EBURO´NES
Eth.
EBURO´NES (
Ἐβούρωνες, Strab. p. 194), a nation in that division of Gallia which Caesar names the Belgae.
He says that the Condrusi, Eburones, Caeraesi, and Paemani were called by the one name of Germani (
B. G. 2.4). When the Usipetes and Tenchtheri, who were Germans, crossed the Rhine from Germania (B.C. 55), they first fell on the Menapii, and then advanced into the territories of the Eburones and Condrusi, who were in some kind of political dependence on the Treviri. (
B. G. 4.6.)
The position of the Eburones was this. On the Rhine the Eburones bordered on the Menapii, who were north of them, and the chief part of the territory of the Eburones was between the Mosa (
Maas) and the
Rhine. (
B. G. 6.5; 5.24.) South of the Eburones, and between them and the Treviri, were the Segni and Condrusi (
B. G., 6.32); and the Condrusi were in the country of
Liège. [
CONDRUSI] The Eburones must have occupied
Limburg and a part of the Prussian Rhine province. In B.C. 54, Caesar quartered a legion and a half during the winter in the country of the Eburones, under the command of his legati, Q. Titurius Sabinus and L. Aurunculeius Cotta. The Eburones, headed by their two kings, Ambiorix and Cativolcus, attacked the Roman camp; and after treacherously inducing the Romans to leave their stronghold on the promise of a safe passage, they massacred nearly all of them. (
B. G. 5.26--37.)
In the following year Caesar entered the country of the Eburones, and Ambiorix fled before him. Cativolcus poisoned himself.
The country of the Eburones was difficult for the Romans, being woody and swampy in parts; and Caesar invited the neighbouring people to come and plunder the Eburones, in order to save his own men, and, also, with the aid of great numbers, to exterminate the nation. (
B. G. 6.34). While Caesar was ravaging the country of the Eburones, he left Q. Cicero with a legion to protect the baggage and stores, at a place called Aduatuca, which he tells us in this passage had been the fatal quarters of Sabinus and Cotta, though he had not mentioned the name of the place before (5.24).
He places Aduatuca about the middle of the territory of the Eburones; and there is good reason for supposing that the place is
Tongern. [
ADUATICA] Caesar burnt every village and building that he could find in the territory of the Eburones, drove off all the cattle, and his men and beasts consumed all the corn that the badness of the autumnal season did not destroy.
He left those who had hid themselves, if there were any, with the hope that they would all die of hunger in the winter. And so it seems to have been, for we hear no more of the Eburones. Their country was soon occupied by another German tribe, the Tungri.
The annexed coin is usually assigned to the Eburones; but as the nation was extirpated by Caesar, it could have had no coins.
The coin may perhaps belong to the Eburovices, or to Eburodunum.
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| COIN OF THE EBURONES. |
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G.L]
