Tungri The Tungri ( or Tongri , or Tungrians ) were a tribe , or group of tribes , who lived in the Belgic part of Gaul , during the times of the Roman empire . They were described by Tacitus as being the same people who were first called " " Germani " " ( Germanic ) , meaning that all other tribes who were later referred to this way , including those in Germania east of the Rhine river . Their name is the source of several place names in Belgium , Germany and the Netherlands , including Tongeren , and several places called Tongerloo , and Tongelre . Origins . In a comment in his " Germania " Tacitus remarks that " Germani " was the original tribal name of the " Tungri " with whom the Gauls were in contact ; among the Gauls the term " Germani " came to be widely applied . The name Germany , on the other hand , they say , is modern and newly introduced , from the fact that the tribes which first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls , and are now called Tungrians , were then called Germans [ " Germani " ] . Thus what was the name of a tribe , and not of a race , gradually prevailed , till all called themselves by this self - invented name of Germans , which the conquerors had first employed to inspire terror . Some generations earlier , Julius Caesar , on the other hand , does not mention the Tungri , but does say that the Condrusi , the Eburones , the Caeroesi and the Paemani , living in the same approximate area as the later Tungri , were " called by the common name of Germans ( " Germani " ) " and had settled in Gaul already before the Cimbric wars , having come from Germany east of the Rhine . The Romans allies named them as having one collective contribution of men to the Belgic revolt against him , within which the Eburones were the most important . They were led by Ambiorix and Cativolcus . Also neighbouring these tribes where the Aduatuci , whose origin Caesar describes more specifically as having descended from the Cimbri and Teutones , against whom the Germani had been the only Gaulish tribe to successfully defend themselves . Their descendants , if there were any , presumably lived amongst the Tungri . Already during the campaign of Caesar , the Tencteri and Usipetes crossed the Rhine for a cattle raid of the territories the Menapii , Eburones and Condrusi , giving Caesar an excuse for new military intervention in the area . He pursued them back over the Rhine where they were helped by the Sicambri . Later , Caesar himself encouraged the Sicambri to cross the Rhine into the territory of the Eburones , seeking to plunder the lands of the people whose fortress he had just taken . These tribes who crossed the Rhine and became part of Roman Germania Inferior were themselves apparently heavily influenced by Gaulish culture , some using Gaulish personal names or Gaulish tribal names . Later , as the area became part of the Roman empire some of these tribes from over the Rhine , including Sicambri and Ubii , were forced by Tiberius to settle among in the northeast of Gaul , and Romanised provinces with tribal names developed from the mergers of incoming groups , with people who had lived there before Caesar . This is the apparent origin of both the Tungri the other tribal groups of Germania Inferior . The exact history of each such mergers is unknown , although the areas nearer to the Rhine appear to have had larger scale immigration while the Tungri are often suspected of being less changed in their make - up by this process . Smaller tribal groups such as the Condrusi ( one of the Germani tribes mentioned by Caesar ) and the Texuandri ( maybe the same as the Eburones ) continued to exist as recognized groups for the administrative purpose of mustering troops . To the north of the Tungri , in the Rhine - Maas delta were the Batavians , a similarly new formation , apparently made up of in - coming Chatti , with a possible contribution of Eburones . To the northeast of the Tungri , near the Rhine were the Cugerni , who are thought to be Sicambri , and then around the area of Cologne and Bonn the Ubii were settled . Location . Pliny the Elder is the first writer to mention the Tungri in Gallia Belgica , in his " Natural History " . He notes that their territory . . . has a spring of great renown , which sparkles as it bursts forth with bubbles innumerable , and has a certain ferruginous taste , only to be perceived after it has been drunk . This water is strongly purgative , is curative of tertian fever s , and disperses urinary calculi : upon the application of fire it assumes a turbid appearance , and finally turns red It has been suggested that this refers to the well - known waters of Spa in the province of Liège , or else to waters found at Tongeren , which are suitably iron - bearing , and today referred to as the " Plinius bron " . Both Pliny and Ptolemy ' s " Geography " are unclear concerning the exact position of the Tungri but are understood as placing them east of the Scheldt , and to the north of the " Arduenna Silva " ( Forest of Ardennes ) , along the middle and lower valley of the " Mosa " ( Meuse River ) . Their tribal capital lay at " Atuatuca " ( or " Aduatuca " ) " Tungrorum " , probably modern Tongeren in the Limburg province of Belgium ( the word " Atuatuca " is thought to have probably meant fortress ) . Under the Romans , the Tungri " civitas " was first a part of Gallia Belgica , and later split out to join the territories of the Ubii to the southeast , and the Cugerni , who are generally equated with being descended from the Sicambri , to the northeast , and become part of Germania Inferior , and still later it became part of Germania Secunda . In other directions , their neighbours in Roman times were the Belgic Nervii on the west and the Remi and Treveri to the south , all tribes who had been in those regions since before Caesar ' s campaign . Part of the empire . Tacitus in his " Histories " notes two cohorts of Tungri in the civil war of 69 AD . The Tungri were mentioned in the " Notitia Dignitatum " , an early fifth - century document , in which was transcribed every military and governmental post in the late Roman Empire . The document mentions the Tribune of the First Cohort of Tungri stationed at Vercovicium ( now known as Housesteads , Northumberland ) on Hadrian ' s Wall . The cohort was split in Hadrianic times to form a Second Cohort of Tungri as well , both cohorts 1000 men strong ( " milliary " cohorts ) .