PART
5 –
Ch.XXXIII.7
The
Pelasgians or proto – Latins (Arimii)
(The
Pelasgians from the northern parts of the
XXXIII. 7. Migrations of the Arimii in
The migrations of
the Pelasgian tribes westwards had begun even during the primitive times of
history, a long time before the invasion of the Celts.
A proof in this regard
are the various items of the Neolithic industry discovered on the territory of
Gallia, which by their shape, their technique and ornamentation, belong to the
archaic Pelasgian civilization.
At the time when
the Roman senate had charged Iulius Caesar to defend the northern frontiers of
These western and
northern regions of Gallia had in official Roman geography the name of Aremorica; a term which indicates at
the same time the name Aremori for
the most ancient Pelasgian nation from the land of Gallia.
From the point of
view of its etymology, the name Aremori is
only a simple archaic rotacism of the word Aremoni.
Under this form the term is very ancient.
One ‘Archemonos
(where ch represents only a guttural aspiration), appears in the epic
legends about the war of the 7 against
In
The highest part of
the hill Aventin, where traditions said that Remus, the brother of
Remores, Aurelius
Victor tells us (Orig. gent. Rom. 21), had been called in antiquity some
sort of people.
Remuria or Remoria
(Ovid, Fast. Lib. V. 480-481) was an
ancient national feast day of the Romans in honor of the good and illustrious
ancestors. The same solemnity, with nocturnal rites, is still celebrated today
at the Carpathians, under the name of Alimori,
especially in
In
a region which from
the point of view of the ethnic element, of the idiom and administration,
comprised the western
In regard to the
geographical origin of these Aremorici,
settled between the
Another
considerable group of Aremori or Aremorici was settled in the parts of
north-west of
Armorica of the north-western parts of Gallia
comprised especially the peninsula called today Bretagne, an important archaeological region, where exist the most
grandiose and most beautiful megalithic monuments of Gallia: menhirs, peulvans,
alignments, dolmens and cromlechs (Cartailhac,
La France prehistorique, Ed. 1889, p. 201; Bertrand,
La Gaule, p. 124).
Another Pelasgian
population of
The fourth numerous
group of Arimi was settled in Gallia
Belgica, near the rivers called Axona (
In the times of
Caesar, the Arimic nations of Belgia were united among themselves in particular
confederations, but the political preponderance was kept by the so-called Remi. When Caesar came with the Roman
legions near the frontiers of Belgian Gallia, the Remii were the first to send
him a deputation to let him know that they shall give themselves up to the
power of the Roman people, together with all that was theirs (Caesar, B. G. II. 3). Remii, writes Caesar, have always
enjoyed a principal honor from his part (B. G. lib. V. 54), they were on the
second place among the peoples of
The Remii, exactly
like the Eduii, had had even before the conquest of
We also find in the
Middle Ages another legend about the origin of the Remi, very widely spread in
the West, which said that Rem,
separating from his brother Romulus,
had passed into Gallia, where he founded the city Remi, which had surpassed by far, in wealth and beauty, the citadel
of Romulus from near the Tiber (Graf,
Roma nella memoria del medio evo. I. 101).
It seems though that
the Remii also had other historical reminiscences about their geographical
origin, namely that it had been in the eastern parts of Europe, and we found
the same tradition with the Aremoricii of Aquitania, and with various Pelasgian
tribes which had settled on the territory of Hispania.
The fact we are
presented with is the following:
In the Reims (Remi) cathedral, which had
played a very important role in the religious and political history of France,
had been preserved even until the 18th century a Gospel written in
Slavonic language, on which the kings of France swore their oath at the
coronation ceremony, and which, because of this, had acquired the name of the
Gospel of consecration, Le texte du
sacre (Hasdeu, Textul sacrului
de la Reims, in ziarul “Traian”, 1869, nr. 64-69).
This Gospel was
made of two parts, one written with Cyrillic letters and the other with
Glagolitic, or Dalmatian letters. The part written with Cyrillic characters was
in fact only a copy made in the Romanian Country around the beginning of the 14th
century (1300 – 1310), from another specimen written in
[1. This particular importance
accorded in
In the time of
Caesar, the so-called Viromandui or Veromandui were neighbors with the
Remi. Their principal city was Augusta
Viromandorum, called by Ptolemy
polis Augousta ‘Romandon (Ed. Didot, lib. II. 9. 6). Therefore Romandi, not Veromandui, was the more
correct form of the name, where the initial V had only substituted an H
used as aspiration, exactly like in Veneti
(‘Enetoi), Vesta (‘Estia).
Another people from
Belgian Gallia were the so-called Oromansaci
(Pliny, lib. IV. 31), a term
certainly transmitted in a barbarian form by Roman geography.
Also the Suessionii, whom their neighbors, the Remii,
called “brothers and people of the same blood” belonged to the same unity of
nation, and to the same political confederation in Belgian Gallia, (Caesar, B. G. II. 3).
And at last,
neighbors with Remii were also the so-called Bellovacii, who, as Caesar
tells us, formed in Belgian Gallia the most powerful people, for their courage,
authority and their number. They could arm 100,000 fighters (B. G. II. 4; Strabo, lib. IV. 4. 3). By their name
and their character the Bellovacii seems to have been the same people as the Belacii, another Pelasgian warlike
tribe, which had their dwellings in the Alps (C. I. L. vol. V. nr. 7231).
Diodorus Siculus, who had lived in the time of Caesar and
Augustus, tells us that between the Gali and Romans had existed an ethnic
kinship, since very remote times (lib. V. 25); and Strabo calls all Galii,
Arimanic people (lib. IV. c. 4. 2).
Finally, to the
ancient population of the Arimii is reduced the origin of a number of
localities from the territory of today
Aramon;
Arembecourt; Armancourt; Armenonville; Ermenonville; Harmonville; Ormancey;
Ormenans; Ramecourt; Ramicourt; Ramonchamp; Ramous; Ramousies; Ramville;
Remeling; Remenoville; Remereville; Remering; Rem’gny; Reminiac; Remiremont;
Remois; Remoncourt; Remonville; Remeray; Rimay; Rimancourt; Rimogne; Rimon;
Roumens; Rumigny; Rumont (Janin,
Dict. d. com. D. France, Paris, 1851).