CHAMA´VI
Eth.
CHAMA´VI (
Καμαυοί,
Καμαβοί,
Χάμαβοι), a German tribe, perhaps the same as the Gambrivii in Strabo (
vii. p.291; comp. Tac.
Germ. 2), appears at different times in different localities, probably in consequence of the conquests made by the Romans. They originally dwelt on the banks of the Rhine, in the country afterwards occupied by the Tubantes, and at a still later time by the Usipetes. (
Tac. Ann. 13.55.) Subsequently we find them further in the interior, in the country of the Bructeri, who are said to have been destroyed
[p. 1.603]by them. (Tac.
Germ. 33, &c.; comp.
ANGRIVARII) Hence Ptolemy (
2.11.16) mentions the Chaemae, probably a branch of the Chamavi, as occupying a part of the country which formerly belonged to the Bructeri.
After this, the; Chamavi disappear from history, until a much later period, when they are again mentioned as a tribe belonging to the confederacy of the Franks on the Rhine (
Amm. Marc. 17.8,
9), and when some of them even settled in Gaul (Eumen.
Panegyr. 9).
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L.S]
