The Treveri (

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, ...

: *''Treweroi'') were a Germanic or

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

tribe of the

Belgae The Belgae ( , ) were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth b ...

group who inhabited the lower valley of the

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 ...

in modern day

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

from around 150 BCE, if not earlier, until their displacement by the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

. Their domain lay within the southern fringes of the ''Silva Arduenna'' (

Ardennes The Ardennes ( ; ; ; ; ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France. Geological ...

Forest), a part of the vast

Silva Carbonaria Silva Carbonaria, the "charcoal forest", was the dense old-growth forest of beech and oak that formed a natural boundary during the Late Iron Age through Roman times into the Early Middle Ages across what is now western Wallonia. The Silva Carbo ...

, in what are now

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, southeastern

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and western Germany; its centre was the city of

Trier Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...

(''

Augusta Treverorum Augusta Treverorum (Latin for "City of Augustus in the Land of the Treveri") was a Ancient Rome, Roman city on the Moselle River, from which modern Trier emerged. The date of the city's founding is placed between the construction of the first Rom ...

''), to which the Treveri give their name.

in language, according to

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'' ( ...

they claimed Germanic descent.

writes, "The Treveri and

Nervii The Nervii or Nervians were one of the most powerful Belgae, Belgic tribes of northern Gaul at the time of its conquest by Rome. Their territory corresponds to the central part of modern Belgium, including Brussels, and stretched southwards to C ...

are even eager in their claims of a German origin, thinking that the glory of this descent distinguishes them from the uniform level of Gallic effeminacy." ''

Germania Germania ( ; ), also more specifically called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superio ...

'' XXVIII. They contained both Gallic and Germanic influences. Although early adopters of Roman

material culture Material culture is culture manifested by the Artifact (archaeology), physical objects and architecture of a society. The term is primarily used in archaeology and anthropology, but is also of interest to sociology, geography and history. The fie ...

, the Treveri had a chequered relationship with Roman power. Their leader

Indutiomarus Indutiomarus (died 53 BC) was a leading aristocrat of the Treveri (the people of the area around present-day Trier) at the time of Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul. He was the head of the anti-Roman party and the political rival of his pro-Roman ...

led them in revolt against

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 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 Caesar's civil wa ...

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 ...

;

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 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. He ...

, ''de Bello Gallico.'' much later, they played a key role in the Gaulish revolt during the

Year of the Four Emperors The Year of the Four Emperors, AD 69, was the first civil war of the Roman Empire, during which four emperors ruled in succession, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian. It is considered an important interval, marking the change from the ...

.Tacitus, ''

Histories Histories or, in Latin, Historiae may refer to: * the plural of history * ''Histories'' (Herodotus), by Herodotus * ''The Histories'', by Timaeus * ''The Histories'' (Polybius), by Polybius * ''Histories'' by Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust) ...

.'' On the other hand, the Treveri supplied the Roman army with some of its most famous cavalry, and the city of Augusta Treverorum was home for a time to the family of

Germanicus Germanicus Julius Caesar (24 May 15 BC – 10 October AD 19) was a Roman people, Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns against Arminius in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicu ...

, including the future emperor Gaius (Caligula).Tacitus, ''

Annales Annals are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year. The equivalent word in Latin and French is ''annales'', which is used untranslated in English in various contexts. List of works with titles contai ...

'' I:40–41. During the

Crisis of the Third Century The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis, was a period in History of Rome, Roman history during which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressure of repeated Barbarian invasions ...

, the territory of the Treveri was overrun by Germanic

Alamanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE, the Alemanni c ...

and

and later formed part of the

Gallic Empire The Gallic Empire or Gallo-Roman Empire are names used in modern historiography for a secession, breakaway part of the Roman Empire that functioned ''de facto'' as a separate state from 260 to 274. It originated during the Crisis of the Third Cent ...

Under

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I * Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine g ...

and his 4th-century successors, Augusta Treverorum became a large, favoured, rich and influential city that served as one of the capitals of the Roman Empire (together with

Nicomedia Nicomedia (; , ''Nikomedeia''; modern İzmit) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek city located in what is now Turkey. In 286, Nicomedia became the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire (chosen by the emperor Diocletian who rul ...

(present-day

İzmit İzmit () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 480 km2, and its population is 376,056 (2022). The capital of Kocaeli Province, it is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea ...

, Turkey),

Eboracum Eboracum () was a castra, fort and later a coloniae, city in the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britain and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the ...

(present-day

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

, England),

Mediolanum Mediolanum, the ancient city where Milan now stands, was originally an Insubres, Insubrian city, but afterwards became an important Ancient Rome, Roman city in Northern Italy. The city was settled by a Celts, Celtic tribe belonging to the Ins ...

(present-day

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Italy) and

Sirmium Sirmium was a city in the Roman province of Pannonia, located on the Sava river, on the site of modern Sremska Mitrovica in the Vojvodina autonomous province of Serbia. First mentioned in the 4th century BC and originally inhabited by Illyrians ...

). During this period, Christianity began to succeed the imperial cult and the worship of Roman and Celtic deities as the favoured religion of the city. Such Christian luminaries as

Ambrose Ambrose of Milan (; 4 April 397), venerated as Saint Ambrose, was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promoting Roman Christianity against Ari ...

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours (; 316/3368 November 397) was the third bishop of Tours. He is the patron saint of many communities and organizations across Europe, including France's Third French Republic, Third Republic. A native of Pannonia (present-day Hung ...

and

Athanasius of Alexandria Athanasius I of Alexandria ( – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Christian theologian and the 20th patriarch of Alexandria (as Athanasius ...

spent time in Augusta Treverorum. Among the surviving legacies of the ancient Treveri are

Moselle wine Moselle wine is produced in three countries along the river Moselle: France, Luxembourg (the Musel) and Germany (the Mosel). Moselle wines are mainly white and are made in some of the coldest climates used for commercial winemaking. France In Fr ...

from Luxembourg and Germany (introduced during Roman times) and the many Roman monuments of Trier and its surroundings, including neighbouring Luxembourg. Three Roman roads, very important for their role in transregional trade and military deployment capability, went through the territory of the Treveri: * the first came from the south, connected ''Divodurum'' (Metz, France) and Ricciacus (Dalheim, Luxembourg) with Augusta Treverorum (Trier, Germany) and went further to the Rhine river in the northeast, the border of the Roman Empire * the second came from the southwest and connected Durocortorum (Reims, France) with Andethana (Niederanven, Luxembourg) and Augusta Treverorum * the third went through the Ardennes in present-day Belgium and Luxembourg and connected Durocortorum to the major city and garrison of Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne/Köln, Germany) on the Rhine river.

Name

Attestations

They are mentioned as ''Treveri'' by

(mid-1st c. BC), Pliny (1st c. AD) and

(early 2nd c. AD), ''Trēoúēroi'' (Τρηούηροι) 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), ''Tríbēroi'' (Τρίβηροι) 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), ''Trēouḗrōn'' (Τρηουήρων) by

Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history of ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

(3rd c. AD), ''Treuerorum'' (gen.) by

Orosius Paulus Orosius (; born 375/385 – 420 AD), less often Paul Orosius in English, was a Roman priest, historian and theologian, and a student of Augustine of Hippo. It is possible that he was born in '' Bracara Augusta'' (now Braga, Portugal), ...

(early 5th c. AD), and as ''Triberorum'' in the ''

Notitia Dignitatum The (Latin for 'List of all dignities and administrations both civil and military') is a document of the Late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very ...

'' (5th c. AD)., s.v. ''Treveri'' and ''Col. Augusta Treverorum''. The variant ''Treberi'' also appears in Pliny, and few highly deviant variant forms are also attested as ''Trēoũsgroi'' (Τρηου̃σγροι) in Strabo or ''Triḗrōn'' (Τριήρων) in Cassius Dio. The first syllable is shown long and stressed ''(Trēverī)'' in Latin dictionaries, thus giving the Classical Latin pronunciation .

Etymology

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 ...

''Trēverī'' is a latinized form of

''*Trēueroi'' (sing. ''Trēueros''). It is generally viewed as referring to 'crossing a river' or to a 'flowing river'. Linguists

Rudolf Thurneysen Eduard Rudolf Thurneysen (14 March 1857 – 9 August 1940) was a Swiss linguist and Celticist. Biography Born in Basel, Thurneysen studied classical philology in Basel, Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. His teachers included Ernst Windisch and ...

and

Xavier Delamarre Xavier Delamarre (; born 5 June 1954) is a French linguist, lexicographer, and former diplomat. He is regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on the Gaulish language. With linguist Romain Garnier, Delamarre is the co-publishing edi ...

have proposed to interpret the name as ''trē-uer-'' ('ferrymen'), composed of a suffix ''trē''- (earlier ''*trei''- 'through, across'; cf. Lat. ''trāns,'' Skt ''tiráh'') attached to -''uer-'' ('water, river'; cf. Skt ''vār'', ON ''vari'' 'water'), This etymology is reinforced by the

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

''treóir'' (from ''*trē-uori-''), meaning 'ford, place to cross a river'. The Treveri also had a special goddess called ''

Ritona Ritona (also known as Pritona) is a Celtic goddess chiefly venerated in the land of the Treveri in what is now Germany. Her cult is attested at Pachten and at Trier, where she "had a carefully built little temple" in the Altbachtal complex.Edith ...

'', which either means 'that of the ford' (from the stem ''ritu-'' 'ford') or 'that of the course' (from the

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

''ritu-'', ''rito-'' 'course'), and a temple dedicated to ''Uorioni Deo'' ('goddess of the watercourse'). The city of

, attested 1st c. AD as ''Treueris Augusta'' and on inscriptions as ''Augusta Trēvērorum'' (''Treuiris'' in 1065), is named after the tribe.

Geography

Territory

In the time of

their territory extended 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 ...

north of the

Triboci In classical antiquity, the Triboci or Tribocci were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people of eastern Gaul, inhabiting much of what is now Alsace. Name Besides the forms Triboci and Tribocci, Schneider has the form “Triboces” in the accusative ...

; across the Rhine from them lived the

Ubii 350px, The Ubii around AD 30 The Ubii were a Germanic tribe first encountered dwelling on the east bank of the Rhine in the time of Julius Caesar, who formed an alliance with them in 55 BC in order to launch attacks across the river. They were ...

. Caesar mentions that the

Segni Segni (, ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' located in Lazio. The city is situated on a hilltop in the Lepini Mountains and overlooks the valley of the Sacco River. History Early history According to ancient Roman sources, Lucius Tarquinius ...

and the

Condrusi The Condrusi were an ancient Belgic- Germanic tribe dwelling in what is now eastern Belgium during the Gallic Wars (58–50 BC) and the Roman period. Their ethnic identity remains uncertain. Caesar described them as part of the Germani Cisrhena ...

lived between the Treveri and the

Eburones The Eburones ( Greek: ) were a Gaulish- Germanic tribe dwelling in the northeast of Gaul, who lived north of the Ardennes in the region near what is now the southern Netherlands, eastern Belgium and the German Rhineland, in the period immediately ...

, and that the Condrusii and Eburones were clients of the Treveri. Caesar bridged the Rhine in the territory of the Treveri.

IV:3, paragraph 3.
/ref> They were bordered on the northwest by the Belgic

Tungri The Tungri (or Tongri, or Tungrians) were a tribe, or group of tribes, who lived in the Belgic part of Gaul, during the times of the Roman Empire. Within the Roman Empire, their territory was called the '' Civitas Tungrorum''. They were described ...

(living where the

Germani cisrhenani The ''Germani cisrhenani'' (Latin '':wikt:cis#Latin, cis-:wikt:Rhenanus#Latin, rhenanus'' "on this side of the Rhine", referring to the Roman or western side), or "Left bank ''Germani''", were a group of Germanic peoples who lived west of the Low ...

had lived in the time of Caesar and, according to Tacitus, the same people), on the southwest by the

Remi The Remi (Gaulish: ''Rēmi'', 'the first, the princes') were a Belgic tribe dwelling in the Aisne, Vesle and Suippe river valleys during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their territory roughly corresponded the modern Marne and Ardennes a ...

, and on the north, beyond the

Ardennes and Eifel {{Infobox mountain , name=Ardennes and Eifel , photo=Weiswampach.jpg , photo_caption=A view at the Luxembourg commune of Weiswampach , country= {{enum, Belgium (east), France (north), Germany (west), Luxembourg (north) , subdivision1_type= Stat ...

, by the Eburones. To the south their neighbours were the

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 ...

Later the

Vangiones The Vangiones appear first in history as an ancient Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe of unknown provenance. They threw in their lot with Ariovistus in his bid of 58 BC to invade Gaul through the Doubs river valley and lost to Julius Caesar in a ba ...

and

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 "unquest ...

, whom ancient sources identify as Germanic, would settle to the east of the Treveri along the Rhine; thereafter, Treveran territory in present-day Germany was probably similar to that which afterwards became the

Diocese of Trier The Diocese of Trier (), in English historically also known as ''Treves'' () from French ''Trèves'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic church in Germany. George Long
"Treveri".
In

William Smith William, Willie, Will, Bill, or Billy Smith may refer to: Academics * William Smith (Master of Clare College, Cambridge) (1556–1615), English academic * William Smith (antiquary) (c. 1653–1735), English antiquary and historian of University C ...

(ed., 1854) ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'' is the last in a series of classical dictionaries edited by the English scholar William Smith (1813–1893), following '' A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'' and the '' Dictionary of G ...

''. In addition to this area which is formed mainly by the northern part of the Moselle river valley and the neighbouring Eifel region, the Treveri populated also the area of the present-day

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembourg ...

and the major part of the adjacent Belgian

Province of Luxembourg Luxembourg (; ; ; ; ; ), also called Belgian Luxembourg or West Luxembourg, is the southernmost Provinces of regions in Belgium, province of Wallonia within Belgium. It borders the country of Luxembourg to the east, the France, French depart ...

. The Rhine valley was removed from Treveran authority with the formation of the province of

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 ('' Vesont ...

in the 80s CE. The valley of the

Ahr Ahr () is a river in Germany, a left tributary of the Rhine. Its source is at an elevation of approximately above sea level in Blankenheim in the Eifel, in the cellar of a timber-frame house near the castle of Blankenheim. After it crosses f ...

would have marked their northern boundary.

Settlements

''Colonia Augusta Treverorum'' (now

, Germany), established under

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

ca. 17 BCE to guard a crossing of the Moselle, was the capital of their ''

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 ...

'' under the Empire. There is strong evidence that the recently excavated ''

oppidum An ''oppidum'' (: ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age Europe, Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celts, Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread acros ...

'' on the

Titelberg Titelberg () is the site of a large Celts, Celtic settlement or oppidum in the extreme south west of Luxembourg. In the 1st century BCE, this thriving community was probably the capital of the Treveri people. The site thus provides telling evide ...

plateau in the extreme southwest of the

was the Treveran capital during the 1st century BCE. An important secondary centre was ''Orolaunum'' (now

Arlon Arlon (; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Luxembourg (Belgium), province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. With a population of just over 28,000, it ...

, capital of the Belgian

), which, in Edith Wightman's assessment, "became a kind of regional capital for the western Treveri", attaining "a degree of prosperity only otherwise reached by ''civitas'' capitals". The site of ''La Tranchée des Portes'' near Étalle, the largest of Belgium by its size (100 hectares) has not still revealed its rank. A recent study shows that it had already human presence around 4000 BCE. Other important pre-Roman centres were located at Martberg,

Donnersberg The Donnersberg (; literally: "thunder mountain") is the highest peak of the Palatinate () region of Germany. The mountain lies between the towns of Rockenhausen and Kirchheimbolanden, in the Donnersbergkreis district, which is named after th ...

, Wallendorf,

Kastel-Staadt Kastel-Staadt is a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. History From 18 July 1946 to 6 June 1947 Kastel-Staad, in its then municipal boundary, formed part of the Saar Protectorate The Saar Protectora ...

, and Otzenhausen. The transfer of their activities to Trier followed the construction of

Agrippa Agrippa may refer to: People Antiquity * Agrippa (mythology), semi-mythological king of Alba Longa * Agrippa (astronomer), Greek astronomer from the late 1st century * Agrippa the Skeptic, Skeptic philosopher at the end of the 1st century * Ag ...

's road linking Trier with

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

which bypassed the Titelberg. During the Roman period, Trier became a Roman colony (in 16 BCE), and the provincial capital of

Belgica Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and German ...

itself. It was the frequent residence of a number of emperors. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Treveri were divided into five cantons centred respectively on the pre-Roman ''oppida'' of the Titelberg, Wallendorf, Kastel, Otzenhausen and the Martberg. Inscriptions from the Roman imperial period indicate that the ''civitas'' was divided into at least four ''

pagi Pagi may refer to: People * Antoine Pagi (1624–1699), French ecclesiastical historian * François Pagi (1654–1721), French Franciscan historian of the Catholic Church * Mickaël Pagis (born 1973), French footballer * Ranchordas Pagi (1901� ...

:'' the ''pagus Vilcias'', the ''pagus Teucorias'', the ''pagus Carucum'' extending north of

Bitburg Bitburg (; ; ) is a city in Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate approximately 25 km (16 mi.) northwest of Trier and 50 km (31 mi.) northeast of Luxembourg (city), Luxembourg city. The American Spangdahlem Air Base i ...

, and the ''pagus Ac ..' or ''Ag ..' (the inscription is incomplete). Wightman tentatively suggests that the ''pagus Vilcias'' might have been the western region around

and

Longuyon Longuyon () is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in the Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The inhabitants are called ''Longuyonnais''. Geography Longuyon is located at the confluence of the Chiers and Crusnes rivers and ...

, and the ''pagus Teucorias'' the southern region around

Tholey Tholey () is a municipality in the Sankt Wendel (district), district of Sankt Wendel, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated approximately west of Sankt Wendel, and north of Saarbrücken. History Local history The first traces of settlement in t ...

. Wightman considers it uncertain whether the

Aresaces The Aresaces were Belgic tribe. They were closely related to, and probably originally part of, the Treveri. They inhabited the left bank of the Rhine in the Mainz -Bingen area, which was once the easternmost part of Treveran territory. Written ...

and Cairacates may originally have been ''pagi'' of the Treveri, but asserts that their territory – lying around Mogontiacum (

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

) – "always showed particularly close cultural connections with Treveran territory". External to the Treveri, but subject to them as clients, were the

and perhaps also the

Caeroesi The Caerosi (or Caeroesi) were a small Belgic- Germanic tribe that lived in Gallia Belgica during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their ethnic identity remains uncertain. Caesar described them as part of the Germani Cisrhenani, but their tribal ...

and

Paemani The Paemani (also Poemani or Caemani) were a small Belgic- Germanic tribe dwelling in Gallia Belgica during the Iron Age. Their ethnic identity remains uncertain. Caesar described them as part of the Germani Cisrhenani, but a number of scholars ...

. The 4th-century poet

Ausonius Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; ) was a Latin literature, Roman poet and Education in ancient Rome, teacher of classical rhetoric, rhetoric from Burdigala, Gallia Aquitania, Aquitaine (now Bordeaux, France). For a time, he was tutor to the future E ...

lived in Trier under the

Gratian Gratian (; ; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian was raised to the rank of ''Augustus'' as a child and inherited the West after his father's death in ...

's patronage; he is most famous for his poem ''Mosella,'' evoking life and scenery along the Treveri's arterial river.

Language and ethnicity

Caesar is not explicit in ''De Bello Gallico'' about whether the Treveri are to be considered to belong to Gallia Celtica or Gallia Belgica, although the former hypothesis enjoys some favour. Writing about a century after Caesar,

Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest known Roman geographer. He was born at the end of the 1st century BC in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nea ...

identifies the Treveri as the "most renowned" of the

(not to be confounded with the modern-day

Belgians Belgians ( ; ; ) are people identified with the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe. As Belgium is a multinational state, this connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural rather than ethnic. The majority ...

). According to the Roman consul

Aulus Hirtius Aulus Hirtius (; – 43 BC) was consul of the Roman Republic in 43 BC and a writer on military subjects. He was killed during his consulship in battle against Mark Antony at the Battle of Mutina. Biography He was a legate of Julius Caesar's st ...

in the 1st century BCE, the Treveri differed little from Germanic peoples in their manner of life and "savage" behaviour.

. "Book VIII." In

, '' B.G.'' VIII:25. The Treveri boasted of their Germanic origin, according to

, in order to distance themselves from "Gallic laziness" (''inertia Gallorum''). But Tacitus does not include them with the

as "tribes unquestionably German". The presence of hall villas of the same type as found in indisputably Germanic territory in northern Germany, alongside Celtic types of villas, corroborates the idea that they had both Celtic and Germanic affinities.

says that their Nervian and Tribocan neighbours were Germanic peoples who by that point had settled on the left bank of the Rhine, while the Treveri are implied to be Gaulish.

states that as of the 4th century their language was similar to that of the Celts of

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

(the

Galatia Galatia (; , ''Galatía'') was an ancient area in the highlands of central Anatolia, roughly corresponding to the provinces of Ankara and Eskişehir in modern Turkey. Galatia was named after the Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who settled here ...

ns).

writes, ''Galatas excepto sermone Graeco, quo omnis oriens loquitur, propriam linguam eamdem pene habere quam Treviros'' ("That the Galatians, apart from the Greek language, which they speak just like the rest of the Orient, have their own language, which is almost the same as the Treverans'"), in ''Migne, Patrologia Latina'' 26, 382. Jerome probably had first-hand knowledge of these

Celtic languages The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yve ...

, as he had visited both

and

. Very few personal names among the Treveri are of Germanic origin; instead, they are generally Celtic or Latin. Certain distinctively Treveran names are apparently none of the three and may represent a pre-Celtic stratum, according to Wightman (she gives ''Ibliomarus, Cletussto'' and ''Argaippo'' as examples). After the Roman conquest,

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

was used extensively by the Treveri for public and official purposes.

Politics and military

Originally the ''oppida'' of the

, Wallendorf, Kastel, Otzenhausen and the Martberg were roughly equal in significance; however, sometime between 100 and 80 BCE, the Titelberg experienced an upsurge of growth which made it "the central ''oppidum'' of the Treveri". A large open space in the central square of the Titelberg which would have been used for public meetings of a religious or political nature during the 1st century BCE. By the time of Caesar's invasion, the Treveri seemed to have adopted an

oligarchic Oligarchy (; ) is a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people. Members of this group, called oligarchs, generally hold usually hard, but sometimes soft power through nobility, fame, wealth, or education; or throug ...

system of government. The Treveri had a strong cavalry and infantry, and during the

would provide

with his best cavalry. Under their leader Cingetorix, the Treveri served as Roman auxiliaries. However, their loyalties began to change in 54 BCE under the influence of Cingetorix' rival

. According to Caesar, Indutiomarus instigated the revolt of the

under

Ambiorix Ambiorix (Gaulish "king of the surroundings", or "king-protector") ( 54–53 BC) was, together with Cativolcus, prince of the Eburones, leader of a Belgic tribe of north-eastern Gaul (Gallia Belgica), where modern Belgium is located. In the ...

that year and led the Treveri in joining the revolt and enticing Germanic tribes to attack the Romans. The Romans under

Titus Labienus Titus Labienus (17 March 45 BC) was a high-ranking military officer in the late Roman Republic. He served as tribune of the Plebs in 63 BC. Although mostly remembered as one of Julius Caesar's best lieutenants in Gaul and mentioned frequently ...

killed Indutiomarus and then put down the Treveran revolt; afterwards, Indutiomarus' relatives crossed the

to settle among the Germanic tribes. The Treveri remained neutral during the revolt of

Vercingetorix Vercingetorix (; ; – 46 BC) was a Gauls, Gallic king and chieftain of the Arverni tribe who united the Gauls in a failed revolt against Roman Republic, Roman forces during the last phase of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. After surrendering to C ...

, and were attacked again by Labienus after it. On the whole, the Treveri were more successful than most Gallic tribes in cooperating with the Romans. They probably emerged from the Gallic Wars with the status of a free ''

'' exempt from tribute. In 30–29 BCE, a revolt of the Treveri was suppressed by Marcus Nonius Gallus, and the Titelberg was occupied by a garrison of the Roman army.

and

undertook the organization of Roman administration in Gaul, laying out an extensive series of

roads A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. The ...

beginning with Agrippa's governorship of Gaul in 39 BCE, and imposing a

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

in 27 BCE for purposes of taxation. The Romans built a new road from Trier to

via

Mamer Mamer () is a commune and town (strictly classified as a village) in south-western Luxembourg. It is located west of Luxembourg City. The commune includes both Mamer itself and the smaller communities of Capellen and Holzem. Mamer is situated o ...

, to the north, and

, thus by-passing by 25 kilometres the

and the older Celtic route, and the capital was displaced to Augusta Treverorum (

) with no signs of conflict. The vicinity of Trier had been inhabited by isolated farms and hamlets before the Romans, but there had been no urban settlement here. Following the reorganisation of the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

s in

in 16 BCE,

decided that the Treveri should become part of the province of

. At an unknown date, the capital of Belgica was moved from Durocortorum Remorum (

) to Augusta Treverorum. A significant layer of the Treveran élite seems to have been granted Roman citizenship under Caesar and/or Augustus, by whom they were given the '' nomen''

Julius Julius may refer to: People * Julius (name), a masculine given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name) * Julius (nomen), the name of a Roman family (includes a list of Ancient Romans with the name) ** Julius Caesar (100– ...

. During the reigns of Augustus,

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

and

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...

, and particularly when

Drusus Drusus may refer to: * Gaius Livius Drusus (jurist), son of the Roman consul of 147 BC * Marcus Livius Drusus (consul) (155–108 BC), opponent of populist reformer Gaius Gracchus * Marcus Livius Drusus (reformer) (died 91 BC), whose assassinatio ...

and

were active in Gaul, Augusta Treverorum rose to considerable importance as a base and supply centre for campaigns in Germany. The city was endowed with an amphitheatre, baths, and other amenities, and for a while Germanicus' family lived in the city.

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

reports that Germanicus' son, the future emperor Gaius (Caligula), was born "among the Treveri, at the village of Ambiatinus, above Confluentes (

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

)", but

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

notes that this birthplace was disputed by other sources. C. Suetonius Tranquillus (121). ''

De Vita Caesarum ''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'' or ''The Lives of the Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire writte ...

.'
IV:8
A faction of Treveri, led by

Julius Florus Three main sets of works are attributed to Florus (a Roman cognomen): ''Virgilius orator an poeta'', the ''Epitome of Roman History'' and a collection of 14 short poems (66 lines in all). As to whether these were composed by the same person, or ...

and allied with the

Aeduan The Aedui or Haedui (Gaulish: *''Aiduoi'', 'the Ardent'; ) were a Gallic tribe dwelling in what is now the region of Burgundy during the Iron Age and the Roman period. The Aedui had an ambiguous relationship with the Roman Republic, as well as o ...

Julius Sacrovir Julius Sacrovir was a member of the gens Julia. Alongside Julius Florus, a leader of the Treveri, he led the Aedui tribe in Gaul in a revolt against the Romans. After being defeated in battle Sacrovir fled to, and was killed in Augustodunum. Ga ...

, led a rebellion of Gaulish debtors against the Romans in 21 CE. Florus was defeated by his rival Julius Indus, while Sacrovir led the Aedui in revolt. The Romans quickly re-established cordial relations with the Treveri under Indus, who promised obedience to Rome; in contrast, they completely annihilated the Aedui who had sided with Sacrovir. Perhaps under

, the Treveri obtained the status of '' colonia'' and probably the

Latin Right Latin rights or Latin citizenship ( or ) were a set of legal rights that were originally granted to the Latins and therefore in their colonies ( Latium adiectum). ''Latinitas'' was commonly used by Roman jurists to denote this status. With the ...

without actually being colonized by Roman veterans. Under Roman rule, there was a senate of the Treveri including about a hundred decurions, of which the executive was formed by two ''duoviri''. More serious was the revolt that began with Civilis' Batavian insurrection during the

. In 70, the Treveri under Julius Classicus and

Julius Tutor Julius may refer to: People * Julius (name), a masculine given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name) * Julius (nomen), the name of a Roman family (includes a list of Ancient Romans with the name) ** Julius Caesar (100– ...

and the

Lingones The Lingones (Gaulish: 'the jumpers') were a Gallic tribe of the Iron Age and Roman periods. They dwelled in the region surrounding the present-day city of Langres, between the provinces of Gallia Lugdunensis and Gallia Belgica. Name A ...

under

Julius Sabinus Julius Sabinus was an aristocratic Gaul of the Lingones at the time of the Batavian rebellion of AD 69. He attempted to take advantage of the turmoil in Rome after the death of Nero to set up an independent Gaulish state. After his defeat he was h ...

joined the

Batavian rebellion The Revolt of the Batavi took place in the Roman province of Germania Inferior ("Lower Germania") between AD 69 and 70. It was an uprising against the Roman Empire started by the Batavi (Germanic tribe), Batavi, a small but militarily powerful G ...

and declared Sabinus as Caesar. The revolt was quashed, and more than a hundred rebel Treveran noblemen fled across the Rhine to join their Germanic allies; in the assessment of historian Jeannot Metzler, this event marks the end of aristocratic Treveran cavalry service in the Roman army, the rise of the local bourgeoisie, and the beginnings of "a second thrust of Romanization".

Camille Jullian Camille Jullian (15 March 1859 – 12 December 1933) was a French historian, philologist, archaeologist and historian of literature. A Professor of ancient history and classics at the University of Bordeaux from 1891, Jullian was awarded a chai ...

attributes to this rebellion the promotion of Durocortorum Remorum (

), capital of the perennially loyal

, at the expense of the Treveri. By the 2nd and 3rd centuries, representatives of the old élite bearing the ''nomen'' Julius had practically disappeared, and a new élite arose to take their place; these would have originated mainly from the indigenous middle class, according to Wightman. The Treveri suffered from their proximity to the Rhine frontier during the

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties * Francia, a post-Roman ...

and

c invasions during the 250s led to significant destruction, particularly in rural areas; given the failure of the Roman military to defend effectively against Germanic invasion, country dwellers improvised their own fortifications, often using the stones from tombs and mausoleums. Trier Kaiserthermen BW 1

Meanwhile, Augusta Treverorum was becoming an urban centre of the first importance, overtaking even Lugdunum (

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

). During the

, the city served as the capital of the

under the emperors

Tetricus I Gaius Pius Esuvius Tetricus was a Gallo-Roman culture, Gallo-Roman nobleman who ruled as Augustus, emperor of the Gallic Empire from 271 to 274 AD. He was originally the (provincial governor) of Gallia Aquitania and became emperor after the murd ...

and II from 271 to 274. The Treveri suffered further devastation from the

in 275, following which, according to Jeannot Metzler, "The great majority of agricultural domains lay waste and would never be rebuilt". It is unclear whether Augusta Treverorum itself fell victim to the Alamannic invasion. From 285 to 395, Augusta Treverorum was one of the residences of the western Roman Emperor, including

Maximian Maximian (; ), nicknamed Herculius, was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was ''Caesar (title), Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocleti ...

Constantine the Great Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

Constantius II Constantius II (; ; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic peoples, while internally the Roman Empire went through repeated civ ...

Valentinian I Valentinian I (; 32117 November 375), also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. He ruled the Western Roman Empire, Western half of the empire, while his brother Valens ruled the Byzantine Empire, East. During his re ...

Magnus Maximus Magnus Maximus (; died 28 August 388) was Roman emperor in the West from 383 to 388. He usurped the throne from emperor Gratian. Born in Gallaecia, he served as an officer in Britain under Theodosius the Elder during the Great Conspiracy ...

, and

Theodosius I Theodosius I ( ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene C ...

; from 318 to 407, it served as the seat of the

praetorian prefecture of Gaul The Praetorian Prefecture of Gaul () was one of four large praetorian prefecture, prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided in the 4th century. History The prefecture was established after the death of Constantine I in 337, whe ...

. By the mid-4th century, the city was counted in a Roman manuscript as one of the four capitals of the world, alongside Rome,

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, and

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. New defensive structures, including fortresses at

Neumagen Neumagen is a river of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Möhlin near Bad Krozingen. See also *List of rivers of Baden-Württemberg A list of rivers of Baden-Württemberg, Germany: A *Aal (Kocher), Aal *Aalbach (Mai ...

and

, were constructed to defend against Germanic invasion. After a

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vandal ...

invasion in 406, however, the imperial residence was moved to Mediolanum (

) while the praetorian guard was withdrawn to Arelate (

Arles Arles ( , , ; ; Classical ) is a coastal city and Communes of France, commune in the South of France, a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône Departments of France, department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Reg ...

Religion

The Treveri were originally

polytheists Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one god. According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese folk religions, is really so, or whet ...

, and following the Roman conquest many of their gods were identified with Roman equivalents or coupled with Roman gods. Among the most important gods worshipped in Treveran territory were Mercury and

Rosmerta In Gallo-Roman religion, Rosmerta was a goddess of fertility and abundance, her attributes being those of plenty such as the cornucopia. Rosmerta is attested by statues and by inscriptions. In Gaul she was often depicted with the Roman god Merc ...

, Lenus Mars and

Ancamna In Gallo-Roman religion, Ancamna was a goddess worshipped particularly in the valley of the river Moselle. She was commemorated at Trier and :de:Ripsdorf, Ripsdorf as the consort of Lenus Mars (mythology), Mars, and at Welschbillig, Möhn as the co ...

Jupiter Optimus Maximus The Capitoline Triad was a group of three deities who were worshipped in ancient Roman religion in an elaborate temple on Rome's Capitoline Hill (Latin ''Capitolium''). It comprised Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The triad held a central place in th ...

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

Intarabus Intarabus was a Gaulish god in the pantheon of the Treveri and some neighbouring peoples. His name is known from nine inscriptions from a relatively compact area in what are now Belgium, Luxembourg, western Germany and eastern France.Nicole Jufer ...

, and

Minerva Minerva (; ; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Be ...

.Nicole Jufer & Thierry Luginbühl (2001). ''Les dieux gaulois : répertoire des noms de divinités celtiques connus par l'épigraphie, les textes antiques et la toponymie.'' Paris: Editions Errance. . Among the deities unique to the Treveri were Intarabus,

Inciona Inciona is a little-known Celtic goddess of the Treveran region. Her name is recorded as one of a pair of deities on two votive inscriptions from Luxembourg. On the large stone slab from Mensdorf on the Widdebierg, pictured at right, she is inv ...

and

Veraudunus Veraudunus is the name of a Celtic god known only from two votive inscriptions found in Luxembourg. One of these inscriptions suggests that ‘Veraudunus’ may have been an epithet of the important Treveran god Lenus Mars. In both inscriptions, Ve ...

, and the

Xulsigiae In Gallo-Roman religion, the Xulsigiae were triple goddesses worshipped at the healing-spring shrine in ''Augusta Treverorum'' (present-day Trier). Edith Wightman suggests that they "may be local nymphs of the spring"; on the other hand, she also l ...

. J.-J. Hatt considers that the Treveri, along with their neighbours the

Leuci The Leucī (Gaulish: ''Leucoi'', 'the bright, lightning ones') were a Belgic tribe dwelling in the southern part of the modern Lorraine region during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Name They are mentioned as ''Leucos'' (acc.) by Caesar ...

, and

, "appeared as pilots in the conservation of native Celtic and pre-Celtic eligioustraditions". During the Roman period, Lenus Mars (or Mars

Iovantucarus Mars Iovantucarus was a Celtic god who was associated with the Treveran healer-god Lenus Mars at his sanctuary at Trier. The name reflects the deity's function as a protector of youth, and the temple was visited by pilgrims who often brought wi ...

) has been deemed "the main god of the Treveri", as evidenced by dedications found across the different sections of ''civitas Treverorum''. They are connected in particular with a monumental sanctuary situated just outside the ''civitas'' capital of

. The cult of Lenus Mars was probably registered as a public cult in the official calendar of the ''civitas Treverorum''. Three important pagan sanctuaries in the immediate vicinity of Trier alone are well-known: the extensive Altbachtal temple complex, the nearby temple Am Herrenbrünnchen, and the important Lenus Mars Temple on the left bank of the Moselle. Inscriptions attest to the existence of a Treveran cult to Rome and Augustus, but the location of the temple is uncertain. Wightman suggests that the wholly classical and well-endowed temple Am Herrenbrünnchen would be a possibility, while Metzger argues that it can only have been a poorly known fourth temple in the city – the so-called Asclepius Temple not far from the bridge over the

. The Altbachtal complex has yielded a wealth of inscriptions and the remains of a theatre and over a dozen temples or shrines, mostly Romano-Celtic ''

fana Fana or fanaa most commonly refers to: * Fana, Bergen, a borough of the city of Bergen, Norway * Fana (Sufism), the Sufi term for "annihilation of the self" People * Fanã (born 1960), Portuguese football manager * Saint Fana (c. 354–395), Eg ...

'' dedicated to native, Roman, and Oriental deities. Outside of the city, many sacred sites are known; they are typically enclosed by a wall. Among these may be mentioned the temple of Apollo and

Sirona Sirona may refer to * Sirona (goddess), Celtic deity * Sirona Dental Systems * Sirona Care & Health, British community interest company * 116 Sirona 116 Sirona is a somewhat large and bright-colored main-belt asteroid that was discovered by ...

Hochscheid Hochscheid is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location This rural municipality l ...

, that of Lenus Mars on the Martberg by

Pommern Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian, Pomeranian and Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodesh ...

, the temple and theatre of Mars Smertrius and

at Möhn, and a mother-goddess sanctuary at Dhronecken. Under Roman influence, a variety of new cults were introduced:

Mithras Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman Empire, Roman mystery religion focused on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian peoples, Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (''yazata'') Mit ...

had a

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

in the Altbachtal,

Cybele Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya, Kubeleya'' "Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian: ''Kuvava''; ''Kybélē'', ''Kybēbē'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forerunner in the earliest ...

and

Attis Attis (; , also , , ) was the consort of Cybele, in Phrygian and Greek mythology. His priests were eunuchs, the '' Galli'', as explained by origin myths pertaining to Attis castrating himself. Attis was also a Phrygian vegetation deity. Hi ...

were worshipped there and at Dhronecken, and inscriptions and artwork attest to other Oriental deities such as

Sabazius Sabazios (, ''Savázios''; alternatively, ''Sabadios'') is a deity originating in Asia Minor. He is the horseman and sky father god of the Phrygians and Thracians. Sabazios gained prominence across the Roman Empire, particularly favored in the ...

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

and

Serapis Serapis or Sarapis is a Egyptian Greeks, Graeco-Egyptian god. A Religious syncretism, syncretic deity derived from the worship of the Egyptian Osiris and Apis (deity), Apis, Serapis was extensively popularized in the third century BC on the ord ...

. Besides the temple of Rome and Augustus mentioned above, the

imperial cult An imperial cult is a form of state religion in which an emperor or a dynasty of emperors (or rulers of another title) are worshipped as demigods or deities. "Cult (religious practice), Cult" here is used to mean "worship", not in the modern pejor ...

is also evidenced by numerous religious inscriptions "in honour of the divine house" (i.e. the imperial family). In the 4th century, Christianity rose to prominence in Augusta Treverorum. The city became the seat of a Christian

archbishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

during the second half of the 3rd century, and under

Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

, it became an important centre for the diffusion of Christianity. The present-day cathedral has its origins in a 4th-century double church built close to the imperial palace, probably around 321 and perhaps thanks to a donation from Helena Augusta. Approximately four times larger than today's cathedral, this church was one of Constantine's great imperial foundations, ranking with other major churches at Rome,

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, and

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

and

all lived and worked in Trier during the 4th century, while

was born there.Eberhard Zahn (n.d.). ''Trèves : Histoire et Curiosités.'' Cusanus-Verlag Trier. In the time of

, the Altbachtal complex was "not so much given up as deliberately destroyed"; cult statues were smashed, and some temples were secularized and made into homes. In 384, the Christian

heresiarch In Christian theology, a heresiarch (also hæresiarch, according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary''; from Greek: , ''hairesiárkhēs'' via the late Latin ''haeresiarcha''Cross and Livingstone, ''Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' 1974) ...

Priscillian Priscillian (in Latin: ''Priscillianus''; Gallaecia, – Augusta Treverorum, Gallia Belgica, ) was a wealthy nobleman of Roman Hispania who promoted a strict form of Christian asceticism. He became bishop of Ávila in 380. Certain practices of his ...

was executed in Augusta Treverorum on the orders of

, the Emperor in Britain and Gaul, nominally on charges of sorcery. The ''Gallic Chronicle'' of 452 describes the Priscillianists as "

Manichaeans Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 found ...

", a different

Gnostic Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...

heresy already outlawed under

Diocletian Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...

, and states that the emperor had them "caught and exterminated with the greatest zeal" from among the Treveri.

Material culture

The territory of the Treveri had formed part of the

Hunsrück-Eifel culture The Hunsrück-Eifel Culture (HEK = ) is an Iron Age cultural group of the Middle Rhine region of western Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate) and eastern Belgium and Luxembourg. The names "Hunsrück" and "Eifel" refer to a pair of low mountain ranges co ...

, covering the Hallstatt D and La Tène A-B periods (from 600 to 250 BCE). During the century from 250 to 150 BCE, the area between the Rhine and the Meuse underwent a drastic population restructuring as some crisis forced most signs of inhabitation onto the heights of the

Hunsrück The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced mountain range, upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle (river), Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued ...

. Following this crisis, population returned to the lowlands and it is possible to speak with confidence of the Treveri by name. Much of the Treveran countryside seems to have been organized into rural settlements by the end of the 2nd century BCE, and this organization persisted into Roman times. Even before Roman times, the Treveri had developed trade, agriculture and metal-working. They had adopted a money-based economy based upon silver coins, aligned with the Roman ''

denarius The ''denarius'' (; : ''dēnāriī'', ) was the standard Ancient Rome, Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the ''antoninianus''. It cont ...

'', along with cheaper bronze or bronze-lead coins. Trade goods made their way to the Treveri from

Etruria Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...

and the Greek world; monetary evidence suggests strong trade links with the neighbouring

. Iron ore deposits in Treveran territory were heavily worked and formed part of the basis for the area's wealth. Before and for some time after the Roman conquest, Treveran nobles were buried in chamber tombs which were covered with ''

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

'' and filled with sumptuous goods including imported ''

amphora An amphora (; ; English ) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land ...

e,'' weaponry and andirons. By the 2nd century CE, wealthy Treveri were building elaborate funerary monuments such as the

World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

-listed

Igel Igel is a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Igel is known for the Igel Column, a 23 m high Roman decorated tomb. The Igel Column is a UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmark ...

Column, or the sculpted grave-stones found at

and Buzenol, all of which depict the deceased's livelihood and/or interests during life. As cremation had become more common under Roman rule, gravestones often had special niches to receive urns of ashes as well as grave-goods. Roman-era grave-goods included the remains of animals used as food (particularly pigs and birds), coins, ''amphorae,'' pottery, glassware, jewellery and scissors. Burial replaced cremation again in the late 3rd century. The Treveri adapted readily to Roman civilization, adopting certain Mediterranean practices in cuisine, clothing, and decorative arts starting as early as the Roman occupation of the Titelberg in 30 BCE. As early as 21 CE, according to

Greg Woolf Gregory Duncan Woolf, (born 3 December 1961) is a British ancient historian, archaeologist, and academic. He specialises in the late Iron Age and the Roman Empire. Since July 2021, he has been Ronald J. Mellor Chair of Ancient History at Univ ...

, "the Treveri and the

Aedui The Aedui or Haedui (Gaulish language, Gaulish: *''Aiduoi'', 'the Ardent'; ) were a Gauls, Gallic tribe dwelling in what is now the region of Burgundy during the La Tène culture, Iron Age and the Roman Empire, Roman period. The Aedui had an ambi ...

ere Ere or ERE may refer to: * ''Environmental and Resource Economics'', a peer-reviewed academic journal * ERE Informatique, one of the first French video game companies * Ere language, an Austronesian language * Ebi Ere (born 1981), American-Nigeria ...

arguably those tribes which had undergone the greatest cultural change since the conquest". The Romans introduced

viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

to the

Moselle valley The Moselle Valley (, ; , ) is a region in north-eastern France, south-western Germany, and eastern Luxembourg, centred on the river valley formed by the river Moselle. The Moselle runs through, and along the borders of, the three countries, and ...

(see

). In general, the archaeological record attests to ongoing rural development and prosperity into the 3rd century CE. Along with the neighbouring

, the Treveri can be credited with a significant innovation in

Roman technology Ancient Roman technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods, processes, and engineering practices which supported Roman civilization and made possible the expansion of the Roman economy, economy and Military of ancient Rome, milit ...

: the ''vallus'', a machine drawn by horses or mules to reap wheat. The ''vallus'' is known from funerary reliefs and literary descriptions. The many individual Treveri attested epigraphically in other ''civitates'' may attest to the development of a Treveran commercial network within the western parts of the Empire. During the early 2nd century CE, Augusta Treverorum was an important centre for the production of

samian ware Terra sigillata is a term with at least three distinct meanings: as a description of medieval medicinal earth; in archaeology, as a general term for some of the fine red ancient Roman pottery with glossy surface slips made in specific areas ...

(along with

Lezoux Lezoux (; ) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. It was a key location in the filming of the 2004 film Les Choristes (The Chorus). Population See also *Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department The fol ...

and

Rheinzabern Rheinzabern is a small town in the south-east of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany near the Rhine river. Currently, Rheinzabern, that belongs to the District of Germersheim has approx. 5000 inhabitants living on an area of 12,75 square kilometres. ...

), supplying the Rhineland with high-quality glossy red pottery which was often elaborately decorated with moulded designs. Treveran villa architecture shows both coexistence and mixture of typically Gallic and Germanic traits. In some villas, such as at Otrang and

Echternach Echternach (, ; or locally ) is a commune with town status in the canton of Echternach, in eastern Luxembourg. Echternach lies near the border with Germany, and is the oldest town in Luxembourg. History The town grew around the Abbey of Echt ...

, small rooms opened onto a large central hall, rather than onto the front verandah as in most places in Gaul; this arrangement has been considered typically ‘Germanic’, and may reflect a social structure in which extended families and clients all lived in a patron's home. On the other hand, typically ‘Gaulish’ villas are also found in Treveran territory.

List of Treveri

Notes

References

Primary sources

(c. 51 BCE), ''

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 yea ...

'' (available on Wikisource). *

Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian priest, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known for his translation of the Bible in ...

(c. 387), ''Comentarii in Epistolam ad Galatos''. * C. Plinius Secundus (c. 77–79), ''

Naturalis historia The ''Natural History'' () is a Latin work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work' ...

.'' *

(7 BCE–23 CE), ''

Geographica The ''Geographica'' (, ''Geōgraphiká''; or , "Strabo's 17 Books on Geographical Topics") or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Greek in the late 1st century BC, or early 1st cen ...

.'' *

Cornelius 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'' ( ...

(117 CE), ''

'' (available on Wikisource). * _____ (c. 98 CE), ''

'' (available on Wikisource). * _____ (c. 105 CE), '' Historiae'' (available on Wikisource).

Secondary sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Name

Attestations

Etymology

Geography

Territory

Settlements

Language and ethnicity

Politics and military

Religion

Material culture

List of Treveri

See also

Notes

References

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Further reading