Talk:Battle of the Sabis

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as far as I remember from my schooldays, it is not known which river the sabis is today, but it is very unlikely it is the Sambre. The south borders of the Nervii territory were in what's currently France, south of the Belgian Sambre (Frankamand 21:27, 19 November 2005 (UTC))

I shall make a note about that. Munion 23:58, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

While I'm at it, I struck the comment about "with whom they were fighting valiantly." It seems out of place, not academically useful, and a strange bit of Viromandui boosterism. Munion 00:05, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

The dutch article on the Nervii mentions a source for the claim that the sabis is the river Selle. http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nervi%C3%ABrs De identificatie van de Sabis met de Selle is al in de jaren veertig en vijftig gebeurd, door twee onderzoekers, P. Turquin en A. Arnould, op taalkundige gronden en op basis van de gegevens uit de tekst van Caesar, en is overtuigend en m.i. definitief. De identificatie met de Samber of zelfs met de Schelde heeft nog steeds aanhangers31. 31 P. Turquin, La bataille de la Selle (du Sabis) en l'an 57 avant J.-C., in Les études classiques 23 (1955), pp. 113-154; M.-A. Arnould, La bataille du Sabis (57 avant notre ère), in Revue Belge de philologie et d'histoire 20 (1941), pp. 29-106. --Frankamand 09:39, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

>>> Frankamand is right about the Selle.

The figures for the Nervii (and allies), given by Caesar, were very exagerated. According to him, the total number of soldiers for all Belgic tribes was some 280.000 men. In 1830 Belgium had 1,5 million inhabitants, but at that time the country was one of the most urbanized in Europe. The total Belgian population at the time of Caesar must not have exceeded 800.000. The Nervians represented some 25% at best = 200.000 inhabitants (including women and children). So, 20.000 or 10% of the total population on the battle field is the highest possible estimation. But it's unlikely that this figure was reached, as some soldiers had to guard their homeland too (against German raiders, sent by Caesar). Michael042 13:00, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge

Battle against the Nervians and this article describe the same battle.

Battle Against the Nervians takes the stance that locale is the Selle River, though most translations and commentators put it at the Sambre River. Shouldn't both possible locations be mentioned?

And shouldn't the two articles be combined? I'm a relative newbie and don't know how to go about this.