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The Nervii were one of the most powerful Belgic tribes of northern Gaul at the time of its conquest by Rome. Their territory corresponds to the central part of modern Belgium, including Brussels, and stretched southwards into French Hainault. During their first century BC Roman military campaign, Julius Caesar's contacts among the Remi stated that the Nervii were the most warlike of the Belgae. In times of war, they were known to trek long distances to take part in battles. Being one of the northerly Belgic tribes, with the Menapii to the west, and the Eburones to their east, they were considered by Caesar to be relatively uncorrupted by civilization. According to Tacitus they claimed Germanic descent. According to Strabo they were of Germanic origin. They are mentioned as Nervii by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC) and Orosius (early fifth c. AD), Neroúioi (Νερούιοι) by Strabo (early first c. AD), Nerui by Pliny (1st c. AD) and the Notitia Dignitatum (5th c. AD), Nervios by Tacitus (early second c. AD), and as Neroúsioi (Νερούσιοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD). The ethnonym Nervii probably stems from the Western Indo-European root *ner-, meaning 'man' (cf. Middle Welsh ner 'lord, chief'). It appears to be cognate with the Latin cognomen Nerva. According to Xavier Deru, the core region of the Nervii was equivalent to the medieval pagus of Hainaut, the region of the Haine river, the upper Sambre, and greater and lesser Helpe rivers. To the north of the Haine, it also included what would become the medieval pagus of Brabant, making its northwestern border on the Scheldt (French Escaut, Dutch Schelde) river. A large population occupied the southern territories, near the river Sambre with the biggest being at Avesnelles, near Avesnes-sur-Helpe. An oppidum found near Asse may have belonged to them but it was isolated and near to the territory of the Menapii. In the south the Nervians stretched no further than the forests of Arrouaise and Thiérache South of them were the Viromandui, south of Cambrai, and the Remi.

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Related concepts (20)

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.

Duchy of Brabant

The Duchy of Brabant was a state of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1482, until it was partitioned after the Dutch revolt. Present-day North Brabant (Noord-Brabant) was ceded to the Generality Lands of the Dutch Republic according to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, while the reduced duchy remained part of the Habsburg Netherlands until it was conquered by French Revolutionary forces in 1794, which was recognized by treaty in 1797.

Cambrai

Cambrai (USkæmˈbreɪ,_kɑ̃ˈ-, kɑ̃bʁɛ; Kimbré; Kamerijk), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord department and in the Hauts-de-France region of France on the Scheldt river, which is known locally as the Escaut river. A sub-prefecture of the department, Cambrai is a town which had 32,501 inhabitants in 2018. It is in the heart of the urban unit of Cambrai with 46,772 inhabitants. Its functional area, a more extensive range, included 94,576 inhabitants in 2018.