Menapii

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Menapii

Category:Tribes involved in Caesar's Gallic Wars The Menapii were a Belgic

Belgae

The Belgae were a group of tribes living in northern Gaul in the 1st century BC, and later also in Roman Britain. They gave their name to the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, and later, to the modern country of Belgium, where they are colloquially known as the "Old Belgians"....
tribe of northern Gaul

Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
in pre-Roman and Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
times. Their territory according to Strabo

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
and Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Rhine

File:Swiss Grand Canyon.jpgThe Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at , with an average discharge of more than ....
and from there extending southwards along the Schelde. Their civitas
Civitas

In the history of the Roman Empire, the Latin term civitas referred to the condition of Roman citizenship. It was also used to describe a type of settlement....
was Cassel (northern France), near Terouanne.

Their neighbours were:

The Menapii were persistent opponents of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

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Category:Tribes involved in Caesar's Gallic Wars The Menapii were a Belgic

Belgae

Gaul

Roman Empire

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
and Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Rhine

west: Morini
Morini

The Morini were a Belgic tribe in the time of the Roman Empire. We know little about their language but one of their cities, Boulogne-sur-Mer was called Bononia by Zosimus and Bonen in the Middle Ages....
south-east: Nervii
Nervii

The Nervii were one of the most powerful Belgae tribes, living in the northeastern hinterlands of Gaul they were known to trek long distances to engage in various wars and functions....
north-east Eburones
Eburones

The Eburones , were a people of Germanic or Celtic descent that lived in the upper north of Gaul largely between the Rhine and the Maas, east of the Menapii....
(until Caesar's time)
east Tungri
Tungri

The Tungri were a tribe of Gaul and Germania. In a casual aside in Germania Tacitus remarks that Germani was the original tribal name of the Tungri with whom the Gauls were in contact; among the Gauls the term Germani came to be widely applied....
(after Augustus' time)
south: Atrebates
Atrebates

The Atrebates were a Belgae tribe of Gaul and Great Britain before the Roman conquests. According to Alexander MacBain, the name Attrebates is related to the Irish language aitreibh, ?building,? Old Irish aittreb, ?building,? and Welsh language adref, ?homewards,? going on to state that the Celtic languages root treb cor...
north (beyond the Schelde estuary): Sicambri
Sicambri

The Sicambri were a Germanic people living in what is now called the Netherlands at the turn of the first millennium.Originating in the Germanic peoples-Celts contact zone , they had become Franks by the 4th century, associated with the Low Franconian Salian Franks....
and Batavi

The Menapii were persistent opponents of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
's conquest of Gaul, resisting until 54 BC. They were part of the Belgic confederacy defeated by Caesar in 57 BC, contributing 9,000 men. The following year they sided with the Veneti

Veneti (Gaul)

The Veneti were a seafaring Celtic people who lived in the Brittany peninsula , which in Roman times formed part of an area called Aremorica. They gave their name to the modern city of Vannes....
against Caesar. Caesar was again victorious, but the Menapii and the Morini

Morini

The Morini were a Belgic tribe in the time of the Roman Empire. We know little about their language but one of their cities, Boulogne-sur-Mer was called Bononia by Zosimus and Bonen in the Middle Ages....
refused to make peace and continued to fight against him. They withdrew into the forests and swamps and conducted a hit-and-run campaign. Caesar responded by cutting down the forests, seizing their cattle and burning their settlements, but this was interrupted by heavy rain and the onset of winter, and the Menapii and Morini withdrew further into the forests. In 55 BC the Menapii tried to resist a Germanic

Germanic peoples

File:Germanische-ratsversammlung 1-1250x715.jpgThe Germanic peoples are a historical Ethnolinguistics group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European languages Germanic languages which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age....
incursion across the Rhine

Rhine

File:Swiss Grand Canyon.jpgThe Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at , with an average discharge of more than ....
, but were defeated. Later that year, while Caesar made his first expedition to Britain

Caesar's invasions of Britain

During his Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar invaded Great Britain twice, in 55 and 54 BC. The first invasion, made late in summer, was either intended as a full invasion or a reconnaissance-in-force expedition....
, he sent two of his legates

Legatus

A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of Roman senate rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes....
and the majority of his army to the territories of the Menapii and Morini to keep them under control. Once again, they retired to the woods, and the Romans burned their crops and settlements. The Menapii joined the revolt led by Ambiorix

Ambiorix

Ambiorix was, together with Catuvolcus, prince of the Eburones, leader of a Belgae tribe of north-eastern Gaul , where modern Belgium is located....
in 54 BC. Caesar says that they, alone of all the tribes of Gaul, had never sent ambassadors to him to discuss terms of peace, and had ties of hospitality with Ambiorix. For that reason he decided to lead five legions

Roman legion

The Roman Legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire....
against them. A renewed campaign of devastation finally forced them to submit, and Caesar placed his ally Commius

Commius

Commius was a historical king of the Belgae nation of the Atrebates, initially in Gaul, then in Prehistoric Britain, in the 1st century BC....
of the Atrebates

Atrebates

The Atrebates were a Belgae tribe of Gaul and Great Britain before the Roman conquests. According to Alexander MacBain, the name Attrebates is related to the Irish language aitreibh, ?building,? Old Irish aittreb, ?building,? and Welsh language adref, ?homewards,? going on to state that the Celtic languages root treb cor...
in control of them.

The Menapii are attested in Strabo

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
's 1st-century Geographica
Geographica (Strabo)

The Geographica , or Geography, is a 17-volume encyclopedia of geographical knowledge written in Ancient Greek by Strabo, an educated citizen of the Roman empire of Greek and Georgian descent....
, situated north of the Nervii

Nervii

The Nervii were one of the most powerful Belgae tribes, living in the northeastern hinterlands of Gaul they were known to trek long distances to engage in various wars and functions....
at the mouth of the Rhine. They are also referref to in Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman Greek mathematics, Greek astronomy, geographer and astrologer. He lived in History of Roman Egypt, and was probably born there in a town in the Thebaid called Ptolemais Hermiou; he died in Alexandria around 168 AD....
's 2nd century Geographia
Geographia (Ptolemy)

The Geographia or Geography is Ptolemy's main work besides the Almagest. It is a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire of the 2nd century....
, situated between the Tungri

Tungri

The Tungri were a tribe of Gaul and Germania. In a casual aside in Germania Tacitus remarks that Germani was the original tribal name of the Tungri with whom the Gauls were in contact; among the Gauls the term Germani came to be widely applied....
and the Nervii

Nervii

The Nervii were one of the most powerful Belgae tribes, living in the northeastern hinterlands of Gaul they were known to trek long distances to engage in various wars and functions....
. Ptolemy also mentions a tribe called the Manapi living in south-eastern Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
. Place-names such as Fermanagh are thought to reflect their presence in north-western Ireland.

A cohort

Cohort

Cohort may refer to:* Cohort * Cohort , a group of proximate data and/or operations* Cohort , a group of subjects with a common defining characteristic ? typically age group...
of Menapian auxiliaries

Auxiliaries (Roman military)

Auxiliaries formed the standing non-citizen corps of the Roman army of the Principate , alongside the citizen Roman legion. By the 2nd century, the auxilia contained the same number of infantry as the legions and in addition provided almost all the Roman army's Roman cavalry and more specialised troops ....
is attested by inscriptions dating to the 2nd century in Britain

Roman Britain

Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia....
. Carausius

Carausius

Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Carausius was a military commander of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. He was a Menapii, born in the western part of Betuwe, who Roman usurper power in 286, declaring himself emperor of Roman Britain and northern Gaul....
, the 3rd century commander of the Roman fleet who declared himself emperor of Britain and northern Gaul, was a Menapian, born in Batavia

Betuwe

Betuwe is an area in the Netherlands in the province of Gelderland. Tacitus knew it as Insula Batavorum and indeed it could be considered a large river island, but nowadays it hardly ever is viewed as such ....
. A legion called the Menapii Seniores is mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum
Notitia Dignitatum

The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Ancient Rome imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western Roman empires, listing several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial level....
, a 5th century register of Roman government positions and military commands.

Etymology

A suggested etymology of Menapii: *Meen + *ape. Meen = main house, large house in a village where people met, justice was spoken, decisions proposed and voted: compare Dutch "gemeen" (common), "gemeente" (congregation or municipality) and "meent" (common fields to a small community). The suffix -ape (water) can still be found in Dutch villages like Gennep (Ghennepe), Jisp (Gyspe), Nispen (Nisipa) and Weesp (Wesepa=Wese+apa), thus yielding the generic Germanic equivalent "community along the water". Probably the name refers to a (Celtic) social organisation. [hypothesis] This could mean that populations slightly south of the Rhine, mentioned by Strabo and Ptolemy, had the same social system and therefore were called Menapii also.