The Namnetes were a Gallic tribe dwelling near the modern city of Nantes during the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

and the Roman period.

Name

They are mentioned as ''Namnitō͂n'' (Ναμνιτῶν) by Polybius (2nd c. BC) and Strabo (early 1st c. AD), ''Namnetes'' by

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

(mid-1st c. BC) and

Pliny Pliny may refer to: People * Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'') * Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...

(1st c. AD), and as ''Namnē͂tai'' (Ναμνῆται) by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

(2nd c. AD). The etymology of the ethnonym ''Namnetes'' remains uncertain.

Xavier Delamarre Xavier Delamarre (; born 5 June 1954) is a French linguist, lexicographer, and diplomat. He is regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on the Gaulish language. Since 2019, he has been an associate researcher for the CNRS- PSL AOrOc ...

has tentatively proposed to interpret the name as 'those of the river', by deriving it from the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...

root *''nem-'' ('curved, bend'), which also gave the Gaulish stem ''nantu''- ('valley, stream'). The element ''namn''- in ''Namnetes'' has also been compared to river names such as the '' Namn-asa'' in northern Spain and the ''Nemun-as'' in Lithuania. According to

Blanca María Prósper Blanca María Prósper Pérez is a Spanish linguist and scholar of Celtic studies. Since 2019, she has been Professor (''Catedrático, Catedrática'') in Indo-European linguistics at the University of Salamanca. Biography Blanca María Prósper ea ...

, however, "Namnetes is a ''locus desperatus'' of Celtic etymology, and to judge from its overall look it probably contains a negative particle. Ethnic names often have an exotic, for us hardly understandable, and usually more complex look than place or river names."

Geography

The Namnetes dwelled between the lower

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

, the

Vilaine The Vilaine (; br, Gwilen) is a river in Brittany, in the west of France. The river's source is in the Mayenne ''département'' (53), and it flows out into the Atlantic Ocean at Pénestin in the Morbihan ''département'' (56). It is 218 km ...

and the Semnon rivers. Their territory was situated west of the

Andecavi The Andecavi (also Andicavi, Andegavi, or Andigavi) were a Gallic tribe dwelling in Aremorica during the Roman period. Name They are mentioned as ''Andecavi'' (var. ''andic''-, ''andeg''-, ''andig''-) by Pliny (1st c. AD), ''Andecavi'' and '' ...

, south of the Veneti and Redones, and north of the

Pictones The Pictones were a Gallic tribe dwelling south of the Loire river, in the modern departments of Vendée, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne, during the Iron Age and Roman period. Name They are mentioned as ''Pictonibus'' and ''Pictones'' by Julius Caes ...

. Their chief town was Condevincum, corresponding to the modern city of Nantes, and their chief port was known as Portus Nemetum.

History

In the spring 56 BC, 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, Germany and Switzerland). Gallic, Germanic, and British tribes fought to defend their homel ...

, the Namnetes allied to the Veneti to fight against the fleet made by

. Decimus Brutus, leader of the Roman fleet, finally won the battle.

Samnitae/Namnete Women's Island

According to Strabo, quoting Poseidonios, there is an island in the Ocean near the outlet of the Loire river which was inhabited by the "women of the Samnitae," which is generally taken to be a mistake and actually refers to the "Namnitae" or Namnetes. No man was ever allowed on the island and the women themselves sailed from it to have intercourse with men on the continent before returning there again. They also had the strange custom of unroofing their temple every year and roofing it again on the same day before sunset, each woman bringing her load to add to the roof. The woman whose load would fall out of her arms was rent to pieces by the rest, and they allegedly carried the pieces round the temple with the cry of "Ev-ah" in a frenetic manner. According to French archaeologist Jean-Louis Brunaux, there are three reasons to consider the story as factual. First, the wet and windy climate of Western Gaul suggest that the Gallic dwellings (made of branches or reed) were re-roofed every year. Second, not to drop new material was, according to

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

, a common religious practice of the Celts. Third,

circumambulation Circumambulation (from Latin ''circum'' around and ''ambulātus ''to walk) is the act of moving around a sacred object or idol. Circumambulation of temples or deity images is an integral part of Hindu and Buddhist devotional practice (known in S ...

existed as a rite among the Celts according to Poseidonios.Jean-Louis Brunaux. ''Les Druides. Des philosophes chez les barbares.'' Paris, Seuil, 2006, p. 241

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Gallic peoples Historical Celtic peoples Gauls Tribes of pre-Roman Gaul Tribes involved in the Gallic Wars Nantes