User:Alcaios/Gauls

MENAPII

Territory
The Menapii dwelled on the North Sea Coast near the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, north of the Nervii, and east of the Morini. The region of Cassel, between the Escaut and Aa rivers, which they occupied during the Roman period, probably originally belonged to the Morini until it was given to them after the Morinian revolt against Rome in 29 BC.

Settlements
Their chief town during the Roman period was Castellum Menapiorum (modern Cassel), most likely built after 29 BC. The name is a hybrid Latin–Celtic form meaning 'fort of the Menapii' and was often abbreviated as Kástellon (Κάστελλον) or Castello by ancient sources.

Castellum Menapiorum was located on a hill overlooking the coastal plain of the North Sea, with two ancient roads linking the settlement to the North Sea Coast and its salt manufacturing activity. Salt was transported from the coast to Cassel, then to Thiennes, on the Lys river, from which it was exported towards the Scheldt and the Rhine river mouth. After salt manufacturing was abandoned in the mid-3rd century AD, following the Transgression marine Dunkerque II marine transgression that flood and coastal plain and the coming of Frankish and Saxon pirates in the area, their capital was transferred some time before the end of the 4th century AD to Turnacum, located further east in the islands, thus providing evidence of the threats coming from the sea during this period.

Turnacum (Tournai):

Economy
Salt manufacturers: salinatores civitatis Menapiorum, mentioned in the Flavian period.

Germani Cisrhenani
Eburones, Condrusi, Caeraesi, Segni, Paemani.

In the case of the cisrhenani Germani, it is not even possible to decide for sure whether these tribes themselves acquired the designation Germani or whether the neighbouring (Celtic) tribes did so. On the other hand, it is not very likely that it was Caesar who gave them the name, but at least he took it over, and that means that he considered their kinship to the non-Celtic tribes on the right bank of the Rhine to be given, which he - in a most momentous way - summarised under the term "Germani. Caesar probably coined the adjective cisrhenanus in analogy to cisalpinus

1) In a few cases, the name in question has been handed down in two variants, whereby we do not always know for certain which of these is historically correct, and which is merely the result of an error in the hand-written tradition. 2) Most etymological suggestions for interpretation remain uncertain and non-binding, several alternatives stand side by side, often without one of them being clearly preferable. 3) It is a well-known phenomenon that ethnic groups occasionally receive their names from their neighbours. So if - which is possible, but no longer recognisable - there is such an external naming (for example, of rarely the Celts), then it remains unclear for us whether this VN should say something about the language of the ethnos in question. 4) Furthermore, the possibility must be considered that these groups have reorganised themselves, in which case old tribal names may have been abandoned, new ones created or adopted. In this case, these names do not have to directly reflect the language still predominantly used in the respective ethnos. 5) In the case of the cisrhenani Germani, we must reckon with the fact that they quickly - perhaps consciously and willingly - assimilated to their Celtic or, to an ever greater extent, Gallo-Roman, civilisationally superior environment.