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The Atrebates (Gaulish: *Atrebatis, 'dwellers, land-owners, possessors of the soil') were a Belgic tribe of the Iron Age and the Roman period, originally dwelling in the Artois region. After the tribes of Gallia Belgica were defeated by Caesar in 57 BC, 4,000 Atrebates participated in the Battle of Alesia in 53, led by their chief Commius. They revolted again in 51 BC, after which they maintained a friendly relationship with Rome, as Commius received sovereignty over the neighbouring Morini. The quality of their woollens is still mentioned in 301 AD by Diocletian's Price Edict. An offshoot of the Belgic tribe probably entered Britain before 54 BC, where it was successively ruled by kings Commius, Tincommius, Eppillus and Verica. After 43 AD, only parts of the area were still controlled by king Claudius Cogidubnus, after which they fell under Roman power. They are mentioned as Atrebates by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC) and Pliny (1st c. AD), Atrebátioi (Ἀτρεβάτιοι) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD), Atribátioi (Ἀτριβάτιοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD), Atrébas (Ἀτρέβας) by Cassius Dio (3rd c. AD), and as Atrabatis in the Notitia Dignitatum (5th c. AD). The ethnonym Atrebates is a latinized form of the Gaulish *Atrebatis (sing. Atrebas), which literally means 'dwellers, land-owners, possessors of the soil'. It derives from the Proto-Celtic stem *attreb- ('settlement') attached to the suffix -atis ('belonging to'), the former descending, as a result of an assimilation from an earlier *ad-treb-, from the Proto-Indo-European root for 'settlement', *treb- (cf. Osc. trííbúm, Germ. *Þurpa, Lith. trobà 'house'). The ethnic name is cognate with the Old Irish ad-treba ('he dwells, cultivates') and attrab ('possession, the act of occupying, a dwelling'), the Modern Irish áitreabhach ('inhabitant'), and the Middle Welsh athref ('dwelling-place, abode'). The city of Arras, attested ca. 400 AD as civitas Atrabatum ('civitas of the Atrebates'; Atrebatis in 881, Arras in 1137), the region of Artois, attested in 799 as pago Atratinse ('pagus of the Abrates'; Atrebatense castrum in 899, later Arteis), and the Arrouaise Forest, attested ca.

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Related concepts (23)

Belgae

The Belgae (ˈbɛldʒiː,_ˈbɛlɡaɪ) were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth by Julius Caesar in his account of his wars in Gaul. Some peoples in southern Britain were also called Belgae and had apparently moved from the continent. T. F. O'Rahilly believed that some had moved further west and he equated them with the Fir Bolg in Ireland.

Calleva Atrebatum

Calleva Atrebatum ("Calleva of the Atrebates") was an Iron Age oppidum, the capital of the Atrebates tribe. It then became a walled town in the Roman province of Britannia, at a major crossroads of the roads of southern Britain. The modern village of Silchester in Hampshire, England, is about a mile (1.6 km) to the west of the site. The village's parish church of St Mary the Virgin is just within the ancient walls. Most of the site lies within the modern civil parish of Silchester, although the amphitheatre is in the adjoining civil parish of Mortimer West End.

Atrebates