The 'Baenochaemae,Bainochaimai (Ancient Greek Βαινοχαῖμαι) were aGermanic people recorded only in theGeography ofClaudius Ptolemy, who described them as living near theElbe.[1]
The name is generally considered to be equivalent to the modern term "Bohemian" in its origins, although this does not mean that this people is ancestral to the modern Bohemians, or speak an ancestral language, or live inBohemia. Rather the name represents a combination of the more ancient tribal name of theBoii, and the Germanic word found in modern Germanheim, or English "home". (The Boii's name is also found in "Bavaria", and they had lived in a large regions encompassing both of the modern regions, plus parts of modernMoravia,Hungary,Lower Austria and northern Italy. The Italian city ofBologna, LatinBononia is named after them.)
During Roman imperial times a part of the general area of the modernCzech Republic had been settled bySuebianGermanic tribes, most notably theMarcomanni under KingMarobodus. Around 100 ADTacitus reported that in the area once inhabited by the Boii, north of theDanube, south of theMain, east of the old territory of theHelvetii, and west of theHercynian forest: "The nameBoiemum still survives, marking the old tradition of the place, though the population has been changed."[2]
Strabo wrote that in the south of Germany, among the hills or mountains north of the Danube (which are not yet as big as theAlps further south)...
...is the Hercynian Forest, and also the tribes of the Suevi, some of which dwell inside the forest, as, for instance, the tribes of the Coldui, in whose territory isBoihaemum, the domain of Marabodus, the place whither he caused to migrate, not only several other peoples, but in particular the Marcomanni, his fellow-tribesmen; for after his return from Rome this man, who before had been only a private citizen, was placed in charge of the affairs of state, for, as a youth he had been at Rome and had enjoyed the favor of Augustus, and on his return he took the rulership and acquired, in addition to the peoples aforementioned, theLugii (a large tribe), the Zumi, the Butones, the Mugilones, the Sibini, and also theSemnones, a large tribe of the Suevi themselves.[3]
According to Ptolemy's account, a tribe using this name lived near the riverElbe, east of theMelibokus mountains, which were probably not the modern Melibokus, but theHarz mountains, orThuringian Forest or both.[4][5] This is, he reports, in turn north of theAskiburgium mountains (probably the modernSudetes) and theLugi Buri, which are in turn north of the source of theVistula river. This position may be north of both modern Bohemia and modern Bavaria.
Ptolemy also mentions a large people named the Baimoi (orBaemi) whose name is often considered to be simply a different Greek transliteration of the same word.[6] However the Baimoi are found to the south, on the north side of the Danube before it turns south in Hungary, living near theQuadi and theLuna forest.
