Treveri

The Treveri (Gaulish: *Treweroi) were a Germanic or Celtic[1] tribe of the Belgae group who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle in modern day Germany from around 150 BCE, if not earlier,[2] until their displacement by the Franks.

[11] On the other hand, the Treveri supplied the Roman army with some of its most famous cavalry,[10] and the city of Augusta Treverorum was home for a time to the family of Germanicus, including the future emperor Gaius (Caligula).

[27] Linguists Rudolf Thurneysen and Xavier Delamarre have proposed to interpret the name as trē-uer- ('ferrymen'), composed of a suffix trē- (earlier *trei- 'through, across'; cf.

Skt vār, ON vari 'water'), This etymology is reinforced by the Old Irish cognate treóir (from *trē-uori-), meaning 'ford, place to cross a river'.

To the south their neighbours were the Mediomatrici[36] Later the Vangiones and Nemetes, whom ancient sources identify as Germanic, would settle to the east of the Treveri along the Rhine;[37] thereafter, Treveran territory in present-day Germany was probably similar to that which afterwards became the Diocese of Trier.

[5][41] There is strong evidence that the recently excavated oppidum on the Titelberg plateau in the extreme southwest of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was the Treveran capital during the 1st century BCE.

[citation needed] Archaeological evidence suggests that the Treveri were divided into five cantons centred respectively on the pre-Roman oppida of the Titelberg, Wallendorf, Kastel, Otzenhausen and the Martberg.

[47] The 4th-century poet Ausonius lived in Trier under the Gratian's patronage; he is most famous for his poem Mosella, evoking life and scenery along the Treveri's arterial river.

According to the Roman consul Aulus Hirtius in the 1st century BCE, the Treveri differed little from Germanic peoples in their manner of life and "savage" behaviour.

[50] Strabo says that their Nervian and Tribocan neighbours were Germanic peoples who by that point had settled on the left bank of the Rhine, while the Treveri are implied to be Gaulish.

[56] During the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius and Claudius, and particularly when Drusus and Germanicus were active in Gaul, Augusta Treverorum rose to considerable importance as a base and supply centre for campaigns in Germany.

[12] Pliny the Elder reports that Germanicus' son, the future emperor Gaius (Caligula), was born "among the Treveri, at the village of Ambiatinus, above Confluentes (Koblenz)", but Suetonius notes that this birthplace was disputed by other sources.

[66] The Romans quickly re-established cordial relations with the Treveri under Indus, who promised obedience to Rome; in contrast, they completely annihilated the Aedui who had sided with Sacrovir.

[69] Camille Jullian attributes to this rebellion the promotion of Durocortorum Remorum (Reims), capital of the perennially loyal Remi, at the expense of the Treveri.

[15] From 285 to 395, Augusta Treverorum was one of the residences of the western Roman Emperor, including Maximian, Constantine the Great, Constantius II, Valentinian I, Magnus Maximus, and Theodosius I;[72] from 318 to 407, it served as the seat of the praetorian prefecture of Gaul.

Among the most important gods worshipped in Treveran territory were Mercury and Rosmerta, Lenus Mars and Ancamna, Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Apollo, Intarabus, and Minerva.

Hatt considers that the Treveri, along with their neighbours the Mediomatrici, Leuci, and Triboci, "appeared as pilots in the conservation of native Celtic and pre-Celtic [religious] traditions".

[81] The Altbachtal complex has yielded a wealth of inscriptions and the remains of a theatre and over a dozen temples or shrines, mostly Romano-Celtic fana dedicated to native, Roman, and Oriental deities.

[82] Under Roman influence, a variety of new cults were introduced: Mithras had a temple in the Altbachtal,[83] Cybele and Attis were worshipped there and at Dhronecken,[84] and inscriptions and artwork attest to other Oriental deities such as Sabazius,[85] Isis and Serapis.

[90] In 384, the Christian heresiarch Priscillian was executed in Augusta Treverorum on the orders of Magnus Maximus, the Emperor in Britain and Gaul, nominally on charges of sorcery.

The Gallic Chronicle of 452 describes the Priscillianists as "Manichaeans", a different Gnostic heresy already outlawed under Diocletian, and states that the emperor had them "caught and exterminated with the greatest zeal" from among the Treveri.

[citation needed][91] The territory of the Treveri had formed part of the Hunsrück-Eifel culture, covering the Hallstatt D and La Tène A-B periods (from 600 to 250 BCE).

[92] During the century from 250 to 150 BCE, the area between the Rhine and the Meuse underwent a drastic population restructuring as some crisis forced most signs of inhabitation onto the heights of the Hunsrück.

[93] Before and for some time after the Roman conquest, Treveran nobles were buried in chamber tombs which were covered with tumuli and filled with sumptuous goods including imported amphorae, weaponry and andirons.

[56] By the 2nd century CE, wealthy Treveri were building elaborate funerary monuments such as the World Heritage-listed Igel Column, or the sculpted grave-stones found at Arlon, Neumagen and Buzenol, all of which depict the deceased's livelihood and/or interests during life.

Roman-era grave-goods included the remains of animals used as food (particularly pigs and birds), coins, amphorae, pottery, glassware, jewellery and scissors.

[95] As early as 21 CE, according to Greg Woolf, "the Treveri and the Aedui [were] arguably those tribes which had undergone the greatest cultural change since the conquest".

[40] Along with the neighbouring Remi, the Treveri can be credited with a significant innovation in Roman technology: the vallus, a machine drawn by horses or mules to reap wheat.

[97] During the early 2nd century CE, Augusta Treverorum was an important centre for the production of samian ware (along with Lezoux and Rheinzabern), supplying the Rhineland with high-quality glossy red pottery which was often elaborately decorated with moulded designs.

In some villas, such as at Otrang and Echternach, small rooms opened onto a large central hall, rather than onto the front verandah as in most places in Gaul; this arrangement has been considered typically ‘Germanic’, and may reflect a social structure in which extended families and clients all lived in a patron's home.