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Concept
Atuatuci
Summary
The Atuatuci (or Aduatuci) were a Gallic-Germanic tribe, dwelling in the eastern part of modern-day Belgium during the Iron Age.
They fought the Roman armies of Julius Caesar during the Gallic Wars (58–50 BC). In the Battle of the Sabis (57 BC), the Atuatuci sent troops to assist their Belgic neighbours, the Nervii, Atrebates and Viromandui, but were too late to avoid an eventual Roman victory. After they withdrew to their oppidum (fortress), the Atuatuci were later defeated by the Romans during the siege of the Atuatuci (57 BC). According to Caesar, 4,000 of the Atuatici perished in the seizure of their stronghold, and 53,000 of them were reduced to slavery. Several years later in 54 BC the Atuatuci suffered further retribution when they were involved with their neighbours in a failed rebellion against the Romans. Following the devastation of the tribe, which left only a number of small groups, the Atuatuci disappeared from historical records and likely assimilated into neighbouring tribes.
Whether Atuatuci or Aduatuci is the original form of the ethnic name remains uncertain. The place name Atuatuca is first mentioned by Caesar in The Gallic War. In the earliest surviving manuscript of the text, dated to the early 9th c. AD, the name is given as Aduatuca. The tribal name also appears three times as Aduatuco- in the manuscript, although they are also named Atouatikoí (Ἀτουατικοί) by Cassius Dio (ca. 230 AD).
The reason for this spelling variation has been debated. Maurits Gysseling has proposed that Atuatuca was the original form, which later gave way to Aduatuca under the influence of Romance languages. Lauran Toorians argues on the contrary that the original Gaulish prefix ad- was changed to at- as the result of a hypercorrection by medieval copyists, who may have thought that the ad- form had emerged under the influence of the Old French phonology during the first millennium AD.
If most scholars agree that the names Atuatuci and Aduatuca are of Gaulish origin, their actual meaning is still unclear.
Official source
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