The Origins of the British by Stephen Oppenheimer

Author:Stephen Oppenheimer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780337678
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Figure 7.1a Germanic tribes of North Gaul, according to Caesar. Caesar implies that the areas in north-east Gaul shown white on this map were Celtic.

Figure 7.1b Evidence of celticity in North Gaul from place-names. This is consistent with Caesar, making most of Belgica non-celtic, with the exceptions of the central-eastern areas occupied by the Remi, Suessiones, Treveri and Catalauni. (Place-name terms: briga (mountain); kondate (joining of rivers); nant (valley); Noviantum; vern (alder).)

As for the other confederate tribes, further west in Belgica, there are suggestions for some celtic-derived personal names. For instance, the Belgic tribe the Atrebates had a twinned tribe in southern England with the same name, which means ‘settlers’ in celtic. However, the Atrebatean that Caesar made their leader, Commius, had a name which cannot be securely derived from celtic roots.18 Commius would later become a thorn in Caesar’s side when he turned-coat and led Gauls against Caesar in the famous battle of Alesia. It seems that he was the same ‘Commios’ who then moved to Britain, as yet unconquered, to become leader of the Atrebates there (Figure 2.3) and started a dynasty, even stamping his own name on minted coinage (see p. 330).

As for the rest of the Belgic tribes, although they have a few personal names with a celtic derivation, such names belong mostly to only three tribes: the Treveri, the Remi and their ‘brethren’ the Suessiones. Given Ellis Evans’ ambivalence over the celtic nature of languages spoken by the Belgae, it is worth looking at other evidence.

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