and Belgae. Over the first millennium BC the Greeks, Romans and Carthaginians established colonies on the Mediterranean coast and offshore islands. The Roman Republic annexed southern Gaul in the late 2nd century BC, and legions under Julius Caesar conquered the rest of Gaul in the Gallic Wars of 58–51 BC. A Gallo-Roman culture emerged, and Gaul was increasingly integrated into the Roman Empire. In the later stages of the empire, Gaul was subject to barbarian raids and migration. The Frankish king Clovis I united most of Gaul in the late 5th century. Frankish power reached its fullest extent under Charlemagne. The medieval Kingdom of France emerged from the western part of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire, known as West Francia, and achieved increasing prominence under the rule of the House of Capet, founded in 987.

A succession crisis in 1328 led to the Hundred Years' War between the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet. The war began in 1337 following Philip VI's attempt to seize the Duchy of Aquitaine from its hereditary holder Edward III of England, the Plantagenet claimant to the French throne. A notable figure of the war was Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who led forces against the English, establishing herself as a national heroine. The war ended with a Valois victory in 1453, strengthening French nationalism and increasing the power and reach of the French monarchy. During the Ancien Régime over the next centuries, France transformed into a centralized absolute monarchy through the Renaissance and Reformation. At the height of the French Wars of Religion, France became embroiled in another succession crisis, as the last Valois king, Henry III, fought against factions of the House of Bourbon and House of Guise. Henry, the Bourbon King of Navarre, won and established the Bourbon dynasty. A burgeoning worldwide colonial empire was established in the 16th century.

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (/əˈɡrɪpə/; c. 63 BC – 12 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who was a close friend, son-in-law and lieutenant to the Roman emperor Augustus. Agrippa is well known for his important military victories, notably the Battle of Actium in 31 BC against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. He was also responsible for the construction of some of the most notable buildings of his era, including the original Pantheon.

Born to a plebeian family c. 63 BC, in an uncertain location in Roman Italy, he met the future emperor Augustus, then known as Octavian, at Apollonia, in Illyria. Following the assassination of Octavian's great-uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Octavian returned to Italy. Around this time, Agrippa was elected tribune of the plebs. He served as a military commander, fighting alongside Octavian and Caesar's former general and right-hand man Mark Antony in the Battle of Philippi. In 40 BC, he was praetor urbanus and played a major role in the Perusine war against Lucius Antonius and Fulvia, respectively the brother and wife of Mark Antony. In 39 or 38 BC, Agrippa was appointed governor of Transalpine Gaul. In 38 BC, he put down a rising of the Aquitanians and fought the Germanic tribes. He was made consul for 37 BC, despite being well below the usual minimum age of 43, in order to oversee the preparations for war against Sextus Pompey, who had cut off grain shipments to Rome.

Gallia Celtica, meaning "Celtic Gaul" in Latin, was a cultural region of Gaul inhabited by Celts, located in what is now France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the west bank of the Rhine River in Germany.

According to Roman ethnography and Julius Caesar in his narrative Commentaries on the Gallic War (Commentarii De Bello Gallico), Gaul was divided into three main regions: Belgica, Aquitania and Celtica. The inhabitants of Belgica were called Belgae, those of Aquitania were called Aquitani. The inhabitants of the Celtica region called themselves Celts in their own language, and were later called Galli by Julius Caesar:

The Basques are an indigenous ethno-linguistic group primarily inhabiting the Basque Country, a region that spans northeastern Spain and southwestern France. While geographically located in the Iberian Peninsula, Basques are often distinguished from other Iberian populations due to their unique language, culture, and genetic profile. Linguistically, Basque is a language isolate with no known relation to ancient Iberian or Indo-European languages, and is believed to be a descendant of the pre-Indo-European tongues once spoken across Western Europe. Genetically and culturally, Basques are more closely linked to the ancient Aquitani people of what is now southwestern France. Although the northern Aquitani have largely assimilated into French identity, their southern counterparts persisted culturally and linguistically as the Basques. As such, the Basques are considered a distinct non-Indo-European population indigenous to Western Europe, with deep historical roots predating modern national borders.

The Varduli were a pre-Roman tribe settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, in what today is the western region of the Basque Country.

Their historical territory corresponds with the current Basque area; however, it is not entirely clear whether the Varduli were actually Aquitanians, related to the Vascones, or Celticized tribes, related to Cantabri or Celtiberians which later underwent Basquisation. It seems probable the group shared the proto-Basque cultural-ethnic identity of the people of this region.

The Aquitanian language was the language of the ancient Aquitani, a people living in Roman times between the Pyrenees, the Garonne river and the Atlantic Ocean. Epigraphic evidence for this language has also been found south of the Pyrenees, in Navarre and Castile.

There is no surviving text written in Aquitanian. The only evidence comes from onomastic data (roughly 200 personal names and about 60 deity names) that have survived indirectly in Latin inscriptions from the Roman imperial period, primarily between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, with a few possibly dating to the 4th or 5th centuries. The Gascon language has a substrate from Aquitanian, with certain words related to Basque.