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Alamanni

Alamanni

The Alamanni, Allemanni or Alemanni, were an alliance of warbands formed from Germanic tribes, first mentioned by Dio Cassius when they fought Caracalla in 213. They apparently dwelt in the basin of the Main River, to the south of the Chatti.

Tribal connections

The Alamanni emerged from the Irminones. According to Asinius Quadratus their name —"all men"—indicates that they were a conglomeration of various tribes formed into warbands, similar to the contemporary Huns. There can be little doubt, however, that the ancient Hermunduri formed the bulk of the nation. Other groups included the Brisgavi, Juthungi, Bucinobantes, Lentienses, and perhaps the Armalausi. Close allies of the Alamanni were the east Germanic Suebi, or Suabi (hence Swabia). The Hermunduri had apparently belonged to the Suebi, but it is likely enough that reinforcements from new Suebic tribes had now moved westward. In later times the names Alamanni and Suebi seem to be synonymous, although some of the Suebi later migrated to Hispania and established an independent kingdom there that endured well into the 6th century.

Conflicts with the Roman Empire

The tribe was continually engaged in conflicts with the Roman Empire. They launched a major invasion of Gaul and northern Italy in 268, when the Romans were forced to denude much of their German frontier of troops in response to a massive invasion of the Goths. Their depredations in the three parts of Gaul remained traumatic: Gregory of Tours (d. 695) mentions their destructive force at the time of Valerian and Gallienus, when the Alemanni assembled under their "king" whom he calls Chrocus "by the advice, it is said, of his wicked mother, and overran the whole of the Gauls, and destroyed from their foundations all the temples which had been built in ancient times. And coming to Clermont he set on fire, overthrew and destroyed that shrine which they call Vasso Galatae in the Gallic tongue," martyring many Christians ([http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/gregory-hist.html#book3 Historia Francorum Book I.32-34]). Thus 6th century Gallo-Romans of Gregory's class, surrounded by the ruins of Roman temples and public buildings, attributed the destruction they saw to the plundering raids of the Alemanni. In the early summer, the Emperor Gallienus halted their advance in Italy, but then had to deal with the Goths. When the Gothic campaign ended in Roman victory at the Battle of Naissus in September, Gallienus' successor Claudius II Gothicus turned north to deal with the Alamanni, who were swarming over all Italy north of the Po River. After efforts to secure a peaceful withdrawal failed, Claudius forced the Alamanni to battle at the Battle of Lake Benacus in November. The Alamanni were routed, forced back into Germany, and did not threaten Roman territory for many years afterwards. Their most famous battle against Rome took place in Argentoratum (Strasbourg), in 357, where they were defeated by Julian, later Emperor of Rome, and their king Chnodomar ("Chonodomarius") was taken prisoner. On January 2, 366 the Alamanni crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers, to invade the Roman Empire. In the great mixed invasion of 406, the Alamanni appear to have crossed the Rhine river, conquered and then settled what is today Alsace and a large part of Switzerland. Fredegar's Chronicle gives an account. At Alba Augusta (Aps) the devastation was so complete, the Christian bishopric was removed to Viviers, but Gregory's account that at Mende in Lozere, also deep in the heart of Gaul, bishop Privatus was forced to sacrifice to idols in the cave where he was later venerated may be a generic figure epitomizing the horrors of barbarian violence.

List of battles between Romans and Alamanni

- 268 - Battle of Lake Benacus - Romans under Emperor Claudius II defeat the Alamanni.
- 271 -
- Battle of Placentia - Emperor Aurelian is defeated by the Alamanni forces invading Italy
- Battle of Fano - Aurelian defeats the Alamanni, who begin to retreat from Italy
- Battle of Pavia (271) - Aurelian destroys the retreating Alamanni army.
- 298 -
- Battle of Lingones - Caesar Constantius Chlorus defeats the Alamanni
- Battle of Vindonissa - Constantius again defeats the Alamanni
- 356 - Battle of Reims - Caesar Julian is defeated by the Alamanni
- 357 - Battle of Strasbourg - Julian expels the Alamanni from the Rhineland
- 367 - Battle of Solicinium - Romans under Emperor Valentinian I defeat yet another Alamanni incursion.
- 378 - Battle of Argentovaria - Western Emperor Gratianus is victorious over the Alamanni, yet again.

Alamanni and Franks

The kingdom (or duchy) of Alamannia between Strasbourg and Augsburg lasted until 496, when the Alamanni were conquered by Clovis I at the Battle of Tolbiac. The war of Clovis with the Alamanni forms the setting for the conversion of Clovis, briefly treated by Gregory of Tours ([http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gregory-clovisconv.html#n30 Book II.31]) Subsequently the Alamanni formed part of the Frankish dominions and were governed by a Frankish duke. In 746, Carloman ended an uprising by summarily executing all Alemannic nobility at the blood court at Cannstatt, and for the following century, Alamannia was ruled by Frankish dukes. Following the treaty of Verdun of 843, Alamannia became a province of the eastern kingdom of Louis the German, the precursor of the Holy Roman Empire. The duchy persisted until 1268.

List of Alamannic rulers

Kings
- Chrocus 306
- Mederich (father of Agenarich, brother to Chnodomar)
- Chnodomar 350, 357
- Vestralp 357, 359
- Ur 357, 359
- Agenarich (Serapio) 357
- Suomar 357, 358
- Hortar 357, 359
- Gundomad 354 (co-regent of Vadomar)
- Ursicin 357, 359
- Makrian 368 - 371
- Rando 368
- Hariobaud 4th c.
- Vadomar vor 354 - 360
- Vithicab 360 - 368
- Priarius ? - 378
- Gibuld (Gebavult) c. 470 Dukes under Frankish rule
- Butilin 539 - 554
- Leuthari I before 552 - 554
- Haming 539 - 554
- Lantachar until 548 (Avenches diocese)
- Magnachar 565 (Avenches diocese)
- Vaefar 573 (Avenches diocese)
- Theodefrid
- Leutfred I until 588
- Uncilin 588 - 607
- Gunzo 613
- Chrodobert 630
- Leuthari II 642
- Gotfrid until 709
- Willehari 709 - 712 (in Ortenau)
- Lantfrid 709 - 730
- Theudebald 709 - 744

Christianization

Christianization of the Alamanni took place during Merovingian times (6th to 8th centuries). Sources are sparse, but in the mid-6th century, the byzantine chronicler Agathias of Myrina records, in the context of the wars of the Goths and Franks against Byzantium, That the Alamanni fighting among the troops of Frankish king Theudebald were like the Franks in all respects except religion, since they :"worship trees, rivers, hills and gorges as gods, and decapitate horses and cows, and innumerable other animals, as if it were a holy rite" Adding the particular ruthlessness of the Alamani in destroying Christian sanctuaries and plundering churches, while the genuine Franks were respectful towards Christian sanctuaries. Agathias expresses his hope that the Alamanni would assume better manners through prolongued contact with the Franks, which is by all appearances what eventually happened. Apostles of the Alamanni were Saint Columbanus and his disciple Saint Gall. Jonas of Bobbio records that Columbanus was active in Bregenz, where he disrupted a beer sacrifice to Wodan. For some time, the Alamanni seem to have continued their pagan cult activities, with only superficial or syncretistic Christian elements. In particular, there is no change in burial practice, and warrior graves continued throughout Merovingian times. Syncretism of traditional Germanic theriomorph style with Christian symbolism is also present in artwork, but Chrisian symbolism becomes more and more prevalent during the 7th century. Unlike the later Christianization of the Saxon and of the Slavs, the Alamanni seem to have adopted Christianity gradually, and voluntarily, spread by emulation of the Merovingian elite. From ca. the 520s to the 620s, there was a surge of Alamannic Elder Futhark inscriptions. About 80 specimens have survived, roughly half of them on fibulae, others on belt buckles (see Pforzen buckle) and other jewellry and weapon parts. Use of runes subsides with the advance of Christianity. The establishment of the bishopric of Constance cannot be dated exactly and was possibly undertaken by Columbanus himself (before 612). In any case, it predates 635, when Gunzo appointed John of Grab as bishop of the already existing bishopric. Constance was a missionary bishopric in newly converted lands, and did not look back on late Roman church history (unlike Basel, episcopal seat from 740, which continued the line of Bishops of Augusta Raurica, see Bishop of Basel, and the Raetian bishopric of Chur, established 451). The establishment of the church as an institution recognized by worldly rulers is also visible in legal history. The early 7th century Pactus Alamannorum marginally mentions special privileges of the church, while Lantfrid's Lex Alamannorum of 720 has an entire chapter reserved for ecclesial matters. See also: Germanic Christianity.

Modern Alemanni

Allemania lost its distinct jurisdictional identity when Charles Martel absorbed it into the Frankish empire, early in the 8th century. Today, Alemannic is a linguistic term, encompassing the dialects of the southern two thirds of Baden-Württemberg (German State), in western Bavaria (German State), in Vorarlberg (Austrian State), in Switzerland and Alsace (France) (see Alemannic German). The word "Frankish" eventually gave its name to France and Franconia, while the Alamanni gave their name for "German" in French (Allemand), Spanish (Alemán) and Portuguese (Alemão).

References

- Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective (Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology); Ian Wood (Foreword) ISBN 1843830353

Germanic tribe

The term Germanic tribes (or Teutonic tribes) applies to the ancient Germanic peoples of Europe. The Germanic tribes spoke mutually intelligible dialects and shared a mythology (see Germanic mythology) and storytelling, as is indicated by Beowulf and the Volsunga saga. One example of their shared identity is their common Germanic name for non-Germanic peoples,
- walhaz (plural of
- walhoz), from which the local names Welsh, Wallis, Walloon, Wallachia and Cornwall were derived. A second example of a recognized ethnic unity is the fact that the Romans knew them as one and gave them a common name, Germani, the source of our German and Germanic (see Etymology below). In the absence of large-scale political unification, such as that imposed forcibly by the Romans upon the peoples of Italy, the various tribes remained free, led by their own hereditary or chosen leaders.

Etymology of "German"

As the Germanic tribes never called themselves so, but the Romans first knew them as allies of the Celts, Germani is thought to be the Celtic name for them. However, there is also a Latin adjective germanus (<- germen, seed or offshoot), which has the sense of "related" or "kindred" and whence derives the Portuguese irmão and the Spanish hermano, "brother". If the proper name Germani derives from this word, it may refer to the Roman experience of the Germanic tribes as allies of the Celts. Another possible derivation is the one proffered by The Oxford Etymological Dictionary (1966 Edition), which relates the name to Old Irish gair, "neighbor", which actually means "near". The Welsh is ger. Considering the earliest historical relationship between the Germans and the Celts, "neighbor" ought perhaps to be interpreted as "ally." McBain's An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language relates the word to Irish gearr, "cut, short" (a short distance) and states the Proto-Celtic root to be
- gerso-s, further related to ancient Greek chereion, "inferior" and English gash. Here the etymological trail seems to recede into a prehistoric morass, but there is a good reason for this disappearing trail. English gash leads by one path or another to the Greek word character, which is an engraving for an identity sign of some sort. There is no clear root for this word. It could be an Indo-european root,
- khar-,
- kher-,
- ghar-,
- gher-, "cut", from which also Hittite kar-, "cut". Or, it could be a pre-Indo-European root, related perhaps to Egyptian kha-, "cut", or the Indo-European root could come from the pre-Indo-European root. The self names for the Germanics reveal something of a unity as well. The best known are the Deutsch/Dutch/Dietsch /Dansk words, which come from Indo-European
- teuta-, "tribe" or "people". Not all the Germanics use that word, but there is another, used by all, which is so obvious that it escapes notice: man. We read of the man first in the Germania of Tacitus (Chapter 2, Oxford text): :"Celebrant carminibus antiquis, quod unum apud illos memoriae et annalium genus est, Tuistonem deum terra editum. ei filium Mannum originem gentis conditoresque Manno tres filios adsignant..." :"They celebrate, in ancient songs, which are the only kind of memory and annals among them, Tuisto, the god brought forth from the earth, and assign to him a son, Mannus, the author, and three sons to Mannus, the founders, of the people..."

History

Origin

Mannus]] Regarding the question of ethnic origins, evidence developed by both archaeologists and linguists suggests that a people or group of peoples sharing a common material culture dwelt in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia during the late European Bronze Age (1000 BC-500 BC). This culture group is called the Nordic Bronze Age and spread from southern Scandinavia into northern Germany. The long presence of Germanic tribes in southern Scandinavia (an Indo-European language had probably arrived by 2000 BC) is also evidenced by the fact that no pre-Germanic place names have been found in this area. Linguists, working backwards from historically-known Germanic languages, suggest that this group spoke proto-Germanic, a distinct branch of the Indo-European language family. Cultural features at that time included small, independent settlements, and an economy strongly based on the keeping of livestock. Indo-European, ca 500 BC-60 BC. The area south of Scandinavia is the Jastorf culture]] The southward movement was probably influenced by a deteriorating climate in Scandinavia ca 600 BC - ca 300 BC. The warm and dry climate of southern Scandinavia (2-3 degrees warmer than today) deteriorated considerably, which not only dramatically changed the flora, but forced people to change their way of living and to leave settlements. At around this time, this culture discovered how to extract bog iron from the ore in peat bogs. Their technology for gaining iron ore from local sources may have helped them expand into new territories. The Germanic culture grew to the southwest and southeast, without sudden breaks, and it can be distinguished from the culture of the Celts inhabiting the more southerly Danube and Alpine regions during the same period. The details of the expansion are known only generally, but it is clear that the forebears of the Goths were settled on the southern Baltic shore by 100 AD. According to some scholars, along the lower and middle Rhine, previous local inhabitants seem to have come under the leadership of Germanic figures from outside.

Collision with Rome

By the late 2nd century, B.C., Roman authors recount Gaul (modern France), Italy, and Iberia (modern Portugal and Spain) were invaded by migrating Germanic tribes, culminating in military conflict with the armies of the Roman Empire. Six decades later, Julius Caesar invoked the threat of such attacks as one justification for his annexation of Gaul to Rome. Julius Caesar, an ethnographic work on the diverse group of Germanic tribes outside of the Roman Empire.]] As Rome advanced her borders to the Rhine and Danube, incorporating many Celtic societies into the Empire, the tribal homelands to the north and east emerged collectively in the records as Germania, whose peoples were sometimes at war with the Empire, but who also engaged in complex and long-term trade relations, military alliances, and cultural exchanges with their neighbors to the south. The wars against the Cimbri and Teutoni whose military incursion into Roman Italy was thrust back in 101 BC were written up by Caesar and others as historical prototypes of a Northern danger for the Empire to be controlled. In the Augustean period there was - as a result of Roman activity as far as the Elbe River - a first definition of the "Germania magna": from Rhine and Danube in the West and South to the Vistula and the Baltic Sea in the East and North. Caesar's ethnographic excurses finally established the term Germania. The initial purpose of the Roman campaigns was to protect Gaul by controlling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe. In 9 AD a revolt of their subject Germanics headed by Arminius (decisive defeat of Quintilius Varus in the Teutoburg Forest) ended in the withdrawal of the Roman frontier to the Rhine. At the end of the 1st century two provinces west of the Rhine called Germania inferior and Germania superior were established. Important medieval cities like Aachen, Cologne, Trier, Mainz, Worms and Speyer were part of these Roman structures.

Migration Period

:Main article: Migration Period During the 5th century, as the Roman Empire drew toward its end, numerous Germanic tribes, under pressure from invading Asian peoples and/or population growth and climate change, began migrating en masse in far and diverse directions, taking them to England and as far south through present day Continental Europe to the Mediterranean and northern Africa. Over time, this wandering meant intrusions into other tribal territories, and the ensuing wars for land escalated with the dwindling amount of unoccupied territory. Wandering tribes then began staking out permanent homes as a means of protection. Much of this resulted in fixed settlements from which many, under a powerful leader, expanded outwards. A defeat meant either scattering or merging with the dominant tribe, and this continued to be how nations were formed. In Denmark the Jutes merged with the Danes, in Sweden the Geats merged with the Swedes. In England, for example, we now most often refer to the Anglo-Saxons rather than the two separate tribes.

Role of the Germanics in the Fall of Rome

Some of the Germanic tribes are frequently blamed in popular conceptions for the fall of the Roman Empire in the late 5th century. Professional historians and archaeologists have since the 1950s shifted their interpretations in such a way that the Germanic peoples are no longer seen as invading a decaying empire but as being co-opted into helping defend territory the central government could no longer adequately administer. Individuals and small groups from Germanic tribes had long been recruited from the territories beyond the limes (i.e., the regions just outside the Roman Empire), and some of them had risen high in the command structure of the army. Then the Empire recruited entire tribal groups under their native leaders as officers. Assisting with defense eventually shifted into administration and then outright rule, as Roman traditions of government passed into the hands of Germanic leaders. Odoacer, who deposed Romulus Augustulus, is the ultimate example. The presence of successor states controlled by a nobility from one of the Germanic tribes is evident in the 6th century - even in Italy, the former heart of the Empire, where Odoacer was followed by Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, who was regarded by Roman citizens and Gothic settlers alike as legitimate successor to the rule of Rome and Italy.

Culture

Italy.]] See: Germanic king, Germanic paganism The Germanic tribes were each politically independent, under a hereditary king. The kings appear to have claimed descendancy from mythical founders of the tribes, the name of some of which is preserved:
- Angul — Angles (the Kings of Mercia, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, other Anglo-Saxon dynasties are derived from other descendents of Woden)
- Aurvandil — Vandals (uncertain)
- Burgundus — Burgundians
- Cibidus — Cibidi
- Dan — Danes
- Gothus — Goths
- Ingve — Ynglings
- Irmin — Irminones
- Longobardus — Lombards
- Saxneat — Saxons
- Valagothus — Valagoths

Conversion to Christianity

The Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Vandals were Christianized while they were still outside the bounds of the Empire; however, they converted to Arianism rather than to orthodox Catholicism, and were soon regarded as heretics. The one great written remnant of the Gothic language is a translation of portions of the Bible made by Ulfilas, the missionary who converted them. The Lombards were not converted until after their entrance into the Empire, but received Christianity from Arian Germanic groups. The Franks were converted directly from paganism to Catholicism without an intervening time as Arians. Several centuries later, Anglo-Saxon and Frankish missionaries and warriors undertook the conversion of their Saxon neighbours. A key event was the felling of Thor's Oak near Fritzlar by Boniface, apostle of the Germans, in 723. Eventually, the conversion was forced by armed force, successfully completed by Charlemagne, in a series of campaigns (the Saxon Wars), that also brought Saxon lands into the Frankish empire.

Languages

- Germanic languages

List of Germanic tribes

- Adrabaecampi, Alamanni, Ambrones, Ampsivarii, Angles, Angrivarii, Avarpi, Aviones
- Baemi, Banochaemae, Batavii or Batavi, Batini, Bavarii, Brisgavi, Brondings, Bructeri, Burgundiones, Buri (Germanic tribe)
- Calucones, Canninefates, Caritni, Chaedini, Chaemae, Chali, Chamavi, Charudes, Chasuarii, Chattuarii, Chauci, Cherusci, Chatti, Cimbri, Cobandi, Condrusi, Corconti
- Dani, Dauciones, Diduni, Dulgubnii
- Eburones, Eudoses
- Favonae, Firaesi, Fosi (Germanic tribe), Franks, Frisians, Fundusi
- Gambrivii, Geats, Gepidae, Goths
- Harii, Hasdingi, Helisii, Helveconae, Heruli, Hermunduri, Hilleviones
- Ingriones, Ingvaeones (North Sea Germans), Intuergi, Irminones (Elbe Germans), Istvaeones (Rhine-Weser Germans)
- Jutes, Juthungi
- Lacringi, Landi, Lemovii, Levoni, Lombards or Langobardes, Lugii
- Manimi, Marcomanni, Marsi (Germanic), Marsigni, Mattiaci, Mugilones
- Naharvali, Nemetes, Nertereanes, Nervii, Njars, Nuitones
- Ostrogoths
- Parmaecampi, Pharodini
- Quadi
- Racatae, Racatriae, Reudigni, Rugii, Ruticli
- Sabalingi, Saxons, Scirii, Segni, Semnoni, Sibini, Sidini, Sigulones, Silingi, Sitones, Suarini, Suebi, Suiones, Sugambri
- Tencteri, Teuriochaemae, Teutons, Treviri, Triboci, Tubantes, Tungri, Turcilingi
- Ubii, Usipetes, Usipi
- Vandals, Vangiones, Varini, Varisci, Visburgi, Visigoths
- Zumi Precautionary Note: These ethnic names were culled from a variety of ancient and mediaeval sources dating from the middle of the 1st millennium BC to the early 2nd millennium AD. They do not necessarily represent contemporaneous, distinct or Germanic-speaking populations. The peoples referenced do not necessarily have common ancestral populations. Some identities closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes. Some may not have spoken Germanic at all, but were bundled by the sources with the Germanic speakers. Some were undoubtedly of mixed culture. Some tribes may have assimilated to Germanic; others to other cultures from Germanic. Long-lasting ethnic identities changed population base and language over the centuries. As for genetic characteristics, they must be considered unrelated to these names. Apart from these limitations, it is probably safe to assume that, on the whole, most of these populations spoke some branch of Germanic and contributed to pools of descendants who currently live in the Germanic-speaking countries. Many of the names descend to modern place names. Some tribal maps of ancient Germany can be found at:
- [http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/tacitusc/germany/map.htm Germany of Tacitus]
- [http://www.reisenett.no/map_collection/historical/Ancient_Germania.jpg A speculative Findlay map of 1849] Note: these maps or any other maps represent an interpretation of the information available to the map-maker. Typically the ancients did not know or did not leave enough information for us to locate them exactly. The maps only give us a rough idea of the features and ethnic locations of ancient Germany. In addition, some of tribes, e.g. the Bastarnae are not identified as Germanic with any certainty and large areas in Central Europe the Germanic tribes probably only constituted a newly arrived minority among Slavs and remaining Celts. Wolfram (1990:91f), for instance, points out that the early Visigoths, called Tervingi also comprised many Taifalans (unknown origin) and Alans (Iranians). The Alans became so Gothicized that non-Germanic people considered them to be Goths.

Classification

The concept of "Germanic" as a distinct ethnic identity was hinted at by the early Greek geographer Strabo [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198;query=section%3D%2341;chunk=section;layout=;loc=7.1.1], who distinguished a barbarian group in northern Europe similar to, but not part of, the Celts. Posidonius, to our knowledge, is the first to have used the name. By the 1st century A.D., the writings of Caesar, Tacitus and other Roman era writers indicate a division of Germanic-speaking peoples into tribal groupings centred on:
- the rivers Oder and Vistula (Poland) (East Germanic tribes),
- the lower Rhine river (Istvaeones),
- the river Elbe (Irminones),
- Jutland and the Danish islands (Ingvaeones). The Istvaeones, Irminones, and Ingvaeones are collectively called West Germanic tribes. In addition to this those Germanic people who remained in Scandinavia are referred to as North Germanic. These groups all developed separate dialects, the basis for the differences among Germanic languages down to the present day. The divison of peoples into west-Germanic, east-Germanic, and north-Germanic was a 19th century hypothesis of linguists. Many Greek scholars only classified Celts and Scyths in the Northwest and Northeast of the Mediterranean and this classification was widely maintained in Greek literature until Late Antiquity. Latin-Greek ethnographers (Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, Ptolemy, and Strabo) mentioned in the first two centuries AD the names of peoples they classified as Germanic along the Elbe, the Rhine, and the Danube, the Vistula and on the Baltic Sea. Tacitus mentioned 40, Ptolemy 69 peoples. Classical ethnography applied the name Suebi to many tribes in the first century. It appeared that this native name had all but replaced the foreign name Germanic. After the Marcomannic wars the Gothic name steadily gained importance. Some of the ethnic names mentioned by the ethnographers of the first two centuries AD on the shores of the Oder and the Vistula (Gutones, Vandali) reappear from the 3rd century on in the area of the lower Danube and north of the Carpathian Mountains. Modern scholarship has no explanation for the ethnic processes causing this continuity. For the end of the 5th century the Gothic name can be used - according to the historical sources - for such different peoples like the Goths in Gaul, Iberia and Italy, the Vandals in Africa, the Gepids along the Tisza and the Danube, the Rugians, Sciri and Burgundians, even the Iranian Alans. These peoples were classified as Scyths and often deducted from the ancient Getae (most important: Cassiodor/Jordanes, Getica approx. 550 AD).

The concept of Volk

In the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st there has been debate about exactly what "tribe" or "people" meant to these groups, whose fluidity and willingness to sometimes blend is seen while at the same time forced mergers as a result of war were taking place and the tribe as it had been known vanished. The late classical sources are especially clear in the matter of the blended nature of the Alamanni. The idea of a unified German people, or Volk, was expressed openly in print by 19th century Ethnic Nationalist writers and thinkers after the Napoleonic Wars. Such an identity, however, had existed more implicitly since the Middle Ages, helping to fuel the Protestant Reformation, when many Germanic lands pulled away religiously and politically from the Roman Catholic Church.

Caracalla

Caracalla (April 4, 186–April 8, 217) was emperor of the Roman Empire from AD 211–217. Born in Lugdunum in the province of Gaul in 186, he was the son of the future emperor Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. His given name was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus but he was later given the nickname Caracalla, which referred to the Gallic hooded tunic he habitually wore and which he made fashionable. Severus, who had taken the imperial throne in 193, died in 211 while visiting Eboracum (York), and Caracalla was proclaimed co-emperor with his brother Publius Septimius Antoninius Geta. Caracalla had Geta assassinated and carried out a vendetta against Geta's supporters, in order to strengthen his own hold on power. When the inhabitants of Alexandria heard Caracalla's claims that he had killed Geta in self-defense, they produced a satire mocking this claim, as well as Caracalla's other pretensions. Caracalla responded to this insult savagely in 215 by slaughtering the deputation of leading citizens who had unsuspectingly assembled before the city to greet his arrival, then unleashed his troops for several days of looting and plunder of Alexandria. According to historian Cassius Dio, over 20,000 people were killed. During his reign as emperor, Caracalla raised the pay of an average legionaire to 675 denarii and lavished many benefits on the army, as instructed by his father Septimius Severus who had told him to always mind the soldiers and ignore everyone else. Cassius Dio Three things stand out from his reign: the edict of 212 (Constitutio Antoniniana) granting Roman citizenship to freemen throughout the Roman Empire in order to increase taxation; debasing the silver content in Roman coinage by 25% in order to pay the legions their bounties; and the construction of a large thermae outside Rome, the remains of which, known as the Baths of Caracalla, can still be seen. Caracalla had effectively become a military dictator, and was consequently very unpopular except with the soldiers. While travelling from Edessa to begin a war with Parthia, he was assassinated while urinating at a roadside near Harran on April 8, 217 by Martialis, one of his attendants, who was immediately killed by an archer. He was succeeded by the Praetorian Prefect of the Guard, Macrinus.

Mythical king of Britain

Geoffrey of Monmouth lists Caracalla, named Bassianus in the Historia Regum Britanniae, as one of the kings of Britain following the death of Geta. This is partially true as Geta was well liked in the west when he was killed, and Caracalla probably exerted his power over the Britons harshly. In this account, Caracalla is listed as a half-brother of Geta through a Briton mother. This claim is highly criticized by historians. The text goes on to say that a general named Carausius was given ships to defend the British coastline and instead he rose up and defeated Caracalla; although it never states that Caracalla was killed in this battle, it does say that Caracalla fled from it. After this, Roman rule weakened considerably in Britain until it was fully restored by the Caesar Constantius Chlorus.

External links

- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Caracalla
- .html Life of Caracalla] (Historia Augusta at LacusCurtius: Latin text and English translation) ---- Category:Roman emperors Category:Roman emperors murdered by the Praetorian Guard Category:Severan Dynasty Category:Romans in Britain Category:British traditional history Category:186 births Category:217 deaths ko:카라칼라 ja:カラカラ

Main River

:For other uses, see Main (disambiguation). Main (disambiguation) The Main (pronounced in German like the English word mine) is a river in Germany, 524 km long (including White Main 574 km), and one of the more significant tributaries of the Rhine river. It flows through the German states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hessen. Its catchment basin competes with the Danube for water; as a result, much of its boundaries are identical with those of the European Watershed. The Main is formed near Kulmbach by the joining of its two headstreams, the Red Main and the White Main. The former rises from the Frankish Alb, 50 km in length, and runs through Creussen and Bayreuth. The latter's source is located in the mountains of the Fichtelgebirge; it is 41 km long. Major tributaries of the Main are the Regnitz, the Fränkische Saale, the Tauber, and the Nidda River. The largest city along the Main is Frankfurt am Main (ford of the Franks). After the junction of its headstreams, the Main passes the following towns and cities: Burgkunstadt, Lichtenfels, Staffelstein, Schweinfurt, Volkach, Kitzingen, Marktbreit, Ochsenfurt, Würzburg, Karlstadt, Gemünden, Lohr, Marktheidenfeld, Wertheim, Miltenberg, Obernburg, Aschaffenburg, Seligenstadt, Hanau, Offenbach, Frankfurt, Hattersheim, Flörsheim, Rüsselsheim. By the time it flows into the Rhine opposite Mainz, it is a formidable river.

Navigation

Mainz Extensive works have made the Main navigable for river shipping from its mouth at the Rhine, via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the highly regulated Altmühl river, all the way to the Danube. The river has been canalized with 34 large locks (300 m x 12 m) to allow vessels of so-called CEMT class V (110 m x 11.45 m) to navigate the total length of the river. The 16 locks in the adjacent Rhine-Main-Danube Canal are of the same dimensions, as are the locks on the Danube. The river's mouth is 384 kilometers away from the junction with the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal. The winding course is the main reason for this considerable length; if the river were straight, it would be probably less than half its current length. Because the river is rather narrow for much of the upstream stretches, navigation with the larger vessels and push convoys that navigate it, requires great skills. The river has gained enormous importance as a vital part of European "Corridor VII", the inland waterway link from the North Sea to the Black Sea [http://www.noordersoft.com/indexen.html].

References

- [http://www.noordersoft.com/indexen.html NoorderSoft Waterways Database] Category:Hesse Category:Bavaria Category:Frankfurt Category:Rivers of Germany ja:マイン川

Irminones

Also referred to as Herminones, Hermiones a Germanic proto-tribe or cultural group. The name Irminones comes from Tacitus’s Germania (98 CE) who categorized them as one of the tribes of Mannus. Other West Germanic proto-tribes were the Ingvaeones and Istvaeones. However, all he says is that they lived in the Central region. Istvaeones Pomponius Mela writes in his Description of the World (III.3.31) in reference to the Kattegat and the waters surrounding the Danish isles (see the Codanus sinus): :On the bay are the Cimbri and the Teutoni; farther on, the farthest people of Germania, the Hermiones. Mela then begins to speak of the Scythians. Pliny's Natural History (4.100) claims that the Irminones include the Suebi, Hermunduri, Chatti, and Cherusci. In Nennius the name Mannus and his three sons appear in corrupted form, the ancestor of the Irminones appearing as Armenon. His sons here are Gothus, Valagothus/Balagothus, Cibidus, Burgundus, and Longobardus from whence come the Goths, Valagoths/Balagoths, Cibidi, Burgundians and Lombards. They may have differentiated into the tribes Alamanni, Hermunduri, Marcomanni, Quadi, Suebi) circa 10 CE. At this time the Suebi, Marcomanni and Quadi had moved southwest into the area of modern day Bavaria and Swabia. In 8 BCE, the Marcomanni and Quadi drove the Boii out of Bohemia. The term Suebi is usually applied to all the groups that moved into this area, though later in history (ca. 200 CE) the term Alamanni (meaning "all-men") became more commonly applied to the group. This became the basis for the French name for Germany and the Germans. Category:Pre-Roman Iron Age Category:Ancient Roman enemies and allies Category:Ancient Germanic peoples Category:Ethnic groups of Europe

Huns

Hun is a term that refers to a specific group of Central Asian nomadic tribes, who appeared in Europe in the 4th century. It has also become a more general term for any number of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads. Most of these peoples are recorded by neighboring peoples to the south, east, and west as having occupied Central Asia roughly from the late 1st century to the mid-5th century.

Origins and research

Ever since Joseph de Guignes in the 18th century identified the Huns with the Xiongnu or (H)siung-nu, the research and debate about the Asian ancestral origins of the Huns has continued. Recent research has suggested that many of the great confederations of steppe warriors were not genetically pure, but rather tended to be mixtures of Central Asian and eastern Caucasian. Also, many clans may have claimed to be Huns simply based on the prestige and fame of the name, or it was attributed to them by outsiders describing their common characteristics, believed place of origin, or reputation. Thus it is probably fruitless to speculate on the ethnic origins and geographic home of the Huns. The recent genetic research is in contrast to older theories, which put forward more definitive answers about the Huns' origins — based on linguistics, Chinese records, archaeology, and other indirect evidence. These theories contain various elements: that the name "Hun" first described a nomadic ruling group of warriors whose ethnic origins were in Central Asia, and was most likely in present day Mongolia; that they were possibly related to, or included in, the Xiongnu (the theory first suggested by Joseph de Guignes in the 18th century); that the Xiongnu were defeated by the Chinese Han Empire; and that this is why they left Mongolia and moved westward, eventually invading Europe. Indirect evidence includes the transmission of the composite bow from Asia to the European countries of Hungary, Russia and others; and that Europe, at some point, saw an influx of Asian genes. This traditional narrative, of a westward movement of people triggered by a Chinese war, is deeply ingrained in western (and eastern) historiography — but the evidence is often indirect or ambiguous (the Huns left practically no written records), and is often widely and passionately debated. It is further challenged by the recent genetic research showing little support for a distinct Hun people (even further sparking contention, see "Modern Huns" below). One of the linguistic debates about the origins of the Huns is centered on Kama, legendary ancestor-King of the Huns. Research is still ongoing to learn if there ever was a ruler among the Xiongnu with that name, and because none to date has been found, some have suggested that the Huns were entirely distinct from the Xiongnu. However, the Huns and/or Xiongnu were both said to have been largely military tribes with very few written records, so the research remains tentative. Additionally, some believe the story of Kama is probably more mythology than history. To avoid confusion, this article will not treat on the Aparni "White Huns" (Akhun only in modern Turkish) of Procopius, since only he calls them "Huns", while it is clear that they were of quite a different cultural and physical stock.

History

White Huns

3rd-5th centuries

Dionisus Periegetes talks of people who may be Huns living next to the Caspian Sea in 200 AD, which is coroborated in 214 AD by Choronei Mozes in his "History of Armenia". Mozes introduces the Hunni near the Sarmatians and goes on to describe how they captured the city of Balk ("Kush" in Armenian) sometime between 194 and 214, which explains why the Greeks call that city Hunuk. Following the defeat of the Xiongnu by the Han, there was a century without significant Xiongnu referneces, followed by attempts by the Liu family of Tiefu Xiongnu to establish a state in western China (see Han Zhao). Chionites (OIONO/Xiyon) appear on the scene in Transoxiana as Kidara's Huns begin to press on the Kushans in 320 and the Jie ethnicity Hou/Later Zhao kingdom competes against the Liu family. Back west, the Romans invite the Huns east of the Ukraine to settle Pannonia in 361, and in 372, under the leadership of Balimir their king, the Huns push toward the west and defeat the Alans. Back east again, in the early 5th century Tiefu Xia is the last Xiongnu dynasty in Western China and the Alchon and Huna appear in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan. At this point deciphering Hunnish histories for the multi-linguist becomes easier with relatively well-documented events in Byzantine, Armenian, Iranian, Indian, and Chinese sources.

European Huns

Huns made an appearance in Europe in the Fourth Century AD, where the Romans invited them to settle Pannonia in 361. The establishment of the first Hun state marks one of the first well-documented appearances of the culture of horseback migration in history. Under the leadership of Attila the Hun, these tribal people achieved superiority over their rivals (most of them highly cultured) by their state of military readiness, high mobility, and weapons like the Hun bow. Attila's Huns, like the eastern Xiongnu, incorporated groups of unrelated tributary peoples. In the European case Alans, Gepids, Scrir, Rugians, Sarmatians, Slavs and especially Gothic tribes all united under the Hun family military elite. Attila's Huns eventually settled Pannonia. The memory of the Hunnish invasion was transmitted orally among the Germanic tribes and is an important component in the Old Norse Völsunga saga and Hervarar saga, and the Old German Nibelungenlied, all portraying events in the Migrations period, almost one millennium before their recordings. In the Hervarar saga, the Goths make first contact with the bow-wielding Huns and meet them in an epic battle on the plains of the Danube. In the Völsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied, king Attila (Atli in Norse and Etzel in German) defeat the Frankish king Sigebert I (Sigurðr or Siegfried) and the Burgundian king Guntram I (Gunnar or Gunther), but is subsequently assassinated by Queen Fredegund (Gudrun or Kriemhild), the sister of the latter and wife of the former.

Avars

Chaotic conditions followed the rise of Avar power in Europe in the 550s. The Avar Onoghur dynasty (580s-685) had mixed Avar-Bulgar heritage, but the name Onogur possibly comes from the name "Hun". The English name "Hungary" derives from Onogur, allowing some space for their inclusion in the list of Hun Dynasties.

Historiography

The term "Hun" has been used to describe peoples with no historical connection to what scholars consider "Hun". On July 27, 1901, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II gave the order to "make the name 'German' remembered in China for a thousand years, so that no Chinaman will ever again dare to even squint at a German". This speech, wherein Wilhelm invoked the memory of the 5th-century Huns, coupled with the Pickelhaube or spiked helmet worn by German forces until 1916, that was reminiscent of ancient Hun (and Hungarian) helmets, gave rise to the later derogatory English usage of the latter term for their German enemy during World War I. This usage was reinforced by Allied propaganda throughout the war, prompting hatred of the Germans by invoking the idea that they were brutal savages. Irish Republicans have been known to refer to British security forces as "Huns", notably in songs such as "London's Derry" which begins Come on out ye British Huns come on out without your guns. [http://irelandsown.net/londonsderry.html]

Modern ethnic Huns?

In 2005, a group of about 2,500 Hungarians petitioned the government to be a recognized minority of direct decendants of Attila. It was a failed bid but gained the group publicity.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4435181.stm]

Possible Successor Nations

- Bulgars
- Magyars
- Khazars
- Bashkir
- North Caucasian Huns
- Onogurs
- Various other Turkic peoples
- Mongolia

Brisgavi

The Brisgavi (or Brisigavi, German: Breisgauer) were an Alamannic tribe in the 5th century in the southern region of the Black Forest in south Germany. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote in 354 that Vadomarius was the chieftain of the Brisgavi, and that he was murdered in the year 368 by his own people, influenced by the Romans. Today the southern region of the Black Forest is named Breisgau. Category:Ancient Roman enemies and allies Category:Alamanni als:Breisgauer

Bucinobantes

The Bucinobantes (German: Bucinobanten) were an Alemannic tribe in the region of the modern city of Mainz on the river Main. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that Caesar Julian crossed the river Rhine near Main in 359 for negotiations with Macrian, the chieftain of the Bucinobantes, and with other Alamannic chiefs. After several rebellions against the Roman Empire, the emperor Valentinian I failed in his attempt (with the support of the Burgundians) to arrest Macrian. Valentinian appointed Fraomar as chieftain of the Bucinobantes, but they refused to accept the appointment. In the end Valentinian was forced in 371 to agree to an alliance with Macrian. Category:Ancient Roman enemies and allies Category:Alamanni

Armalausi

The Armalausi were an obscure Germanic tribe, appearing between the Alamanni and the Marcomanni on the Tabula Peutingeriana (3rd or 4th century). They may have been a tribe of the Hermunduri. Philippus Brietius (1650) places them in the Upper Palatinate. They appear to have crossed the Danube and replaced the Varisci in the 2nd or 3rd century, and they probably merged with the Alamanni in the course of the 4th century.

References

- Tabula Peutingeriana [http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost03/Tabula/tab_pe04.html]
- Philippus Brietius, [http://www.putmap.com/imag1650.jpg Imperium Romanum] (1650)
- Lexicon Universale [http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/hofmann/hof1/s0336a.html] (1698) Category:Ancient Germanic peoples Category:Alamanni

Swabia

Swabia (German: Schwaben) is both a historic and linguistic (see Swabian German) region in Germany. Swabia consists of most of the present-day state of Baden-Württemberg (specifically, historical Württemberg and the Hohenzollerische Lande), as well as the Bavarian administrative district of Swabia. In the Middle Ages, Baden, Vorarlberg, the modern principality of Liechtenstein, modern German-speaking Switzerland, and Alsace (nowadays belonging to France) were also considered to be a part of Swabia. The people of Swabia have been the target of many jokes and stories where they are depicted as excessively frugal, overly serious, prudish, or as simpletons, for instance in "The Seven Swabians" (Die sieben Schwaben) published in Kinder- und Hausmärchen by the Brothers Grimm. Similar jokes are often made by the French toward Belgians, Australians toward New Zealanders, or Canadians towards Newfoundlanders.

History

Swabia, whose name derives from the Suebi, a Germanic tribe that inhabited the region, was one of the original stem duchies of the German Kingdom, as it developed in the 9th and 10th centuries. The Hohenstaufen Dynasty (the dynasty of Frederick Barbarossa), which ruled the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries, arose out of Swabia, but following the execution of Conradin, the last Hohenstaufen, on October 29, 1268, the original duchy gradually broke up into many smaller units. Two major dynasties which arose out of the region were the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns, as well as the Dukes of Württemberg and the Margraves of Baden. The region proved to be one of the most divided in the Empire, containing, in addition to these principalities, numerous free cities, ecclesiastical territories, and fiefdoms of lesser counts and knights. Fearing the power of the greater princes, the cities and smaller secular rulers of Swabia joined together to form the Swabian League in the 15th century. The League was quite successful, notably expelling the Duke of Württemberg in 1519 and putting in his place a Habsburg governor, but the league broke up a few years later over religious differences inspired by the Reformation, and the Duke of Württemberg was soon restored. The region was quite divided by the Reformation. While secular princes like the Duke of Württemberg and the Margrave of Baden-Durlach, as well as most of the Free Cities, became Protestant, the ecclesiastical territories (including the bishoprics of Augsburg, Constance, and others) remained Catholic, as did the territories belonging to the Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the Margrave of Baden-Baden. In the wake of the territorial reorganization of the Empire of 1803, the shape of Swabia was entirely changed. All the ecclesiatical estates were secularized, and most of the smaller secular states, and all of the free cities, were mediatized, leaving only Württemberg, Baden and Hohenzollern as souvereign states. Much of Eastern Swabia became part of Bavaria, forming what is now the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia. The Surname "Schwab" is derived from this area, meaning literally, "One who hails from Swabia."

Famous Swabians

Historical

- Georg Faust (protagonist of tales and dramas)
- Johannes Kepler (astronomer and mathematician)
- Friedrich Schiller (famous historian and writer, "Willhelm Tell","Die Räuber", "Maria Stuart")
- Friedrich Hölderlin (poet)
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (philosopher)
- Justinus Kerner (poet)
- Ludwig Uhland (poet)
- Eduard Mörike (poet)
- Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (writer)
- Gottlieb Daimler (developer of the first modern car, founder of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, today: Daimler-Chrysler)
- Robert Bosch (inventor, industrialist and philanthropist)

Modern Era

- Theodor Heuss (former German president)
- Richard von Weizsäcker (former German president)
- Kurt Georg Kiesinger (former German chancellor)
- Sophie Scholl (member of the White Rose resistance against the Nazis)
- Georg Elser (member of the resistance against the Nazis)
- Claus von Stauffenberg (Leader of the July 20 Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler)
- Erwin Rommel (World War II general)
- Roland Emmerich (Hollywood director)
- Harald Schmidt (late-night talk show host)
- Jürgen Klinsmann (football (soccer) player and current coach of the German national team)
- Albert Einstein (physicist)
- Hermann Hesse (poet)

Literature

- Suevica. Beiträge zur schwäbischen Literatur- und Geistesgeschichte. Edited by Reinhard Breymayer. Stuttgart: Hans-Dieter Heinz, Akademischer Verlag (Stuttgarter Arbeiten zur Germanistik. Editors: Ulrich Müller (Salzburg), Franz Hundsnurscher (Münster in Westfalen), Cornelius Sommer (Kaliningrad / Königsberg am Pregel)).

External links

- [http://mitglied.lycos.de/Suevica/suevica] Suevica - Beiträge zur schwäbischen Literatur- und Geistesgeschichte. Edited by Reinhard Breymayer (Contributions to the Swabian History of Literature and Ideas) Category:Baden-Württemberg

Roman Empire

:For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation) The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus), until its radical reformation in what was later to be known as the Byzantine Empire. Roman Empire is also used as translation of the expression Imperium Romanum, probably the best known Latin expression where the word "imperium" is used in the meaning of a territory, the "Roman Empire", as that part of the world where Rome ruled. The expansion of this Roman territory beyond the borders of the initial city-state of Rome had started long before the state organisation turned into an Empire. One of the first historians to describe this expansion of the Roman territory was the Greek Polybius, writing in the Epoch of the Roman Republic. In the centuries before the autocracy of Augustus, Rome had already accumulated a collection of tribute-states beyond the Italian Peninsula, including former Mediterranean competitors Syracuse and Carthage. In the late Republic Augustus (then still "Octavian") added Egypt definitively to the Imperium Romanum. The remainder of this article treats the Roman Empire as Imperial state (see Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic for development of the territory in earlier times). Augustus' reforms turning the Roman state into an Empire survived mostly unchanged until the Diocletian reform at end of the 3rd century, which turned the empire into a tetrarchy. While the political form given by Diocletian was short-lived, it led to the division of the Empire into two halves. This allowed Roman rule to continue for two more centuries over the whole empire, although divided into the Eastern and the Western Roman Empire. The end of the Western Empire is traditionally set in 476, when Odovacar deposed the last Emperor and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople; henceforth he nominally ruled as dux on behalf of Constantinople. After another millennium, in 1453, the Eastern Empire, better known as the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottoman Turks. From Augustus to the Fall of the Western Empire Rome dominated the region of Western Eurasia, comprising over half its population. The Roman Empire's influence on government, law, military, and monumental architecture, as well as many other aspects of Western life remains inescapable. The Greeks adopted the Roman name in the Middle Ages and were known as Romans, a trend that survives until today in Greece, a result of their cultural position (see Names of the Greeks). Roman titles of power were adopted by successor states and other entities with imperial pretensions, including the Frankish kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire, the first and second Bulgarian empires, the Russian/Kiev dynasties, and the German Empire. See also Roman culture.
Historians' viewpoints on the evolution of Imperial Rome
Because the empire of Rome lasted for such a long period of time (31 BC–1453), there are certain alternative names used by historians to distinguish various semantic periods or eras. Such names include Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire, which are used interchangeably throughout this article to mean the same as Roman Empire (or the Western or Eastern part thereof). For many years historians made a distinction between the Principate, the period from Augustus until the Crisis of the Third Century, and the Dominate, the period from Diocletian until the end of the Empire in the West. According to this theory, during the Principate (from the Latin word princeps, meaning "first citizen", the only title Augustus would permit himself) the realities of dictatorship were concealed behind Republican forms; while during the Dominate (from the word dominus, meaning "Master") imperial power showed its naked face, with golden crowns and ornate imperial ritual. More recently historians established that the situation was far more nuanced: certain historical forms continued until the Byzantine period, more than one thousand years after they were created, and displays of imperial majesty were common from the earliest days of the Empire.
Age of Augustus (31 BC–AD 14)

Political developments
Latin As a matter of convenience, the Roman Empire is held to have begun with the constitutional settlement following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In fact the Republican institutions at Rome had been destroyed over the preceding century and Rome had been in continuous crisis with periods of dictatorial rule since Sulla. The long, peaceful and consensual reign of Augustus greatly changed the view toward hereditary monarchy. Rome–the city that had not too long before assassinated its leader, Julius Caesar, when his ambitions seemed to threaten the republic–now placidly accepted one man rule. Augustus' reign was notable for several long-lasting achievements that would define the Empire:
- Creation of an hereditary office, which we refer to as Emperor of Rome.
- Fixation of the payscale. Duration of Roman military service marked the final step in the evolution of the Roman Army from a citizen army to a professional one.
- Creation of the Praetorian Guard, which would make and unmake emperors for centuries.
- Expansion to the natural borders of the Empire. The borders reached upon Augustus' death remained the limits of Empire, with minimal exceptions, for the next four hundred years.
- Development of trade links with regions as far as India and China.
- Creation of a civil service outside of the Senatorial structure, leading to a continuous weakening of Senatorial authority.
- Enactment of the lex Julia of 18 BC and the lex Papia Poppaea of AD 9, which rewarded childbearing and penalized celibacy.
- Promulgation of the cult of the Deified Julius Caesar throughout the Empire. This tradition of deifying the Emperor upon his death lasted until the time of Constantine, who was made both a Roman god and "the Thirteenth Apostle" upon his death.
Cultural developments
:Main article: Roman culture The Augustan period saw a tremendous outpouring of cultural achievement in the areas of poetry, history, sculpture and architecture. At the same time, a tremendous outpouring of energy in founding colonies and municipia, unrivalled in Rome before or after, succeeded in Romanizing extensive territories in the East, in Africa, in Hispania and Gaul, beyond those areas that were traditionally within the Roman sphere of influence.
Sources
The Age of Augustus is paradoxically far more poorly documented than the Late Republican period that preceded it. While Livy wrote his magisterial history during Augustus' reign and his work covered all of Roman history through 9 BC, only epitomes survive of his coverage of the Late Republican and Augustan periods. Our important primary sources for this period include the:
- Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus' highly partisan autobiography,
- Historiae Romanae by Velleius Paterculus, a disorganized work which remains the best annals of the Augustan period, and
- Controversiae and Suasoriae of Seneca the Elder. Though primary accounts of this period are few, works of poetry, legislation and engineering from this period provide important insights into Roman life. Archeology, including maritime archeology, aerial surveys, epigraphic inscriptions on buildings, and Augustan coinage, has also provided valuable evidence about economic, social and military conditions. Secondary sources on the Augustan Age include Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Plutarch and Suetonius. Josephus' Jewish Antiquities is the important source for Judea in this period, which became a province during Augustus' reign.
Julio-Claudian dynasty: Augustus' heirs
Augustus, leaving no sons, was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, the son of his wife Livia from her first marriage. Augustus was a scion of the gens Julia (the Julian family), one of the most ancient patrician clans of Rome, while Tiberius was a scion of the gens Claudia, only slightly less ancient than the Julians. Their three immediate successors were all descended both from the gens Claudia, through Tiberius' brother Nero Claudius Drusus, and from gens Julia, either through Julia Caesaris, Augustus' daughter from his first marriage (Caligula and Nero), or through Augustus' sister Octavia (Claudius). Historians thus refer to their dynasty as "Julio-Claudian".
Tiberius (14–37)
The early years of Tiberius' reign were peaceful and relatively benign. Tiberius secured the power of Rome and enriched her treasury. However, Tiberius' reign soon became characterized by paranoia and slander. In 19, he was popularly blamed for the death of his nephew, the popular Germanicus. In 23 his own son Drusus died. More and more, Tiberius retreated into himself. He began a series of treason trials and executions. He left power in the hands of the commander of the guard, Aelius Sejanus. Tiberius himself retired to live at his villa on the island of Capri in 26, leaving administration in the hands of Sejanus, who carried on the persecutions with relish. Sejanus also began to consolidate his own power; in 31 he was named co-consul with Tiberius and married Livilla, the emperor's niece. At this point he was hoist by his own petard: the Emperor's paranoia, which he had so ably exploited for his own gain, was turned against him. Sejanus was put to death, along with many of his cronies, the same year. The persecutions continued until Tiberius' death in 37.
Caligula (37–41)
At the time of Tiberius' death most of the people who might have succeeded him had been brutally murdered. The logical successor (and Tiberius' own choice) was his grandnephew, Germanicus' son Gaius (better known as Caligula). Caligula started out well, by putting an end to the persecutions and burning his uncle's records. Unfortunately, he quickly lapsed into illness. The Caligula that emerged in late 37 may have suffered from epilepsy, and was probably insane. He ordered his soldiers to invade Britain, but changed his mind at the last minute and had them pick sea shells on the northern end of France instead. It is believed he carried on incestuous relations with his sisters. He had ordered a statue of himself to be erected in the Temple at Jerusalem, which would have undoubtedly led to revolt had he not been dissuaded. In 41, Caligula was assassinated by the commander of the guard Cassius Chaerea. The only member left of the imperial family to take charge was another nephew of Tiberius', Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, better known as the emperor Claudius.
Claudius (41–54)
Claudius had long been considered a weakling and a fool by the rest of his family. He was, however, neither paranoid like his uncle Tiberius, nor insane like his nephew Caligula, and was therefore able to administer the empire with reasonable ability. He improved the bureaucracy and streamlined the citizenship and senatorial rolls. He also proceeded with the conquest and colonization of Britain (in 43), and incorporated more Eastern provinces into the empire. In Italy, he constructed a winter port at Ostia, thereby providing a place for grain from other parts of the Empire to be brought in inclement weather. On the home front, Claudius was less successful. His wife Messalina cuckolded him; when he found out, he had her executed and married his niece, Agrippina the younger. She, along with several of his freedmen, held an inordinate amount of power over him, and very probably killed him in 54. Claudius was deified later that year. The death of Claudius paved the way for Agrippina's own son, the 16-year-old Lucius Domitius, or, as he was known by this time, Nero.
Nero (54–69)
Initially, Nero left the rule of Rome to his mother and his tutors, particularly Lucius Annaeus Seneca. However, as he grew older, his desire for power increased; he had his mother and tutors executed. During Nero's reign, there were a series of riots and rebellions throughout the Empire: in Britain, Armenia, Parthia, and Judaea. Nero's inability to manage the rebellions and his basic incompetence became evident quickly and in 68, even the Imperial guard renounced him. Nero is best remembered by the rumour that he played the lyre and sang during the Great Fire of Rome, and hence "fiddled while Rome burned" (though the fiddle had yet to be invented). Nero is also remembered for his immense rebuilding of Rome following the fires. Nero committed suicide, and the year 69 (known as the Year of the Four Emperors) was a year of civil war, with the emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian ruling in quick succession. By the end of the year, Vespasian was able to solidify his power as emperor of Rome.
Flavian Dynasty
The Flavians, although a relatively short lived dynasty, helped restore stability in an empire on its knees. Although there are criticism of all three, especially based on their more centralized style of rule, it was through the reforms and good rule of the three that helped create a stable empire that would last well into the 3rd Century. However, their backgrounds as a military dynasty led to further irrelevancy of the senate, and the move from princeps, or first citizen, to imperator, or emperor, was finalized during their reign.
Vespasian (69–79)
Vespasian was a remarkably successful Roman general who had been given rule over much of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He had supported the imperial claims of Galba; however, on his death, Vespasian became a major contender for the throne. After the suicide of Otho, Vespasian was able to hijack Rome's winter grain supply in Egypt, placing him in a good position to defeat his remaining rival, Vitellius. On December 20, 69, some of Vespasian's partisans were able to occupy Rome. Vitellius was murdered by his own troops, and the next day, Vespasian was confirmed as Emperor by the Senate. At the age of 60 and battle hardened he was hardly a charismatic emperor, but he turned out to be an excellent ruler none the less. Although Vespasian was considered quite the autocrat by the senate, he mostly continued the weakening of that body that had been going since the reign of Tiberius. This was typified by his dating his accession to power from July 1, when his troops proclaimed him emperor, instead of December 21, when the Senate

Alamanni

Tribal connections

Conflicts with the Roman Empire

List of battles between Romans and Alamanni

Alamanni and Franks

List of Alamannic rulers

Christianization

Modern Alemanni

References

See also

Germanic tribe

Etymology of "German"

History

Origin

Collision with Rome

Migration Period

Role of the Germanics in the Fall of Rome

Culture

Conversion to Christianity

Languages

List of Germanic tribes

Classification

The concept of Volk

See also

Further reading

Caracalla

Mythical king of Britain

See also

External links

Main River

Navigation

References

Irminones

Huns

Origins and research

History

3rd-5th centuries

European Huns

Avars

Historiography

Modern ethnic Huns?

Possible Successor Nations

See also

Further reading

Brisgavi

Bucinobantes

Armalausi

References

Swabia

History

Famous Swabians

Historical

Modern Era

Literature

See also

External links

Roman Empire

Historians' viewpoints on the evolution of Imperial Rome

Age of Augustus (31 BC–AD 14)

Political developments

Cultural developments

Sources

Julio-Claudian dynasty: Augustus' heirs

Tiberius (14–37)

Caligula (37–41)

Claudius (41–54)

Nero (54–69)

Flavian Dynasty

Vespasian (69–79)