The Bructeri were a Germanic tribe in north-western Germany, on the rivers Lippe and Ems – neighbours of the Cherusci, Marsi and Chatti. They were among the tribes that joined the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest and the resistance against Rome.
Their most famous child was the seeress Veleda, who held great influence in the Batavian revolt (69/70) and was venerated "as if a deity". That a Bructeran woman reached such a position of power shows the standing seeresses could enjoy in Germanic belief.
The Bructeri stood against Rome again and again: under Arminius, in the Batavian revolt. Later Tacitus reports a terrible event – a war of neighbouring Germanic tribes against the Bructeri (around 98 AD), in which supposedly over 60,000 people died. Tacitus notes coolly that the Romans attended the slaughter as spectators. It is a shocking example that the greatest danger to a Germanic tribe was often the other Germanic peoples.
"Wits must he have who wanders wide, but all is easy at home."Hávamál 5, after Henry A. Bellows 1923 (public domain)
The Bructeri were a Germanic tribe in the north-west, between Lippe and Ems, in Westphalia. They belonged to the peoples that clashed with Rome in the early imperial wars – and that produced one of the most famous seeresses of antiquity.
From the people of the Bructeri came Veleda, who during the Batavian revolt of AD 69/70 enjoyed almost divine esteem as a seeress. Her word carried far beyond her own tribe – a unique testimony to the power of Germanic seeresses.
The Bructeri fought against the legions of Germanicus and even burned their own dwellings to leave nothing to the enemy. Among them one of the Roman legionary eagles lost in AD 9 was recovered.
Tacitus reports that around AD 98 the Bructeri were almost annihilated by neighbouring tribes – some 60,000 are said to have fallen, and for the viewing pleasure of the Romans, who watched the slaughter from the frontier.
The Bructeri are a tribe of extremes: home of a venerated seeress and victim of one of the bloodiest fratricidal wars of the Germanic world. More about their seeress in the article Veleda.
Veleda · The Marsi · The Cherusci & Arminius · The Batavi · Germanic Religion.
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