Rhenus: a Gaulish God (He of the Great Waterway)

Synonyms:
Gaul: He of the Great Waterway

Rhenus is the titular deity of the Rhine and he is known from sites along the length of the great river. Inscriptions to this deity having been found at Eschenz (CIL XIII 05255), Remagen ([CIL XIII 07790; 07791] where he was invoked with IOM, and the Genius Locus) and Wiltenburg ([CIL XIII 08810; 08811] where he was invoked with IOM, Juno, Minerva, Neptune, Oceanus and the Genius Locus) in Germany as well as Strasbourg in France (AE 1990/70, 434] and Utrecht in the Netherlands (where he was invoked with IOM, Dis Pater, and the Genius Locus). The image, left, is from an altarstone found at Cologne.

His invocatoin along with the Genius Locus (the spirit of place) would indicate that Rhenus was preceived as the spiritual embodiment of the Rhine and its surrounding floodplains. Rhenus was probably also seen as one of the 'great gods' of the Celtic pantheon, a deity of the 'father of the gods' type, as indicated by his invocation with the Roman Jupiter Optimus Maximus [IOM] and the Celtic Dis Pater.

The Rhine is also of historical importance, for though both banks were inhabited by Celtic tribes during the early Iron Age by about 600 BEC the proto-Germanic tribes began crossing the Weser and Aller Rivers (which previously had marked the extent of their territories) and began expanding their territories towards the banks of the Rhine; an expansion is shown archaeologically by the Jastorf culture. From c 500 BCE onwards it was the lower Rhine and not the Weser and the Aller that demarcated the border between the Celtic and the Germanic tribes.

Rhenus is also honoured on an antoninianus of the emperor Postumus, c 259-268 CE. Postumus was probably legate of the Rhine legions and during the chaos of an invasion from the Alemanni and Franks deposed emperor Gallienus. He was recognized as emperor in Gaul, Spain, Germany, and Britain thus reducing Gallienus to the effective status of Emperor of the West. The striking of an image of Rhenus on the obverse of one of Postumus' conis (as above) probably commemorates the Rhine legions who were the backbone of his support. This coin also represents one of the few coins of the late empire dedicated to river deities. It is also interesting to note that on this coin the image of Rhenus bears the crab claws of Oceanus, a deity with whom he was invoked at Wiltenbur.

Rhenus' name is derived from the reconstructed proto-Celtic root *rŒno- (large expanse of water) which is also related to *retō- (to run) with the Latinized masculine ending -us giving us 'He of the Great Waterway'.

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