Menapier

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Roman Gaul and Germania on the right bank of the Rhine around AD 70.

The Menapier (lat. Menapii) were a Celtic - Germanic mixed people in Belgian Gaul , who lived around 52 BC. Was subdued by the Romans under Caesar in the Gallic War .

Derivation of the name

On the one hand, the name Menapier is traced back to the Celtic words mel and apa with the meaning "water" and then indicates the overly swamp and water-rich settlement area of ​​this tribe. If this derivation is correct, Menapier means something like inhabitants of the swamp and water country . On the other hand, the name is also derived from the reconstructed Protoceltic root * mano- (alternatively: * meno- or * mono- ), which means either "thought" or "to step" or when derived from the reconstructed * men- root * mono- possibly also in connection with "uprising". Some authors assume that the name Menapii is identical to the old Irish tribe Manapi , which is mentioned by Ptolemy .

Settlement area

In the last century BC, the Menapians inhabited the swampy and heavily forested lowlands on the Lower Rhine , Niers , Maas , Kleiner and Großer Nete up to the Scheldt and Leie / Lys in today's Flanders . Their territory stretched from Gent in the west to the Rhine near Emmerich in the east and ended in the north at the Rhine delta and in the south north of the Eifel and Ardennes . Today, this settlement area largely covers the Belgian provinces of East Flanders , Flemish Brabant and Antwerp (with Kempenland), the Dutch provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg (northern part) and the Lower Rhine north of Mönchengladbach in Germany .

Its main town, Castellum Menapiorum , was abandoned in late antiquity, its remains are near Cassel in northern France. In the Diocletian-Constantinian period, Turnacum , a former Roman vicus , became the new capital.

neighbours

At the beginning of Caesar's conquest of Gaul, the Menapians were neighbors

The Eburones were exterminated during the Gallic War. The Romans then assigned their territory to the Sunikers and Tungers (around Tongers ).

history

Probably long before the beginning of the conquest of Gaul by Caesar (58 BC) Germanic tribes crossed the Rhine and mixed with the Celts who had probably lived there for around 300 years. One of these Celtic-Germanic tribes, which also included the Eburonen , Nervier and Treverer , were the Menapians.

The Menapians first settled on the left and right banks of the Rhine, but were displaced from the right bank of the Rhine in 55 BC by the Usipeters, who in turn had been driven out by the Suebi (Gaius Julius Caesar - De Bello Gallico , Book IV).

In the course of the campaign against the Eburones, who under their leader Ambiorix had successfully attacked a Roman camp and then besieged the 9th Legion under Quintus Tullius Cicero in their winter quarters, Caesar first attacked the neighboring Menapians to ensure that they did not enter him the back could fall:

“… (4) The area of ​​the Menapier, which was protected by endless swamps and wooded areas, reached the borders of the Eburonian country. The Menapians were the only Gauls who never sent envoys to Caesar to ask for peace. Caesar knew that Ambiorix shared hospitality with them. He had also found out that he had decided on a friendship contract with the Germans through the agency of the Treverians. (5) He therefore believed that Ambiorix must first cut off these sources of help before starting war with him himself, so that he could not hide with the Menapians or inevitably enter into an alliance with the Germans on the right bank of the Rhine if his situation became desperate. (6) After Caesar had developed this plan, he sent the train of the entire army to Labienus in the land of the Treveri and instructed two legions to march there. He himself marched against the Menapians with five ... legions ready to fight. (7) They did not raise any troops, but trusted in the protection their land offered, so they fled into the forests and swamps and brought all their belongings there.

6. (1) Caesar divided his troops with the legates C. Fabius and the quaestor M. Crassus, quickly laid out truncheons and advanced in three groups. He set farms and villages on fire, taking control of large numbers of people and cattle. (2) As a result, the Menapians felt compelled to send ambassadors to him asking for peace. (3) He accepted their hostages, but stressed that he would treat them like enemies if they accepted Ambiorix or his envoy in their area. ... " (Gaius Julius Caesar - De Bello Gallico, Book VI)

In the course of the following years, the Menapians were pushed further and further west until they finally only have an area west of the Scheldt. The Cugernians receive their area on the Rhine .

Way of life

The Menapians were sedentary and lived on cattle raising and agriculture. The low degree of Romanization in the northern tribal regions is striking; pre-Roman traditions were often preserved. They did not settle in contiguous villages, but preferred hidden, half-buried individual farms, which they usually built on the so-called Donken as protection against flooding - the sand or clay ridges that are a few meters from the surrounding watercourses, lakes and swamps stood out.

The Menapier hams were famous (Martial 13.54: perna de Menapis ; Edictum Diocletiani 4.8). Salt extraction and trade were another important source of income ( CIL 11, 390 ).

literature

supporting documents

  1. ^ Isaac, Graham: Place-Names in Ptolemy's Geography: An Electronic Data Base with Etymological Analysis of Celtic Name Elements . CD-ROM. 2004, CMCS Publications, Aberystwyth.
  2. ↑ Sims-Williams, Patrick: 'Common Celtic, Gallo-Brittonic and Insular Celtic'. In: Lambert, Pierre-Yves & Pinault, Georges-Jean (eds.), Gaulois et Celtique Continental. Geneva: Droz, 2007, pp. 329-330.
  3. ^ Koch, John: Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia . ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 199.

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