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[German version] A people in Lower Germania, whose tribal area, attributed to the colonia Ulpia Traiana/Xanten, most likely lay between Erkelenz and Krefeld. The B. participated with one contingent in the revolt of  Julius Civilis (Plin. HN 4,106; Tac. Hist. 4,56,3; 66,1). Dietz, Karlheinz (Würzburg) Bibliography TIR M 31,39 C. B. Rüger, Germania Inferior, 1968, esp. 98f.

[German version] (‘offsprings, descendants’). One of the Germanic warrior communities living north of the Danube, identified by the Romans with the  Semnones [1; 2], defeated by the Romans (AE 1993, 1231; [5]) at Augsburg on 24/25 April AD 260 (unnecessary doubt over the date in [3], cf. [4]) on the way back from Italy. Annoyed at the absence of annual tributes, contrary to treaty and without a declaration of war, they advanced into Italy again in 270, but were overcome by Aurelianus ‘at the cross…

(Ἀμισία; Amisía). [German version] [1] Modern Ems river The modern river Ems, frequently mentioned (cf. Str. 7,1,3; Mela 3,30; Plin. HN 4,100; Tac. Ann. 1,60,2; Ptol. 2, 11, 1; 7; Marcianus of Heraclea, Periplus Maris exteri 2,32 GGM 1,555); in medieval documents named as Emisa and Emesa [1]. Dietz, Karlheinz (Würzburg) [German version] [2] Settlement, localization uncertain The localization of the settlement of A. (Ptol. 2,11,13; 8,6,3; Steph. Byz. s. v. A.) is uncertain, equally, whether Amisiae in Tac. Ann. 2,8 refers to the left arm of the Ems [2]…

[German version] (Varisti). Germanic tribe next to ( iuxta) the Hermunduri (Tac. Germ. 42,1) and between the Marcomanni and the Quadi (AE 1956, 124), in the vicinity of Pannonia (western Slovakia; cf. [1. 248-251]). Once friends of Rome ([2]; CIL III 4500), during the Marcomannic Wars  they became enemies (SHA Aur. 22,1), against whom Marcus [2] Aurelius campaigned [3. 104f.]; their leader Valao was killed in single combat by M. Valerius Maximianus (AE l.c.). 3,000 N. deserters were settled in the Empire (Cass. Dio 71,21; CIL X 7290 does not mention any N.). Dietz, Karlheinz (Würzburg) B…

[German version] According to Tacitus ‘an uncivilized and very poor’ ( mira feritas, foeda paupertas) but ‘happy’ ( beatius arbitrantur) northern people of hunters, whose classification as Germans or Sarmatians was left uncertain (Tac. Germ. 46). They undoubtedly were identical with the Phínnoi (Φίννοι) in northern Scandinavia, who were considered ‘neighbours’ of the Goths (Ptol. 2,11,16: Hs. X; 3,5,8; cf. Jord. Get. 3,22: mitissimi), but not Suomi Finns, who were only named thus in the 2nd half of the 12th cent. Because of the customs described in Tac. Ger…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Raeti, Raetia Today, the historic centre of Passau. The name was recorded rather late (Not. Dign. Occ. 35,24; Eugippius, Vita Severinus 19,1; 22,4; 24,1; 27,1; Batavini: ibid. 20,1; 22,1; 27,3). Located in  Raetia, across from Boiodurum/Innstadt in Noricum. A late Celtic oppidum between the Danube and the Inn was discontinued c. 100 years before the Roman settlement. The Roman settlement was quite dense since late Flavian times, but not yet clearly organized: the narrow, rectangular houses bel…

[German version] Problematic expression, attested only in Tac. Germ. 29,3: Tacitus does not count those peoples settled beyond the Rhine and Danube as belonging to the Germanic peoples, saying eos qui decumates agros exercent: levissimus quisque Gallorum et inopia audax dubiae possessionis solum occupavere; mox limite acto promotisque praesidiis sinus imperii et pars provinciae habentur. The partly fanciful discussion of this quotation, difficult as it is on linguistic and factual grounds, is as wide-ranging as it is fruitless. If decumates is generally viewed as an adject…

I. Italy [German version] A. Albulae Sulphurous sources of the Lago della Soforata on the right bank of the  Anio, 16 km from Rome; cult site. The springs are cold and have healing properties;  Nero had them canalized into the Domus Aurea. Large Roman   villa near Bagni della Regina. CIL XIV 3908-18. Uggeri, Giovanni (Florence) [German version] A. Angae In Bruttium between Consentia and Vibo Valentia, today Terme Caronte of Lamezia Terme. Uggeri, Giovanni (Florence) [German version] A. Apollinares Thermal springs between Careiae and  Tarquinii (It. Ant. 300); unidentified (…

[German version] Germanic tribe; uncertain etymology of the name; they were divided into the ‘small’ and the ‘large’ B. (Str. 7,1,3f.; Ptol. 2,11,6f.; 9) and settled between IJssel, Lippe and the upper reaches of the Ems, or rather between the upper reaches of the Ems and the Weser. Defeated by  Drusus in 12 BC, they took part in the fight against  Varus, and, with their seer  Veleda, were involved in the  Batavian revolt. After AD 98, they were decimated by the Chamavi and Angrivarii and driven away (Tac. Germ. 33,1). Later, Bructuri appear on the right bank of the Rhine between Colo…

[German version] Germanic people; on the basis of etymology inhabitants of a former Chattian territory; possibly to be identified with the  Chasuarii. As neighbours of the Bructeri and the Cherusci counted as the ‘weaker’ inland peoples (Str. 7,1,3f.; Vell. Pat. 2,105,1); possibly to be identified with the Attuarii, who show up in the 4th cent. as part of a Frankish confederacy (Amm. Marc. 20,10,2); during the Middle Ages the C. are settled from the lower Ruhr and Lippe to the left bank of the Rhine.  Chatti;  Francs Dietz, Karlheinz (Würzburg) Bibliography G. Neumann et al., s.v. Cha…

[German version] (the Frisians). A fairly ancient Germanic people (etymology not clear), first mentioned in Plin. HN 4,101, who, according to Tac. Germ. 34,1 comprised the Frisii maiores and minores; they could hardly have been the Frisiavones in Plin. (HN 4,101; 106) in the north of Belgica [1]. They lived to the north of the  Bructeri and to the west of the  Chauci, mainly between Oude Rijn and Ems. There were an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 settlements in the marshes and border regions of the moors of the provinces of Friesland and…

[German version] Modern Worms. As an ancient traffic junction at the crossing point of the road along the Rhine valley (CIL XVII 2,675), B. was occupied by various Roman troops (fort inside the town area) from the Augustan era to the end of the 1st cent. After that the vicus, which at times had been walled (CIL XIII 6244), flourished as a suburb of the civitas Vongionum. It was protected by milites II Flaviae (Not. Dign. occ. 41,8;20), but after a siege sometime before 409 (Jer. Ep. 123,15,3), it fell to the  Burgundiones,  Huns,  Alamanni, and (from 496)  Francs. Dietz, Karlheinz (Würzburg) Bib…

[German version] Forested area on the right bank of the Rhine in Germania (Tac. Ann. 1,50), marched through by Germanicus [2] after the mutiny in 14 AD, probably from Novaesium. Presumably identical to the Silva Heissi, mentioned in 796 AD, to the north of the Ruhr between Essen-Werden and Essen-Altstadt. Dietz, Karlheinz (Würzburg) Bibliography G. Neumann u. a., s. v. Caesia silva, RGA 4, 321 f.  J. Kunow, Das Limesvorland der südlichen Germania inferior, in: BJ 187, 1987, 63-77.

[German version] The modern Main, the largest, right-hand tributary of the Rhine (evidence in [1. 606]). It was of limited value for river navigation because of its meandering course, having to penetrate the wooded mountains of the Odenwald, Spessart and Rhön. Since further use required rule over the Main-Frankish bank region and the Main valley opened up no further important tribal region, it was logical for the Romans to push no farther east towards Lower and Upper Franconia from the important legionary camp of Mogontiacum (Mainz) a…

[German version] The Germanic ‘great people’ (μέγα ἔθνος; méga éthnos, Str. 7,1,3), the L. ( Lugiorum nomen), comprised many tribes, the most powerful being the Harii, the Helvecones, the Manimi, the Helisii and the Naha(na)rvali. Among the last, the cult community had its sacred grove (Tac. Germ. 43,2). Ptolemy differentiates L. Oma(n)noí, Didoûnoi and Boûroi (Λ. Ὀμαννοί/Ὀμανοί;, Διδοῦνοι, Βοῦροι, Ptol. 2,11,18; 20). As neighbours of the Suebi and the Goti, the L. settled in Silesia on the Oder and in the bordering regions along the Amber Road ( A…

[German version] (the Franks). Initially a loose league of smaller Germanic tribes on the right-hand side of the Rhine that slowly arose from economic and cultic common ground as well as through relationship by marriage of the princes ─ e.g. the  Am(p)sivarii,  Bructeri,  Chamavi,  Chattuarii, possibly  Chatti, whose ethnicities as well as the general name used since the 3rd cent. AD (Pan. Lat. 11,5,4; 7,2; etymology ‘those eager for battle’, ‘the daring’) lived on (see Tab. Peut. 2,1-3). Since the start of the 4th cent. there is also evidence of Francia. From c. AD 260 the F. repeate…

[German version] A Germanic ‘tribe’, made up of fighting and nomadic groups of various origins, formed after AD 180 in the course of the south-west wanderings of the Elbe-Germanic  Suebi, in particular by Semnones (Cass. Dio 71,20,2; Suda s. v. Κελτοί; Keltoí), which despite disputes with Rome was continuously self-renewing. Their name, first mentioned as A. (‘all men’) in the Byzantine exc. of Cass. Dio for AD 213 likely points to the openness of the battle group that broke apart old tribal formations. Therefore, the independent  Iuth…

[German version] [1] M. Vinxt modern Vinxt. Town at the place (near Sinzig) where the road between Bonn and Remagen reaches the border between Germania inferior and superior ( Obrinkas Ptol. 29,2; 8f.; cf. Abrinkas Marcianus 2,28, < Celt. * aber ‘mouth’). Altars to the (Nymphae) Fines have been found there and, on both sides, inscriptions by beneficiarii and soldiers (CIL XIII 7713; 7724; 7731f.). Dietz, Karlheinz (Würzburg) Bibliography C. B. Rüger, Germania Inferior, 1968, 47-49. [German version] [2] M. Pfyn near Frauenfeld modern Pfyn near Frauenfeld (Switzerland), vicus of the…

[German version] Germanic tribe that Str. 7,1,3 counts among the weaker tribes, together with the Cherusci, Chatti and Chattuari. A version of the Mannus-genealogy ( Herminones) ranked the G., together with the Marsi, Suebi and Vandili, among the original Germanic tribes (Tac. Germ. 2,2). A connection with the Sugambri seems to be linguistically indicated, but the fact that Str. loc. cit. mentions both names in the same context argues against their being identical. Dietz, Karlheinz (Würzburg) Bibliography G. Neumann, D. Timpe, s.v. G., RGA 10, 406-409.

[German version] Today Lago di Garda. Largest Alpine lake in the area of Verona (Plin. HN 9,75), with a length of 500 stadia (along the eastern shore road; cf. Str. 4,6,12; Plin. HN 2,224; 3,131); the river Mincius flows through it. It was navigable despite severe storms (Verg. G. 2,160). The Benacenses (TIR L 32,33) lived on the western shore. Dietz, Karlheinz (Würzburg) Bibliography TIR L 32,80 A. Mosca, Caratteri della navigazione nell'area benacense in età romana, in: Latomus 50, 1991, 269-284.