Nervous

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The Nervier (Latin Nervii , French Nerviens ) were a large Belgian tribe in ancient times . They lived in the Gallia Belgica, an extensive area between the Meuse and the Scheldt in the north and west of what is now Belgium . The Menapier , Aduatuk , Eburonen , Remer , Bellovaker , Viromanduer and Atrebaten lived in the neighborhood . They had several client groups . The Nervian capital was Bagacum (now Bavay in France ), which the later Emperor Tiberius probably visited around 4 AD.

history

Notes from Strabo suggest that the Nervier lived on the right bank of the Rhine . A senatus is reported with regard to their political self-order .

The Nervians played a prominent role in Gaius Julius Caesar's accounts of his forcible subjugation of Gaul. In the winter of 58/57 BC 50,000 Nervians took part in an anti-Roman coalition of a total of 300,000 men from numerous other Belgian peoples under the leadership of the King of the Suession, Galba. 57 BC BC they were defeated by Caesar's troops in a highly dramatic battle on the Sambre , but took in the winter of 54/53 BC. Again took part in a revolt, with about a fifth of the Belgian warriors against the Romans coming from this nation under the aegis of the Eburonian leader Ambiorix . Shortly afterwards they were able to join Vercingetorix at Alesia with about 6000 warriors .

Caesar emphasized in his war report De bello Gallico that the Nervier did not have a good cavalry, but put all their attention on the infantry. In order to be able to ward off enemy riders anyway, they switched to building large palisades out of bent young trees and thorny bushes. In this way the onward march of the Roman army was clearly hindered. Caesar mentions the Ceutrons , Grudier , Geidumner , Levacer and Pleumoxians as clientele of the Nervier , because they died in the winter of 54/53 BC. In the attack on the winter camp of the legion of the legate Quintus Tullius Cicero in the Nervier settlement area.

For Caesar, the Nervians were probably the most bellicose tribe among the Belgians, not least because of their Germanic descent ascribed to them. This did not prevent the Nervier from quickly opening up to Roman influences after their bloody submission, expanding their capital, Bagacum, into a traffic junction with seven stratae calciatae starting from it, and from developing into an important trading center in the agriculture and animal husbandry, flax and cloth industries, Metallurgy and ceramics flourished.

Their very early Christianization is documented by the visit of their own bishop to the council in Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne) in AD 346.

Roman auxiliary units

Nervian soldiers also gained great importance as auxiliary troops for the Roman army, especially during the Batavian uprising . For Britain an ala II Nerviorum Fidelis milliaria and an n (umerus) sagit (t) ariorum Ner (viorum) are mentioned.

Six cohortes Nerviorum were moved to the province of Britannia in 71 AD under Quintus Petillius Cerialis .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 13,3570 .
  2. ↑ Gaius Iulius Caesar , De bello Gallico 2,28,2; Titus Livius , Epitome 4,197.
  3. ^ So Orosius , Historia adversus Paganos 6,7,13.
  4. ^ Gaius Iulius Caesar, De bello Gallico 2,4,5.
  5. ^ Gaius Iulius Caesar, De bello Gallico 2,15-28.
  6. ^ Gaius Iulius Caesar, De bello Gallico 5:38 f .; 6.2.3.
  7. ^ Gaius Iulius Caesar, De bello Gallico 7,75,3.
  8. ^ Gaius Iulius Caesar, De bello Gallico 2.17.
  9. ^ Gaius Iulius Caesar, De bello Gallico 5.39.
  10. ^ Gaius Iulius Caesar, De bello Gallico 2,15,3-6.
  11. ↑ Tacitus , Germania 28; Strabon 4,3,4.
  12. ^ Paulinus von Nola , Epistulae 18,4.
  13. ↑ Tacitus, Historien 4,15.
  14. ↑ Tacitus, Historien 4,33; 4.79.
  15. ↑ Notitia dignitatum occidentis 40.23; 42.39.
  16. ↑ Dave Went, Stewart Ainsworth: Whitley Castle, Tynedale, Northumberland. An archaeological investigation of the Roman fort and its setting (= English Heritage Research Department Report Series. 89-2009). ISSN 1749-8775, pp. 17-18 ( PDF ).