Chamavi

The Chamavi (Χαμαβοί) were a Germanic people of Roman imperial times who lived just north of the Roman border (Limes) along the Rhine river delta in what is now the Netherlands, and perhaps stretching into what is now Germany.

In the Roman records of the third and fourth century, when the tribes began to be categorized as Franks or Saxons, the Chamavi were at different times listed as both, and sometimes distinguished from both. During this period large numbers of Chamavi settled, despite fierce Roman resistance, in the Rhine delta. In the third century many of them were moved far to the south, to help repopulate agricultural areas, and the Roman military.

Their name probably survives in the region called Hamaland, which is in the Gelderland province of the Netherlands, near present day Deventer between the IJssel and Ems rivers. In France, one area where the Romans settled them also continued to be named after them into the Middle Ages.