TheNemetes[1] were a tribe settled along theUpper Rhine byAriovistus in the 1st century BC.
Their area of settlement was thecontact zone betweenCeltic (Gaulish) andGermanic peoples. According toTacitus, the Nemetes were "unquestionably Germanic".[2] The name of the tribe, however, isCeltic as the name of its main townNoviomagus meaningnovios 'new' andmagos 'plain', 'market' (cf.Welshmaes 'field',Old Irishmag 'plain'),[3] as are those of several gods worshipped in their territory, includingNemetona, who is thought to have been their eponymous deity.[4] Both of these names are taken to be derivations from the Celtic stemnemeto- "sacred grove".[3][4][5]
InDe Bello Gallico,Caesar writes that theHercynian Forest "begins at the frontiers of theHelvetii, andRauraci, and extends in a right line along the river Danube to the territories of theDaci and theAnartes".[6] Their territory on the left bank of the Rhine had belonged to theMediomatrici during the time of Caesar andStrabo, but the Nemetes must have crossed the river and settled there sometime afterward.[7] Under the Roman administrative organization of Gaul, the Nemetes constituted acivitas of the province ofUpper Germany with a relatively small territory extending from the Rhine into thePalatinate Forest and an administrative centre at Speyer.Ptolemy mentionsNeomagus (i.e.Noviomagus) andRufiniana as the towns of the Nemetes;[8] if the latter is to be identified withRouffach, Ptolemy is mistaken in attributing it to the Nemetes, for Rouffach is far to the south in Rauracan territory.[9][10] It may also be supposed thatSaletio (Seltz) belonged to the Nemetes, as in modern times it belonged to thediocese of Speyer; Saletio would have been near the northern limits of theTriboci, whosecivitas later became thediocese of Strasbourg.[11] The Nemetes fought alongside the Romans andVangiones against theChatti when the latter invaded in 50 AD.[12]
The name of the Nemetes has been suggested, on contestable grounds,[13] as a possible source of theterm for Germany and German people inRomanian:nemți/neamț,Hungarian:német(ek) and theSlavic languages (Russian:немцыnyemtsy,Ukrainian:німціnimtsi,Polish:Niemcy,Czech:Němci).[14]
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