09-06-2008, 06:33 AM
"Via Belgica" is the name modern archaeologists have given to the road that connected the capitals of the Ambiani, Atrebates, Nervians, Tungi, and Ubii (in other words: Amiens, Arras, Bavay, Tongeren, Cologne) in northern Gaul. The name has no ancient precedents. Earlier researchers called this road -which dates back to the Neolithicum and is still in use- "Chaussée Brunehaut", but it has little to do with the Merovingian queen. So, both names are incorrect.
What I am trying to find out, is the model on which the quasi-Latin "Via Belgica" is based. The Romans named their roads after the men who built them: Via Appia, Via Flaminia, Via Egnatia, Via Augusta, or Strata Diocletiana. In the inner cities, the qualities of the road or pavement might be important: Via Nova and Via Sacra. But I am unaware of any road that was ever called after the country it traversed - no Via Iberica, Via Germanica, Via Moesica. If roads have a geographic element in it (Via Labicana, Via Portuense), it invariably indicates a destination, not the country it traversed. Does anyone know a model on which "Via Belgica" can be based?
AFAIC, this maltreatment of the Latin language deserves to be punished by returning to "Chaussée Brunehaut", which at least does not procrustinate French.
What I am trying to find out, is the model on which the quasi-Latin "Via Belgica" is based. The Romans named their roads after the men who built them: Via Appia, Via Flaminia, Via Egnatia, Via Augusta, or Strata Diocletiana. In the inner cities, the qualities of the road or pavement might be important: Via Nova and Via Sacra. But I am unaware of any road that was ever called after the country it traversed - no Via Iberica, Via Germanica, Via Moesica. If roads have a geographic element in it (Via Labicana, Via Portuense), it invariably indicates a destination, not the country it traversed. Does anyone know a model on which "Via Belgica" can be based?
AFAIC, this maltreatment of the Latin language deserves to be punished by returning to "Chaussée Brunehaut", which at least does not procrustinate French.
