caesar's "de bello gallico" describes the veneti in southern armorica – a powerful sea-faring people allied with the southern british during the war of 56 bc – as living in clifftop oppida. their capital was "darioritum" on the morbihan bay, now modern vannes/gwened. the veneti were linguistically british: they spoke breton, which was derived from cornish, and they once ruled cornwall and devon. they had close trade ties. when they were attacked by the romans in brittany, julius caesar reports that cornwall sent them military aid.