The Menapii were a Belgic-Celtic people on the North Sea coast and in the Rhine delta, in the border area of today's Belgium and the Netherlands – near our region.
"The Menapii trusted in the protection of their marshes and forests."after Caesar, The Gallic War (public domain, own translation)
The Menapii were a Belgic tribe in the delta of Rhine and Scheldt – in the marshes, forests and tidal flats of today's Flanders and the southern Netherlands. This hard-to-reach landscape shaped their whole history and made them masters of small-scale war.
When Caesar marched against them, the Menapii offered no open battle. They withdrew into their marshes and forests and waged a wearing partisan war. Even the great general could never truly subdue them – a rare case in the Gallic War.
Their position on the Rhine made the Menapii a border people between the Celtic and the Germanic world. Again and again Germanic groups crossed the river in their territory – the Menapii lived literally at the seam of two worlds.
Centuries later a Roman counter-emperor came from this people: Carausius, a Menapian, seized power over Britain and the Channel in the 3rd century and created a short-lived empire of his own. A remarkable rise from a small coastal people.
The land of the Menapii bordered the Lower Rhine – our wider home. At GLANZ & GRAVUR we tell their story from the sources, because it shows how tough and independent the coastal peoples between Rhine and sea were.
The Menapii belong to the border peoples between Celts and Germani. Continue with the Eburones and Nervii.
The Eburones · The Nervii · The Treveri · The Ubii · The Celtic Warriors.
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