The Segni were a Germani Cisrhenani tribe, dwelling in the province of Gallia Belgica during the Roman period. They were listed among Germanic peoples by the Romans, following Julius Caesar's conquest of the region in 57 BC. The Segni eventually assured Caesar, by means of an embassy in 53 BC, that they would not make common cause with the other Germani on the left bank of the Rhine.
Name
The etymology of the name Segni is uncertain. It could derive from the Celtic roots *sego- or *seg-, but an alternative Germanic origin is also possible since the Germanic -ng-consonantal cluster was often transcribed to -gn- in Latin. An etymology from *sengjōz, itself a derivative of *setig can thus be posited. Maurits Gysseling proposed that it derived from a Germanic or Celtic word indicating victory. Such meanings are related to the hypotheses which seethe word as deriving from a stem with meanings related to strength. Another etymology which has been proposed is a connection to an Old Irish word for net.
Language
Several tribes are referred to by Caesar as the "Germani Cisrhenani", to distinguish them from Germani living on the east of the Rhine, outside of the Gaulish and Roman area. Whether they actually spoke a Germanic language or not, is still uncertain. The region was strongly influenced by Gaul, and many of the personal names and tribal names from these communities appear to be Celtic. But on the other hand it was claimed by Tacitus that these Germani were the original Germani, and that the term Germani as it came to be widely used was not the original meaning. He also said that the descendants of the original Germani in his time were the Tungri.
Geography
The Segni are presumed to have dwelled in the Luxemburgish and Belgian Ardennes. Their territory was located between that of the Treveri and the Eburones. This indicates that the Segni settled not far from the Condrusi, which themselves lived in the Condroz foothill region northwest of the Ardennes. The general area of the Belgian Germani was between the Dijle and Rhine rivers, and north of Luxemburg and the southern parts of the Eifel. In modern terms this area includes eastern Belgium, the southeastern parts of the Netherlands, and a part of Germany on the west of the Rhine, but north of the Moselle valley. In the 19th century, it was sometimes claimed in English and German works that the name of the Segni is preserved in a modern town supposedly called "Sinei or Signei", on the Meuse river, in the Belgian province of Namur. There is a place Ciney in that area. However, Ciney, Sègne and Sugny can all be rejected on linguistic grounds. Another old proposal is to place them near Sougné, near Aywaille.
History
In Julius Caesar's report of them, the Segni do not appear in the first listing of the Germani, which was a listing of Germani sending men to fight Caesar. But they appear in a later mention, after the defeat of the Eburones:
The Segui and Condrusi, of the nation and number of the Germans , and who are between the Eburones and the Treviri, sent ambassadors to Caesar to entreat that he would not regard them in the number of his enemies, nor consider that the cause of all the Germans on this side the Rhine was one and the same; that they had formed no plans of war, and had sent no auxiliaries to Ambiorix. Caesar, having ascertained this fact by an examination of his prisoners, commanded that if any of the Eburones in their flight had repaired to them, they should be sent back to him; he assures them that if they did that, he will not injure their territories.
It has also occasionally been claimed that the Segni appear as the "Sunuci" or "Sinuci" in later Roman records, such as the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder. If so, then we have more records to refer to. Pliny described them between the Tungri and the Frisiavones. Tacitus, for example, also mentioned the Sunuci, as a people of this region during the Batavian revolt. They probably lived between the Tungri and the Ubii in Roman imperial times. The Sunuci are thought to have lived in what is now the area of Germany where it touches eastern Belgium, and the southern Netherlands. One proposal would place the Sunuci in Kornelimünster in the region of modern Aachen.
