Transcription
Among the various groups that settled on Roman soil during late antiquity, there is hardly one whose history had such a lasting impact on the development of medieval Western Europe as that of the Franks, a Germanic people who transformed from the enemies of Rome to its hired border guards and, eventually, its imperial heirs.
But who were the Franks? Those people whose kings were said to be descended from sea monsters, whose axes were feared by other Germanic tribes, and whose descendants would create a Roman emperor in the West long after the deposition of Romulus Augustus? In this new series on the founding people of the Medieval world, we will seek to answer just that.
In this first video, we will look at the earliest origins of the Frankish people in the centuries before the fall of Rome, examining their tumultuous relationship with the Roman Empire and searching for hints of Frankish culture and society as it existed before the early middle ages and the embrace of Latin Christianity.
The Franks as multiple groups first appear in historical records in the second half of the 3rd century AD, appearing in the records of the Roman Empire, like so many other Germanic peoples, as raiders from across the frontier. From 256 CE onwards, these Proto-Franks took advantage of a period of opportunity when the Roman Empire was weakened by internal strife, epidemics and economic crises, carrying out increasingly frequent raids by land and water across the Rhine River into Roman territory. These expeditions took the Franks as far as Spain, where they are said to have devastated the city of Tarragona. These descriptions are fortified by modern archaeological finds of 3rd century Roman hoards of valuables and coins within the empire west of the river Rhine, which confirm the turbulence along the border during that time period.
But we have to be careful when it comes to antique Roman Authors such as Aurelian Victor who describe Rome's first encounters with the Franks. All historiographic evidence regarding the Franks from the 3rd to the late 5th century comes from Roman authors, as the early Franks themselves left us no written script. The Roman authors of this timeframe sometimes called different groups east of the Rhine by tribal names that are made out by modern historians as Proto-Frankish groups based on cross referencing accounts, settlement areas or archeological evidence. But on other occasions antique authors over time started to refer to groups as Franks, without making distinctions or pointing out what kind of Frankish group they deal with besides naming their leaders, as this served the purpose of marking them as a foreign group. Here the opposite is the case, as modern historians point out that there were multiple different Frankish groups, led by their chieftains and leaders.
These Frankish groups probably lived in loose associations on the right bank of the Rhine in the catchment area of the so-called Lower Germanic Limes, the extensive Roman border defences opposite the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior or later Germania Secunda. To the north and east, their settlement area probably extended as far as the Weser and the German low mountain range. However, the individual Frankish groups such as the Sugambri, Chamavi, Chauci and Chattui, which we encounter in the sources, appeared to the Romans to be at least so similar that they perceived them as a linguistic and ethnic unit during the third century. Some of the groups, which had varying degrees of contact with the Romans, probably referred to themselves as franka, which means “the brave”. This term was Latinised and adopted by the Romans. While this multitude of Frankish groups initially came together politically for specific purposes, such as repelling enemies or raiding Roman territory, it was perhaps under Roman influence that these groups developed into the first tribes that the Romans grasped collectively as ‘Franks’.
The first confirmed mention of the name ‘Franks’ as an assumingly distinct group in the perception of the Romans can be found in two panegyrics, a genre of praise speeches written to honor a person. These speeches were written in 289 and 291 in honour of Emperor Maximian, and record that the Emperor won multiple victories over Frankish groups in the years 287 and 288 while conducting punitive expeditions east of the Rhine as reaction to attacks of Frankish groups on Roman territory. At the end of one campaign the emperor accepted the submission of a Frankish rex called Genobaud. With this submission Genobaud symbolically renounced his position of leader and gave himself and his people over to the mercy of the emperor who could do with them as he pleased. Emperor Maximian used this opportunity turn the Frankish groups led by Genobaud into clients of Rome. Furthermore, he settled Genobaud and his people near the Roman city of Trier. The speeches imply that it was only through the reinstatement of this Genobaud to his position as rex under Roman suzerainty, that he was able to assume a real position of authority over his own people.
With actions such as these the empire hoped that these united groups under the loose control of Rome might provide an opportunity to pacify the area beyond the border and, as Germanic elites with experience in both the Roman and Germanic worlds, act as cultural middle men between Rome and the Barbarians beyond the border. This was more practical than for Rome to crush every group of Franks encountered, only to have a new one to take over the position of the last one. Thus, in this first reliable mention, we encounter the Franks as opponents identified by the Romans as groups that were in close contact with Rome, who served a purpose to the Empire, and whose own power structure was to a degree subject to Rome's grace. However, many Frankish groups remained hostile to the Empire, and defeating these groups was honoured in the aforementioned speeches as a commendable achievement for which the Emperor should be praised.
When the Roman Empire had recovered from its crisis towards the end of the 3rd century, numerous Franks found themselves serving as soldiers in the Roman military or as mercenaries supporting the Roman army and the defence of the empire. Overall, however, the relationship between the Empire and the Franks was a mixed bag. A multitude of different Frankish groups remained untamed by Rome, and Frankish groups and warbands raided or unlawfully settled into Roman territory whenever the Empire found itself in a period of instability.
In 294, Constantius Chlorus, the father of Constantine the Great, reconquered the region of Batavia, lost to the Empire during the crisis years of the 3rd century. Upon doing so, he expelled some Frankish groups that had settled there while allowing others to stay in the region under the status of Laeti, affirming their position as subjects of the Emperor. There is still debate among scholars about what exactly is meant by the term laeti. Some understand it to refer to non-Roman people who were settled on state owned land and served Rome in military units under their own military commanders, elected from within themselves. They were not Roman citizens, but free men who were bound to the land given to them. Despite the many Franks who accessed the wealth of Rome by entering into Roman service, many other Frankish groups preferred the old ways of violently raiding Roman territory for plunder.
Constantine the Great also took action against these hostile Franks on several occasions, who were stylised as one of the emperor's main opponents. The victories over the Franks achieved by him and his son Crispus in 321 secured peace along the Upper Rhine, at least for a while. In 353, more Frankish groups crossed the Rhine, and by 358 a large Frankish contingent were defeated by Roman troops. The survivors were settled by the Emperor Julian in what is now northern Brabant as deditictii, free but subjugated inhabitants of Roman territory most likely similar to the aforementioned laeti. This was the first time that a large, cohesive Frankish group had been settled on Roman soil, in contrast to the previous local settlements of small groups. It is upon this milestone of Frankish history that we will descend down from our bird’s eye view of history and examine what life was like for the Franks who lived in or were in contact with the Roman Empire during the 4th Century CE.
Around the Year 375 CE, the Tabula Peutingeriana, a map of the Roman road network, shows the territory of the Franks on the right bank of the Rhine between Nijmegen and Neuss. However, researchers disagree on how the settlements in this region should be understood. Some researchers see them more as groups of mercenaries and their civilian followers and families without a shared ethical identity as Franks. Others argue that it is sufficient to speak of the Frankish groups of the 4th century as something like a tribal confederation with a shared identity that could reach above the isolated groups and connect them together.
Even though Frankish groups repeatedly appeared as opponents of the Romans until the early 5th century, the integration of the Franks into the Roman military was significant in all cases: Even the oldest Frankish grave finds from the 3rd and early 4th centuries show an astonishingly high concentration of Roman artefacts as grave goods, which speaks for the strong influence and contact between Rome and its Frankish neighbours that was not only acquired by raids and plunder. Not only durable and luxurious goods such as metal plates, precious artifacts and tools have been identified, but also light and delicate goods such as glasses, everyday tableware and, in particular, a large number of Roman coins that indicate usage with the Roman economy. Numerous pottery shards have been preserved, even from everyday use, indicating the widespread use of Roman ceramics around the Franks. This exchange increased steadily with the recruitment of Franks into the Roman army and their settlement on Roman land.
From the 4th century onwards, numerous graves with grave goods interpreted as Frankish were found in northern Gaul, both at Roman forts and in the more rural areas of this region. These graves were often laid out in rows together with those of the provincial Roman population, so that the ethnic classification of the deceased can only be determined by the corresponding grave goods. These Frankish graves from the 4th and early 5th centuries had abandoned the cremation customary prior widespread among the Franks and adopted the burial of bodies practised by the provincial Romans. They interred both Frankish men and women, some of whom were buried with opulent grave goods. The inclusion of weapons and jewellery in the form of so-called armbrustfibel - crossbow bolts distinguished these graves from those of the provincial Roman population, as it was unusual for Romans to be buried with such weapons and this type of jewellery. Despite these variations in grave offerings, the Franks nonetheless took on many customs of their Roman neighbors, such as the practice of laying the dead to rest alongside clay, metal and glass vessels. Frankish women also seemed to grow fond of Roman fashion, as evident in their adoption of the broachless tunic dresses custom to their provincial Roman neighbours. The Franks even took up the practice of placing a coin in the grave as Charon's obol. However, they preferred silver or gold coins to the simple copper coins chosen by the Romans.
These Frankish graves within the Roman empire share some material aspects with contemporary grave finds on the right side of the Rhine. This indicates that some of the Franks who died in Roman territory had originated in barbarian lands and maintained contact with their kinsmen outside the Empire. Not every Frankish soldier in the Roman army remained in Gaul after his term of service. Numerous Roman military belt fittings and armour parts found in graves on the right bank of the Rhine, as well as coin hoards containing Roman solidii, indicate the intense movement of people between the Roman world and the barbaricum during this period. The great importance attached to a military and warrior identity on both sides of the Rhine is evident in the fact that boys who died at an early age were buried with miniature axes, which indicated the position of their fathers within society and the boys' intended careers as soldiers following their fathers trade.
More recently, it has been suggested that even the well-known Frankish axe known as the francisca was not a weapon brought by the Franks from Germania. But rather, that it was a weapon produced by Roman state armouries and issued to Frankish soldiers, auxiliary and mercenaries as a multi-purpose weapon. Similar to the khukuri, a traditional blade weapon characteristically associated with the fearsome Nepalese speaking soldiers in British service, the Franziska became a symbol of a special Frankish identity within the Roman army and thus gained its significance. The identity of these Frankish soldiers in Roman service, who were free men but not always citizens of the Roman Empire is best expressed in an inscription in present-day Budapest. Created in the 4th century, it reads: ‘FRANCVS EGO CIVES ROMANVS MILES IN ARMIS EGREGIA VIRTVTE TVLI BELLO MEA DEXTERA SEMPER’ – ‘I, a Frankish citizen, a Roman soldier in arms, always fought with extraordinary bravery with my right arm in war.’
The Franks thus developed their own distinctive culture and identity on Roman soil, adopting Roman elements while at the same time incorporating their own special Germanic-barbarian components, which probably originated in their military service for Rome. The importance of Frankish military leaders is also evident in the upper echelons of the Western Roman Empire. Generals such as Merobaudes, Arbogast and Richomer held important positions in the Western Roman army as magister militum or comes domesticorum between 372 and 394. The former rank being a top level commander of a roman field army the latter chief of imperial guard units. The career of the Frank known as Bauto culminated in his appointment as consul in 385. While at this time in late antiquity, the office of consul was deprived of its former political power as head of state, it still was an honorific and prestigious appointment. Although Bauto died around 388, his highly educated daughter, Aelia Eudoxia, married Emperor Arcadius in 395. The intermarriage of an elite Frankish woman to a Roman Emperor underscored the deepening ties between Romans and Franks in the upper strata of Roman society. Thus these Frankish military men therefore played a decisive role in determining the fate of the empire.
The Notitia Diginitatum, a list of offices and military units in the Roman Empire compiled between the 390s and 430s, records three closed units referred to as Salii. Researchers understand this term, which probably meant something like “comrade”, to refer to Roman units formed from the Salian group of Franks. The loyalty of the Frankish groups that served in the regular Roman army, but also those who fought as auxiliaries for Rome, was based equally on the military oath that the men swore to the Emperor and the Roman Res Publica. The oath of allegiance and submission to Roman military law created authority for the leaders of the Frankish groups, who were endowed with Roman military titles. The subjugation to this oath and law also generated a sense of belonging that could override ethnic and social tensions within the Frankish groups themselves and the Roman armies in which they served. At the same time, the male members of these groups were thus subject to Roman military law, and the internal structures of the Frankish groups were organised according to the late Roman military hierarchy.
The relationship between Rome and the Franks can thus be summarised as changeable throughout much of the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Frankish peoples were often depicted in Roman writings as the marauding enemies of the Empire. At the same time, soldiers, mercenaries and officers of Frankish origin became increasingly important in the Roman army, while Frankish groups were repeatedly settled to secure the border or bound to Rome by treaties.
In the early years of the 5th century, this relationship was to change once again. The military catastrophe of the Hunnic invasions of Atilla and his ilk triggered a chain reaction. Various groups, pushed out by the Hunnic advance or joining in with the Huns invaded the Roman Empire. Pannonia, Italy, Raetia and the Germanic and Gallic provinces were affected. Vandals, Alans and Suebi from Pannonia had reached the Rhine Valley near Mainz in December 406. The Franks, who were settled north along the Main River, confronted the invaders and fulfilled their alliance obligations to Rome in a bloody battle which ended in their defeat. On the last day of 406, the victors crossed the Rhine border at Mainz and plundered the Roman territories. Garrisons and border troops were defeated and wiped out, with only a few forts remaining. Trier, Metz, Reims, Amiens, Arras, Boulogne and Tournai were plundered, while the imperial court and its troops under magister utriusque militiae Stilicho, the master of the Western Empire, were caught up in a conflict between West and East over the province of Illyria.
In the ensuing chaos following the fall of the Rhine border, Frankish groups also opportunistically turned to Roman cities and participated in the looting, while others were re-recruited as troops under the usurper Constantine III by means of treaties, and tasked with securing the Rhine border. While Northern Gaul repeatedly slipped out of Roman control between 406 and 423, numerous Frankish groups plundered and uncontrollably settled between Xanten and Cologne. It was not until the 430s that the prominent roman army commander Aetius was able to restore control here when he subjugated these Frankish groups and allowed them to continue to settle there formally as dediticii and foederati. Now on Rome's terms and in Rome's interests.
Under a foedus, these Franks had to provide military service to the Roman Empire – a task they fulfilled in 451 in the battles between Aetius and Attila. Here, the Franks under Roman command fought against Franks from the right bank of the Rhine who had come under the suzerainty of the Hun king. The Frankish groups settled by Aetius also took over the border protection of the empire and Gaul in large areas of the province of Germania secunda, especially around Cologne. However, Frankish groups repeatedly attempted to expand beyond their assigned settlement areas. The group that settled in Toxandria in 358, advanced into the province of Belgica II under the leadership of Red Chlodio, but was defeated by Aetius and permitted to settle around Tournai.
After Aetius was murdered by Emperor Valentinian in 454, only for the emperor himself to be killed by his own people, the Western Roman Empire began to collapse definitively. From their settlements around Tournai, Cologne, Mainz and along the Upper Rhine, the Frankish federates were to form an independent, rapidly expanding kingdom from the remnants of the collapsing Western Empire starting in the middle of the 5th century. But we will tell you more about the history of the Frankish kings from the Merovingian dynasty another time.
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