Semnones
Germanic tribe
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The Semnones were a Germanic and specifically a Suevian people, who were settled between the Elbe and the Oder in the 1st century when they were described by Tacitus in Germania :
"The Semnones give themselves out to be the most ancient and renowned branch of the Suevi . Their antiquity is strongly attested by their religion. At a stated period, all the tribes of the same race assemble by their representatives in a grove consecrated by the auguries of their forefathers, and by immemorial associations of terror. Here, having publicly slaughtered a human victim, they celebrate the horrible beginning of their barbarous rite. Reverence also in other ways is paid to the grove. No one enters it except bound with a chain, as an inferior acknowledging the might of the local divinity. If he chance to fall, it is not lawful for him to be lifted up, or to rise to his feet; he must crawl out along the ground. All this superstition implies the belief that from this spot the nation took its origin, that here dwells the supreme and all-ruling deity, to whom all else is subject and obedient. The fortunate lot of the Semnones strengthens this belief; a hundred cantons are in their occupation, and the vastness of their community makes them regard themselves as the head of the Suevic race." [1]
The Semnones's own name is apparently etymologically similar or even the same as the one recorded by Roman authors as "Suevi" and during his own time Julius Caesar , had mentioned Suevi but not Semnones, being a powerful tribal group with 100 cantons. They were led in his time by King Ariovistus .
The king of the Semnones Masyas and his priestess Ganna are mentioned by Cassius Dio . They worshipped a supreme god ( Latin : regnator omnium deus ) at a sacred grove . A grove of fetters is also mentioned in the eddic poem Helgakviða Hundingsbana II . Ptolemy 's map of Magna Germania mentions a forest called Semanus Silva, but a relation to the Semnones is unknown.
In the 3rd century, the Semnones shifted southwards and eventually ended up as part of the Alamanni people.
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Notes
- ↑ Tacitus, Germania , Germania.XXXIX
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