Area settled by the Alemanni, and sites of Roman–Alemannic battles, third to sixth centuries
TheAlemanni orAlamanni[1][2] were a confederation ofGermanic tribes[3] on theUpper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned byCassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperorCaracalla of 213 CE, the Alemanni captured theAgri Decumates in 260, and later expanded into present-dayAlsace and northern Switzerland, leading to the establishment of theOld High German language in those regions, which by the eighth century were collectively referred to asAlamannia.[4]
In 496, the Alemanni wereconquered by theFrankish leaderClovis and incorporated into hisdominions. Mentioned as stillpagan allies of theChristian Franks, the Alemanni were gradually Christianized during the seventh century. TheLex Alamannorum is a record of their customary law during this period. Until the eighth century, Frankishsuzerainty over Alemannia was mostly nominal. After an uprising byTheudebald, Duke of Alamannia, however,Carloman executed the Alamannic nobility and installed Frankish dukes.
The area settled by the Alemanni corresponds roughly to the area whereAlemannic German dialects remain spoken, including GermanSwabia andBaden, FrenchAlsace,German-speaking Switzerland,Liechtenstein and AustrianVorarlberg. TheFrench-languagename of Germany,Allemagne, is derived from their name, fromOld Frenchaleman(t),[5] and from French was loaned into a number of other languages, includingMiddle English, which commonly used the termAlmains for Germans.[6][7] Likewise, the Arabic name for Germany isألمانيا (Almanya), the Turkish isAlmanya, the Spanish isAlemania, the Portuguese isAlemanha, theWelsh isYr Almaen and thePersian isآلمان (Alman).
According toGaius Asinius Quadratus (quoted in the mid-sixth century by Byzantine historianAgathias), the nameAlamanni (Ἀλαμανοι) means "all men". It indicates that they were a conglomeration drawn from various Germanic tribes.[8] The Romans and the Greeks called them as such (Alamanni, all men, in the sense of a group composed of men of all groups in the region). This derivation was accepted byEdward Gibbon, in hisDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire[9] and by the anonymous contributor of notes assembled from the papers ofNicolas Fréret, published in 1753.[10]This etymology has remained the standard derivation of the name.[11]An alternative suggestion proposes derivation from*alah "sanctuary".[12]
Walafrid Strabo in the ninth century remarked, in discussing the people of Switzerland and the surrounding regions, that only foreigners called them the Alemanni, but that they gave themselves the name ofSuebi.[13]The Suebi are given the alternative name ofZiuwari (asCyuuari) in an Old High German gloss, interpreted byJacob Grimm asMartem colentes ("worshippers ofMars").[14]Annio da Viterbo a scholar and historian of the 15th century claimed the Alemanni had their name from theHebrew language, as in Hebrew the riverRhine was translated intoMannum and the people who live at its shores were calledAlemannus.[15] This was refuted byBeatus Rhenanus, ahumanist of the 16th century.[15] Rhenanus argued the term Alemanni was meant for the whole Germanic people only inlate antiquity and before it was only meant to designate the population of an island in theNorth Sea.[15]
Early Roman writers did not mention the Alemanni, and it is likely that they had not yet come to exist. In hisGermania Tacitus (AD 90) does not mention the Alemanni.[16] He uses the termAgri Decumates to describe the region between the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers. He says that it had once been the home of theHelvetians, who had moved westwards into Gaul in the time of Julius Caesar. The people living there in Caesar's time are not Germanic. Instead, "Reckless adventurers from Gaul, emboldened by want, occupied this land of questionable ownership. After a while, our frontier having been advanced, and our military positions pushed forward, it was regarded as a remote nook of our empire and a part of a Roman province."[17]
Alemannic belt mountings, from a seventh-century grave in thegrave field atWeingarten
The Alemanni were first mentioned byCassius Dio describing the campaign ofCaracalla in 213. At that time, they apparently dwelt in the basin of theMain, to the south of the Chatti.[8]
Cassius Dio portrays the Alemanni as victims of this treacherous emperor.[18] They had asked for his help, according to Dio, but instead he colonized their country, changed their place names, and executed their warriors under a pretext of coming to their aid. When he became ill, the Alemanni claimed to have put a hex on him. Caracalla, it was claimed, tried to counter this influence by invoking his ancestral spirits.
In retribution, Caracalla then led theLegio IITraiana Fortis against the Alemanni, who lost and were pacified for a time. The legion was as a result honoured with the nameGermanica. The fourth-century fictionalHistoria Augusta,Life of Antoninus Caracalla, relates (10.5) that Caracalla then assumed the nameAlemannicus, at whichHelvius Pertinax jested that he should really be calledGeticus Maximus, because in the year before he had murdered his brother,Geta.[19]
Through much of his short reign, Caracalla was known for unpredictable and arbitrary operations launched by surprise after a pretext of peace negotiations. If he had any reasons of state for such actions, they remained unknown to his contemporaries. Whether or not the Alemanni had been previously neutral, they were certainly further influenced by Caracalla to become thereafter notoriously implacable enemies of Rome.
This mutually antagonistic relationship is perhaps the reason why the Roman writers persisted in calling the Alemanni "barbari," meaning "savages." The archaeology, however, shows that they were largely Romanized, lived in Roman-style houses and used Roman artefacts, the Alemannic women having adopted the Roman fashion of thetunica even earlier than the men.
Most of the Alemanni were probably at the time, in fact, resident in or close to the borders ofGermania Superior. Although Dio is the earliest writer to mention them,Ammianus Marcellinus used the name to refer to Germans on theLimes Germanicus in the time ofTrajan's governorship of the province shortly after it was formed, around 98–99 AD. At that time, the entire frontier was being fortified for the first time. Trees from the earliest fortifications found inGermania Inferior are dated bydendrochronology to 99–100 AD.
Ammianus relates (xvii.1.11) that much later the EmperorJulian undertook apunitive expedition against the Alemanni, who by then were in Alsace, and crossed the Main (LatinMenus), entering the forest, where the trails were blocked by felled trees. As winter was upon them, they reoccupied a"fortification which was founded on the soil of the Alemanni that Trajan wished to be called with his own name".[20]
In this context, the use of Alemanni is possibly an anachronism, but it reveals that Ammianus believed they were the same people, which is consistent with the location of the Alemanni of Caracalla's campaigns.
The Alemanni were continually engaged in conflicts with theRoman Empire in the third and fourth centuries. They launched a major invasion ofGaul 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 theGoths from the east. Their raids throughout the three parts of Gaul were traumatic:Gregory of Tours (died ca 594) mentions their destructive force at the time ofValerian andGallienus (253–260), when the Alemanni assembled under their "king", whom he callsChrocus, who acted "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 toClermont he set on fire, overthrew and destroyed that shrine which they callVasso Galatae in the Gallic tongue," martyring many Christians (Historia Francorum Book I.32–34). Thus sixth-century Gallo-Romans of Gregory's class, surrounded by the ruins ofRoman temples and public buildings, attributed the destruction they saw to the plundering raids of the Alemanni.
In the early summer of 268, theEmperorGallienus halted their advance into Italy but then had to deal with the Goths. When the Gothic campaign ended in Roman victory at theBattle of Naissus in September, Gallienus' successorClaudius Gothicus turned north to deal with the Alemanni, who were swarming over all Italy north of thePo River.
After efforts to secure a peaceful withdrawal failed, Claudius forced the Alemanni to battle at theBattle of Lake Benacus in November. The Alemanni were routed, forced back into Germany, and did not threaten Roman territory for many years afterwards.
Their most famous battle against Rome took place inArgentoratum (Strasbourg), in 357, where they were defeated byJulian, later Emperor of Rome, and their kingChnodomarius was taken prisoner to Rome.[8]
On January 2, 366, the Alemanni yet again crossed the frozenRhine in large numbers, to invade the Gallic provinces, this time being defeated by Valentinian (seeBattle of Solicinium). In the great mixed invasion of 406, the Alemanni appear to have crossed theRhine river a final time, conquering and then settling what is todayAlsace and a large part of theSwiss Plateau.[8] The crossing is described inWallace Breem's historical novelEagle in the Snow. TheChronicle of Fredegar gives the account. AtAlba Augusta (Alba-la-Romaine) the devastation was so complete, that the Christian bishop retired toViviers, but in Gregory's account at Mende inLozère, also deep in the heart of Gaul, bishop Privatus was forced to sacrifice to idols in the very cave where he was later venerated.[citation needed] It is thought[citation needed] this detail may be a generic literary ploy to epitomize the horrors of barbarian violence.
451,Battle of the Catalaunian Fields – Roman GeneralAetius and his army of Romans and barbarian allies defeat Attila's army ofHuns and other Germanic allies, including the Alemanni.
Alemannia (yellow) and Upper Burgundy (green) around 1000
The kingdom of Alamannia between Strasbourg and Augsburg lasted until 496, when the Alemanni were conquered byClovis I at theBattle of Tolbiac. The war of Clovis with the Alemanni forms the setting for the conversion of Clovis, briefly treated byGregory of Tours. (Book II.31) After their defeat in 496, the Alemanni bucked the Frankish yoke and put themselves under the protection ofTheodoric the Great of theOstrogoths[21] but after his death they were again subjugated by the Franks underTheudebert I in 536.[22] Subsequently, the Alemanni formed part of theFrankish dominions and were governed by a Frankish duke.
In 746,Carloman ended an uprising by summarily executing all Alemannic nobility at theblood court at Cannstatt, and for the following century, Alemannia was ruled by Frankish dukes. Following thetreaty of Verdun of 843, Alemannia became a province of the eastern kingdom ofLouis the German, the precursor of theHoly Roman Empire. The duchy persisted until 1268.
The traditional distribution area of Western Upper German (Alemannic) dialect features in the 19th and 20th centuries
The German spoken today over the range of the former Alemanni is termedAlemannic German, and is recognised among the subgroups of theHigh German languages. Alemannic runic inscriptions such as those on thePforzen buckle are among the earliest testimonies ofOld High German. TheHigh German consonant shift is thought to have originated around the fifth century either in Alemannia or among theLombards; before that, the dialect spoken by Alemannic tribes was little different from that of other West Germanic peoples.[23]
Alemannia lost its distinct jurisdictional identity whenCharles Martel absorbed it into the Frankish empire, early in the eighth century. Today,Alemannic is a linguistic term, referring toAlemannic German, encompassing the dialects of the southern two-thirds ofBaden-Württemberg (German State), in westernBavaria (German State), inVorarlberg (Austrian State),Swiss German in Switzerland and theAlsatian language of theAlsace (France).
The Alemanni established a series of territorially definedpagi (cantons) on the east bank of the Rhine. The exact number and extent of thesepagi is unclear and probably changed over time.
Pagi, usually pairs ofpagi combined, formed kingdoms (regna) which, it is generally believed, were permanent and hereditary. Ammianus describes Alemanni rulers with various terms:reges excelsiores ante alios ("paramount kings"),reges proximi ("neighbouring kings"),reguli ("petty kings") andregales ("princes"). This may be a formal hierarchy, or they may be vague, overlapping terms, or a combination of both.[24] In 357, there appear to have been two paramount kings (Chnodomar and Westralp) who probably acted as presidents of the confederation and seven other kings (reges). Their territories were small and mostly strung along the Rhine (although a few were in the hinterland).[25] It is possible that thereguli were the rulers of the twopagi in each kingdom. Underneath the royal class were the nobles (calledoptimates by the Romans) and warriors (calledarmati by the Romans). The warriors consisted of professional warbands and levies of free men.[26] Each nobleman could raise an average of c. 50 warriors.[27]
The gold bracteate ofPliezhausen (sixth or seventh century) shows typical iconography of the pagan period. The bracteate depicts the "horse-stabber underhoof" scene, a supine warrior stabbing a horse while it runs over him. The scene is adapted fromRoman era gravestones of the region.[28]The seventh-centuryGutenstein scabbard, found nearSigmaringen,Baden-Württemberg, is a late testimony of pagan ritual in Alemannia, showing a warrior in ritual wolf costume, holding aring-spatha.
TheChristianization of the Alemanni took place duringMerovingian times (sixth to eighth centuries). We know that in the sixth century, the Alemanni were predominantly pagan, and in the eighth century, they were predominantly Christian. The intervening seventh century was a period of genuinesyncretism during which Christian symbolism and doctrine gradually grew in influence.
Some scholars have speculated that members of the Alemannic elite such as kingGibuld due toVisigothic influence may have been converted toArianism even in the later fifth century.[29]
In the mid-6th century, the Byzantine historianAgathias records, in the context of the wars of the Goths and Franks against Byzantium, that the Alemanni fighting among the troops of Frankish kingTheudebald were like the Franks in all respects except religion, since
they worship certain trees, the waters of rivers, hills and mountain valleys, in whose honour they sacrifice horses, cattle and countless other animals by beheading them, and imagine that they are performing an act of piety thereby.[30]
He also spoke of the particular ruthlessness of the Alemanni in destroying Christian sanctuaries and plundering churches while the genuine Franks were respectful towards those sanctuaries. Agathias expresses his hope that the Alemanni would assume better manners through prolonged contact with the Franks, which is by all appearances, in a manner of speaking, what eventually happened.[31]
Apostles of the Alemanni wereColumbanus and his discipleSaint Gall.Jonas of Bobbio records that Columbanus was active inBregenz, where he disrupted a beer sacrifice toWodan. Despite these activities, for some time, the Alemanni seem to have continued their pagan cult activities, with only superficial orsyncretistic Christian elements. In particular, there was no change in burial practice, and tumulus warrior graves continued to be erected throughout Merovingian times. Syncretism of traditional Germanic animal style with Christian symbolism is also present in artwork, but Christian symbolism became more and more prevalent during the seventh century. Unlike the later Christianization of the Saxons and of the Slavs, the Alemanni seem to have adopted Christianity gradually, and voluntarily, spread in emulation of the Merovingian elite.
From c. the 520s to the 620s, there was a surge ofAlemannic Elder Futhark inscriptions. About 70 specimens have survived, roughly half of them onfibulae, others on belt buckles (seePforzen buckle,Bülach fibula) and other jewellery and weapon parts. The use of runes subsides with the advance of Christianity.TheNordendorf fibula (early seventh century) clearly records pagan theonyms,logaþorewodanwigiþonar read as "Wodan and Donar are magicians/sorcerers", but this may be interpreted as either a pagan invocation of the powers of these deities, or a Christian protective charm against them.[32]A runic inscription on a fibula found atBad Ems reflects Christian pious sentiment (and is also explicitly marked with a Christian cross), readinggod fura dih deofile ᛭ ("God for/before you, Theophilus!", or alternatively "God before you, Devil!"). Dated to between AD 660 and 690, it marks the end of the native Alemannic tradition of runic literacy. Bad Ems is inRhineland-Palatinate, on the northwestern boundary of Alemannic settlement, where Frankish influence would have been strongest.[33]
The establishment of the bishopric ofKonstanz cannot be dated exactly and was possibly undertaken by Columbanus himself (before 612). In any case, it existed by 635, whenGunzo appointedJohn of Grab bishop. Constance was a missionary bishopric in newly converted lands, and did not look back on late Roman church history unlike the Raetian bishopric ofChur (established 451) andBasel (an episcopal seat from 740, and which continued the line of Bishops ofAugusta Raurica, seeBishop of Basel). The establishment of the church as an institution recognized by worldly rulers is also visible in legal history. In the early seventh centuryPactus Alamannorum hardly ever mentions the special privileges of the church, whileLantfrid'sLex Alamannorum of 720 has an entire chapter reserved for ecclesial matters alone.
A genetic study published inScience Advances in September 2018 examined the remains of eight individuals buried at a seventh-century Alemannic graveyard inNiederstotzingen, Germany. This is the richest and most complete Alemannic graveyard ever found. The highest-ranking individual at the graveyard was a male with Frankish grave goods. Four males were found to be closely related to him. They were all carriers of types of the paternal haplogroupR1b1a2a1a1c2b2b. A sixth male was a carrier of the paternal haplogroup R1b1a2a1a1c2b2b1a1 and the maternal haplogroupU5a1a1. Along with the five closely related individuals, he displayed close genetic links tonorthern andeastern Europe, particularlyLithuania andIceland. Two individuals buried at the cemetery were found to be genetically different from both the others and each other, displaying genetic links toSouthern Europe, particularly northern Italy and Spain. Along with the sixth male, they might have been adoptees or slaves.[34]
^The spelling with "e" is used in Encyc. Brit. 9th. ed., (c. 1880), Everyman's Encyc. 1967, Everyman's Smaller Classical Dictionary, 1910. The current edition of Britannica spells with "e", as does Columbia and Edward Gibbon, Vol. 3, Chapter XXXVIII. The Latinized spelling witha is current in older literature (so in the1911 Britannica), but remains in use e.g. in Wood (2003), Drinkwater (2007).
^The Alemanni were alternatively known asSuebi from about the fifth century, and that name became prevalent in the high medieval period, eponymous of theDuchy of Swabia. The name is taken from that of theSuebi mentioned by Julius Caesar, and although these olderSuebi did likely contribute to the ethnogenesis of the Alemanni, there is no direct connection to the contemporaryKingdom of the Suebi in Galicia.
^in pago Almanniae 762,in pago Alemannorum 797,urbs Constantia in ducatu Alemanniae 797;in ducatu Alemannico, in pago Linzgowe 873. From the ninth century,Alamannia is increasingly used of theAlsace specifically, while the Alamannic territory in general is increasingly calledSuebia; by the 12th century, the nameSuebia had mostly replacedAlamannia.S. Hirzel,Forschungen zur Deutschen Landeskunde 6 (1888), p. 299.
^recorded asaleman in c. 1100, and with final dental,alemant oralemand, from c. 1160.Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé s.v.allemand.
^F.C. and J. Rivington, T. Payne, Wilkie and Robinson: The Chronicle of Iohn Hardyng, 1812, p. 99.
^H. Kurath: Middle English Dictionary, part 14, University of Michigan Press, 1952, 1345.
^Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, avec les Mémoires de Littérature tirés des Registres de cette Académie, depuis l'année MDCCXLIV jusques et compris l'année MDCCXLVI, vol. XVIII, (Paris 1753) pp. 49–71. Excerpts are on-line atELIOHS.
^"the name is possibly Alahmannen, 'men of the sanctuary'"Inglis Palgrave (ed.),The Collected Historical Works ofSir Francis Palgrave, K.H. (1919), p. 443 (citing: "Bury's ed. ofGibbon (Methuen), vol. I [1902], p. 278 note;H. M. Chadwick,Origin of the English Nation [1907]").
^Igitur quia mixti Alamannis Suevi, partem Germaniae ultra Danubium, partem Raetiae inter Alpes et Histrum, partemque Galliae circa Ararim obsederunt; antiquorum vocabulorum veritate servata, ab incolis nomen patriae derivemus, et Alamanniam vel Sueviam nominemus. Nam cum duo sint vocabula unam gentem significantia, priori nomine nos appellant circumpositae gentes, quae Latinum habent sermonem; sequenti, usus nos nuncupat barbarorum. Walafrid Strabo,Proleg. ad Vit. S. Galli (833/4) ed.Migne (1852); Thomas Greenwood,The First Book of the History of the Germans: Barbaric Period (1836),p. 498.
^Rudolf Much,Der germanische Himmelsgott (1898), p. 192.
^Michael Speidel,Ancient Germanic warriors: warrior styles from Trajan's column to Icelandic sagas, Routledge, 2004,ISBN978-0415311991, p. 162.Harald Kleinschmidt,People on the move: attitudes toward and perceptions of migration in medieval and modern Europe, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003,ISBN978-0275974176,p. 66.
^Schubert, Hans (1909).Das älteste germanische Christentum oder der Sogenannte "Arianismus" der Germanen. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr. p. 32. Cf. also Bossert, G. "Alemanni" in: Jackson, S.M. (Ed.).New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 1, p. 114: "[the Alamannic] prince, Gibuld, was an Arian, probably converted by Goths".
^Düwel, Klaus (1982). "Runen und Interpretatio Christiana: Zur Religioneschichtlichen Stellung der Bügelfidel von Nordendorf I". In Kamp, Norbert; Wollasch, Joachim (eds.).Tradition als Historische Kraft. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 78–86.ISBN3110082373.
^Wolfgang Jungandreas, 'God fura dih, deofile †' in: Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 101, 1972, pp. 84–85.
^O'Sullivan et al. 2018: "Genome-wide analyses were performed on eight individuals to estimate genetic affiliation to modern west Eurasians and genetic kinship at the burial. Five individuals were direct relatives. Three other individuals were not detectably related; two of these showed genomic affinity to southern Europeans... These five related individuals had culturally diverse grave goods despite the evidence that all of them showed local isotope signals with northern European genetic affiliations... Niederstotzingen North individuals are closely related to northern and eastern European populations, particularly from Lithuania and Iceland."
Drinkwater, John F. (2007).The Alamanni and Rome 213–496. Caracalla to Clovis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-929568-5.
Ian Wood (ed.),Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective (Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology), Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2003,ISBN1-84383-035-3.
Melchior Goldast,Rerum Alamannicarum scriptores (1606, 2nd ed. Senckenburg 1730)
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