by Revelator on April 21st, 2004

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What the tribes were present in the fallen Roman Empire?

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  • by Too Much Time On My Hands on September 6th, 2004

    Too Much Time  On My Hands

    I think there are two separate questions here. There are tribes (mostly Celtic) who were the original inhabitants of areas that Rome expanded into. Then there are lots of tribes (Germanic this time) who profited from the fall of the Roman Empire. So you have three waves of expansion: Celtic, Roman, and Germanic.

    The poor Gauls (ancestors of the French) fell well before the Romans did. They were a Celtic tribe. The Britons were Celts too. They lived in England (both on their own and under Roman domination) until the Germanic invaders pushed them back into Wales and across the Channel into Brittany (both Britain and Brittany are named after them). And the original inhabitants of Iberia (Spain/Portugal) are also believed to have been Celtic, but the Romans wiped them out even more brutally than they did the Gauls.

    There are also a variety of other Germanic tribes that moved around quite a bit taking advantage of the fall of Rome. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (from Northern Germany/Denmark area) went to England in the fifth century. The Franks went to France around the same time (that's where France gets its name from, and Charlemagne was a Frank). The Visigoths ruled Spain for a few centuries until the Arab invasion of 711. The Lombards, I believe, were in Northern Italy. The Burgundians must have been in or near Burgundy, which is basically the eastern part of modern-day France. And the Vandals and the Ostrogoths were also major Germanic tribes, although I can't say I remember where they lived. Probably in what is now Germany, though, since we seem to have covered the other regions...

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  • by singwell-is off researching a lot on June 24th, 2007

    singwell-is off researching a lot

    There were many, including the original tribes of the Italian peninsula. The first thing that must be taken into account is that the Romans were simply a single tribe that exerted its influence over others. On the peninsula were other Italic-speaking peoples such as the Sabini (Sabines)(who were Latins but had adopted Greek as their lingua franca, due to their dealings with the Greek speaking colonies on the peninsula),the Oscii (with subtribes the Samnite, Marrucine, Paelignan, Vestinian, Sabine, and Marsian peoples).
    , the Umbri and the Latii, from which the word Latin comes. The Lombards were also in the north. They were Germanic.
    Also on the peninsula were the Etruscans, who were probably not even Indo-European.
    All these tribes were assimilated by the time of the Empire, when the Romans expanded into other areas, but their languages are still represented in the dialects of Italy.

    The tribal groups of Gaul (modern France) are known from Roman documents. There were many of them, and their ultimate defeat was due to the fact that it was difficult for them to federate because of rivalries.
    These are their names, with their capitals beside them:
    Aedui Bibracte
    Allobroges Vienne
    Ambiani Amiens
    Andecavi Angers
    Aquitani Bordeaux
    Atrebates Arras
    Arverni Gergovia
    Baiocasses Bayeux
    Boi Bologna
    Bellovaci Beauvais
    Bituriges Bourges
    Carnutes Chartres
    Catalauni Châlons-en-Champagne
    Cenomani Brescia
    Coriosilitae Corseul
    Helvetii La Tene
    Insubres Milan
    Lemovices Limoges
    Lexovii Lisieux
    Mediomatrici Metz
    Medulli Medoc
    Medulli Vienne
    Menapii Cassel
    Morini Boulogne sur Mer
    Namnetes Nantes
    Nervii Bavay
    Orobii Bergamo
    Osismii Vorgium
    Parisii Paris
    Petrocorii Perigueux
    Pictones Poitiers
    Raurici Kaiseraugst (Augusta-Raurica)
    Redones Rennes
    Remi Reims
    Santones Saintes
    Senones Sens
    Sequani Besançon
    Suessiones Soissons
    Tigurini Yverdon
    Tolosates Toulouse
    Treveri Trier
    Tungri Tongeren
    Turones Tours
    Unelli Coutances
    Vangiones Worms
    Veliocassi Rouen
    Vellavi Ruessium
    Veneti Vannes
    Viducasses Vieux
    Vocontii Vaison-la-Romaine

    ====
    The tribes of Britain were also many. Wikipedia lists them as:
    Central Britain
    Catuvellauni - modern Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Greater London north of the Thames
    Cornovii - modern Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire
    Corieltauvi - modern Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire
    Dobunni - modern Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Oxfordshire and West Midlands
    Iceni - modern Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire
    Parisi - modern East Yorkshire
    Trinovantes - modern Essex and Suffolk

    [edit] Northern Britain
    Brigantes - modern Yorkshire, Cumbria, Lancashire and County Durham
    Caereni - modern west Sutherland
    Caledonii - Scottish Highlands
    Carnonacae - modern west Ross and Cromarty
    Carvetii - modern northern Cumbria, around Carlisle and the upper valley of the River Eden*
    Cornavii - modern east Sutherland and Caithness
    Corionotatae - modern Scottish borders, probably a sept of the Selgovae
    Creones - modern Argyll
    Damnonii - modern Strathclyde
    Decantae - modern east Ross and Cromarty
    Epidii - modern Mull of Kintyre
    Gabrantovices - modern North Yorkshire*
    Lopocares (name uncertain) - south side of Hadrian's Wall around Corbridge*
    Lugi - modern south east Sutherland
    Novantae - modern Dumfries and Galloway
    Selgovae - modern Scottish Borders and eastern Dumfries and Galloway
    Setantii - part of modern Lancashire around the Fylde*
    Smertae - Ross and Cromarty
    Taexali - modern Aberdeenshire
    Textoverdi - south side of Hadrian's Wall in the upper valley of the River Tyne*
    Vacomagi - modern north Grampian region
    Venicones - modern Fife and southern Tayside
    Votadini - coasts of modern Northumberland, Scottish Borders and East Lothian
    Asterisked (*) tribes were septs or pagi within Brigantine territory.


    [edit] Southern Britain
    Atrebates - modern Hampshire and the Thames Valley
    Belgae - (in this context) modern Hampshire and Gloucestershire
    Cantiaci - modern Kent
    Durotriges - modern Somerset and Dorset
    Dumnonii - modern Devon, Cornwall and Somerset
    Regnenses - modern Surrey and Sussex

    [edit] Western Britain
    Deceangli - modern Flintshire and Denbighshire
    Demetae modern Pembrokeshire and west Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire
    Gangani - modern Lleyn peninsula, likely a sept of the Ordovices
    Ordovices - modern Anglesey, Snowdonia and Powys
    Silures - modern South Wales
    ==========
    Waiting on the outskirts of the Empire and poised to strike at any time were the Frankish tribes, Germanic speaking peoples, who would eventually overrun the Roman empire in the 5th century.
    Wikipedia lists these:
    The Franks or the Frankish peoples were an ever-changing confederation of west Germanic tribes, such as the Salians, Sicambri, Chamavi, Tencteri, Chattuarii, Bructeri, Usipetes, Ampsivarii. The Salians, later preeminent among the tribes, were a "proto-Dutch" (Old Low Franconian) speaking people. The Franks first appeared in history around 260. Sometimes the Franks allied with non-Old Frankish speaking tribes as the Frisians and Chatti and occasionally with Saxons. They were not originally grouped into one tribe, but "as with the other barbarians, they belonged to much smaller groups that would join constantly changing confederations."[1]

    +++++++++++
    ON the eastern borders of the Empire, and even within it at some points were Slavic tribes, such as the Serbii and the Hrvati (modern Croats).
    +++++++++
    The Greeks had long been under Roman rule, but differences in language and culture still existed between the Macedonians and the "true" Greeks.
    =============
    In North Africa, there were tribal groups such as the Berber, the Nubians and the Copts (the Arabs had not yet entered Egypt), and in the middle east there were the Jews, the Arabs. In the area known as Asia Minor and the islands of the Mediterranean, there were still many regional languages represented, as is attested by ACts 2 which speaks of the miracle of Pentecost:
    5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"

    The tribal nature of this part of the Empire is clear from contemporary documents like this, despite the propaganda from Rome that this was a united Empire (in reality until the 2nd century, Latin was not widely used throughout the Empire: Koine Greek was used)
    Hope this gives you some ideas of what peoples were represented throughout the Roman Empire, showing that it was still strongly tribal, despite the best efforts of Rome to unite it.

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  • by robbob74 on July 13th, 2004

    robbob74

    Visigoths, Ostragoths, vandals, Gauls. One might mention also the Britons and the Saxons, but the first three as far as I know were the major ones.

  • by JoshuaTedder on August 12th, 2011

    JoshuaTedder

    I`m not too good with names, dates, etc., and that sort of thing, but I do know the names of some of the Germanic tribes, although I do not know much about their presence in the fallen Roman Empire off the top of my head, but I could research it for you, if you like. The names of all the tribes I know are this, the Teutons, Seuvi, Franks, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Angles, Jutes, Saxons, and that is all I can recall right now. I will add more names later if I recall them but it probably won`t be many even if I recall more. If you would like to have a more complete list and more information about each tribe, including where they eventually settled,just ask this question, Can anyone give me more information about the ancient Germanic tribes?, in this site, Answerbag.

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