Eburones

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Eburones (Greek: Ἐβούρωνες, Strabo), were a people of Germanic or Celtic descent[1] that lived in the upper north of Gallia largely between the Rhine and the Maas, east of the Menapii. This area later became part of the province Germania Inferior. Julius Caesar says that the Condrusi, Eburones, Caeraesi, and Paemani were called by the one name of Germani (B. G. ii. 4). When the Tencteri and Usipetes, who were Germanic tribes, crossed the Rhine from Germania (55 BCE), they first fell on the Menapii, and then advanced into the territories of the Eburones and Condrusi, who were in some kind of political dependence on the Treviri. (B. G. iv. 6.)

Contents

[edit] Location

Caesar is the primary source for the Eburones' location at Roman contact. On the Rhine the Eburones bordered on the Menapii, who were north of them, and the chief part of the territory of the Eburones was between the Mosa (Maas) and the Rhine. (B. G. vi. 5; v. 24.) South of the Eburones, and between them and the Treviri, were the Segni and Condrusi (B. G., vi. 32); and the Condrusi were in the country of Liège. The Eburones must have occupied the region of Limburg (now divided between the Limburg (Netherlands) and Limburg (Belgium)) and a part of the German Rhineland, toward Aachen.

[edit] Involvement in Caesar's Gallic Wars

In 54 BCE, Caesar quartered a legion and five cohortes (one and a half legions) during the winter in the country of the Eburones, under the command of his legates, Quintus Titurius Sabinus and Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta. The Eburones, headed by their two kings, Ambiorix and Cativolcus, and evidently aided by their allies the Nervii, attacked the Roman camp; and after inducing the Romans to leave their stronghold on the promise of a safe passage, they massacred nearly all of them (approximately 6000 men). (B. G. v. 26-37.) The legion also lost its standard. A further attack on another camp held by Quintus Tullius Cicero, brother of the famous orator, was thwarted by timely intervention of Labienus, one of Caesar's most trusted generals. He killed the king of the Nervii, which broke the resistance, at least for a while.

In the following year Caesar entered the country of the Eburones, and Ambiorix fled before him. Cativolcus poisoned himself. The country of the Eburones was difficult for the Romans, being woody and swampy in parts; and Caesar invited the neighboring people to come and plunder the Eburones, in order to save his own men, and, also, with the aid of great numbers, to exterminate the nation. (B. G. vi. 34). The Sicambri were one of the main raiders. While Caesar was ravaging the country of the Eburones, he left Q. Tulius Cicero with a legion to protect the baggage and stores, at a place called Aduatuca, which he tells us in this passage had been the fatal quarters of Sabinus and Cotta, though he had not mentioned the name of the place before (v. 24). He places Aduatuca about the middle of the territory of the Eburones; and there is good reason for supposing that the place is Tongeren. Caesar burnt every village and building that he could find in the territory of the Eburones, drove off all the cattle, and his men and beasts consumed all the corn that the weather of the autumnal season did not destroy. He left those who had hid themselves, if there were any, with the hope that they would all die of hunger in the winter. And so it seems to have been, for we hear no more of the Eburones. Their country was soon occupied by another German tribe, the Tungri.

[edit] Germans or Celts?

Despite being regarded as Belgae, the Eburones are grouped together by Caesar with the so-called Germani cisrhenani 'Germans on this side of the Rhine', i.e. Germanic peoples who lived south and west of the Rhine and may have been distinct from the Belgae.[2] Tacitus suggests that Caesar was the first to apply the Germanic label to the latter group.[3] There is still discussion about the value of Caesar's classification, the residential area of the Eburones and their ethnic descent. For instance, from concentrations of coin finds it can be concluded that there were Eburones in the eastern part of the Dutch river-area and in Belgian Limburg.[4] A number of arguments have been proposed in favour of a Celtic denomination:

  • The names of their kings, such as Ambiorix and Catuvolcus, are undoubtedly Celtic, which would seem to suggest that at least the upper echelons were Celtic or had adopted a Celtic language and culture.
  • The tribal name has also been explained as being Celtic, *eburo- meaning 'yew(-tree)', which is also attested in personal names and place-names such as Eburacium (York) and Eburobrittium.[5] This etymological derivation would give Caesar's story in which King Catuvolcus committed suicide by taking in the poisonous juice from the yew-tree an extra layer of meaning. The etymology is rendered somewhat less certain by the existence of Germanic *ebura 'boar', although this element is not as well represented in the contemporary onomastic record.
  • There are strong clues which indicate that the local peoples in former Eburonic territories spoke or adopted Gaulish, or some form of it. One of the basic influences on the pronunciation of Dutch is a Gallo-Romance accent. This means that in the Gallo-Roman period, when the Eburones had officially ceased to exist, the Latin which was then spoken was strongly influenced by a Gaulish substrate.[6]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 2.4
  2. ^ Caesar, D.B.G., II 4.10; VI 32.1
  3. ^ Tacitus, Germania, II 2-3
  4. ^ Nico Roymans, Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power. The Batavians in the Early Roman Empire. Amsterdam Archaeological Studies 10. Amsterdam, 2004. Chapter 4.
  5. ^ Lauran Toorians, Keltisch en Germaans in de Nederlanden. Taal in Nederland en België gedurende de Late IJzertijd en de Romeinse periode. Memoires de la Société Belge D'Études Celtiques 13. Brussel, 2000. See also Celtic personal names of Roman Britain
  6. ^ See for instance: Schrijver, Peter, "Der Tod des Festlandkeltischen und die Geburt des Französischen, Niederländischen und Hochdeutschen." In: Sprachtod und Sprachgeburt, edited by Peter Schrijver and Peter-Arnold Mumm. Münchner Forschungen zur historischen Sprachwissenschaft 2. Bremen, 2004. 1-20.
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Peoples of Gaul
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Ambiani · Atrebates · Bellovaci · Caletes · Eburones · Leuci · Mediomatrici · Meldes · Menapii · Morini · Nervii · Remi · Silvanectes · Suessiones · Treveri · Vellocasses · Viromandui
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