In ancient Celtic religion

Celtic polytheism

Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts...

, Sulevia was a goddess worshipped in Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

 and Britain

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

, very often in the plural forms Suleviae or (dative) Sule(v)is. Dedications to Sulevia(e) are attested in about forty inscriptions, distributed quite widely in the Celtic world, but with particular concentrations in Noricum

Noricum

Noricum, in ancient geography, was a Celtic kingdom stretching over the area of today's Austria and a part of Slovenia. It became a province of the Roman Empire...

, among the Helvetii

Helvetii

The Helvetii were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC...

, along the Rhine, and also in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. Jufer and Luginbühl distinguish the Suleviae from another group of plural Celtic goddesses, the Matres

Matres

The Matres and Matrones were female deities venerated in North-West Europe from the 1st to the 5th century AD...

, and interpret the name Suleviae as meaning "those who govern well". The Suleviae are identified with the Matres on an inscription from Colchester, as well as on most of the inscriptions from Rome; they are also identified once with the Junones. Van Andringa interprets the Suleviae as "native domestic divinities honoured at all social levels".

For the theory that the Suleviae were a triune version of Sulis Minerva, see Sulis

Sulis

In localised Celtic polytheism practised in Britain, Sulis was a deity worshipped at the thermal spring of Bath . She was worshipped by the Romano-British as Sulis Minerva, whose votive objects and inscribed lead tablets suggest that she was conceived of both as a nourishing, life-giving mother...

. This theory is disputed by some researchers who find no direct links with Sulis, and suggest instead that the similarity in names is coincidental. Another theory connects the Suleviae with the Xulsigiae

Xulsigiae

In Gallo-Roman religion, the Xulsigiae were triple goddesses worshipped at the healing-spring shrine in Augusta Treverorum . Edith Wightman suggests that they "may be local nymphs of the spring"; on the other hand, she also links their name to that of the Suleviae, whom she characterizes as...

, known from a site at Trier

Trier

Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....

; but this suggestion has also been contested.