The Diablintes or Diablintres or Diablindi or Aulerci Diaulitae were an ancient people of Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

, a division of the Aulerci

Aulerci

Aulerci is a generic name for some of the Celtic peoples of ancient Gaul, which included several Celtic tribes. Julius Caesar names the Aulerci with the Veneti and the other maritime states. In B. G. vii...

. Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 (B. G. iii. 9) mentions the Diablintes among the allies of the Veneti

Veneti (Gaul)

The Veneti were a seafaring Celtic people who lived in the Brittany peninsula , which in Roman times formed part of an area called Armorica...

 and other Armoric

Armorica

Armorica or Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul that includes the Brittany peninsula and the territory between the Seine and Loire rivers, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic coast...

 states whom Caesar attacked. The Diablintes are mentioned between the Morini

Morini

The Morini were a Belgic tribe in the time of the Roman Empire. We know little about their language but one of their cities, Boulogne-sur-Mer was called Bononia by Zosimus and Bonen in the Middle Ages. Zosimus mentioned the Low Germanic character of the city...

 and Menapii

Menapii

The Menapii were a Belgic tribe of northern Gaul in pre-Roman and Roman times. Their territory according to Strabo, Caesar and Ptolemy stretched from the mouth of the Rhine in the north, and southwards along the west of the Schelde. Their civitas under the Roman empire was Cassel , near Thérouanne...

. 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

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 (iv. 18) places in Gallia Lugdunensis

Gallia Lugdunensis

Gallia Lugdunensis was a province of the Roman Empire in what is now the modern country of France, part of the Celtic territory of Gaul. It is named after its capital Lugdunum , possibly Roman Europe's major city west of Italy, and a major imperial mint...

; and probably the Aulerci Diaulitae of Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

 (ii. 8).

Their position can be calculated from Pliny's enumeration, Cariosvelites

Curiosolitae

The Curiosolites or Curiosolitae, were a people in the modern geographical area of Brittany in Celtica who are mentioned by Julius Caesar several times ....

, Diablindi, Rhedones. The capital of the Diablintes, according to Ptolemy, was Noeodunum, probably the Nudium of the Table

Tabula Peutingeriana

The Tabula Peutingeriana is an itinerarium showing the cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire. The original map of which this is a unique copy was last revised in the fourth or early fifth century. It covers Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa...

. The Notitia of the Gallic provinces

Notitia Dignitatum

The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western empires, listing several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial...

, 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

Le Mans

Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...

), 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

Mayenne River

The Mayenne is a river in western France principally located in the French region Pays de la Loire. Together with the river Sarthe and its tributary Loir it forms the river Maine, which is a tributary to the river Loire.-Geography:...

. The small town of Jublains

Jublains

Jublains is a commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France.Jublains, formerly spelled Jubleins, is the site of ancient Noeodunum , the capital of the ancient Gallic tribe of the Diablintes, later occupied and settled by Romans and called Civitas Diablintum...

 (or Jubleins), where Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 remains have been found, not far from the town of Mayenne

Mayenne, Mayenne

Mayenne is a commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is situated on the river Mayenne.-History:In medieval times, the town was the seat of the Lords of Mayenne...

to the southeast, is probably the site of the Civitas Diablintum and Noeodunum (also rendered Noiodunum).