BRU´CTERI
Eth.
BRU´CTERI (Eth.
Βρούκτεροι), a great German tribe on the river Amasia (
Ems), which is first mentioned by Strabo (
vii. p.290) as having been subdued by Drusus. (Comp.
Tac. Ann. 1.60.) The Bructeri, like several other tribes, were divided into the lesser and the greater, and the river Lupia (
Lippe) flowed through the country of the former. (
Strab. vii. p.291;
Ptol. 2.11.16, who, however, calls them
Βουσάκτεροι.) From these authors it is clear that the Bructeri occupied not only the country between the rivers Amasia and Lupia, but extended beyond them. The Bructeri majores appear to have dwelt on the east, and the minores on the west of the Amasia.
That they extended beyond the Lupia is attested not only by Strabo, but also by the fact that the celebrated prophetess of the Bructeri, Velleda, dwelt in a tower on the banks of the Lupia. (
Tac. Hist. 4.61,
65,
5.22.) From Claudian (
De IV. Cons. Honor. 450) it might be inferred that they extended even as far as the Hercynian forest, but the name Hercynia Silva is probably used in a loose and indefinite sense by the poet.
In the north they were contiguous to the Chauci (
Tac. Ann. 13.55, foll.), and in the north-east to the Angrivarii. (
Tac. Ann. 2.8.) Velleius Paterculus (2.105) relates that the Bructeri were subdued by Tiberius; but in the battle in the forest of Teutoburg they appear still to have taken an active part, as we must infer from the fact that they received one of the Roman eagles taken in that battle. (
Tac. Ann. 1.60.) It can scarcely be believed, on the authority of Tacitus, that they were entirely destroyed by other German tribes, for Pliny (
Plin. Ep. 2.7) and Ptolemy still mention them as existing, and even at a much later period they occur as one of the tribes allied with the Franks. (Eumen.
Panegyr. Const. 12.) Ledebur (
Das Land u. Volk der Bructerer, Berlin, 1827) endeavours to give to the Bructeri more importance than they deserve in history. (Comp. Middendorf,
Die Wohnsitze der Bructerer, Coesfeld, 1837; Wersebe,
Voelker des alten Deutschlands, p. 83, &c.; Lathlam on Tac.
Germania, p. 111.)
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