Ménapiens

The Ménapiens (menapii) were Germanic people of the Belgium. They are mentioned by César in the De Bello galico and it locates their territory in marsh S skirting the Coastal strip of the the North Sea. It is possible that it confused with the estuary of the Scheldt. César and Tacite mention Ménapiens and Morins often together. It is probable that the two people got along well. The conquest of this area by the envoy of Rome was completed in eight years in the years 50 av. J. - C.. One also found of Ménapiens in the North-East of Ireland. The Civitas of Ménapiens was organized around the oppidum Cassel, in territory Morin. The number of inhabitants can be estimated at 75.000, their militia with 5.000-6.000.

Etymology of the name " Ménapien"

First possibility: two Celtic words mel and apa . All two meant water. This is explained by the omnipresence of water in the marshes where the ménapiens were established. The word Ménapien thus designates an inhabitant of the marshes and grounds humides.
Second possibility: two Germanic words: Carries out + aap . Carry out, mesnil, was a large house, room, in the village, sometimes called “house of the chief”, where people of the village met. There, they could follow lawsuits, vote for their chief, be informed for example as for the war, etc Aap are a Germanic word meaning `following, raise, lessee, imitator' (later: monkey). The word would thus indicate an social organization: those which are organized in a mesnil. This social organization was probably practiced in everyone Celtic.

Their territory

Their territory extended around Ghent. This zone of settlement coincides today with the province of the Flanders Orientale (Belgium), while extending to north to the mouth from the Scheldt (most of modern Zeeuws Vlaanderen ). César mentions of Ménapiens in the north of Eburons (in the north of the modern province of the Belgian Limbourg), but there, it probably acts of another people without specific name, having same manners. The landscape was compared with that today (without cities): very flat, farms, fields, hedges, and little marsh (except in north), limited forests. The ground is in general sandy. The valleys, large forests and marshes mentioned by César are probably its invention as excuses for the fact that the genocide ordered by itself “had not succeeded”!
The language of Ménapiens with probably preserved in the modern dialect which one finds in all the modern province. This dialect is distinguished clearly from all the other dialects in the Dutch linguistic group.

Their neighbors

At the beginning of the conquests of Gaules by César, the neighbors of Ménapiens were:

in north Batavians,
in the east the Nerviens,
in the south the Atrébates,
in the west, close the coast, the Morins.

Their lifestyle

Ménapiens were sedentary and lived breeding and agriculture. They did not have cities, but preferred food disseminated, in hamlets, or farms. When there was danger of flood, of the properties were built with buried courses with half in top of sand or clay hillocks, called " Donken" (dunes of river).

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