Eburones

The Eburones (Greek: Ἐβούρωνες, Strabo), were a people who lived in the northeast of Gaul, in what is now the southern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, and the German Rhineland, in the period immediately before this region was conquered by Rome. Though living in Gaul, they were also described as being both Belgae, and Germani.

The Eburones played a major role in Julius Caesar's account of his "Gallic Wars", as the most important tribe within the Germani cisrhenani group of tribes - Germani living west of the Rhine amongst the Belgae. Caesar claimed that the name of the Eburones was wiped out after their failed revolt against his forces during the Gallic Wars. Whether any significant part of the population lived on in the area as Tungri, the tribal name found here later, is uncertain but considered likely.

Location

Caesar is the primary source for the Eburones' location. The exact borders are difficult to be certain about, but the region that they and their fellow "Germani" inhabited corresponds to some extent with the later Roman district of Germania Inferior, enclosed by the northern bend of the river Rhine, and including a stretch of the Meuse river (Dutch: Maas) stretching from the Ardennes until the river deltas of the Rhine and Meuse. In the early medieval church this evolved into the original church province of Cologne (before it stretched beyond the Rhine), which included the Diocese of Liège that had evolved from the Civitas Tungrorum. This large area included large parts of what are now the southern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, and the German Rhineland.