ATREBATES, or ATTIIEDATES, a tribe of the Belgx, who inhabited that country now called Artois. Their capital, according to Scaliger, was Origiacum, now Arras. They were a fierce and barbarous peo ple, who, like the Nervii, their neighbours, scarcely admitted foreigners among them, and valued them selves on their of refinement. The Atrebates were enthusiastic in the cause of liberty against Cae sar, and entertained the utmost contempt for the other Gauls who had submitted to his arms. The quota of troops which they fupfished to the Belgic confederacy was 15,000 men, whom we afterwards find as a distinct body engaging some of the Roman .legions in a river. Upon the defeat and dissolution of the Nervian confederacy, Caesar set over them, in quality of king, their own countryman, Comius the Atrebatian. This man, who was a crafty time-ser ving politician, was also an expert general, and held a distinguished command under Caesar in most of his Gallic and British campaigns. He at last quarrel led with his master, in the hope of acquiring his in dependence, and received a desperate wound in an action, where he was left on the field for dead. Be ing at last forced into submission, he was pardoned in consideration of his past services ; and, on deliver ing hostages, was allowed to continue in his autho rity.
There is some mention of a people of the same name in Britain. The capital of the British ATRE DATF-S, or, as mu• antiquarians call them, ATTREBA TH, is conjectured, from the name, to be the Calliva Attrebatum of Antonine's Itinerary, which seems to be the same with the Calcua of Ptolemy. This ob scure tribe were probably a Belgic colony, who, like some other communities on the .British coast, had ar rived but a short time before Caesar's invasion. This may be inferred from the influence which Ctmius the Atrebatian was supposed to possess, when sent by the Romans to persuade the Britons to a voluntary submission. Whatever may he in this, or whether •the Atrebatian adventurers ever existed in Britain as a distinct nation or not, this people, it is certain, soon disappeared, and little or no notice is taken of the name by ancient writers. They are placed by some of the antiquaries in Berkshire, by others in Oxford shire, and by others in part of both. Calliva is sup posed to be the present Wallingford, in the county of Berks. See CRS. De Bell. Gall. I. 2., et passim. ; Camd. Brit: ; Horsley's Brit. Rom.; Henry's Hist. of Britain. (E)