Mediomatrici
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The Mediomatrici (Greek: Μεδιομάτρικες, Ptol. ii. 9. § 12), were an ancient Celtic people of Gallia, who belong to the division of Belgica. Caesar (B. G. iv. 10) shows their position in a general way when he says that the Rhine flows along the territories of the Sequani, Mediomatrici, Triboci or Tribocci, and Treviri. Ptolemy places the Mediomatrici south of the Treviri. Divodurum (modern Metz, France) was their capital.
The diocese of Metz represents their territory, which was accordingly west of the Vosges. But Caesar makes the Mediomatrici extend to the Rhine, and consequently they had in his time the country between the Vosges and the Rhine. And this agrees with Strabo, who says that the Sequani and Mediomatrici inhabit the Rhine, among whom are settled the Triboci, a Germanic nation which had crossed over from their own country. It appears then that part of the territory of the Mediomatrici had been occupied by Germans before Caesar's time; and that after Caesar's time the German tribes, Nemetes, Vangiones, and Caracates occupied the Gallic side of the Rhine, north of the Triboci as far as Mainz, and that north of Mainz was the territory of the Treviri, we may infer that all these tribes were intruders on the original territory of the Mediomatrici.
Elements of the Mediomatrici may have settled near Novara, in northern Italy, where placenames allude to their presence, e.g., Mezzomerico (attested as Mediomadrigo in 980).[1]
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1857).
- ^ Istituto Geografico de Agostini, Nomi d'Italia, ISBN 88-511-0983-4, p. 384
