Condrusi

Last updated

A modern geographical definition of Condroz is shown on this map of Belgium. It is thought to correspond roughly to the area where the Condrusi lived. Regions naturelles de Belgique.jpg
A modern geographical definition of Condroz is shown on this map of Belgium. It is thought to correspond roughly to the area where the Condrusi lived.

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. [1] Their ethnic identity remains uncertain. Caesar described them as part of the Germani Cisrhenani, but their tribal name is probably of Celtic origin. [2] [3] [4] Like other Germani Cisrhenani tribes, it is possible that their old Germanic endonym came to be abandoned after a tribal reorganization, that they received their names from their Celtic neighbours, or else that they were fully or partially assimilated into Celtic culture at the time of the Roman invasion of the region in 57 BC. [5]

Contents

Name

They are mentioned as Condrusi by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC), [6] and as Condurses by Orosius (early 5th century AD). [7] [8]

The meaning of the name Condrusi remains unclear. The prefix is most likely the Gaulish con-/com- ('with, together, as well') and the element -drūs- is also generally regarded as Celtic, although its meaning is unknown. [2] [3] [4]

The Condroz region, attested as Pagus Condrustis on an inscription dated 150–160 AD, [9] and as pagus Condrustus in medieval documents, is named after the Germanic tribe. [10] [11]

Language and culture

Whether the Condrusi actually spoke a Germanic language remains uncertain. From their tribal name, we know that they were influenced by Celtic languages. [12]

Contemporary reports by Julius Caesar (who classify them as Germani Cisrhenani) and Tacitus (who describes the Germani Cisrhenani as the first called Germani) state that they were also heavily influenced by Germanic peoples on the east of the Rhine river. [13]

Geography

Late medieval Catholic archdeaconries of Condroz (yellow) and Famenne (orange). Medieval Deaconeries of Condroz.png
Late medieval Catholic archdeaconries of Condroz (yellow) and Famenne (orange).

The Condrusi probably dwelt in the Condroz region, [4] an area of foothills situated northwest of the Ardennes, south and west of the Meuse, southwest of Liège and southeast of Namur. [14] Like the Segni, their territory was located between that of the Treveri and Eburones. [10] [1] At the time of Caesar's conquest of the region in the mid-1st century BC, they lived as clients of the Treveri. [1] During the Roman period, the Pagus Condrustis was one of the subdivisions of the civitas Tungrorum , founded c. 10 BC as a Roman military base. [15]

The oldest known definitions of the medieval pagus of Condroz also included the region of neighbouring Famenne. Contrary to the late medieval archdeaconries of Condroz and Fammene, the early medieval pagus Condrustis did not encompass the deaneries of St Remacle, Hanret, or Chimay. [16]

Religion

Viradecthis (also attested under the Celtic form Virodactis) was the protector-goddess of the Condrusi. Assimilated with the Roman deity of childbirth Lucina, she was honoured c. 200–250 AD at a sanctuary located in Strée (Modave, Condroz), [17] and by a Condrusian soldier serving in the Roman army at Hadrian's Wall. [18] Tungrian sailors celebrated her cult in Fectio (c. 150–250 AD), [19] and other inscriptions were found further east in the Rhineland (Mogontiacum, Kälbertshausen, Trebur). [18]

Several inscriptions were dedicated to the Matris Cantrusteihiae, which seems to mean "mother goddess of the Condrusi (or Condroz)". [4]

History

Caesar

Most of what we know about the Condrusi comes from Julius Caesar's record of his battles in the area, in Gallic Wars .

In chapter 2.4 of Caesar's commentaries the Condrusi are specifically listed among the Germani cisrhenani , along with the Eburones, the Caeroesi, and the Paemani. At that time, in 57 BC, they were joining an alliance of Belgic tribes against Caesar. [20] The alliance met with defeat against the Romans at the Battle of the Sabis, but some, including many of the Germani, most notably the Eburones, renewed fighting in 54 BC. Caesar stated that these Germani cisrhenani had crossed the Rhine long ago to take control of the fertile land on the other side. They mixed with the local Belgae, and Caesar noted that neighbouring Belgae claimed to be partly of Germanic descent also.

The Germani cisrhenani, who included the Condrusi, kept a distinct identity, and a reputation for military strength, because they were the only Gauls who successfully resisted the Cimbri and Teutones during their migrations in the second century BC. [20]

In chapter 4.6 Caesar reports that the Condrusi were under the protection of the Treveri along with the Eburones. How this circumstance came about is not known, but their territories were thereby not invaded by the Usipetes and Tencteri who had lost their own lands to Suebi and then crossed the Rhine into the lands of the Menapii. [21]

In chapter 6.32 the Condrusi are again mentioned as Germani "on this side of the Rhine" (citra Rhenum), this time along with the Segni (or Segui), as a German tribe claiming not to be involved in the rebellion. Both tribes were reported to live between the Eburones and the Treviri. [22]

Roman Empire

After their defeat or capitulation, the Germani cisrhenani became part of the civitas Tungrorum in Roman province of Gallia Belgica. But this civitas was eventually split out to become part of Germania Inferior.

An inscription from Blatobulgium (an outpost fort of Hadrian's Wall in modern Scotland) dated 150–160 AD, [9] along with a Roman military diploma giving Condrusus as the ethnic origin of the soldier, [23] show that Gallo-Roman Condrusians served as auxilia within the Roman armies, and could acquire the citizenship at the end of their service. [18]

Middle Ages

The name of the pagus Condrustis survived not only into Roman times but into the Carolingian era also, being mentioned as a pagus or gau in the early Middle Ages. In this way, the name, like many medieval territorial names, has managed to survive down to the present day, at least as a geographical term.

The earliest medieval attestation was in 747, in a benefaction made by Carloman, son of Charles Martel, to the Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy. It was clearly mentioned in the Treaty of Meerssen in 870, where it is called the pagus of Condrust. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tongeren</span> City in Limburg, Belgium

Tongeren is a city and former municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the only Roman administrative capital within the country's borders. As a Roman city, it was inhabited by the Tungri, and known as Atuatuca Tungrorum, it was the administrative centre of the Civitas Tungrorum district. Since 1 January 2025, it is part of the new municipality Tongeren-Borgloon

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nervii</span> Belgic tribe

The Nervii or Nervians were one of the most powerful 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 Cambrai in French Hainaut. During their first century BC Roman military campaign, Julius Caesar's contacts among the Remi stated that the Nervii were the most warlike of the Belgae. In times of war, they were known to trek long distances to take part in battles. Being one of the northerly Belgic tribes, with the Menapii to the west, and the Eburones to their east, they were considered by Caesar to be relatively uncorrupted by civilization. According to Tacitus they claimed Germanic descent. According to Strabo they were of Germanic origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belgae</span> Historical Gallic-Germanic tribal confederation

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 by Julius Caesar in his account of his wars in Gaul. Some peoples in southern Britain were also called Belgae and had apparently moved from the continent. T. F. O'Rahilly believed that some had moved further west and he equated them with the Fir Bolg in Ireland. The Roman province of Gallia Belgica was named after the continental Belgae. The term continued to be used in the region until the present day and is reflected in the name of the modern country of Belgium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gallia Belgica</span> Roman province (22 BC - 5th century)

Gallia Belgica was a 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 Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tungri</span> Roman era people of the Liège region

The Tungri 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 by Tacitus as being the same people who were first called "Germani" (Germanic), meaning that all other tribes who were later referred to this way, including those in Germania east of the river Rhine, were named after them. More specifically, Tacitus was thereby equating the Tungri with the "Germani Cisrhenani" described generations earlier by Julius Caesar. Their name is the source of several place names in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, including Tongeren, which was the capital of their Roman era province, the civitas Tungrorum, and also places such as Tongerlo Abbey, and Tongelre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treveri</span> Belgic tribe

The Treveri were a Germanic or Celtic tribe of the Belgae group who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle in modern day Germany from around 150 BCE, if not earlier, until their displacement by the Franks. Their domain lay within the southern fringes of the Silva Arduenna, a part of the vast Silva Carbonaria, in what are now Luxembourg, southeastern Belgium and western Germany; its centre was the city of Trier, to which the Treveri give their name. Celtic in language, according to Tacitus they claimed Germanic descent. They contained both Gallic and Germanic influences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eburones</span> Gallic-Germanic tribe

The Eburones 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 preceding the Roman conquest of the region. Though living in Gaul, they were also described as being both Belgae and Germani.

The Texandri were a Germanic people living between the Scheldt and Rhine rivers in the 1st century AD. They are associated with a region mentioned in the late 4th century as Texandria, a name which survived into the 8th–12th centuries.

The Paemani 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 have argued that their name may be of Celtic origin. Like other Germani Cisrhenani tribes, it is possible that their old Germanic endonym came to be abandoned after a tribal reorganization, that they received their names from their Celtic neighbours, or else that they were fully or partially assimilated to Celtic culture at the time of the Roman invasion of the region in 57 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Condroz</span> Natural region of eastern Belgium

The Condroz is a natural region in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, located between the Ardennes and the Meuse. Its unofficial capital is Ciney. The region preserves the name of the Condrusi, a Germanic tribe which inhabited the area during and before the Roman era.

The Caerosi 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 name is probably of Celtic origin. Like other Germani Cisrhenani tribes, it is possible that their old Germanic endonym came to be abandoned after a tribal reorganization, that they received their names from their Celtic neighbours, or else that they were fully or partially assimilated into Celtic culture at the time of the Roman invasion of the region in 57 BC.

The Segni were an ancient tribe dwelling in the Ardennes and Eifel region during the Iron Age. In the winter of 54–53 BC, the Segni assured Julius Caesar, by means of an embassy, that they would not make common cause with the other Germani Cisrhenani.

The Sunuci was the name of a tribal grouping with a particular territory within the Roman province of Germania Inferior, which later became Germania Secunda. Within this province, they were in the Civitas Agrippinenses, with its capital at Cologne. They are thought to have been a Germanic tribe, speaking a Germanic language, although they may also have had a mixed ancestry. They lived between the Meuse and Rur rivers in Roman imperial times. In modern terms this was probably in the part of Germany near Aachen, Jülich, Eschweiler and Düren, and the neighbouring areas in the southern Netherlands, around Valkenburg, and eastern Belgium, in part of the old Duchy of Limburg. There is a town just over the Belgian border from Aachen called Sinnich, in Voeren, which may owe its name to them. In other words, they lived just north of the modern northern limits of Romance languages derived from Latin.

The Baetasii were a Germanic tribal grouping within the Roman province of Germania Inferior, which later became Germania Secunda. Their exact location is still unknown, although two proposals are, first, that it might be the source of the name of the Belgian village of Geetbets, and second, that it might be further east, nearer to the Sunuci with whom they interacted in the Batavian revolt, and to the Cugerni who lived at Xanten. The area of Gennep, Goch and Geldern has been proposed for example.

The Cugerni were a Germanic tribal grouping with a particular territory within the Roman province of Germania Inferior, which later became Germania Secunda. More precisely they lived near modern Xanten, and the old Castra Vetera, on the Rhine. This part of Germania Secunda was called the Civitas or Colonia Traiana, and it was also inhabited by the Betasii.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Belgian Limburg</span>

The Belgian province of Limburg in Flanders is a region which has had many names and border changes over its long recorded history. Its modern name is a name shared with the neighbouring province of the Netherlands, with which it was for a while politically united. The two provinces received their modern name after 1815, based upon the name of the medieval Duchy of Limburg, which had actually been in what is now neighbouring Wallonia, centred upon the town of Limbourg on the Vesdre.

The Germani cisrhenani, or "Left bank Germani", were a group of Germanic peoples who lived west of the Lower Rhine at the time of the Gallic Wars in the mid-1st century BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civitas Tungrorum</span> Roman administrative district

The Civitas Tungrorum was a large Roman administrative district dominating what is now eastern Belgium and the southern Netherlands. In the early days of the Roman Empire it was in the province of Gallia Belgica, but it later joined the neighbouring lower Rhine River border districts, within the province of Germania Inferior. Its capital was Aduatuca Tungrorum, now Tongeren.

The Caeracates were small tribe dwelling in Gallia Belgica during the Roman period. Like the Aresaces, they were probably a sub-tribe (pagus) of the larger Treveri, since they were too small to form their own civitas.

Vihansa is the name of a Germanic goddess written on a bronze tablet found in Sint-Huibrechts-Hern, near Tongeren in modern Belgium.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Dietz 2006.
  2. 1 2 von Petrikovits 1999 : "Für die ältere Schicht ethnischer Namen, die Caesar anführt, der der G. C., ergibt sich aus den Untersuchungen G. Neumanns, daß von den zu behandelnden sieben VN drei sicher keltisch sind (Caerosi, Condrusi und Eburones), vier dagegen unklar sind (Aduatuci, Caemani, Segni und Tungri)."
  3. 1 2 Neumann 1999, p. 111: "Das Präfix con- deutet auf keltische Herkunft. (...) Dagegen ist das vorauszusetzende stammhafte Element *drus- noch nicht mit völliger Sicherheit gedeutet; doch ist auch bei ihm keltische Herkunft das Wahrscheinlichste."
  4. 1 2 3 4 Busse 2006, p. 199.
  5. ↑ Neumann 1999, pp. 110–111.
  6. ↑ Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico , 2:4; 6:32
  7. ↑ Orosius. Historiae Adversus Paganos, 6:7:14
  8. ↑ Falileyev 2010, entry 1967.
  9. 1 2 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum , VII:1073
  10. 1 2 Wightman 1985, p. 31.
  11. ↑ von Petrikovits 1999, p. 93.
  12. ↑ Neumann & Stolte 1984.
  13. ↑ See Petrokovits
  14. ↑ Charlier 2013.
  15. ↑ Charlier 2013, pp. 92–93.
  16. ↑ Roland 1920.
  17. ↑ L'Année Épigraphique , 1968:311
  18. 1 2 3 Charlier 2013, p. 94.
  19. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum , XIII:8815
  20. 1 2 Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 2.4
  21. ↑ 4.6
  22. ↑ 6.32
  23. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum , XVI:125
  24. ↑ Nonn 1983, p. 104.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.