Remi

REMI(Ῥημοί), a people of Gallia Belgica (Ptol. 2.9.12) along the Sequana (Seine). Their capital was Durocortorum (Reims). This is Ptolemy's description (2.9.12).
Caesar (B. G. 2.3) says that the Remi were the nearest to the Celtae of all the Belgae, and he makes the Sequana and Matrona (Marne) the boundary between the Belgae and the Celtae. The Suessiones were the neighbours of the Remi. (B. G. 2.12.) When Caesar had entered the country of the Remi from the south (B.C. 57), he came to the Axona (Aisne), which he says is on the borders of the Remi. Eight miles from the Aisneand north of it was Bibrax, a town of the Remi. The Remi then extended as far north as the Aisne, and beyond it. Their capital, Durocortorum, is between the Aisneand the Marne.
When the Belgae in the beginning of B.C. 57 were collecting their forces to attack Caesar, the Remi were traitors to their country. They submitted to the Roman proconsul and offered to supply him with corn, to give hostages, to receive him in their towns and to help him against the rest of the Belgae and the Germans with all their power. (B. G. 2.3.) The Suessiones who were in political union with the Remi joined the Belgae. When the great meeting of the Gallic states was held at Bibracte in B.C. 52 to raise troops to attack Caesar at Alesia, the Remi did not come, and they continued faithful to Caesar. When Caesar entered Gallia in B.C. 58, the Aedui and the Sequani were the leading nations; but when the Sequani were humbled, the Remi took their place, and those nations that did not like to attach themselves to the political party of the Aedui, joined the Remi. Thus the Aedui were the first of the Gallic political communities and the Remi were the second. (Caes. B. G. 6.12.) Even the Carnutes, a Celtic people, had attached themselves to the Remi. (B. G. 6.4.) Caesar rewarded the fidelity of the Remi by placing the Suessiones in dependence on them (8.6).
Pliny (Plin. Nat. 4.17) mentions the Remi as one of the Foederati Populi of Belgica. When Strabo wrote (p. 194) the Remi were a people in great favour with the Romans, and their city Durocortorum was the occasional residence of the Roman governors. [DUROCORTORUM]
Lucan (Pharsal. 1.424) has a line on the Remi:—Optimus excusso Leucus Rhemusque lacerto.
But the military skill of the Remi is otherwise unknown. They were a cunning people, who looked after themselves and betrayed their neighbours.
[G.L]