Editing Menapii

{{short description|Belgic tribe}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
[[Image:GallischeHoeve.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Reconstruction of a Menapian dwelling at Destelbergen.]]
The '''Menapii''' were a [[Belgae|Belgic]] tribe dwelling near the [[North Sea]], around present-day [[Cassel, Nord|Cassel]], during the [[La Tène culture|Iron Age]] and the [[Roman period]].

== History ==
The Menapii were persistent opponents of [[Julius Caesar]]'s conquest of Gaul, resisting until 54 BC. They were part of the Belgic confederacy defeated by Caesar in 57 BC, contributing 9,000 men.<ref>[[Julius Caesar]], ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]'' [[Wikisource:Commentaries on the Gallic War/Book 2#4|2.4]]</ref> The following year they sided with the [[Veneti (Gaul)|Veneti]] against Caesar.<ref>Julius Caesar, ''Commentaries on the Gallic War'' [[Wikisource:Commentaries on the Gallic War/Book 3#9|3.9]]</ref> Caesar was again victorious, but the Menapii and the [[Morini]] refused to make peace and continued to fight against him. They withdrew into the forests and swamps and conducted a [[Hit-and-run tactics|hit-and-run campaign]]. Caesar responded by cutting down the forests, seizing their cattle and burning their settlements, but this was interrupted by heavy rain and the onset of winter, and the Menapii and Morini withdrew further into the forests.<ref>Julius Caesar, ''Commentaries on the Gallic War'' [[Wikisource:Commentaries on the Gallic War/Book 3#28|3.28–29]]</ref> In 55 BC the Menapii tried to resist a [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] incursion across the [[Rhine]], but were defeated.<ref>Julius Caesar, ''Commentaries on the Gallic War'' [[Wikisource:Commentaries on the Gallic War/Book 4#4|4.4]]</ref> Later that year, while Caesar made his first [[Caesar's invasions of Britain|expedition to Britain]], he sent two of his [[legatus|legates]] and the majority of his army to the territories of the Menapii and Morini to keep them under control.<ref>Julius Caesar, ''Commentaries on the Gallic War'' [[Wikisource:Commentaries on the Gallic War/Book 4#22|4.22]]</ref> Once again, they retired to the woods, and the Romans burned their crops and settlements.<ref>Julius Caesar, ''Commentaries on the Gallic War'' [[Wikisource:Commentaries on the Gallic War/Book 4#38|4.38]]</ref> The Menapii joined the revolt led by [[Ambiorix]] in 54 BC. Caesar says that they, alone of all the tribes of Gaul, had never sent ambassadors to him to discuss terms of peace, and had ties of hospitality with Ambiorix. For that reason he decided to lead five [[Roman legion|legions]] against them. A renewed campaign of devastation finally forced them to submit, and Caesar placed his ally [[Commius]] of the [[Atrebates]] in control of them.<ref>Julius Caesar, ''Commentaries on the Gallic War'' [[Wikisource:Commentaries on the Gallic War/Book 6#2|6.2–6]]</ref>

A [[Cohort (military unit)|cohort]] of Menapian [[auxiliaries (Roman military)|auxiliaries]] is attested by inscriptions dating to the 2nd century in [[Roman Britain|Britain]].<ref>[http://www.roman-britain.co.uk/military/coh1men/ ''Cohors Primae Menapiorum'' at Roman-Britain.co.uk]</ref> [[Carausius]], the 3rd century commander of the Roman fleet who declared himself emperor of Britain and northern Gaul, was a Menapian, born in [[Betuwe|Batavia]].<ref>[[Aurelius Victor]], ''Liber de Caesaribus'' [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/victor.caes.html#39 39.20] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012012846/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/victor.caes.html#39 |date=12 October 2012 }}</ref> A legion called the Menapii Seniores is mentioned in the ''[[Notitia Dignitatum]]'', a 5th-century register of Roman government positions and military commands.<ref>''[[Notitia Dignitatum]]'', West, 5</ref>

== Name ==
=== Attestations ===
They are mentioned as ''Menapii'' by [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] (mid-1st c. BC) and [[Orosius]] (early 5th c. AD),<ref>[[Julius Caesar|Caesar]]. ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico''. 2:4, passim; [[Orosius]]. ''Historiae Adversus Paganos'', 8:3, 35, 6:7.</ref> ''Menápioi'' (Μενάπιοι; <small>var.</small> Μονάπιοι, Μενάσπιοι) by [[Strabo]] (early 1st c. AD) and [[Ptolemy]] (2nd c. AD),<ref>[[Strabo]]. ''Geōgraphiká'', 4:3:4; [[Ptolemy]]. ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'', 2:2:9, 2:9:10.</ref> as ''Menapi'' by [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] (1st c. AD) and the ''[[Notitia Dignitatum]]'' (5th c. AD),<ref>[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]. ''Naturalis Historia'',, 4:106; ''[[Notitia Dignitatum]]'', oc 5:75, 7:83.</ref> and under the [[Accusative case|accusative forms]] ''Menapios'' by [[Tacitus]] (early 2nd c. AD) and ''Menapíous'' (Μεναπίους) by [[Cassius Dio]] (3rd c. AD).<ref>[[Tacitus]]. ''Historiae'', 4:28; [[Cassius Dio]]. ''Historia Romana'', 39:44.</ref><ref name="Falileyev">{{harvnb|Falileyev|2010}}, s.v. ''Menapii'' and ''Castellum Menapiorum''.</ref>

=== Etymology ===
The [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]] [[ethnonym]] ''Menapii'' has been [[phonetically]] compared with ''[[Manapii]]'', the name of a tribe from southeastern Ireland mentioned by Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. These tribal names may ultimately derive from a [[Proto-Celtic]] form reconstructed as *''Menak<sup>w</sup>ī'' or *''Manak<sup>w</sup>ī'',{{sfn|Busse|2006|p=199}}{{sfn|Sims-Williams|2007|pp=329–330}} whose meaning remains uncertain, perhaps the 'mountain people' or the 'high-living people' (from the root *''mon''- 'mountain'; cf. [[Middle Welsh|MWelsh]] ''mynydd'', [[Old Breton|OBret.]] ''monid'', [[Old Cornish|OCo.]] ''menit''), or from the root *''men''- ('think, remember'; cf. [[Old Irish|OIr.]] ''muinithir'' 'think', Welsh ''mynnu'' 'wish').<ref>Isaac, Graham, "Place-Names in Ptolemy's Geography : An Electronic Data Base with Etymological Analysis of Celtic Name Elements". CD-ROM. 2004, CMCS Publications, Aberystwyth.</ref><ref name="Falileyev" />

The city of [[Cassel, Nord|Cassel]], attested on [[Tabula Peutingeriana|Peutinger's Tabula]] as ''Castellum Menapiorum'' (''Cassello'' in 840–75, ''Cassel'' in 1110), is indirectly named after the tribe.{{sfn|Nègre|1990|p=389}}<ref name="Falileyev" />

==Geography==

=== Territory ===
According to descriptions in such authors as [[Strabo]], [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]], [[Pliny the Elder]] and [[Ptolemy]] their territory had stretched northwards to the mouth of the [[Rhine]] in the north, but more lastingly it stretched along the west of the [[Scheldt]] river. In later geographical terms this territory corresponds roughly to the modern Belgian coast, the [[Belgian provinces]] of [[East Flanders|East]] and [[West Flanders]]. It also extended into neighbouring France and the river deltas of the [[Southern Netherlands]].[[File:Belgian Medieval Dioceses.png|thumb|The [[diocese of Tournai]] may be based on the territory of the Menapii, although it must have stretched further, including Cassel during Roman times, and even stretching to the [[Waal river]] in the time of Caesar.]]

To the north and east of the Menapii lay the [[Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta]]. In the time of Caesar, the Menapii had settlements throughout this region and as far as the Rhine in present-day Germany, or at least its branch, the Waal.<ref>Archaeologist Nico Roymans has announced in 2015 that convincing evidence has been found that the fighting reported by Caesar at the confluence of the Rhine and Maas was in fact in the confluence of [[Waal (river)|Waal]], a branch of the Rhine and not the Rhine itself, and the Maas/Meuse, near [[Kessel, North Brabant|Kessel]]. See for example http://www.nationalgeographic.nl/artikel/genocidaire-slachting-onder-leiding-van-julius-caesar-bij-kessel {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151215162609/http://www.nationalgeographic.nl/artikel/genocidaire-slachting-onder-leiding-van-julius-caesar-bij-kessel |date=15 December 2015 }}</ref> During Roman times these islands were under the frontier province of [[Germania Inferior]], and inhabited partly by various groups of people who had moved there under Roman rule. [[Pliny the elder]] lists the people in these "Gallic Islands" as [[Batavi (ancient people)|Batavi]] and [[Canninefates]] on the largest island, [[Frisii]] and the [[Chauci]] whose main lands were to the north of the deltas, and the [[Frisiavones]], [[Sturii]], and [[Marsacii]].<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D29 Plin. Nat. 4.29]</ref> Of these last three, the Marsaci appear to be mentioned in another place by Pliny as having a presence on the coast south of the delta, neighbouring the Menapii, within Gaul itself.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D31 Plin. Nat. 4.31]</ref> The Frisiavones are also mentioned within the listing for Belgian Gaul, but probably therefore lived in the part of the delta south of the Batavi, northeast of the Menapii. In one inscription, from [[Bulla Regia]], the [[Tungri]], Batavians and Frisiavones are grouped together, apparently confirming that the Frisiavones lived inland. It is suggested that the ''Marsaci'' and the ''Sturii'' could be "[[pagus|pagi]]" belonging to the ''civitas'' of either the Frisiavones or the Menapii.<ref name=wightman>{{Citation|title=Gallia Belgica|last=Wightman|first =Edith Mary|year=1985|publisher= University of California Press|isbn=9780520052970| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aEyS54uSj88C}}, pages 54 and 63.</ref> South of the delta, east of the river Scheldt from the Menapii, and therefore apparently south of the Frisiavones, Pliny mentions the [[Toxandri]], in a position apparently on the northern edge of Gaul. It is known that the Toxandri were associated with the ''civitates'' of both the Nervii and the Tungri, so they presumably had a presence in both.

While in Pliny the Menapii do not stretch beyond the [[Scheldt]], in [[Strabo]]'s 1st-century ''[[Geographica (Strabo)|Geographica]]'', they are situated further away than the [[Nervii]] and on both sides of the Rhine near its outlets to the sea, apparently not far from the Germanic [[Sigambri]]. Apparently following Caesar he said that they "dwell amongst marshes and forests, not lofty, but consisting of dense and thorny wood".<ref>[[Strabo]], ''[[Geographica (Strabo)|Geographica]]'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/4C*.html#3.4 4:3.4]</ref> They are also referred to in [[Ptolemy]]'s 2nd century ''[[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Geographia]]'', situated "above" the [[Nervii]], and near the Meuse river.<ref>[[Ptolemy]], ''[[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Geographia]]'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/2/8*.html 2.8]</ref>

While these authors make it clear that the Menapii still lay north of the Nervii in Roman times, it is not clear if they still bordered directly upon the former territory of the [[Eburones]], as they had been in Caesar's time, and which in imperial times was within the [[Civitas Tungrorum]], or ''civitas'' of the [[Tungri]]. In any case as mentioned above they bordered in Roman times upon the [[Toxandrians]], who apparently lived in the north of the lands of the Nervii and Tungri.<ref name=wightman/>

South of the Menapii were the [[Atrebates]] in Artois, and south-west along the coast were the [[Morini]]. The boundary with the Morini in classical times appears to have been the river [[Aa (France)|Aa]].<ref name=Bourdelles/>

In the later Roman Empire, ''The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites'' reports that "Cassel was superseded as capital of the Menapii by Tournai after Gaul was reorganized under [[Diocletian]] and [[Constantine the Great]]. The ''civitas Menapiorum'' became the ''civitas Turnencensium''."<ref>{{citation|title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites|chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=cassel&highlight=menapii|chapter=Cassel|access-date=20 February 2021|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326020047/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=cassel&highlight=menapii|url-status=live}}</ref> By medieval times, when these Roman districts evolved into medieval Roman Catholic dioceses, Cassel had in fact become part of the diocese of [[Thérouanne]], which had been the ''civitas'' of the Morini.<ref name=Bourdelles>{{citation|title=Boulogne et Thérouanne au temps de César: approche toponymique de la cité des Morins|first=Hubert |last=Le Bourdellès| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C40v1ay0NuUC&q=la%20t%C3%A8ne%20belgae&pg=PA32| page=32|year=2009|isbn=9782757400852 }}</ref>

=== Settlements ===
Their ''[[civitas]]'', or administrative capital, under the [[Roman Empire]] was [[Cassel, France|Cassel]] in northern France, and later this was moved nearer to a river in [[Tournai]], in present-day Belgium, on the Scheldt. Both of these are near [[Thérouanne]], which was the ''civitas'' of the neighbouring [[Morini]] tribe, and indeed in the Middle Ages Cassel became part of the [[Catholic]] [[Diocese of Thérouanne]]. Cassel was therefore in the southern extreme of the Menapii lands. A pattern of placing Roman tribal capitals in the south is also found in the neighbouring Belgian tribal states, of the [[Nervii]] and [[Tungri]]. The positions of such Roman tribal capitals frequently didn't correspond to the centre of a tribe's territory in pre-Roman political geography.<ref>{{Citation|last=Wightman|first=Edith|title=Gallia Belgica|page=75|year=1985}}</ref> Similarly, in those neighbouring regions, the centre of Roman civilization was typically moved further south, and on to a major river, in late Roman times, after the area was threatened by Frankish tribes from outside the empire.

== Economy ==
The economic activity of the Menapii was primally extraction of wool from sheep, and the fabrication of primitive cloths, and these were perfected while the Roman Reign in the Region. These cloths were one of the most rare things in terms of goods, because of the geographical location where they were made. Besides, these cloths were exported to Italy and other regions through the Rhine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pirenne |first=Henri |title=HISTORIA ECONOMICA Y SOCIAL DE LA EDAD MEDIA |publisher=Salvador Echavarria |year=1947 |edition=4th |location=Mexico |pages=43 |language=Spanish}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin}}
*{{Cite book|last=Busse|first=Peter E.|title=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia|date=2006|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-440-0|editor-last=Koch|editor-first=John T.|pages=195–200|chapter=Belgae}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Delmaire|first=Roland|date=2004|title=Cassel / Castellum Menapiorum (Nord)|journal=Supplément à la Revue archéologique du centre de la France|volume=25|issue=1|pages=389–391}}
* {{Cite book|last=Falileyev|first=Alexander|title=Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World|publisher=CMCS|year=2010|isbn=978-0955718236}}
*{{Cite book|last=Nègre|first=Ernest|title=Toponymie générale de la France|year=1990|publisher=Librairie Droz|isbn=978-2-600-02883-7|author-link=Ernest Nègre}}
*{{cite book|last=Sims-Williams|first=Patrick|chapter=Common Celtic, Gallo-Brittonic and Insular Celtic|title=Gaulois et Celtique Continental|year=2007|publisher=Librairie Droz|editor-last=Lambert|editor-first=Pierre-Yves|editor-last2=Pinault|editor-first2=Georges-Jean|isbn=978-2600013376}}
*{{Cite book|last=Talbert|first=Richard J. A.|title=Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0691031699|author-link=Richard Talbert}}
* {{Cite book|last=Wightman|first=Edith M.|title=Gallia Belgica|date=1985|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-05297-0|language=en|author-link=Edith Mary Wightman}}
{{refend}}

{{Gallic peoples}}

[[Category:Menapii| ]]
[[Category:Historical Celtic peoples]]
[[Category:Belgae]]
[[Category:Gauls]]
[[Category:Tribes involved in the Gallic Wars]]
[[Category:Tribes in pre-Roman Gaul]]