The Mediomatrici (

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...

: ''*Medio-māteres'') were according to Caesar a Gaulish tribe at the frontier to the Belgicae dwelling in the present-day regions Lorraine, Upper Moselle during the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

and the Roman period.

Name

They are mentioned as ''Mediomatricorum'' and ''Mediomatricis'' (dat.) by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC), ''Mediomatrikoì'' (Μεδιοματρικοὶ ) by

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

(early 1st c. AD), ''Mediomatrici'' by Pliny (1st c. AD), ''Mediomatricos'' (acc.) by

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

(early 2nd c. AD), and as ''Mediomátrikes'' (Μεδιομάτρικες) by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

(2nd c. AD). The

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

''Mediomatrici'' is a Latinized form of the

''*Medio-māteres'', which literally means 'Middle-Mothers'. It is formed with the stem ''medio-'' ('in the middle, central') attached to a plural form of ''mātīr'' ('mother'). The name could be interpreted as meaning 'those who live between the Matrona (Marne) and the Matra rivers' (i.e. the mother-rivers), or possibly as the 'Mothers of the Middle-World' (i.e. between the heaven and the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

). The city of

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

, attested ca. 400 AD as ''civitas Mediomatricorum'' ('

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by Roman law, law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilitie ...

of the Mediomatrici'), is named after the Celtic tribe.

Geography

Territory

Mediomatrici quater stater Gallica celtiques 832 revers

Before the Roman conquest (57 BC), the territory of the Mediomatrici comprised the upper basins of the rivers Maas,

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

and Saar, and extended eastwards as far as the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

in the mid-first century BC.

places them south of the Treviri, between the Remi and the Leuci.

Settlements

Their chief town was '' Divodurum'' ('place of the gods, divine enclosure'), mentioned by

in the early 1st century AD. A secondary agglomeration, whose original name is unknown, was located in Bliesbruck, in the eastern part of their ''

''.

History

During the

Gallic Wars The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, and Switzerland). Gauls, Gallic, Germanic peoples, Germanic, and Celtic Britons, Brittonic trib ...

(58–50 BC), the Mediomatrici sent 5,000 men to support Vercingetorix who was besieged in Alesia in 52. In 69–70 of the

Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the ...

, their capital Divodurum was sacked by the armies of Vitellius, and 4,000 of its inhabitants massacred. The Romanization of the Metromatrici was apparently slower compared to their neighbours the Treviri. Elements of the Mediomatrici may have settled near Novara, in northwestern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, where place-names allude to their presence, such as Mezzomerico, attested as ''Mediomadrigo'' in 980.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * {{Peoples of Gaul Historical Celtic peoples Gauls Tribes in pre-Roman Gaul Belgae