They are mentioned as Mediomatricorum and Mediomatricis (dat.)byCaesar (mid-1st c. BC),[1]Mediomatrikoì (Μεδιοματρικοὶ ) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD),[2]MediomatricibyPliny (1st c. AD),[3]Mediomatricos (acc.)byTacitus (early 2nd c. AD),[4] and as Mediomátrikes (Μεδιομάτρικες) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD).[5][6]
The ethnonymMediomatrici is a Latinized form of the Gaulish*Medio-māteres, which literally means 'Middle-Mothers'. It is formed with the stem medio- ('in the middle, central') attached to a plural form of mātīr ('mother'). The name could be interpreted as meaning 'those who live between the Matrona (Marne) and the Matra rivers' (i.e. the mother-rivers), or possibly as the 'Mothers of the Middle-World' (i.e. between the heaven and the underworld).[7]
The city of Metz, attested ca. 400 AD as civitas Mediomatricorum ('civitas of the Mediomatrici'), is named after the Celtic tribe.[8]
The territory of the Mediomatrici comprised the upper basins of the rivers Maas, Moselle and Saar, and extended eastwards as far as the Rhine in the mid-first century BC.[9][10]Ptolemy places them south of the Treviri, between the Remi and the Leuci.[11]
During the Gallic Wars (58–50 BC), the Mediomatrici sent 5,000 men to support Vercingetorix who was besieged in Alesia in 52.[16][9] In 69–70 of the Common Era, their capital Divodurum was sacked by the armies of Vitellius, and 4,000 of its inhabitants massacred.[16] The Romanization of the Metromatrici was apparently slower compared to their neighbours the Treviri.[17][10]
Elements of the Mediomatrici may have settled near Novara, in northwestern Italy, where place-names allude to their presence, such as Mezzomerico, attested as Mediomadrigo in 980.[18]
^Berggren, J. L.; Jones, Alexander (2000). Ptolemy's Geography: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters. Princeton University Press. p. 103. ISBN978-0-691-01042-7.
^Ambrogio, Renzo, ed. (2006). Nomi d'Italia : origine e significato dei nomi geografici e di tutti i comuni. Istituto geografico De Agostini. p. 384. ISBN88-511-0983-4. OCLC605741780.
Falileyev, Alexander (2010). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS. ISBN978-0955718236.
