USI´PETES
Eth.
USI´PETES or
USI´PI (
Οὐσίπεται,
Οὔσιπαι), a German tribe, mostly mentioned in conjunction with the Tencteri, with whom they for a long time shared the same fate, until in the end, having crossed the lower Rhine, they were treacherously attacked and defeated by Julius Caesar. (
Caes. Gal. 4.4, &c.; Appian,
de Reb. Gall. 18; comp.
TENCTERI) After this calamity, the Usipetes returned across the Rhine, and were received by the Sigambri, who assigned to them the district on the northern bank of the Luppia, which had previously been inhabited by the Chamavi and Tubantes, and in which we henceforth find the Usipetes as late as the time of Tacitus. (
Ann. 13.55,
Hist. 4.37,
Germ. 32;
D. C. 54.32, foll.)
Afterwards the Usipetes are met with
[p. 2.1328]farther south, opposing Germanicus on his return from the country of the Marsi. (
Tac. Ann. 1.50,
51; comp.
D. C. 39.47;
Plut. Caes. 22.) In Strabo (
vii. p.292) they appear under the name of
Οὔσιποι, and Ptolemy (
2.11.10) mentions a tribe of the name of
Οὐϊσποί, whom some believe to be the same as the Usipetes; but if this be correct, it would follow that the Usipetes migrated still farther south, as Ptolemy places these Vispi on the upper Rhine; but as no other authority places them so far south, the question is altogether uncertain. About the year A.D. 70, the Usipetes took part in the siege of Moguntiacum (
Tac. Ann. 13.54), and in A.D. 83 a detachment of them is mentioned as serving in the Roman army in Britain. (Id.
Agric. 27.)
Afterwards they disappear from history. (Comp. Zeuss,
Die Deutschen, p. 88; Wilhelm,
Germanien, p. 139.)
[
L.S]
