bga_290108 - GALLIA BELGICA - ATREBATES (Area of Arras) Quart de statère en or au croissant, fourré

GALLIA BELGICA - ATREBATES (Area of Arras)

(2nd - 1st century BC)

The Atrébates were an important people of Belgian Gaul, occupying the territory of medieval Artois, in the current departments of Somme and Pas-de-Calais. They had for neighbors the Ambiens, the Ménapiens and the Morins. Their main oppidum was Nemetocenne (Arras). Part of the continental Atrebates had settled in the 2nd century in the island of Brittany. They thus carried out important commercial and political exchanges from each side of the Channel.. Commios, imposed as king of the Atrebates by Caesar, was of considerable help to him during the two successive campaigns in Britain in 55 and 54 BC.. -VS. In particular, he negotiated peace with Cassivellaunos. The following year, he was put in charge of supervising the Ménapiens. Nevertheless, Commios betrayed the trust of the Romans and provided a contingent of four thousand men for the relief army destined for Alesia in 52 BC.. -VS. The following year in 51 BC. -VS. , with Corréos, he took the head of the coalition of the Belgian peoples, directed against the Romans and was defeated. He first found refuge in Germany then he would have ended up submitting to Marc Antoine. Finally, he retired to Brittany where he became king among the Atrebates.. Caesar (BG. II, 4, 16, 23; IV, 21, 27, 35; V, 22, 46; VI, 6; VII, 75, 76, 79; VIII, 6, 7, 10, 21, 23, 47, 48). Strabo (G. IV, 3). Ptolemy (G. II, 9). Kruta: 68, 376, 381.