Atuatuci

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.

In 1896 Alfred Holder reconstructed 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 criticized as linguistically untenable in more recent scholarship.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[18] The arguments for this location have been summarized as follows:[19] 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.

[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.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).

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.

[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.

[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.

[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.