Sequani, Celtic people in Gaul, who in the 1st century bc occupied the territory between the Saône, Rhône, and Rhine rivers, with their chief city at Vesontio (modern Besançon). Quarrels with the Aedui (q.v.) led them to call in the German Ariovistus, who defeated the Aedui but occupied Sequanian territory in modern Alsace and gradually raised his demands. Together with the Aedui, the Sequani appealed to Julius Caesar (58 bc). He expelled the Germans but compelled the Sequani to restore all Aeduan land they had seized. Under the Roman Empire the Sequani belonged to Gallia Belgica; in Diocletian’s reorganization (late 3rd–early 4th century ad), their territory, with that of the Rauraci and Helvetii, became the separate province of Sequania, or Maxima Sequanorum.