MEDIOMA´TRICI
Eth.
MEDIOMA´TRICI (
Μεδιομάτρικες,
Ptol. 2.9.12), a people of Gallia, who belong to the division of Belgica. Caesar (
Caes. Gal. 4.10) shows their position in a general way when he says that the Rhine flows along the territories of the Sequani, Mediomatrici, Triboci or Tribocci, and Treviri. Ptolemy places the Mediomatrici south of the Treviri. Divodurum (
Metz) was their capital. [
DIVODURUM] The diocese of
Metz represents their territory, which was accordingly west of the
Vosges. But Caesar makes the Mediomatrici extend to the Rhine, and consequently they had in his time the country between the
Vosges and the Rhine. And this agrees with Strabo (p. 193), who says that the Sequani and Mediomatrici inhabit the Rhine, among whom are settled the Tribocci, a German nation which had crossed over from their own country.
It appears then that part of the territory of the Mediomatrici had been occupied by Germans before Caesar's time; and as we know that after Caesar's time the German tribes, Nemetes, Vangiones, and Caracates. occupied the Gallic side of the Rhine, north of the Triboci as far as
Mainz, and that. north of
Mainz was the territory of the Treviri, we may infer that all these tribes were intruders on the original territory of the Mediomatrici.
[
G.L]
