Nehalennia and the Marsaci

The goddess Nehalennia is known principally from two sanctuaries in Zeeland that have been dated to the late second and early third centuries. Variously explained as a Celtic or Germanic theonym, Nehalennia may best be understood in terms of the evidence of other names associated with Roman Zeeland. The Nehalennia sanctuaries are both situated in an area that seems likely to have fallen within the Roman civitas named for the Belgic Menapi, but the cult of Nehalennia appears likely to have been an originally Germanic development before it became more widely adopted by all manner of merchants who traded through the ports in the area. The theonym appears to record similar phonological developments to names recorded of Marsacian soldiers stationed in Roman Britain and Nehalennia accordingly appears to have been a goddess of the Marsaci.