v08_1043 - GALLIA BELGICA - NERVII (Belgica) Bronze au cheval

NERVII (Currently Belgium)

(2nd - 1st century BC)

Les Nerviens belong to the large Belgian group. Their territory was very vast and extended over the north of present-day Belgium, located between Scheldt and Sambre. Their neighbors were the Menapians, the Eburones, the Remes, the Bellovaci, the Viromanduans and the Atrebates.. They had several client peoples including the Ceutrons and the Lévaques. In 57 BC. -VS. , they provided a contingent of fifty thousand men to the Belgian coalition, led by the Bellovaques. César describes them as "the fiercest of the Belgians". They were defeated at the Battle of the Sambre and decimated. Only five hundred warriors would have survived out of the sixty thousand engaged. They submitted and received the protection of the Romans, which did not prevent them, in 54 BC. -VS. , to join the sedition of Ambiorix, Eburon leader who revolted against Caesar and besieged Quintus Cicero, who was finally freed by his leader. They were preparing for war when Caesar led his troops into their territory and crushed them in 53 BC.. -VS. Nevertheless, they still provided a contingent of five thousand men to rescue Vercingetorix besieged in Alesia. Caesar (BG. II, 4, 15-17, 19, 23, 28, 29, 32; V, 24, 38, 39, 41, 42, 45, 46, 48, 56, 58; VI, 2, 3, 29; VII, 75). Strabo (G. IV, 3, 4).