The
Eburones (
Greek Ἐβούρωνες,
Strabo), were a
Belgic people of
Germanic or
Celtic descent who lived in the upper north of
Gaul in ancient times.
[1] They lived largely between the
Rhine and the
Maas, east of the
Menapii. This area later became part of the province
Germania Inferior.
Julius Caesar says that the
Condrusi, Eburones,
Caeraesi, and
Paemani were called by the one name of
Germani (
B. G. ii. 4). When the
Tencteri and Usipetes, who were Germanic tribes, crossed the
Rhine from
Germania (
55 BCE), they first fell on the
Menapii, and then advanced into the territories of the Eburones and
Condrusi, who were in some kind of political dependence on the
Treviri. (
B. G. iv. 6.). The Eburones were evidently wiped out by Caesar's forces during the
Gallic Wars.
Caesar is the primary source for the Eburones' location at Roman contact. On the Rhine the Eburones bordered on the Menapii, who were north of them, and the chief part of the territory of the Eburones was between the Mosa (Maas) and the Rhine. (B. G. vi. 5; v. 24.) South of the Eburones, and between them and the Treviri, were the Segni and Condrusi (B. G., vi. 32); and the Condrusi were in the country of Liège. The Eburones must have occupied the region of Limburg (now divided between the Limburg (Netherlands) and Limburg (Belgium)) and a part of the German Rhineland, toward Aachen.
In 54 BC, Caesar quartered a legion and five cohortes (one and a half legions) during the winter in the country of the Eburones, under the command of his legates, Quintus Titurius Sabinus and Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta. The Eburones, headed by their two kings, Ambiorix and Cativolcus, and evidently aided by their allies the Nervii, attacked the Roman camp; and after inducing the Romans to leave their stronghold on the promise of a safe passage, they massacred nearly all of them (approximately 6000 men). (B. G. v. 26-37.) The legion also lost its standard. A further attack on another camp held by Quintus Tullius Cicero, brother of the famous orator, was thwarted by timely intervention of Labienus, one of Caesar's most trusted generals. He killed the king of the Nervii, which broke the resistance, at least for a while.
In the following year Caesar entered the country of the Eburones, and Ambiorix fled before him. Cativolcus poisoned himself. The country of the Eburones was difficult for the Romans, being woody and swampy in parts; and Caesar invited the neighboring people to come and plunder the Eburones, in order to save his own men, and, also, with the aid of great numbers, to exterminate the nation. (B. G. vi. 34). The Sicambri were one of the main raiders. While Caesar was ravaging the country of the Eburones, he left Q. Tulius Cicero with a legion to protect the baggage and stores, at a place called Aduatuca, which he tells us in this passage had been the fatal quarters of Sabinus and Cotta, though he had not mentioned the name of the place before (v. 24). He places Aduatuca about the middle of the territory of the Eburones; and there is good reason for supposing that the place is Tongeren. Caesar burnt every village and building that he could find in the territory of the Eburones, drove off all the cattle, and his men and beasts consumed all the corn that the weather of the autumnal season did not destroy. He left those who had hid themselves, if there were any, with the hope that they would all die of hunger in the winter. And so it seems to have been, for we hear no more of the Eburones. Their country was soon occupied by another Germanic tribe, the Tungri.
