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Nemetes
The Nemetes or Nemeti were a tribe settled along the Upper Rhine by Ariovistus in the 1st century BC. Their area of settlement was the contact zone between Celtic (Gaulish) and Germanic peoples. According to Tacitus, the Nemetes were "unquestionably Germanic". The name of the tribe, however, is Celtic as the name of its main town ''Noviomagus'' meaning ''novios'' 'new' and ''magos'' 'plain', 'market' (cf. Welsh ''maes'' 'field', Old Irish ''mag'' 'plain'), as are those of several gods worshipped in their territory, including Nemetona, who is thought to have been their eponymous deity.John T. Koch (2006). ''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia.'' ABC-CLIO, p. 1351. Both of these names are taken to be derivations from the Celtic stem '' nemeto-'' "sacred grove".Xavier Delamarre (2003). ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise.'' Éditions Errance, p. 233. In '' De Bello Gallico'', Caesar writes that the Hercynian Forest "begins at the frontiers of the Helvetii, and Rauraci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nemetona
Nemetona, or 'she of the sacred grove', is a Celtic polytheism, Celtic goddess with roots in northeastern Gaul. She is thought to have been the eponymous deity of the Germanic peoples, Germano-Celts, Celtic people known as the Nemetes;Beck, pp. 237-238. evidence of her veneration is found in their former territory along the Middle Rhine''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, CIL'' 13, 6131. as well in the Altbachtal sanctuary in present-day Trier, Germany.Powers Coe, p. 1351.Finke 324. She is also attested in Bath, England, where an altar to her was dedicated by a man of the Gauls, Gallic Treveri people.''Roman Inscriptions of Britain, RIB'' 140. Etymology Nemetona's name is derived from the Celtic root ''nemeton, nemeto-'', referring to consecrated religious spaces, particularly sacred groves. She has been considered a guardian goddess of open-air places of worship. The same root is found in the names of the Romano-British goddess Arnemetia and the Matres and Matronae, Matres Nemetial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germania Superior
Germania Superior ("Upper Germania") was an imperial province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of today's western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany. Important cities were Besançon ('' Vesontio''), Strasbourg ('' Argentoratum''), Wiesbaden ('' Aquae Mattiacae''), and Germania Superior's capital, Mainz ('' Mogontiacum''). It comprised the Middle Rhine, bordering on the '' Limes Germanicus'', and on the Alpine province of Raetia to the south-east. Although it had been occupied militarily since the reign of Augustus, Germania Superior (along with Germania Inferior) was not made into an official province until c. 85 AD. Origin Initial Roman involvement The terms, "Upper Germania" and "Lower Germania" do not appear in the '' Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' of Julius Caesar, yet he writes about reports that the people who lived in those regions were referred to as "Germani" locally, a term used for a tribe that the Romans cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ariovistus
Ariovistus was a leader of the Suebi and other allied Germanic peoples in the second quarter of the 1st century BC, who name appears prominently in Julius Caesar's '' Commentarii de Bello Gallico''. Before their conflict with the Romans, Ariovistus and his followers took part in a war in Gaul, assisting the Arverni and Sequani in defeating their rivals, the Aedui. They then settled in large numbers into conquered Gallic territory in the Alsace region. They were defeated however, in the Battle of Vosges and driven back over the Rhine in 58 BC by Julius Caesar. While known primarily for his conflict with Caesar, Ariovistus is one of the earliest named figures associated with the peoples the Romans later categorized as '' Germani''. Caesar portrays Ariovistus as a violent and threatening invader in Gaul; however, modern scholars recognize that this depiction reflects Roman political motives in as much as it does historical fact. Like other major ancient Germanic figures, Ariovi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nemeton
A nemeton (plural: nemeta) was a sacred space of ancient Celtic religion. Nemeta appear to have been primarily situated in natural areas, often sacred groves.Koch, p. 1350. However, other evidence suggests that the word implied a wider variety of ritual spaces, such as shrines and temples.Green, p. 448.Dowden, p. 134. Evidence for nemeta consists chiefly of inscriptions and toponymy or place-names, which occur all across the Celtic world. Toponyms related to the word ''nemeton'' occur as far west as Galicia in the Iberian peninsula, as far north as Scotland, and as far east as central Turkey. The word is related to the name of the Nemetes tribe living by the Rhine between the Palatinate and Lake Constance in what is now Germany, and their goddess Nemetona. Attestations in Latin The word nemeton is explained late in a gloss by Fortunatus : « loco nomine Vernemetis… quod quasi fanum ingens Gallica lingua refert. » ("in a place called Vernemetis...which means like a ''fanum' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anartes
The Anartes (or Anarti, Anartii or Anartoi)Jan Czarnecki (1975) 120 were Celtic tribes, or, in the case of those sub-groups of Anartes which penetrated the ancient region of Dacia (roughly modern Romania), Celts culturally assimilated by the Dacians.Oltean Ioana A (2007) 47 Ptolemy's ''Geographia'' locates the ''Anartoi'' in the north of Dacia.Jan Czarnecki (1975) 119 Some groups of Anartes occupied parts of modern Slovakia and southeastern Poland. The Dacian town of '' Docidava'' was situated in the territory of the Anartes, according to Pârvan. The ''Anartophracti'' (or ''Anartofraktoi'') are mentioned by Ptolemy. This tribe's name appears to be compound Latin-Greek name and may be related to the ''Anartoi'' resident in Dacia, Czarnecki argues.Jan Czarnecki (1975) 119 The ''Anartofraktoi'' were a northern Dacian tribe, according to Braune or mixed Dacian-Celtic, according to Pârvan. In ancient sources, the earliest mention of the Anartes is in the Elogium of Tusculum (10 BC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helvetii
The Helvetii (, , Gaulish: *''Heluētī''), anglicized as Helvetians, were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. According to Julius Caesar, the Helvetians were divided into four subgroups or '' pagi.'' Of these, Caesar names only the Verbigeni and the Tigurini, while Posidonius mentions the Tigurini and the Tougeni (). They feature prominently in the '' Commentaries on the Gallic War,'' with their failed migration attempt to southwestern Gaul (58 BC) serving as a catalyst for Caesar's conquest of Gaul. The Helvetians were subjugated after 52 BC, and under Augustus, Celtic oppida, such as Vindonissa or Basilea, were re-purposed as garrisons. In AD 68, a Helvetian uprising was crushed by Aulus Caecina Alienus. The Swiss plateau was at first incorporated into the Roman province of Gallia Belgica (22 BC), later into Germania Superior (AD 83). The Helvetians ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commentarii De Bello Gallico
''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (; ), also ''Bellum Gallicum'' (), is Julius Caesar's first-hand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it, Caesar describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting the Celtic and Germanic peoples in Gaul who opposed Roman conquest. The "Gaul" to which Caesar refers is ambiguous, as the term had various connotations in Roman writing and discourse during Caesar's time. Generally, Gaul included all of the regions primarily inhabited by Celts, aside from the province of Gallia Narbonensis (modern-day Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon), which had already been conquered in Caesar's time, therefore encompassing the rest of modern France, Belgium, Western Germany, and parts of Switzerland. As the Roman Republic made inroads deeper into Celtic territory and conquered more land, the definition of "Gaul" shifted. Concurrently, "Gaul" was also used in common parlance as a synonym for "unc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dacians
The Dacians (; ; ) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians. This area includes mainly the present-day countries of Romania and Moldova, as well as parts of Ukraine, Moravian Banovina, Eastern Serbia, Northern Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Southern Poland. The Dacians and the related Getae spoke the Dacian language, which has a debated relationship with the neighbouring Thracian language and may be a subgroup of it. Dacians were somewhat culturally influenced by the neighbouring Scythians and by the Celtic invasion of the Balkans, Celtic invaders of the 4th century BC. Name and etymology Name The Dacians were known as ''Geta'' (plural ''Getae'') in Ancient Greek writings, and as ''Dacus'' (plural ''Daci'') or ''Getae'' in Roman Empire, Roman documents, but also as ''Dagae'' and ''Gaete'' as depicted on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mediomatrici
The Mediomatrici (Gaulish: ''*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 and the Roman period. Name They are mentioned as ''Mediomatricorum'' and ''Mediomatricis'' (dat.) by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC), ''Mediomatrikoì'' (Μεδιοματρικοὶ ) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD), ''Mediomatrici'' by Pliny (1st c. AD), ''Mediomatricos'' (acc.) by Tacitus (early 2nd c. AD), and as ''Mediomátrikes'' (Μεδιομάτρικες) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD). The ethnonym ''Mediomatrici'' is a Latinized form of the Gaulish ''*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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
