Nasamonen
The Nasamons were native to ancient North Africa, mainly in what is now Libya . This tribe is mentioned for the first time in Herodotus . The Nasamonen are also mentioned in Pseudo-Skylax , Diodor , Strabo , Ptolemaios and Pliny the Elder . Most of the aforementioned ancient authors locate the Nasamons in the Great Syrte . The name Nesamones can be found on the Peutinger tablet .
According to Herodotus, the Nasamons lived nomadically : In summer they grazed their herds in the coastal area and moved to the Augila oasis to harvest dates. They buried their dead in a sitting position. Herodotus also reports of polygamy and unusual wedding customs among the Nasamons. Herodotus also tells of a journey of discovery from Cyrenaica into the interior of Africa, which was undertaken by 5 Nasamon men. These travelers had advanced to great swamps and found a large city inhabited by pygmies , the language of which they had not understood. Then they came to a river in which there were crocodiles (Herodotus identifies this river with the Nile ). In the "Pharsalia" of the Roman poet Lucan , the Nasamons are described as a primitive people of pirates .
At the beginning of the Roman Empire , the Nasamons were evidently pushed south. In 84/85 AD the Roman praetor Cn. Suellius Flaccus launched a victorious campaign against the Nasamonen on behalf of the Emperor Domitian , which apparently pushed them back even further south. Later, also Byzantine authors mention the Nasamons sporadically.
literature
- Jehan Desanges: Catalog des tribus africaines. De l'antiquité classique à l'ouest du Nile. University of Dakar, 1962.
- Christian F. Feest , Karl-Heinz Kohl (ed.): Main works of ethnology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 380). Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-38001-3 .
- Martin Seewald: Lucan. 9.1-604. A comment. Dissertation, University of Göttingen 2002.
- Richard Pietschmann : Augila . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 2, Stuttgart 1893ff., Col. 2312.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hdt. 4, 172 f.
- ↑ Skyl. 109
- ↑ Diod. Sic. 3, 49
- ↑ Str. 2, 31
- ↑ Ptol. 4, 5, 12
- ↑ Plin. nat. hist. 5, 33
- ↑ Hdt. 4, 172
- ↑ Hdt. 2, 32
- ↑ Luc. Phars. 9, 441-444; s. also Seewald (see literature below )
- ^ Cassius Dio 67, 4, 6
- ↑ E.g. Zonaras 11:19
- ↑ Seewald, Martin: Lucan. 9.1 to 604, dissertation , here as PDF available