Cananefaten
Cananefaten (outdated spelling: Kaninefaten , Can (n) inefaten ) were a West Germanic tribe that lived west of the Batavians , in what is now Holland . The interpretation of the name as "rabbit catcher" or "rabbit catcher" is folk etymological and very doubtful.
The city of Forum Hadriani (today's Voorburg ) was in the heart of their residential area. It belonged to the Civitas of the Cananefats, as the official name of the city shows: Municipium Aelium Cananefatium .
history
The Cananefats were allies of the Batavians in the Batavian Rebellion under Iulius Civilis (69 AD). The earliest mention of the tribe refers to an ala Caninefas , a cananephatic cavalry unit in Roman service. This unit fought against the Frisians in 28 AD , who had revolted against the Roman Empire because of excessive taxes . From the Tacitus report of the fighting it can be concluded that the Cananefats suffered heavy losses; many died in the vicinity of the fortified Roman port of Flevum ( Velsen ) and in the Baduhenna forest. The Frisians were able to repel the attack of the Cananefats, u. a. due to the fact that the Romans could not properly coordinate the deployment of troops.
The latest account of the Cananefats comes from the 4th century; they are mentioned in an encyclopedic publication, the Cosmographia of Iulius Honorius . However, this mention has little relevance to the history of the Netherlands because it was probably taken from other, earlier sources. The youngest proof of use is the name of the cananefates by the milestone of Rijswijk delivered. This comes from the middle of the 3rd century and names the “[C (ivitas)] CANANEFATV (m) AB [HADR (iani)] F (oro)” as caput viae (“beginning of the route”).
These examples are not an exhaustive list of the sources in which the cananefats are mentioned. The name appears not only in literary-historical and encyclopedic writings, but also in military diplomas . About a dozen of these diplomata militaria make it clear not only that the cavalry department named by Tacitus remained in function at least until the early 3rd century, but also that the Cananefats were the object of the mustering of a cohort (unit of infantry ). It can be assumed that the men in these two units were actually Cananefates and that the units were named after the ethnic origins of their members. Until the Batavian uprising, they were even subordinate to aristocratic members of their own tribe.
In AD 47, the Chauken attacked the Gallic coast with boats under the leadership of Cananefaten Gannascus , who had previously deserted from an auxiliary unit . The new Lower Germanic legate Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo destroyed the ships of the Chauken with the help of the Rhine fleet.
For the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Cananephatic ancestry is far less certain, because men were also recruited in the regions where the units were actually stationed. For the originally Cananephatic units, these were far away from their homeland after the Batavian uprising: in the provinces of Germania superior , Dacia Porolissensis , Pannonia superior and Mauretania Caesariensis (in North Africa).
Roman auxiliary units
In the early imperial period , the following auxiliary units were recruited into the Cananefaten:
literature
Bernhard H. Stolte : Cananefaten. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 4, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1981, ISBN 3-11-006513-4 , pp. 329-330. ( online )
References
- Cananefaten on livius.org (English)