Cananefates

Replica of the tombstone of a Cananefatic cavalryman. Museum Swaensteyn, Voorburg. Photo Jona Lendering.

Cast of the tombstone of a Cananefatic cavalryman (Museum Swaensteyn)

Cananefates: tribal formation in the west of the Roman province of Germania Inferior.

Also spelled Cannenefates; prounounced with /H/
Lived on the fertile sandy soils between the dunes and the peat bogs of the modern Dutch province Zuid Holland; between the estuaries of the Rhine and the Meuse (Helinium)
Etymologies based on /konijn/, 'dune rabbit', are incorrect because this animal has not been living in Holland until the Middle Ages
According to the Roman historian Tacitus, the Cananefates were closely related to the Batavians, spoke a similar language, and were equally courageous (Histories, 4.15.1); this implies descent from the Chatti
Cf. religion: Hiannanefatic Mothers
Cf. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 4.101.
Subjected by Tiberius (Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.105.1)
Several auxiliary units in the Roman army
c.40, reign of Caligula: visit by the emperor; founding of Praetorium Agrippinae; jokes by a Cananefatian leader
Other towns: Lugdunum, Matilo
Capital: Municipium Cananefatium (Voorburg)
Corbulo: Gannascus, commanded a band of Chauci, who lived on the shores of the Wadden Sea in what is now the Dutch province of Groningen and the German Ostfriesland.
Canal of Corbulo
c.70: Batavian revolt: Brinno; attacks by Claudius Labeo
Start of romanization; cf. Rijswijk-De Bult
Soldiers served along the Danube (Carnuntum) and in Numidia
c.120: Voorburg >> Forum Hadriani
c.250: aggressive sea; c.270 abandoned

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