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 Welcome friends. I see you have traveled long and far by the time you have made it here. But allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ambiorix of the Namnetes tribe. Our main base of power was located right at the mouth of the Loire River, which connected us with other powerful tribes in Gaul, in particular in Bourges. Items we would trade would include slashing swords (called Gundlingen), helmets, scabbards, and later wine with the Mediterraneans to the south. There were also three main phases of our trade. From 1300 BCE to 600 BCE we had the most dynamic of our trade with Galacia. From 600 to 400, we had somewhat of a degrade in the activity of trade, which may be due to a new network of trade with tribes in the Danube Basin. Finally, it seems that from 400 to 200 BCE, everyone was moving in and out of the area. Our system of trade was able to develop without many external contacts, but with the creation of a new Greek port at Masillia, we never saw wine flow so freely (Cunliffe, 155). You may be asking yourself now how our daily life was. Well, our society was not different than other Celtic societies. Our society is very hierarchical, with the warrior nobles, such as myself commanding the most prestige. Then after us, are the druids or others with special status such as skilled craftsmen. Then you will find freemen, and finally, at the bottom, are the slaves that we took as hostages from neighboring villages, or prisoners of war who were unlucky enough not to die by my sword. We also live in round or rectangular waddle and daub houses with a thatched roof. Apart from our living areas, we had stables to hold the many animals we raised, including pigs, sheep, cows and horses (Mewes, 26). We also had incredible defenses, since we weren't always on friendly terms with our neighbors the Venetes from Vannes as well as other villages trying to raid our surplusses. So we decided, early on in our past, that while building atop a hill was a good defense, we still needed to protect our resources. We built underground chambers, called souterrains where we could hide 2/3 of our resources and leave the rest to the invaders, saving us troops and energy. That method worked very well for us for a while. That is until Caesar came in and threatened to cut us off from our resources through trade if we resisted. It was in 56BC during the battle of the Veneti at the delta of the Loire where we come into play. Its seems we did have something in common with the Veneti after all, and that was that neither of us wanted to be a slave to any filthy Roman. Well, it seems that my Veneti brothers had sealed the deal, as they detained Lts. Silius and Velanius during a peace talk in a move to retrieve some of our own hostages. Caesar did not react to this as we expected, and began building men of wars near Nantes. Caesar was ruthless in his warfare, and pacified us for the time being (Caesar, III, 9). But it was not long conquered until a new force was to come into our history. Through Romanization came Christianity, as well as a new medium for rebellion. Towards the end of the 3rd century AD, two Gallic brothers, Donatien and Rogatien refused to renounce their faith during the Roman persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. The Emperor wasn't very nice to these two guys either, and eventually tortured and executed these two heretics. Then came the Germans in the 5th century, and while Armorica was able to keep its independence during this time, Nantes was a fringe province and was soon conqered by the incoming Franks. It was during this time where the Franks put a puppet king of Armorica into place, from Nantes, but he ended up fighting with his neighbors in Vannes and Domnonee. This puppet king, Lombard, was actually a duke that the French set up in the area in an attempt to succumb the Bretons. But, as usual, we were resistant in our culture, and this time we even became so independent that certain Celts were conquering areas. I have only heard of Nominoe, the Duke of Vannes, but from the stories I have heard is that he was brutal in his attacks on Nantes. I don't understand why he conducted these ruthless attacks on our village, except that he may have held a vendetta against Lombard because it was rumored that he killed his father, Wromarc'h. Despite the constant attacks, we held out for another generation until Nominoe's son, Erispoe, came into power and finally made Nantes a part of Armorica. In the 7th century the Vikings invaded our peaceful land. We were subject to a sudden attack while we were celebrating the feast day of St. Jean. A group of pillaging savages plundered our fair city, burned the Chapel, and murdered the inhabitants. According to the Chronicle of Nantes "They spared neither age nor sex, and cruelly slaughtered (bishop) Gohard who was celebrating solemn mass" Chronicle of Nantes. While Nantes remained on the fringe of Celtic Brittany, there still remained a rich and unique Celtic culture. The people, the customs, the dress, as well as the song, hold Nantes in the Celtic embrace. Notable figures in Nantes include later figures like the Duke Francois II and his daughter, Anne de Bretagne. While Francois was a powerful figure in the area during the 12th century, it was his daughter who immortalized him with the extravegant tomb she dedicated to her dead father. Anne, twice Queen of France, created the elaborate Tomb of Francois II, and was hailed by the popular writer, Chatrebrand, as the "leading masterpiece of Catholic art in France".
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Beltaine Events
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