Toxandri
The Toxandri (or Texuandri, Taxandri, Toxandrians etc.) were a Germanic tribe who settled in the modern Campine (Dutch Kempen) region of Netherlands and Flanders. The location of the tribe was described roughly by Plinius in his Naturalis Historia. He also said that they go by several names.[1] Their name is also preserved in modern placenames such as Tessenderlo.[2]
The name first appears during the first centuries AD, when the area had become part of the Roman empire. They lived in the northern part of the area of the Civitas Tungrorum, a part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. They were therefore either a part of the Tungri tribe, or possibly subject to them. (The modern town of Tongerlo, named after the Tungri, is very close to Tessenderlo, but actually further from the city of the Tungri which is modern Tongeren.)
The Toxandri may have been made up of Germanic immigrants from the east of the Rhine, settling Roman territory, as certainly happened closer to the Rhine - for example the Ubii to the east near Cologne, the Cugerni to the northeast near Xanten, and the Batavians directly to the north of the Toxandri, in the Rhine-Meuse delta. On the other hand, while Germanic immigration is thought to have affected this whole area, it is sometimes argued that the Toxandri and Tungri may also represent a continuation of earlier populations under new names.
The name of the "Tungri" themselves also only appears in Roman imperial times. Before the takeover of Rome in this region, in the commentary Julius Caesar gave of his campaign in the area the Germani had been the tribal group living in approximately the same area, made up of the Eburones, the Condrusi, the Paemani, the Caeroesi, and the Segni. The Eburones were the biggest group within the Germani, and their territory at least over-lapped with that of the later Toxandri. Tacitus suggested that the Tungri were the same as the original Germani, and had changed their name.[3] This is often interpreted as implying that the Tungri, a name later used to refer to all the tribes of this area, where descendants of several tribes including the ones Caesar referred as being called Germani collectively.[4] The name may even be an artificial name meaning "the sworn ones" or confederates.[5]
The etymology of the name Toxandri is uncertain, but it has been proposed that it may be a translations of the original Gaulish name of the Eburones, referring to the yew tree (taxus in Latin). (But this is not the only possible explanation of the name.) Also, like the Condrusi, one of the earlier Germani tribes mentioned by Caesar, the Texuandri or Toxandrians were recognized by the Romans as a distinct grouping for the administrative purpose of mustering troops.[5]
In the middle of the 4th century, the Salian Franks settled as foederati in Toxandria, which eventually became the name of a county in early medieval Lower Lotharingia. Once again at this point in history it is not clear if the Toxandri were driven away or merged into the large Germanic tribal federation of the Franks. The last seems most likely.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Pliny the Elder. The Natural History (eds. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. 1855) Book IV. An account of countries, nations, seas, towns, havens, mountains, rivers, distances, and peoples who now exist of formerly existed. Chap. 31. (17.) - Gallia Belgica. [1]
- ^ Gysseling, Maurits (1960), Toponymisch Woordenboek van België, Nederland, Luxemburg, Noord-Frankrijk en West-Duitsland, http://www.wulfila.be/tw/facsimile/?page=956
- ^ Tacitus, Germania, II 2. ceterum Germaniae vocabulum recens et nuper additum, quoniamqui primi Rhenum transgressi Gallos expulerint ac nunc Tungri, tunc Germani vocati sint: ita nationis nomen, nongentis, evaluisse paulatim, ut omnes primum a victore obmetum, mox et a se ipsis invento nomine Germani vocarentur.
- ^ Vanderhoeven, Alain; Vanderhoeven, Michel, "Confrontation in Archaeology: Aspects of Roman Military in Tongeren", Archaeology in confrontation: aspects of Roman military presence in the northwest, Ghent University, p. 143, http://books.google.com/books?id=zY4g1kfWvCMC&pg=PA143
- ^ a b Wightman, Edith Mary (1985), Gallia Belgica, University of California Press, http://books.google.com/books?id=aEyS54uSj88C, page 53-54.
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