Atuatuci

Last updated
Map Gallia Tribes Towns.png

The Atuatuci (or Aduatuci) were a Gallic-Germanic tribe, [1] [2] dwelling in the eastern part of modern-day Belgium during the Iron Age. [1]

Contents

They fought the Roman armies of Julius Caesar during the Gallic Wars (58–50 BC). In the Battle of the Sabis (57 BC), the Atuatuci sent troops to assist their Belgic neighbours, the Nervii, Atrebates and Viromandui, but were too late to avoid an eventual Roman victory. After they withdrew to their oppidum (fortress), the Atuatuci were later defeated by the Romans during the siege of the Atuatuci (57 BC). According to Caesar, 4,000 of the Atuatici perished in the seizure of their stronghold, and 53,000 of them were reduced to slavery. Several years later in 54 BC the Atuatuci suffered further retribution when they were involved with their neighbours in a failed rebellion against the Romans. Following the devastation of the tribe, which left only a number of small groups, the Atuatuci disappeared from historical records and likely assimilated into neighbouring tribes.

Name

Attestations

Whether Atuatuci or Aduatuci is the original form of the ethnic name remains uncertain. [3] The place name Atuatuca is first mentioned by Caesar in The Gallic War . In the earliest surviving manuscript of the text, dated to the early 9th c. AD, the name is given as Aduatuca. [3] The tribal name also appears three times as Aduatuco- in the manuscript, although they are also named Atouatikoí (Ἀτουατικοί) by Cassius Dio (ca. 230 AD). [4] [3]

The reason for this spelling variation has been debated. [5] Maurits Gysseling has proposed that Atuatuca was the original form, which later gave way to Aduatuca under the influence of Romance languages. [5] Lauran Toorians argues on the contrary that the original Gaulish prefix ad- was changed to at- as the result of a hypercorrection by medieval copyists, who may have thought that the ad- form had emerged under the influence of the Old French phonology during the first millennium AD. [6]

Etymology

If most scholars agree that the names Atuatuci and Aduatuca are of Gaulish origin, their actual meaning is still unclear. [7] [8] [9] According to Xavier Delamarre, the latter may be formed with the Gaulish suffix ad- ('towards') attached to the root uātu- ('Vātis, soothsayer, seer, prophet') and the suffix -cā (feminine of -āco-, denoting the provenance or localization). An original Gaulish form *ad-uātu-cā ('place of the soothsayer, where one goes to prophesy') has thus been proposed. [8] [9] Accordingly, the ethnic name Atuatuci could mean 'those pertaining to the soothsayer', perhaps 'following the soothsayer'. [6]

The meaning 'the fortress', with Atuatuci as 'the fortress people', has also been postulated by Alfred Holder in 1896, by reconstructing the name in Gaulish as *ad-uatucā and comparing the second element to the Old Irish faidche ('the free place, the field near a dún [fortress]' < *uaticiā), [7] [9] although this has been debated as linguistically untenable in more recent scholarship. [9]

Geography

The Atuatuci lived near the Germani Cisrhenani without being described by Caesar as part of them. Their territory was located between that of the Belgic Nervii and the Celtic-Germanic Eburones. [1] According to Caesar, the Eburones were paying tribute to the Atuatuci, who were holding hostages in chains and slavery, including the son and nephew of the Eburonean king Ambiorix. [10] Willy Vanvinckenroye has argued that the Eburones did not have their own strongholds and used instead the fortress of the Atuatuci to house troops since they were tributary to them. [11]

Following the disappearance of the Atuatuci and Eburones from written records after the mid-first century BC (Caesar), the area was settled by the Tungri, who were mentioned one century later by Pliny the Elder. [12]

Settlement

During the Gallic Wars (58–50 BC), the Atuatuci held a fortress, besieged by Caesar in 57 BC, which has not yet been identified with certainty by archaeologists. [13] [14] In his account of the siege of the Atuatuci, Caesar mentions that their stronghold was fortified by "stones of great weight", sharpened beams, and walls built with manned stations. The settlement was also described as "admirably fortified by Nature", surrounded by cliffs on both sides, and accessible only by a narrow route. [15] [2] According to Caesar, it was large enough to shelter at least 57,000 people. [16]

Edith Wightman notes that "many attempts have been made to identify [the fortress], especially the one in which Caesar besieged them in 57; most candidates are close to the Meuse, which Caesar does not mention". [17]

From the description, it was a promontory fort or epéron barré, but the lack of any reference to a major river argues against the citadel at Namur, and the Mont Falhize near Huy, both of them washed by the Meuse. Reoccupation of the earlier fort of Hastedon (St. Servais, just north of Namur) is a possibility. Other candidates are not lacking, but they lie mostly in the Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse area, which probably belonged to the Nervii.

—  Edith M. Wightman, Gallia Belgica, 1985, p. 36.

Apart from Mont Falize and Hastedon, Nico Roymans has more recently proposed in 2012 the "Bois du Grand Bon Dieu", a forested hill south of the city of Thuin between Charleroi and the French border, in the Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse area, as "a serious contender" for the location of the stronghold. [18] The arguments for this location have been summarized as follows: [19]

  1. This "was an important Late Iron Age fortification which was situated in the territory of the Aduatuci and that did not survive into Roman times",
  2. It is argued that the topography matches that described by Caesar,
  3. The authors dated gold hoards to the early 50s BC, "which seems to reflect a single event",
  4. Finally, "and very importantly, the concentrations of Roman lead sling bullets which indicate a siege by the Roman army".

History

The Atuatuci are mentioned in two classical sources: Caesar's Gallic War (mid-1st c. BC) and Cassius Dio's Historia Romana (early-3rd c. AD). [20] [21]

Origin

According to Caesar, the Atuatuci descended from some 6,000 wandering Cimbri and Teutoni who had stayed behind in the north when the two peoples invaded Gaul in the 2nd century BC. [22] [1] Following this tradition, Cassius Dio (ca. 230) likewise mentioned the Atuatuci as "[belonging] to the Cimbri by race and temperament". [23]

The tribe was descended from the Cimbri and Teutoni, who, upon their march into our Province and Italy, set down such of their stock and stuff as they could not drive or carry with them on the near (i.e. west) side of the Rhine, and left six thousand men of their company therewith as guard and garrison. This party, after the destruction of the others, were harassed for many years by their neighbours, and fought sometimes on the offensive, sometimes on the defensive; then by general agreement among them peace was made, and they chose this place to be their habitation.

— Julius Caesar, Bellum Gallicum. 5, 29. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by H. J. Edwards (1917).

However, Wightman noted in 1985 that "no late incomers have been archaeologically identified (unless the use of caves as refuges, and the massacre in the Trou de l'Ambre, are connected)." [17] Furthermore, Caesar himself appears to contrast the Atuatuci with the Germanic peoples, grouping them instead with the Belgic Nervii and Menapii in a list of enemies: "Caesar had report of this, and saw preparations for war on every hand: the Nervii, Aduatuci, and Menapii, and all the Germani on this side of the Rhine with them, were in arms; (...)." [24]

Gallic Wars

Battle of the Sabis (57 BC)

The Battle of the Sabis took place in 57 BC between the Romans and the Belgic Nervians, Atrebates and Viromandui. Though the Roman forces of Julius Caesar eventually managed to overcome the Nervians, they were almost defeated. [25] The Atuatuci were initially coming with troops to assist, but hearing of the Nervian defeat, they abandoned all their towns and forts and retreated to an oppidum. [26]

Siege of the Atuatuci (57 BC)

The Atuatuci Sold at Auction (1880) by Remy Cogghe, in a copy by Ernest Cracco Les Aduatiques Vendus a l'Encan (detail).jpg
The Atuatuci Sold at Auction (1880) by Rémy Cogghe, in a copy by Ernest Cracco

The Romans followed the Atuatuci while they fled and besieged their oppidum. Upon the first arrival of the Roman army, the Atuatuci made frequent sallies from the stronghold, and engaged in petty encounters with Roman troops. [27] According to Caesar, the inhabitants initially laughed at the Roman work, since their siege towers, mantlets, and ramparts were being erected far from the oppidum and, Caesar follows, the Atuatuci remarked the incongruity of such a large device being constructed by such small men. [28] [29] As they saw the Roman troops approaching the settlement with siege weapons, however, the Atuatuci offered to surrender. Caesar accepted, and they opened the gates of their fortress. [30]

In fear of looting and violence from his own men against the inhabitants, Caesar reportedly ordered the Roman troops out of the fortress. The Atuatuci seized the opportunity to engage the Romans in a surprise attack, using improvised shields and weapons they had concealed within the settlement, but they were eventually defeated. [31] According to Caesar, 4,000 of them were killed, and the entire surviving population of 53,000 were sold into slavery. [32]

Alliance with the Eburones and Treveri (54 BC)

In 54 BC, under encouragement from the Treverian king Indutiomarus, the Eburonean king Ambiorix attacked and defeated a Roman force who had been stationed with him. He then went directly to the Atuatuci and then the Nervii, to encourage them to join in an uprising against Rome. [33] The Menapii, Senones and Carnuti also joined in this uprising and prepared for war, [34] but Caesar and his forces killed Indutomarius, then succeeded in repressing the rebellion and to punish his allies, ordering his men to lay waste to the region which adjoins the Aduatuci. [35]

Roman period

The Atuatuci disappeared from written records after Caesar's mention in the mid-first century BC. [36] Although the Roman era capital of the Tungri, Atuatuca Tungrorum (modern Tongeren), shares a close linguistic relation with the Atuatuci, [3] it cannot be linked to the tribe with certainty. [17] The ancient name of the settlement is rendered as Atuatuca Tungrorum on the basis of written sources from the beginning of the Common Era. [37] [note 1] According to Edith Wightman, "changes which took place after Caesar, involving new folk from across the Rhine and reorganization of existing peoples, make localization difficult." [17] Alain Vanderhoeven also notes that there is no evidence of human settlement in Tongeren during the Iron Age. [38]

Small survivor groups of the Atuatuci may have contributed to the ethnic composition of the Tungri, a Germanic tribe attested in the region by the 1st century AD. [39]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambiorix</span> Eburonian king

Ambiorix was, together with Cativolcus, prince of the Eburones, leader of a Belgic tribe of north-eastern Gaul, where modern Belgium is located. In the nineteenth century Ambiorix became a Belgian national hero because of his resistance against Julius Caesar, as written in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico.

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

Tongeren is a city and 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.

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

The Nervii 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 into French Hainault. 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">Menapii</span> Belgic tribe

The Menapii were a Belgic tribe dwelling near the North Sea, around present-day Cassel, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.

<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, Tongerlo Abbey, and Tongelre.

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

The Remi 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 and parts of the Aisne and Meuse departments.

<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 that 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.

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

The Suessiones were a Belgic tribe, dwelling in the modern Aisne and Oise regions during the La Tène and Roman periods.

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

The Condrusi were an ancient Belgic-Germanic tribe dwelling in what is now eastern Belgium during the Gallic Wars 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 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.

Atuatuca is the name of two ancient fortified settlements located in the eastern part of modern Belgium, between the Scheldt and Rhine rivers. The oldest one, Atuatuca Eboronum, attested during the Gallic Wars, was the stronghold of the Eburones. The other one, Atuatuca Tungrorum, founded around 10 BC, was the Roman-era capital of the Civitas Tungrorum, inhabited by the Tungri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tencteri</span>

The Tencteri or Tenchteri or Tenctheri were an ancient tribe, who moved into the area on the right bank of the lower Rhine in the 1st century BC. They are known first from the surviving works of ancient authors such as Julius Caesar and Tacitus. In December 2015, archaeologists believed they found remains of the Tencteri in The Netherlands.

Cativolcus or Catuvolcus was king of half of the country of the Eburones, a people between the Meuse and Rhine rivers, united with Ambiorix, the other king, in the insurrection against the Romans in 54 BC; but when Julius Caesar in the next year proceeded to devastate the territories of the Eburones, Cativolcus, who was advanced in age and unable to endure the labours of war and flight, poisoned himself with a yew, after imprecating curses upon Ambiorix.

Indutiomarus was a leading aristocrat of the Treveri 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 son-in-law Cingetorix for "supreme power" in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambiorix's revolt</span> 54–53 BC, Gallic tribes v. Roman Republic

Ambiorix's revolt was an episode during the Gallic Wars between 54 and 53 BC in which the Eburones tribe, under its leader, Ambiorix, rebelled against the Roman Republic.

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.

<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.

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Known as 'Atouatoukon' ca. 170 AD (Ptolemy), 'Tungri' in the late 4th c. AD (Ammianus Marcellinus), 'civitas Tungrorum' (Notitia Galliarum), 'Aduaga Tungrorum' (Antonine Itinerary), or 'Atuaca' (Tabula Peutingeriana). [37] [3]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Dietz 2006.
  2. 1 2 Riggsby 2006, p. 75.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Toorians 2013, p. 109.
  4. ↑ Dio Cassius 1914 : 39:4
  5. 1 2 Toorians 2013, pp. 109–110.
  6. 1 2 Toorians 2013, p. 111.
  7. 1 2 Gohil 2006, p. 78.
  8. 1 2 Delamarre 2003, p. 308.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Toorians 2013, p. 110.
  10. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 5:27
  11. ↑ Vanvinckenroye 2001, p. 53.
  12. ↑ Wightman 1985 , p. 53: "An area without any clear organization lay beyond the eastern Ardennes and Eifel, where devastation of Eburones and Atuatuci left a number of small groups. Eburones and Atuatuci disappear from the written record; their replacement, the Tungri, are first mentioned by Pliny."
  13. ↑ Wightman 1985, p. 36.
  14. ↑ Toorians 2013, p. 108.
  15. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 2:29
  16. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 2:33
  17. 1 2 3 4 Wightman 1985, p. 30.
  18. ↑ Roymans, Creemers & Scheers 2012, p. 83.
  19. ↑ Roymans & Fernández-Götz 2015, p. 75.
  20. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 2:4 , 2:16 , 2:29 – 2:33 , 5:27 , 5:38 – 5:39 , 5:56 , 6:2 , 6:33
  21. ↑ Dio Cassius 1914 : 39:4
  22. ↑ Wightman 1985 , p. 30: "…as well as the Atuatuci, the last supposedly descended from 6,000 wandering Teutones who had stayed behind in the north. These last are generally supposed to have occupied the middle Meuse valley, perhaps rightly, though the reasoning is suspect."
  23. ↑ Dio Cassius 1914 : 39:4
  24. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 6:2
  25. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 2:27
  26. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 2:29
  27. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 2:30 : "Ac primo adventu exercitus nostri crebras ex oppido excursiones faciebant parvulisque proeliis cum nostris contendebant;..."
  28. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 2:30 : "When our mantlets had been pushed up and a ramp constructed, and they saw a tower set up in the distance, they first of all laughed at us from the wall, and loudly railed upon us for erecting so great an engine at so great a distance. By what handiwork, said they, by what strength could men, especially of so puny a stature (for, as a rule, our stature, short by comparison with their own huge physique, is despised of the Gauls), hope to set so heavy a tower on the wall?"
  29. ↑ Riggsby 2006, pp. 74–75.
  30. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 2:31
  31. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 2:33
  32. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 2:33
  33. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 5:38 : "Elated by this victory, Ambiorix at once set out with his cavalry for the country of the Aduatuci, which lay next to his kingdom; he marched without a break, for a night and a day, ordering his infantry to follow after him. Having reported the battle and aroused the Aduatuci, he came the next day into the territory of the Nervii, and exhorted them not to let slip the chance of winning freedom for all time and of taking vengeance on the Romans for the outrages they had suffered."
  34. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 5:56 , 6:2 .
  35. ↑ Caesar 1917 : 6:33 : "Gaium Trebonium cum pari legionum numero ad eam regionem quae ad Aduatucos adiacet depopulandam mittit;..."
  36. ↑ Wightman 1985, p. 53.
  37. 1 2 Vanderhoeven 2004, p. 481.
  38. ↑ Vanderhoeven 2004, p. 482.
  39. ↑ Raepsaet 2013 , pp. 135–136: "Dans le territoire qui sera celui de la cité, la situation évolue au départ d’un castellum éburon vers un caput civitatis d’époque romaine, d’une dénomination Atuatuca chez César à Atuatuca Tungrorum, dont le nom même évoque les Atuatuci ; ceux-ci semblent disparaître mais survivent peut-être dans la population de la cité, à l’instar des Éburons dont le nom est officiellement rayé."

Bibliography

Primary 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.