Aresaken

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Aresaks ( Latin Aresaces ) belonged to the Celtic tribe of Treveri in ancient times . They settled in the easternmost area of ​​influence of the Treverians in Rheinhessen as far as the area around today's Mainz .

Written sources

Ancient writers do not know the Aresaces, but they are mentioned in three inscriptions from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Two of the inscriptions come from the Rhine-Hessian area, the third from the capital of the Treveri, Trier.

The names of the Celtic children Respectus , Veranius and Samocna are also mentioned on a Roman tombstone from Mainz-Weisenau from Mainz-Weisenau (today in the Landesmuseum Mainz ) and at the same time indicated that they belong to the Treveri tribe. This explicit mention of belonging to the Treverians outside of the actual tribal area supports the theory that the people mentioned were Aresaks and thus a smaller ethnic unit within the tribal association and at the very edge of the Treveri sphere of influence.

Another Celtic tribe, documented by an inscription and ancient literature for Rheinhessen, are the Caeracates or Cairacates .

Allocation and settlement area of ​​the Aresaks

According to the current state of research, the Aresaks are considered to be a smaller ethnic unit within the Treveri tribe, which may have been organized in the form of a pagus . They settled with Rheinhessen to the area south and east of Mainz, probably the southeastern area of ​​influence of the Treveri. Neighbors of the Aresaks in the south were the Celtic Mediomatrics , to the east and on the other bank of the Rhine the Germanic Vangions , Tribokers , Nemeters and the Mattiakers as part of the Chatten tribe in the area around what is now Wiesbaden .

The settlement area of ​​the Aresaks was only sparsely populated in the late La Tène period. Larger settlements can hardly be proven in the 2nd half of the 1st century BC. Only around the turn of the times or shortly before the beginning of the Roman presence in this area did the establishment of settlements increase. A possible cultural and organizational center of the Aresaks could have been the oppidum on the Donnersberg , which would have been the most southeastern center of the Treverian sphere of influence.

Aresaken in the Mainz area

At the same time as the Romans arrived in the greater Mainz area 13/12 BC There were only two smaller settlements there, which can possibly be ascribed to the Aresaks. A settlement in Mainz-Weisenau emerged shortly before or at the same time as the establishment of the legion camp in Mainz. There was another village-like settlement in Mainz-Bretzenheim on both sides of the Zaybach. There are further settlement indicators for Mainz-Finthen in the area of ​​the Königborn and the Aubaches, there in the parcels “Grund” and “Hinkelstein”. This parcel designation, like the neighboring parcel "Donnersberg", also refers to the Celtic presence.

A Celtic, later Roman temple district of Mars Leucetius and the Nemetona between Klein-Winternheim and Ober-Olm near Mainz is regarded as the tribal shrine of the Aresaks resident in the area.

Aresaken and Vangionen in Rheinhessen

The settlement area of ​​the Aresaks was previously ascribed to the Germanic Vangions , which they are said to have taken possession of in the form of a large-scale land grab. But since this was not compatible with the archaeological findings and the ancient tradition, this theory is now considered out of date. A settlement of the Vangionen on the left bank of the Rhine in the area of ​​today's Worms ( Civitas Vangionum ) only took place through the Roman administration from the Augustan period.

The Aresak population, to which the Mainz boatman (Nauta) Blussus and his wife Menimane may have belonged, merged towards the end of the 1st century in the now more numerous mixed population and left no further tangible historical traces.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marion Witteyer: Mogontiacum - military base and administrative center. The archaeological evidence. Mainz 1999, p. 1022.
  2. ↑ Klein-Winternheim , mid-1st century AD, CIL 13, 7252 ( digitized version ): [Marti Lo] ucetio L (ucius) Iulius B [–––] / [––– et Tert] ulla (?) fontem et it [er per] / [possessi] onem suam ad tem [plum] / [–––] ARESACE [–––] publice P [–––]  ; Mainz-Weisenau , CIL 13, 11825 ( digitized version ): [–––] Romanis [qui cum? A] resacibus [negotia] ntur ; Trier , Temple District of Lenus Mars , 2nd century, AE 1929, 173 : [–––] c (---) Prisc [o] / [f] lamini / [s] acerdot (ali) Rom (ae) et / [A] ug (usti) mag (istro) q (uaestori) c (ivitatis) T (reverorum) / [pr] aef (ecto) coh (ortis) I Aresac (um) / [–––] .
  3. ^ Marion Witteyer: Mogontiacum - military base and administrative center. The archaeological evidence. , P. 1022.
  4. ↑ CIL 13, 11888 = AE 1913, 130 : Respectus / nat (ione) Tre (vir) an / nor (um) VIII / Veranius / nat (ione) Trev (ir) / anno (rum) IIIIII / Samocna / nat ( ione) Tre (vir) an / nor (um) II filia / Pr (a) esens / pater fili (i) s / suis posuit / ob pieta (tem) / h (ic) s (iti) sunt .
  5. ^ So Hans Klumbach : Aresaces Rheinfelden / Basel 1957, pp. 73-74, then Marion Witteyer: Mogontiacum - military base and administrative center. The archaeological evidence. Mainz 1999, p. 1022.
  6. ↑ AE 1965, 247 ; see Hans Ulrich Instinsky : Cives Cairacas. In: Germania 50, 1972, pp. 133-136.
  7. ↑ First interpreted in this way by Hans Klumbach, p. 74.
  8. ↑ Karl-Viktor Decker, p. 30 ff.
  9. ^ Karl-Viktor Decker, Wolfgang Selzer, p. 462 ff.
  10. ^ Among other things, Marion Witteyer, p. 1025.