Veleda

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Veleda was a völva (female shaman) of the Germanic tribe of the Bructeri who achieved some prominence during the Batavian rebellion of 69 - 70 CE that was headed by the Romanized Batavian chieftain Civilis, when she correctly predicted the initial successes of the rebels against Roman legions. Her name means "she who sees".

The name may actually be a generic title for a prophetess (cf. Old Norse vala). Veleda enjoyed wide influence over the tribe of the Bructeri and beyond, for the inhabitants of the Roman settlement at Cologne accepted her arbitration in a conflict with the Tencteri, an unfederated tribe in Germany. When the Batavian leader Civilis captured the legionary base at Castra Vetera (near modern Xanten in Niederrhein, Germany), the commander of the Roman garrison, Munius Lupercus, was sent to Veleda, though he was killed en route. When the pretorian trireme was captured, it was rowed upriver as a gift to Veleda.[1]

In 77 CE the Romans either captured her, perhaps as hostage, or offered her asylum. According to Statius, her captor was Rutilius Gallicus.[2] A Greek epigram has been found at Ardea, a few kilometres south of Rome, that satirizes her prophetic powers.[3]

Veleda's story was fictionalised by Lindsey Davis in The Iron Hand of Mars (1992) and Saturnalia (2007) and by Poul Anderson in Star of the Sea (1991)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lendering, Jona. Veleda. Livius. Retrieved on December 2, 2006.
  2. ^ Statius, Silvae 1.4, line 90; J.G.W. Henderson, A Roman Life: Rutilius Gallicus On Paper and In Stone (Exeter: University of Exeter Press 1998).
  3. ^ Année Épigraphique 1953, 25.

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