High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Vellavi were a Gaulish people in the region of Le Puy-en-Velay in the region of the Auvergne, which, at the time of Julius Caesar`s campaigns against the Gaul (Gallic Wars) lay on the border of Gallia Narbonensis. The oppidum of Ruessium, an early seat of a Catholic bishop, began to be called during the 4th century the que dicitur Vetula in pago Vellavorum— the city "called Vetula in the country (`pays`) of the Vellavi" a document of 1004 termed it (Lauranson-Rosaz). Vellavi is retained in the modern toponym Le Velay.