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Ancient Germanic tribe
The
Dulgubnii
are a
Germanic
tribe mentioned in Tacitus'
Germania
(Chapter
34
) as living in what is today northwest Germany.
Tacitus
describes them being to the north of the
Angrivarii
and
Chamavi
, and as having moved from the north into the area once belonging to the
Bructeri
, between
Ems
,
Lippe
, and
Weser
. In this same area as the Dulgubnii, north of the Chamavi and
Angrivarii
, were the
Chasuarii
, and north of these, on the
North Sea
coast, where the Chauci. The Chasuarii's name is thought to derive from the
River Hase
which feeds into the middle of the Ems from the east, just northwest of the area associated with the Angrivarii, on the Weser. So from Tacitus, it appears that the Dulgubnii probably lived near the Weser.
By the account of Tacitus, the
Chauci
in his time lived not only along the whole German coast, but would have also stretched down to the lands of the
Cherusci
and
Chatti
. So they were probably the neighbours of the Dulgubnii on the east.
The Dulgubnii in Tacitus are probably the same as
Ptolemy
's
Doulgoumnioi
of the same region (Book 2, Chapter 10). (Many Germanic names are corrupted in Ptolemy's Greek.) Ptolemy describes them near the
Elbe
, so to the east of the position described by Tacitus, in an area Tacitus associated with the Chauci. They are described as having the "Laccobardi" (
Langobardi
) to their north, and the "
Suebi
Angili" (
Angles
) to their south. To their east are the Angrivarii, still near the Weser, and then the "Chamae" (Chamavi), between Ems and Weser, north of the Bructeri who are now on the Rhine.
In Ptolemy, the Chamae, Angrivarii, and Laccobardi have the Chauci directly on their north, all the way to the coast, and stretched from Ems to Elbe. And the Dulgubnii are no longer between the Chauci and the Chamavi and Angrivarii. Compared to Tacitus, the Chasuarii had also moved away. Ptolemy mentions Casuari far to the south, east of the Abnoba mountains that run east of the Rhine (with the
Tencteri
apparently between Rhine and Abnoba at that point).
See also
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Tacitus,
Germania
,
XXXIV
.