The Paemani were a tribe of Gallia Belgica

Gallia Belgica

Gallia Belgica was a Roman province located in what is now the southern part of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northeastern France, and western Germany. The indigenous population of Gallia Belgica, the Belgae, consisted of a mixture of Celtic and Germanic tribes...

, mentioned by Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 in his commentary

Commentarii de Bello Gallico

Commentarii de Bello Gallico is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it Caesar describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting local armies in Gaul that opposed Roman domination.The "Gaul" that Caesar...

 of his Gallic Wars

Gallic Wars

The Gallic Wars were a series of military campaigns waged by the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar against several Gallic tribes. They lasted from 58 BC to 51 BC. The Gallic Wars culminated in the decisive Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, in which a complete Roman victory resulted in the expansion of the...

. They were one of a group of tribes listed by his local Remi

Remi

The Remi were a Belgic tribe of north-eastern Gaul in the 1st century BC. They occupied the northern Champagne plain, on the southern fringes of the Forest of Ardennes, between the rivers Mosa and Matrona , and along the river valleys of the Aisne and its tributaries the Aire and the Vesle.Their...

 informants as the Germani, along with the Eburones

Eburones

The Eburones , were a Belgic people who lived in the northeast of Gaul, near the river Meuse and the modern provinces of Belgian and Dutch Limburg, in the period immediately before it was conquered by Rome. They played a major role in Julius Caesar's account of his "Gallic Wars", as the most...

, Condrusi

Condrusi

The Condrusi were a Germanic tribe of ancient Belgium, which takes its name from the political and ethnic group known to the Romans as the Belgae. The Condrusi were probably located in the region now known as Condroz, named after them, between Liège and Namur...

, Caeraesi (or Caeroesi

Caeroesi

The Caeroesi were a tribe living in Belgic Gaul when Julius Caesar's Roman forces entered the area in 57 BCE. They are know from his account of the Gallic War...

), and Segni

Segni (tribe)

The Segni were a tribe living in Belgic Gaul when Julius Caesar's Roman forces entered the area in 57 BCE. They are know from his account of the Gallic War. They were one of a group of tribes listed by his local informants as the Germani of Belgian Gaul, along with the Eburones, Condrusi, Paemani ,...

. These tribes are referred to as the "Germani Cisrhenani", to distinguish them from Germani living on the east of the Rhine, outside of the Gaulish and Roman area.

Whether this meant that they actually spoke a Germanic language or not, is still uncertain, but it was claimed by Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...

 that these Germani were the original Germani, and that the term Germani had come to be used broadly, having once only referred to this one people. He also said that the descendants of the original Germani in his time were the Tungri

Tungri

The Tungri were a tribe, or group of tribes, who lived in the Belgic part Gaul, during the times of the Roman empire. They were described by Tacitus as being the same people who were first called "Germani" , meaning that all other tribes who were later referred to this way, including those in...

, who had changed their name.

The Paemani are frequently associated with the present-day Famenne

Famenne

Famenne is a natural region in southern Belgium. Together with The Fagne or la Fagne, west of the river Meuse, it is part of the Fagne-Famenne natural region...

 region of central Wallonia . The proposal that the name Famenne itself derives from Paemani is no longer widely accepted, but the region is thought to be one reasonable proposal for where they lived.

It has been argued that their name was actually the "Caemani". This was the spelling found in a paraphrase of Caesar by Orosius

Orosius

Paulus Orosius , less often Paul Orosius in English, was a Christian historian, theologian and student of Augustine of Hippo from Gallaecia...

.

In later records, during the time of the Roman empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, the Paemani are no longer mentioned. But the previous area of the Paemani was on the southern reaches of the Civitas Tungrorum, which was named after the larger tribal grouping called the Tungri, who, as mentioned above, may have been a new name for the Germani described by Caesar. The old districts of the Condrusi and the Caeroesi are thought to have kept their names though.