Mediomatrici


The Mediomatrici were a Belgic tribe, dwelling in the present-day Lorraine region.

Name

They are mentioned as Mediomatricorum and Mediomatricis by Caesar, as Mediomatrikoì by Strabo, as Mediomatrici by Pliny, as Mediomatricos by Tacitus, and as Mediomátrikes by Ptolemy.
The name Mediomatrici derives from the Gaulish *Medio-māteres, formed with medios attached to matir. It has been interpreted as the 'Mothers of the Middle-World', or as 'between the Matrona and the Matra rivers'.
The city of Metz, attested as civitas Mediomatricorum around 400 AD, is named after the Celtic tribe.

Geography

The territory of the Mediomatrici comprised the upper basins of the rivers Maas, Moselle and Saar, and extended eastwards as far as the Rhine in the mid-first century BC. Ptolemy places the Mediomatrici south of the Treviri.
Their capital was Divodurum, mentioned by Tacitus in the early 1st century AD.

History

During the Gallic Wars, the Mediomatrici sent 5,000 men to support Vercingetorix who was besieged in Alesia in 52. In 69–70 of the Common Era, their capital Divodurum was sacked by the armies of Vitellius, and 4,000 of its inhabitants massacred. The Romanization of the Metromatrici was apparently slower compared to their neighbours the Treviri.
Elements of the Mediomatrici may have settled near Novara, in northwestern Italy, where place-names allude to their presence.

Footnotes