Nemetes

The Nemeter probably were a Germanic tribe in the area of ​​the Rhine between the Palatinate and Lake Constance.

First recorded in Caesar

The Nemeter are first mentioned in De Bello Gallico by the Roman general Julius Caesar and author of the wars in Gaul. Consequently, the Nemeter had penetrated around the year 70 BC with other tribes under the leadership of the Germanic prince Ariovistus in search of a new settlement area in the territory of the Gauls. The under the protectorate of the Roman Empire Gauls asked, as Caesar, Rome for help. Caesar calls the Nemeter then among the seven tribes, which he defeated in a battle at the Rhine in 58 BC. Again he called the name of the Nemeter when he describes a forest area starting in the territory of the Helvetii, Nemeter and Rauraci further extends in a straight line on the Danube to the territory of the Dacians and Anartier.

Teutons or Celts

Although Caesar the seven tribes of the Battle of the Rhine as Germans called (Latin Germani suas Copias constituerunt ), the Nemeter stand by the common tribal goddess near the Treviri, a now well-known as Celtic tribe. Maybe the Nemeter were therefore also Celts. About the ethnicity of tribes in the right bank of the Rhine in the run-up to the 1st century BC due to the so-called " Helvetian wasteland " little known. The settlement in the territory of the Reich was probably only take place during the reign of Augustus. Notes on Caesar himself among the " geographical digressions ", which were probably the earliest inserted in the Augustan period in the work. More likely, in addition to an indirect mention of the geographer Strabo 's own expressions of Caesar, after the defeat of Ariovistus all Suevi had fled across the Rhine.

Reports in Tacitus

The Roman historian and senator Tacitus engages in the 1st century AD on the what he called high informant Caesar back and called in his historical account of the Germania Nemeter who also live according to his information directly on the left bank of the Rhine and undoubtedly a Germanic people were. However, he pointed out earlier that there had been a back and forth by the Gauls and Germans on the Rhine and some strains were probably only according to their own information and their self- Germanic origin. Tacitus then counts in another of his historical records, the annals, the Nemeter go to help the peoples of the Romans. Tacitus reports that the Nementer were used together with Vangiones as auxiliary troops against sunken predatory chatting and doing these robbers surprise in an action in sleep and defeat could. They freed Roman soldiers and veterans of the Battle of Varus from their forty-year captivity.

Settlement area of ​​the Nemeter in Speyer

The Nemeter should be, so it is generally believed to have well- established under the leadership of Ariovistus as a Germanic people as early as 70 BC in the area of today Palatine town of Speyer on the Rhine, which itself reflects Nemetum the Latin name of the city Noviomagus. Noviomagus is a word of Celtic origin. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus then mentioned the city around 300 AD as Nemetae.

The idea of ​​a Germanic settlement Speyer already at the time of Ariovistus but can not prove, according to which a Germanic colonization of the area around Speyer can be proven only for the 1st century AD, the recent archaeological finds.

Tribal goddess of Nemeter

As a tribal goddess of Nemeter Nemetona is called Celtic- Gallic protective goddess of the sanctuaries, you will as a Fellow of the god Mars Leucetius ( the Radiant ) assigned.

Niemcy

In Slavic languages ​​such as Polish German are called Niemcy. The fact that this designation of the Germans in Slavic languages ​​descended from the tribe of the Nemeter, has been widely accepted, but is controversial as an etymologically significant contact with the Nemeter applies Slavic peoples as unlikely.

Német

The Hungarian term " német " for " German " could have been derived also from the Nemeter. Germany is called " Németország ", corresponding to " Magyarország " for Hungary in the local language.