The Paemani (also Poemani or Caemani) were a small

Belgic Belgic may refer to: * an adjective referring to the Belgae, an ancient confederation of tribes * a rarer adjective referring to the Low Countries or to Belgium * , several ships with the name * Belgic ware Aylesford-Swarling pottery is part of a ...

- Germanic tribe dwelling in Gallia Belgica during the Iron Age. Their ethnic identity remains uncertain.

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caes ...

described them as part of the Germani Cisrhenani, but a number of scholars have argued that their name may be of

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

origin. Like other Germani Cisrhenani tribes, it is possible that their old Germanic

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

came to be abandoned after a tribal reorganization, that they received their names from their Celtic neighbours, or else that they were fully or partially assimilated to Celtic culture at the time of the Roman invasion of the region in 57 BC.

Name

Attestations

The name appears as ''Caemani'' in Caesar's accounts (mid-1st c. BC), along with the variant ''Paemani'' or ''Paemanes''. One of the two variants may be a scribal error. Alternatively, scholar Peter E. Busse has proposed to interpret the forms as Q-Celtic/P-Celtic equivalents: "that Caesar wrote Q-Celtic ''Caemanes'', with ''C-'' rather than expected ''Qu-'', is easily explained either as a mishearing or as the result of learning the name from P-Celtic intermediaries who had no ''kw'' in their own language.

Etymology

The variant ''Paemani'' is possibly of

origin, for it appears closely related to the names ''Poemaneni'' (

Galatia Galatia (; grc, Γαλατία, ''Galatía'', "Gaul") was an ancient area in the highlands of central Anatolia, roughly corresponding to the provinces of Ankara and Eskişehir, in modern Turkey. Galatia was named after the Gauls from Thrace (c ...

) and ''Poemana'' (Gallaecia, Celtic Hispania), which all occur in Celtic milieus, but a convincing etymology has not yet been found. The name may possibly be interpreted as 'the herdsmen', by comparison with the Greek ''poimḗn''. It appears to be an archaic formation since it has preserved the initial ''p''-, which has normally been lost in 'Q-Celtic languages' such as Gaulish and

Old Brittonic Common Brittonic ( cy, Brythoneg; kw, Brythonek; br, Predeneg), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, was a Celtic language spoken in Britain and Brittany. It is a form of Insular Celtic, descended from Proto-Celtic, a ...

. Alternatively, a Germanic etymology from ''*haima-'' ('home') has also been proposed for ''Caemani'', although it cannot explain the spelling ''Paemanes'', and Germanic sound laws rather predict a ''**Haemanes'' or ''**Chaemanes'' form. The hypothesis that the name of the

Famenne Famenne (; wa, Fåmene, ) is a natural region in Wallonia (southern Belgium). Together with The Fagne or la Fagne, west of the river Meuse, it is part of the Fagne-Famenne natural region. The two regions are often grouped together because the ...

region may derive from ''Paemani'', following the influence of the Germanic sound shift from ''p-'' to ''f-'', is now considered doubtful by most scholars, which, according to

Edith Wightman Edith Mary Wightman FSA (1 January 1938 – 17 December 1983) was a British ancient historian and archaeologist. She was Assistant-Professor and then Professor at McMaster University (1969–1983). Wightman was best known for her studies ''Roma ...

, "does not prove that they did not inhabit the region".

Geography

The Paemani dwelled in the northern part of the Ardennes and Eifel region, between the Rhône and the Meuse river, near the Caerosi in the south, the Eburones in the north, and the Tungri and Atuatuci in the west., Map 11: Sequana-Rhenus.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Germanic peoples Early Germanic peoples Tribes of pre-Roman Gaul Tribes involved in the Gallic Wars Belgae