Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/436

 420 NERIS. norlli-western coast of Norway, the mast important commercial town in that part still bearing the name of Bergen. The island of Dunina lastly, which is mentioned along with those spoken of above, has been identified with Dunoen, belonging to the abbey of Drontliehn. But all this is very doubtful, as riiny, besides being very vague, may have blundered here as in other parts of his work ; for, according to some. Bergion seems to have been an ancient name of Hibernia or Ireland (P. Mel. ii. 5. § 4) ; and Dunnia is distinctly called by Ptolemy (ii. 3. § 31, viii. 3. § 10), an "island ofi' the north of Britain. [Comp. Okcades.] [L. S.] NERIS. [Cynuria.] NE'RITUS. [Ithaca.] NE'RIUM. [AiiTABiu.] NERCfNIA. [Aktaxata.] MERTEREANE.S (N£pT6peai'€s),a small German tribe, which is mentioned at a late period in the country once occupied bv the Chatti, on the east of Mons Abnoba (Ptol. ii. 11. § 22). [L. S.] NERTOBRIGA (NeprdgpiYa). 1. A town of Hispania Buetica (Ptol. ii. 4. § 13), also called by Pliny (ill. 1. s. 3) Concordia Julia, the modem Valera la vieja. It is named "EpKoSpiKo. in the copies of Polybius (xxsv. 2), by an omission of the N. (Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 381.) 2. A town of the Celtiberi in Hispania Tarraco- nensis, on the road from Emerita to Caesaraugusta, It is called by Appian ^iipySSpLya {Hisp. 50), and by Suidas NepydSpiy^s : now Almunia. (Ptol. ii. 6. § 58; Florus, ii. 17; A7it. Itin. 437: Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 460.) [T. H. D.] NERVA (Nepoija, Ptol. ii. 6. § 7), a small river in the N. of Hispania Tarraconensis, in the territory of the Autrigones; according to Ukert (vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 300), the modern Ordunna, near Bilbao ; though by other writers it is variously identified with the Blunes and the Nervion. [T. H. D."| NERVICANUS TRACTUS, is mentioned in the Not. Imp. as a continuation of the Armoricanus Tractus. There is also a middle age authority for the expression " Nervici littoris tractus." A port on tliis coast, named Portus Aepatiaci, was guarded by some Nervian troops according to the Notitia. D'Anville concludes that the Nervii extended from their inland position to the coast, and had part of it between the Morini and the mouth of the Schelde ; a conclusion for which there is little evidence, and a good deal against it. [Mexapii; Morini.] [G.L.] NE'RVII {Nepovioi, Ne'pgioi), a nation of Belgica, whose capital according to Ptolemy (ii. 9. § 1 1) was Bagacum (^Bavai). When Caesar was preparing (B.C. 57) to march against the Belgian confederates, he was informed that the Nervii had promised to supply 50,000 men for the general defence, and that they were considered the most savage of all the confederates. (.B. G. ii. 4.) The neighbours of the Nervii on the south were the Ambiani. {B. G. ii. 15.) In Caesar's time the Nervii had not allowed "mercatores" to come into their country; they would not let wine be imported and other things which encouraged luxury. When Caesar had marched for three days through their territory, he learned that he was not more than 1 Roman miles from the Sabis (Sambre), and the Nervii were waiting for him on the other side with the Atrebates and Veromandui, their border people. Thus we ascertain that the Atrebates, whose chief town is Arras, and the Veromandui, whose chief place was St. Queniiii, were alao neighbours of the Nervii. NERVII. The Nervii had no cavalry, and their country was made almost impenetrable to any attack from the cavalry of their neighbours by quickset hedges which a man could not get through, and indeed hardly see through them. (5. G. ii. 17.) On the banks of the Sambre Caesar had a desperate fight with the Nervii, commanded by Boduognatus. During this invasion the old men, the women, and children of the Nervii, were removed to the aestuaries and marshes, somewhere near the coast. The Nervii lost a great number of men in this battle : " the nation and the name were nearly destroyed." (-B. G. ii. 27.) Their " senatores " as Caesar calls them, their chief men, were reduced from 600 to three, and out of the 60,000 who were in the battle there were said to be only 500 left capable of bearing arms. After this terrible slaughter the Nervii rose again in arms against Caesar (b. o. 54), when they joined the Eburones and others in the attack on Quintus Cicero's camp. (B. G. v. 38.) Some of the commentators have found a difficulty about the ap- pearance of the Nervii again in b. c. 54, after having been nearly destroyed in B.C. 57. We must sup- pose that Caesar wrote of the events as they oc- curred, and that he did not alter what he had written. In B.C. 57 he supposed that he had de- stroyed most of the fighters of the Nervii. In b. c. 54 he found that he was mistaken. In B.C. 53 the Nei-vii were again preparing to give trouble to the Roman governor ; but he entered their country in the winter season, and before they had time to rally or to escape, he took many prisoners, drove off many head of cattle, and ravaged their land, and so compelled them to come to terms. (5. G. vi. 2.) When the meeting of the Gallic states in b. c. 52 was settling the forces that each nation should send to the relief of Alesia, the contingent of the Nervii was 5000 men. (B. G. vii. 75.) Some of the nations between the Seiiie, the sea, and the Rhine, were Germans in Caesar's time, but these Germans were invaders. The Nervii (Tac. Germ. c. 28) claimed a Germanic origin, and they may have been a German or a mixed German and Gallic race ; but there is no evidence which can settle the question. Appian {de Bell. Gall. i. 4) speaks of the Nerii as descendants of the Teutones and Cimbri ; but this is worth very little. Appian had probably no authority except Caesar, whom he used carelessly ; and he may have applied to the Nervii what Caesar says of the origin of the Adu- atuci. (B. G. ii. 29.) Strabo (p. 194) also says that the Nervii were a Germanic nation, but he does not even know the position of the Nervii, and he misplaces them. Caesar mentions some smaller tribes as dependent on the Nervii (-B. G. v. 39) : these tribes were Grudii, Levaci, Fleumoxii, Geiduni, of all whom we know nothing. Pliny (iv. 17) mentions in Belgica as inland people, the Castologi (apparently a corrupted nanjc), Atrebates, Nervii liberi, Veromandui ; an order of enumeration which corresponds with the position of the Nervii between the Atrebates and the Veroman- dui ; for the chief place of the Atrebates is An-as, of the Nervii Bavai, and of the Veromandui St. Quentin. [Augusta Veromanduorum.] As Pliny calls the Nervii liberi, we must suppose that in his time they were exempt from the payment of taxes to the Pomans, and retained their own internal govern- ment ; probably in Pliny's time the Romans had not yet fully reduced their country.