Venetians (Gaul)
The Venetians ( Venetes ) were a Celtic tribe that had existed since the 5th century BC. BC on the coast of Aremorica , in the west of the later Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis . Their settlement area was in what is now Morbihan in Brittany . For the controversial connection with the Veneters in Northern Italy, see Veneter (Adria) .
Sea people
Of all the Gauls , the Venetians were the most adept at sea, and Gaius Julius Caesar said they had a kind of dominance on their Atlantic coast . Their capital was Dariorigum , later Venetis , today's Vannes .
Fight against Caesar
The Venetians first submitted in 57 BC. The troops of Publius Licinius Crassus , who acted on behalf of Caesar. In the following winter, however, as a result of the Roman demand for grain deliveries, an uprising broke out, which quickly spread. The Venetians took Roman officers hostage who they wanted to exchange for the hostages they had given to the Romans. Caesar saw the uprising as a breach of contract and had galleys built in great haste on the Loire , which were led against the Venetians together with other Celtic ships under the command of Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus . Caesar himself advanced with the infantry towards the Venetian territory. Due to the geographical conditions, however, the conquest turned out to be very lengthy and the Venetians succeeded time and again in supplying besieged cities by water and - if their base during sieges by the Romans, e.g. B. by the construction of dams, was threatened - to move across the sea to another. The bases of the Venetians on the coasts were mostly peninsulas at low tide, but enclosed by water at high tide. When the fleet, which had been held for a long time by storms at the mouth of the Loire, finally appeared, it took over the fighting. It came 56 BC. To the sea battle that Caesar observed from the Rhuys peninsula . Although the high-sided sailing ships of the Venetians were better suited for the ocean and outnumbered them, the Romans managed to cut through their sails with sickles attached to long poles and to destroy the ships. Due to a calm, the entire Venetian fleet was ultimately destroyed and they surrendered. All of Brittany was conquered. In contrast to the rest of the time - presumably to punish the stubborn resistance - Caesar had the entire council executed and the population enslaved.
literature
- Robert Nedoma , Wojciech Nowakowski : Veneter. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 32, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2006, ISBN 3-11-018387-0 , pp. 133-139.
- John Haywood: The Historical Atlas of the Celtic World . Thames & Hudson 2009, p.?.
