Geidumni


The Geidumni were a small Belgic tribe living in Gallia Belgica during the Iron Age. They were clients of the most powerful Nervii.

Name

They are attested as Geidumni by Caesar.
Jozef Van Loon has proposed emending the name to Geldumni, noting that confusion between ⟨i⟩ and ⟨l⟩ occurs elsewhere in the manuscript tradition of Caesar's De Bello Gallico. On this basis, the name Geidumni has be compared with the toponym Jodoigne, attested as Geldonia in 1167 AD, and possibly deriving from an earlier Romance form *Geldumnia, borrowed from either Celtic or Germanic.
If of Germanic origin, the name Geldumni may combine the stem geld- with the Indo-European participial suffix -menos, yielding interpretations such as 'those who make themselves count' or 'those to whom payment is due'. However, since both elements also occur in Celtic, a Celtic derivation remains possible.

Geography

Based on Caesar's account, their territory was located somewhere in the vicinity of Nervian territory. On the basis of Van Loon's linguistic comparison with Jodoigne, they may have been located in this area.

History

During the Gallic Wars, they are cited by Caesar as clients of the Nervii in the context of the Eburonian revolt led by Ambiorix in 54 BC, when the Nervii summoned their dependent peoples, including the Geidumni, to support an attack on another Roman winter camp after the destruction of the Fourteenth Legion near Atuatuca.