The Paemani (also Poemani or Caemani) were a small Belgic- Germanic tribe dwelling in

Gallia Belgica Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and German ...

during the Iron Age. Their ethnic identity remains uncertain.

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a 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 a civil war. He ...

described them as part of the

Germani Cisrhenani The ''Germani cisrhenani'' (Latin '':wikt:cis#Latin, cis-:wikt:Rhenanus#Latin, rhenanus'' "on this side of the Rhine", referring to the Roman or western side), or "Left bank ''Germani''", were a group of Germanic peoples who lived west of the Low ...

, 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 Foot ...

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

endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

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); the variant ''Paemani'' (or ''Paemanes'') is also attested in manuscripts. 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 (; , ''Galatía'') 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 (cf. Tylis), who settled here ...

) and ''Poemana'' (Gallaecia, Celtic

Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...

), 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, having preserved the initial ''p''-, which has normally been lost in 'Q-Celtic languages' such as

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...

and Old Brittonic. 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 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 Society of Antiquaries of London, 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 ...

, "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 The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

and the

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

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

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