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The Belgae ( or ) were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel and the west bank of the Rhine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth by Julius Caesar in his account of his wars in Gaul. Some peoples in Britain were also called Belgae and O'Rahilly equated them with the Fir Bolg in Ireland. The Belgae gave their name to the Roman province of Gallia Belgica and, very much later, to the modern country of Belgium. ==Etymology== The consensus among linguists is that the ethnic name ''Belgae'' comes from the Proto-Celtic root '' *belg-'' or '' *bolg-'' meaning "to swell (particularly with anger/battle fury/etc.)", cognate with the Dutch adjective ''gebelgd'', "to be very angry" and ''verbolgen'', "being angry", and the Old English verb ''belgan'', "to be angry" (from Proto-Germanic '' *balgiz''), derived ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root '' *bhelgh-'' ("to swell, bulge, billow"). Thus, a Proto-Celtic ethnic name '' *Bolgī'' could be interpreted as "The People who Swell (particularly with anger/battle fury)".〔''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie'' (ZcP). Volume 44, Issue 1, Pages 67–69, ISSN (Online) 1865-889X, ISSN (Print) 0084-5302, //1991〕〔Koch, John. Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO 2006, p. 198.〕〔Pokorny, Julius. Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959), Bern - Muenchen - Francke, pp. 125-126.〕〔Maier, Bernhard. Dictionary of Celtic religion and culture, Boydell & Brewer, 1997, p. 272.〕〔Pokorny, Julius, "The pre-Celtic inhabitants of Ireland", Celtic, DIAS, 1960 (reprint 1983), p. 231.〕 ==Origins of the Belgae== Julius Caesar describes Gaul at the time of his conquests (58–51 BC) as divided into three parts, inhabited by the ''Aquitani'' in the southwest, the ''Gauls'' of the biggest central part, who in their own language were called ''Celtae'', and the ''Belgae'' in the north. Each of these three parts was different in terms of customs, laws, and language. He noted that the Belgae, were "the bravest of the three peoples, being farthest removed from the highly developed civilization of the Roman Province, least often visited by merchants with enervating luxuries for sale, and nearest to the Germans across the Rhine, with whom they are continually at war".〔Julius Caesar, ''The Conquest of Gaul'', trans. S. A. Handford, revised with a new introduction by Jane F. Gardner (Penguin Books 1982), I.1.〕 Ancient sources such as Caesar are not always clear about the things used to define ethnicity today. While Caesar or his sources described the Belgae as distinctly different from the Gauls, Strabo stated that the differences between the Celts (Gauls) and Belgae, in countenance, language, politics, and way of life was a small one, unlike the difference between the Aquitanians and Celts.〔(Geography 4.1 )〕 The fact that the Belgae were living in Gaul means that in one sense they were Gauls. This may be Caesar's meaning when he says "The Belgae have the same method of attacking a fortress as the rest of the Gauls." 〔Caesar, ''The Conquest of Gaul'', trans. S. A. Handford, revised with a new introduction by Jane F. Gardner (Penguin Books 1982), II.1.6.〕 Some translators of Caesar have given crucially different interpretations of his meaning in another passage on the Belgae. W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn (1869) rendered the Latin of Caesar in ''Bello Gallico'', II.4 as "When Caesar inquired ... he received the following information: that the greater part of the Belgae were sprung from the Germans, and that having crossed the Rhine at an early period, they had settled there, on account of the fertility of the country".〔{()]〕 A more modern translation gives the same section as: "the envoys stated that most of the Belgae were descended from tribes which long ago came across the Rhine from Germany and settled in this part of Gaul on account of its fertility."〔Caesar, ''The Conquest of Gaul'', trans. S. A. Handford, revised with a new introduction by Jane F. Gardner (Penguin Books 1982), II.4.〕 So Caesar's use of the word "Germani" needs special consideration. He uses it in two ways. He describes a grouping of tribes within the Belgic alliance as the "Germani", distinguishing them from their neighbours. The most important in his battles were the Eburones.〔Julius Caesar, ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' 2.4〕 The other way he uses the term is to refer to any tribe considered to be of similar ancestry and traditions, with ancestry east of the Rhine. So the Germani amongst the Belgae were called ''Germani cisrhenani'', to distinguish them from other Germani, such as those living on the east of the Rhine, in the presumed homeland of the Germani. The later historian Tacitus was informed that the name Germania was recent in his day. "The first people to cross the Rhine and oust the Gauls, those now called Tungri, were then called Germani. It was the name of this nation, not a race, that gradually came into general use. And so, to begin with, they were all called Germani after the conquerors because of the terror these inspired, and then, once the name had been devised, they adopted it themselves."〔Tacitis, ''Germania'', trans. H. Mattingly, revised by J. B. Rives (Penguin Books 2009), 2.〕 In other words the collective name Germani had first been used by the Gauls or Belgae for the intruders from beyond the Rhine, and was later later adopted as a collective name by the Germani themselves. Many modern scholars believe that the Belgae were a firmly Celtic-speaking group.〔Koch, John T. 2006. Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia. P.196〕〔Bell, Andrew Villen. 2000. The role of migration in the history of the Eurasian steppe. P.112〕〔Swan, Toril, Endre Mørck, Olaf Jansen Westvik. 1994. Language change and language structure: older Germanic languages in a Comparative Perspective. P.294〕〔Aldhouse-Green, Miranda Jane. 1995. ''The Celtic World''. P.607.〕 However, at least part of the Belgae may also have had significant genetic, cultural, and historical connections to peoples east of the Rhine, including Germanic peoples, judging from archaeological, placename, and textual evidence.〔Kipfer, Barbara Ann. 2007. Encyclopedic dictionary of archaeology. P.63〕〔King, Anthony. 1990. Roman Gaul and Germany. P.32〕 It has also been argued based on placename studies that the older language of the area, though apparently Indo-European, was not Celtic (see Nordwestblock) and that Celtic, though influential amongst the elite, might never have been the main language of the part of the Belgic area north of the Ardennes.〔 page 44.〕〔M. Gysseling, Enkele Belgische leenwoorden in de toponymie, in Naamkunde 7 (1975), pp. 1-6.〕 For example, Maurits Gysseling, suggest that prior to Celtic and Germanic influences the Belgae may have comprised a distinct Indo-European branch, termed Belgian.〔 On the other hand, most of the Belgic tribal and personal names recorded are identifiably Gaulish, including those of the ''Germani cisrhenani'', and this is indeed also true of the tribes immediately over the Rhine at this time, such as the Tencteri and Usipetes. Surviving inscriptions also indicate that Gaulish was spoken in at least part of Belgic territory.〔Inscriptions in Celtic language on ''instrumentum'' were discovered in Bavai and in Arras (cf. P-Y. Lambert, ''La langue gauloise'', éditions errance 1994), on the contrary, never an inscription in a Germanic language dating back before the fall of the Roman Empire was excavated.〕 The Romans were not precise in their ethnography of northern barbarians: by "Germanic", Caesar may simply have meant "originating east of the Rhine" (the homeland of the ''Germani cisrhenani'') with no distinction of language intended. The east of the Rhine was not necessarily inhabited by Germanic speakers at this time. It has been remarked that Germanic language speakers might have been no closer than the river Elbe in the time of Caesar.〔 However, studies of placenames such as those of Maurits Gysseling, have been argued to show evidence of the pre-Roman presence of early Germanic languages throughout the Belgic area north of the Ardennes, where the ''Germani cisrhenani'' lived. The sound changes described by "Grimm's law" appear to have affected names with older forms, apparently already in the second century BC. Strong evidence for old Celtic placenames, though, is found in the Ardennes and to the south of them.〔〔 According to Strabo, the country of the Belgae extended along the coast where 15 tribes were living from the Rhenus (Rhine) to the Liger (Loire).〔Strabo, ''Geographica'', Book IV chapter IV, 3〕 Strabo also says that "Augustus Caesar, when dividing the country into four parts, united the Keltae to the Narbonnaise; the Aquitani he preserved the same as Julius Caesar, but added thereto fourteen other nations of those who dwelt between the Garonne and the river Loire, and dividing the rest into two parts, the one extending to the upper districts of the Rhine (Gallia Belgica) he made dependent upon Lugdunum, the other (assigned ) to the Belgae (Gallia Lugdunensis)."〔Hamilton, H.C. (trans.), The Geography of Strabo, Vol. 1, George Bell & Sons, 1892, p. 265.〕 Apart from the Germani, the report of Caesar seems to indicate that more of the Belgae (most of them in fact) had some Germanic ancestry and ethnicity, but this is not necessarily what defines a tribe as Belgic. Edith Wightman proposed that Caesar can be read as treating only the southwestern Belgic tribes, the Suessiones, Viromandui, and Ambiani and perhaps some of their neighbours, as the true ethnic Belgae, as opposed to those in a political and military alliance with them. She reads Caesar as implying a "transition zone" of mixed ethnicity and ancestry for the Menapii, Nervii, and Morini, all living in the northwest of the Belgic region, neighbours to the ''Germani cisrhenani'' in the northeast.〔 page 12-14.〕 (Caesar also mentions his allies the Remi being closest to the Celts amongst the Belgae.〔II.3〕) It seems that, whatever their Germanic ancestry, at least some of the Belgic tribes spoke a variety of the Celtic Gaulish language as their main language by Caesar's time, and all of them used such languages in at least some contexts.〔Koch, J.T. ''Celtic Culture: A historical encyclopedia'' (2006) ISBN 1-85109-440-7〕 Luc van Durme summarizes competing evidence of Celtic and Germanic influence at the time of Caesar by saying that "one has to accept the rather remarkable conclusion that Caesar must have witnessed a situation opposing Celtic and Germanic in Belgium, in a territory slightly more to the south than the early medieval Romance-Germanic language border", but van Durme accepts that Germanic did not block "Celticisation coming from the south" so "both phenomena were simultaneous and interfering". The medieval ''Gesta Treverorum'' compiled by monks of Trier claims that the Belgae were descendants of Trebeta, an otherwise unattested legendary founder of Trier, the Roman ''Augusta Treverorum'', "Augusta of the Treveri". ==Tribes of the Belgae== Caesar names the following as Belgic tribes: Later, Tacitus mentioned a tribe called the Tungri living where the ''Germani cisrhenani'' had lived, and he also stated that they had once been called the Germani, (although Caesar had claimed to have wiped out the name of the main tribe, the Eburones). Other tribes that may have been included among the Belgae in some contexts were the Leuci, Treveri, and Mediomatrici. Posidonius includes the Armoricani, as well. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Belgae」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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