The Arborychoi ( Greek : Αρβόρυχοι) were a people mentioned by Procopius as living in Gaul in the 5th century AD. There is no consensus on who they were.
129-567: Procopius mentions the Arborychoi in his description of the land and peoples west of Gaul. Based on his description of their proximity to the Franks, it has been suggested that they would have "occupied the coast of what is today Belgium." Writing in the 550s, he probably got his information from a Frankish embassy. It forms part of a passage explaining the origins of the Franks and their power. It should probably be associated, insofar as his garbled account
258-646: A Roman military region corresponding to Gaul north of the Loire and west of the Seine , an area inhabited by Gallo-Romans . In this sense, it may refer not to a people, but to the Roman army on the Loire. Jean-Pierre Poly considers the identification of the Arborychoi with the Armoricani "unlikely if not impossible". He proposes that Arboruchoi is in fact a misspelling of Arboruchtoi and
387-624: A barbarous nation, not of much consequence in the beginning, who are now called Franks. Next to these lived the Arborychi , who, together with all the rest of Gaul, and, indeed, Spain also, were subjects of the Romans from of old. And beyond them toward the east were settled the Thuringian barbarians, Augustus, the first emperor, having given them this country. And the Burgundians lived not far from them toward
516-520: A century later. Many say that the Franks originally came from Pannonia and first inhabited the banks of the Rhine. Then they crossed the river, marched through Thuringia, and set up in each county district [ pagus ] and each city [ civitas ] longhaired kings chosen from their foremost and most noble family. The author of the Chronicle of Fredegar claimed that the Franks came originally from Troy and quoted
645-563: A city and its environs. Initially only in certain cities in western Gaul, in Neustria and Aquitaine, did the kings possess the right or power to call up the levy. The commanders of the local levies were always different from the commanders of the urban garrisons. Often the former were commanded by the counts of the districts. A much rarer occurrence was the general levy, which applied to the entire kingdom and included peasants ( pauperes and inferiores ). General levies could also be made within
774-526: A faster pace. It is characterised by greater use of prepositions, and word order that is closer to modern Romance languages, for example, while grammatically retaining more or less the same formal rules as Classical Latin. Ultimately, Latin diverged into a distinct written form, where the commonly spoken form was perceived as a separate language, for instance early French or Italian dialects, that could be transcribed differently. It took some time for these to be viewed as wholly different from Latin however. After
903-718: A few in German , Dutch , Norwegian , Danish and Swedish . Latin is still spoken in Vatican City, a city-state situated in Rome that is the seat of the Catholic Church . The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in philology . They are in part the subject matter of the field of classics . Their works were published in manuscript form before
1032-404: A few. Famous and well regarded writers included Petrarch, Erasmus, Salutati , Celtis , George Buchanan and Thomas More . Non fiction works were long produced in many subjects, including the sciences, law, philosophy, historiography and theology. Famous examples include Isaac Newton 's Principia . Latin was also used as a convenient medium for translations of important works first written in
1161-485: A known military unit based on the Rhône . The Ripuarian territory on both sides of the Rhine thus became a central part of Merovingian Austrasia . This stretched to include Roman Germania Inferior (later Germania Secunda ), which included the original Salian and Ripuarian lands, and roughly equates to medieval Lower Lotharingia. It also included Gallia Belgica Prima (roughly medieval Upper Lotharingia), and further lands on
1290-594: A lasting impact on the use of Frank-related names for Western Europeans in many non-European languages. The name Franci was not a tribal name, but within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the original peoples who constituted the Frankish population. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm , the name of the Franks has been linked with the English adjective frank , originally meaning "free". There have also been proposals that Frank comes from
1419-615: A mare's value was the same as that of an ox or of a shield and spear, two solidi and a stallion seven or the same as a sword and scabbard, which suggests that horses were relatively common. Perhaps the Byzantine writers considered the Frankish horse to be insignificant relative to the Greek cavalry, which is probably accurate. The Frankish military establishment incorporated many of the pre-existing Roman institutions in Gaul, especially during and after
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#17328730715421548-472: A militarised nature. The Franks called annual meetings every Marchfeld (1 March), when the king and his nobles assembled in large open fields and determined their targets for the next campaigning season. The meetings were a show of strength on behalf of the monarch and a way for him to retain loyalty among his troops. In their civil wars, the Merovingian kings concentrated on the holding of fortified places and
1677-548: A native language, Medieval Latin was used across Western and Catholic Europe during the Middle Ages as a working and literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance , which then developed a classicizing form, called Renaissance Latin . This was the basis for Neo-Latin which evolved during the early modern period . In these periods Latin was used productively and generally taught to be written and spoken, at least until
1806-551: A result, the list has variants, as well as alternative names. In addition to the historical phases, Ecclesiastical Latin refers to the styles used by the writers of the Roman Catholic Church from late antiquity onward, as well as by Protestant scholars. The earliest known form of Latin is Old Latin, also called Archaic or Early Latin, which was spoken from the Roman Kingdom , traditionally founded in 753 BC, through
1935-407: A separate language, existing more or less in parallel with the literary or educated Latin, but this is now widely dismissed. The term 'Vulgar Latin' remains difficult to define, referring both to informal speech at any time within the history of Latin, and the kind of informal Latin that had begun to move away from the written language significantly in the post-Imperial period, that led ultimately to
2064-695: A small number of Latin services held in the Anglican church. These include an annual service in Oxford, delivered with a Latin sermon; a relic from the period when Latin was the normal spoken language of the university. In the Western world, many organizations, governments and schools use Latin for their mottos due to its association with formality, tradition, and the roots of Western culture . Canada's motto A mari usque ad mare ("from sea to sea") and most provincial mottos are also in Latin. The Canadian Victoria Cross
2193-429: A sort of informal language academy dedicated to maintaining and perpetuating educated speech. Philological analysis of Archaic Latin works, such as those of Plautus , which contain fragments of everyday speech, gives evidence of an informal register of the language, Vulgar Latin (termed sermo vulgi , "the speech of the masses", by Cicero ). Some linguists, particularly in the nineteenth century, believed this to be
2322-565: A spoken and written language by the scholarship by the Renaissance humanists . Petrarch and others began to change their usage of Latin as they explored the texts of the Classical Latin world. Skills of textual criticism evolved to create much more accurate versions of extant texts through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and some important texts were rediscovered. Comprehensive versions of authors' works were published by Isaac Casaubon , Joseph Scaliger and others. Nevertheless, despite
2451-432: A strictly left-to-right script. During the late republic and into the first years of the empire, from about 75 BC to AD 200, a new Classical Latin arose, a conscious creation of the orators, poets, historians and other literate men, who wrote the great works of classical literature , which were taught in grammar and rhetoric schools. Today's instructional grammars trace their roots to such schools , which served as
2580-689: A vernacular, such as those of Descartes . Latin education underwent a process of reform to classicise written and spoken Latin. Schooling remained largely Latin medium until approximately 1700. Until the end of the 17th century, the majority of books and almost all diplomatic documents were written in Latin. Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in French (a Romance language ) and later native or other languages. Education methods gradually shifted towards written Latin, and eventually concentrating solely on reading skills. The decline of Latin education took several centuries and proceeded much more slowly than
2709-509: A western European people during the Roman Empire and Middle Ages . They began as a Germanic people who lived near the Lower Rhine , on the northern continental frontier of the empire. They subsequently expanded their power and influence during the Middle Ages , until much of the population of western Europe, particularly in and near France , were commonly described as Franks, for example in
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#17328730715422838-411: Is Veritas ("truth"). Veritas was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn, and the mother of Virtue. Switzerland has adopted the country's Latin short name Helvetia on coins and stamps, since there is no room to use all of the nation's four official languages . For a similar reason, it adopted the international vehicle and internet code CH , which stands for Confoederatio Helvetica ,
2967-803: Is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages . Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio ), the lower Tiber area around Rome , Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire . By the late Roman Republic , Old Latin had evolved into standardized Classical Latin . Vulgar Latin refers to
3096-626: Is a reversal of the original phrase Non terrae plus ultra ("No land further beyond", "No further!"). According to legend , this phrase was inscribed as a warning on the Pillars of Hercules , the rocks on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar and the western end of the known, Mediterranean world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence. In
3225-443: Is both habitual and a national custom and they are proficient in this. At the hip they wear a sword and on the left side their shield is attached. They have neither bows nor slings, no missile weapons except the double edged axe and the angon which they use most often. The angons are spears which are neither very short nor very long. They can be used, if necessary, for throwing like a javelin , and also in hand to hand combat . In
3354-520: Is cognate with the Boructuari of Bede . This name means "first" or "great" Bructeri (etymologically "ere-brought"). According to Maurits Gysseling , it is preserved in the early medieval place name Boroctra (Borchtergo). The presence of six Rhenish pagi with bant (banner) in the name may be a record of the long use of Roman banners noted by Procopius. . . . and this is where the Germans lived of old,
3483-548: Is found in any widespread language, the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy have retained a remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of their common Christian (Roman Catholic) culture. It was not until the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711, cutting off communications between the major Romance regions, that the languages began to diverge seriously. The spoken Latin that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from
3612-457: Is generally believed to mean 'The Chamavi who are Franks' (despite the letter p). Further up the river the word "Francia" is clearly marked, indicating a country name on the bank opposite to Nijmegen and Xanten . The Salians were first mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus , who described Julian 's defeat of "the first Franks of all, those whom custom has called the Salians", in 358. Julian allowed
3741-512: Is historical, with the reigns of the Frankish kings Childeric I and Clovis I . The Arborychoi are described as having been soldiers of the Roman Empire . They are said to have changed their form of government, probably meaning that they came to recognize rulers other than the Roman emperors. They fought an inconclusive war with the Franks before allying and intermarrying with them, becoming one people. They were both Christians (i.e., Chalcedonians , not Arians ) at this time, which situates it after
3870-611: Is modelled after the British Victoria Cross which has the inscription "For Valour". Because Canada is officially bilingual, the Canadian medal has replaced the English inscription with the Latin Pro Valore . Spain's motto Plus ultra , meaning "even further", or figuratively "Further!", is also Latin in origin. It is taken from the personal motto of Charles V , Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (as Charles I), and
3999-475: Is now France. He and his son Clovis I founded the Merovingian dynasty which succeeded in unifying most of Gaul under its rule during the 6th century following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, as well as establishing leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on or near the Rhine frontier. The dynasty subsequently gained control over a significant part of what is now western and southern Germany. It
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4128-538: Is on the River Danube , settling near the Sea of Azov . There they founded a city called Sicambria. (The Sicambri were the most well-known tribe in the Frankish homeland in the time of the early Roman empire, still remembered though defeated and dispersed long before the Frankish name appeared.) The Trojans joined the Roman army in accomplishing the task of driving their enemies into the marshes of Mæotis, for which they received
4257-958: Is taught at many high schools, especially in Europe and the Americas. It is most common in British public schools and grammar schools, the Italian liceo classico and liceo scientifico , the German Humanistisches Gymnasium and the Dutch gymnasium . Occasionally, some media outlets, targeting enthusiasts, broadcast in Latin. Notable examples include Radio Bremen in Germany, YLE radio in Finland (the Nuntii Latini broadcast from 1989 until it
4386-685: Is that ferocity of yours? Where is that ever untrustworthy fickleness?"). Latin feroces was used often to describe the Franks. Contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. The formulary of Marculf written about 700 AD described a continuation of national identities within a mixed population when it stated that "all the peoples who dwell (in the official's province), Franks, Romans, Burgundians and those of other nations, live ... according to their law and their custom." Writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that "the word 'Frankish' quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of
4515-531: The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL). Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy . About 270,000 inscriptions are known. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. In
4644-519: The Augustan History , a collection of biographies of the Roman emperors . None of these sources presents a detailed list of which tribes or parts of tribes became Frankish, or concerning the politics and history, but to quote James (1988 , p. 35): A Roman marching-song joyfully recorded in a fourth-century source, is associated with the 260s; but the Franks' first appearance in a contemporary source
4773-706: The Strategikon , supposedly written by the emperor Maurice , or in his time, the Franks are lumped together with the Lombards under the heading of the "fair-haired" peoples. If they are hard pressed in cavalry actions, they dismount at a single prearranged sign and line up on foot. Although only a few against many horsemen, they do not shrink from the fight. They are armed with shields, lances, and short swords slung from their shoulders. They prefer fighting on foot and rapid charges. [...] Either on horseback or on foot they are impetuous and un- disciplined in charging, as if they were
4902-654: The Battle of Tertry in 687, each mayor of the palace , who had formerly been the king's chief household official, effectively held power until in 751, with the approval of the Pope and the nobility, Pepin the Short deposed the last Merovingian king Childeric III and had himself crowned. This inaugurated a new dynasty, the Carolingians . The unification achieved by the Merovingians ensured
5031-671: The Battle of Vouillé , he established Frankish hegemony over most of Gaul, excluding Burgundy , Provence and Brittany , which were eventually absorbed by his successors. By the 490s, he had conquered all the Frankish kingdoms to the west of the River Maas except for the Ripuarian Franks and was in a position to make the city of Paris his capital. He became the first king of all Franks in 509, after he had conquered Cologne. Clovis I divided his realm between his four sons, who united to defeat Burgundy in 534. Internecine feuding occurred during
5160-562: The Holy See , the primary language of its public journal , the Acta Apostolicae Sedis , and the working language of the Roman Rota . Vatican City is also home to the world's only automatic teller machine that gives instructions in Latin. In the pontifical universities postgraduate courses of Canon law are taught in Latin, and papers are written in the same language. There are
5289-561: The Middle Ages , borrowing from Latin occurred from ecclesiastical usage established by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century or indirectly after the Norman Conquest , through the Anglo-Norman language . From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed " inkhorn terms ", as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by
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5418-649: The River Loire everyone seems to have been considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest (except Bretons ); Romani (Romans) were essentially the inhabitants of Aquitaine after that". Apart from the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours , two early sources relate the mythological origin of the Franks: a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar and the anonymous Liber Historiae Francorum , written
5547-559: The Roman Rite of the Catholic Church at the Vatican City . The church continues to adapt concepts from modern languages to Ecclesiastical Latin of the Latin language. Contemporary Latin is more often studied to be read rather than spoken or actively used. Latin has greatly influenced the English language , along with a large number of others, and historically contributed many words to
5676-553: The Romance languages . During the Classical period, informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors, inscriptions such as Curse tablets and those found as graffiti . In the Late Latin period, language changes reflecting spoken (non-classical) norms tend to be found in greater quantities in texts. As it
5805-574: The Salian Franks to the west, who came south via the Rhine delta ; and the Ripuarian or Rhineland Franks to the east, who eventually conquered the Roman frontier city of Cologne and took control of the left bank of the Lower Rhine in that region. Childeric I , a Salian Frankish king, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in the northern part of what
5934-490: The Somme river . Chlodio is often seen as an ancestor of the future Merovingian dynasty. Childeric I , who according to Gregory of Tours was a reputed descendant of Chlodio, was later seen as administrative ruler over Roman Belgica Secunda and possibly other areas. Records of Childeric show him to have been active together with Roman forces in the Loire region, quite far to the south. His descendants came to rule Roman Gaul all
6063-622: The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 and Germanic kingdoms took its place, the Germanic people adopted Latin as a language more suitable for legal and other, more formal uses. While the written form of Latin was increasingly standardized into a fixed form, the spoken forms began to diverge more greatly. Currently, the five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish , Portuguese , French , Italian , and Romanian . Despite dialectal variation, which
6192-603: The 260s, the armies under the Germanic Batavian Postumus revolted and proclaimed him emperor and then restored order. From then on, Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, most notably Franks, were promoted from the ranks. A few decades later, the Menapian Carausius created a Batavian–British rump state on Roman soil that was supported by Frankish soldiers and raiders. Frankish soldiers such as Magnentius , Silvanus , Ricomer and Bauto held command positions in
6321-408: The 450s and 460s, Childeric I , a Salian Frank, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in Roman Gaul (roughly modern France). Childeric and his son Clovis I faced competition from the Roman Aegidius as competitor for the "kingship" of the Franks associated with the Roman Loire forces (according to Gregory of Tours , Aegidius held the kingship of
6450-451: The British Crown. The motto is featured on all presently minted coinage and has been featured in most coinage throughout the nation's history. Several states of the United States have Latin mottos , such as: Many military organizations today have Latin mottos, such as: Some law governing bodies in the Philippines have Latin mottos, such as: Some colleges and universities have adopted Latin mottos, for example Harvard University 's motto
6579-429: The Byzantine historians do not assign them to the Franks. The evidence of Gregory and of the Lex Salica implies that the early Franks were a cavalry people. In fact, some modern historians have hypothesised that the Franks possessed so numerous a body of horses that they could use them to plough fields and thus were agriculturally technologically advanced over their neighbours. The Lex Ribuaria specifies that
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#17328730715426708-486: The English lexicon , particularly after the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest . Latin and Ancient Greek roots are heavily used in English vocabulary in theology , the sciences , medicine , and law . A number of phases of the language have been recognized, each distinguished by subtle differences in vocabulary, usage, spelling, and syntax. There are no hard and fast rules of classification; different scholars emphasize different features. As
6837-469: The Frankish realm. Chief among these was the standing army under the command of the Patrician of Burgundy . In the late 6th century, during the wars instigated by Fredegund and Brunhilda , the Merovingian monarchs introduced a new element into their militaries: the local levy . A levy consisted of all the able-bodied men of a district who were required to report for military service when called upon, similar to conscription . The local levy applied only to
6966-413: The Franks for 8 years while Childeric was in exile). This new type of kingship, perhaps inspired by Alaric I , represents the start of the Merovingian dynasty which succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, as well as establishing its leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on the Rhine frontier. Aegidius died in 464 or 465. Childeric and his son Clovis I were both described as rulers of
7095-403: The Franks fought primarily as a tribe, unless they were part of a Roman military unit fighting in conjunction with other imperial units. The primary sources for Frankish military custom and armament are Ammianus Marcellinus , Agathias and Procopius, the latter two Eastern Roman historians writing about Frankish intervention in the Gothic War . Writing of 539, Procopius says: At this time
7224-425: The Franks knew little about their background and that they may have felt some inferiority in comparison with other peoples of antiquity who possessed an ancient name and glorious tradition. [...] Both legends are of course equally fabulous for, even more than most barbarian peoples, the Franks possessed no common history, ancestry, or tradition of a heroic age of migration. Like their Alemannic neighbours, they were by
7353-447: The Franks to remain in Texuandria as fœderati within the Empire, having moved there from the Rhine-Maas delta. The 5th century Notitia Dignitatum lists a group of soldiers as Salii . Some decades later, Franks in the same region, possibly the Salians, controlled the River Scheldt and were disrupting transport links to Britain in the English Channel . Although Roman forces managed to pacify them, they failed to expel
7482-423: The Franks, hearing that both the Goths and Romans had suffered severely by the war ... forgetting for the moment their oaths and treaties ... (for this nation in matters of trust is the most treacherous in the world), they straightway gathered to the number of one hundred thousand under the leadership of Theudebert I and marched into Italy: they had a small body of cavalry about their leader, and these were
7611-418: The Franks, who continued to be feared as pirates. The Salians are generally seen as the predecessors of the Franks who pushed southwestwards into what is now modern France, who eventually came to be ruled by the Merovingians (see below). This is because when the Merovingian dynasty published the Salian law ( Lex Salica ) it applied in the Neustrian area from the river Liger ( Loire ) to the Silva Carbonaria ,
7740-540: The Germanic word for " javelin " (such as in Old English franca or Old Norse frakka ). Words in other Germanic languages meaning "fierce", "bold" or "insolent" (German frech , Middle Dutch vrac , Old English frǣc and Old Norwegian frakkr ) may also be significant. Eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures: Ubi nunc est illa ferocia? Ubi semper infida mobilitas? ("Where now
7869-479: The Germans were not able to overcome them by force, they wished to win them over and make the two peoples kin by intermarriage. This suggestion the Arborychi received not at all unwillingly; for both, as it happened, were Christians. And in this way they were united into one people, and came to have great power. Now other Roman soldiers, also, had been stationed at the frontiers of Gaul to serve as guards. And these soldiers, having no means of returning to Rome, and at
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#17328730715427998-416: The Grinch Stole Christmas! , The Cat in the Hat , and a book of fairy tales, " fabulae mirabiles ", are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissner's Latin Phrasebook . Some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series,
8127-427: The Latin word aborigines (natives). Thomas Charles-Edwards notes that a confusion of b and m also occurs in the treatment of the Conomor by Procopius' contemporary, Gregory of Tours , who calls him Chonomoris and Chonoober . Edward James accepts the etymology, but points out that the term cannot refer to the people of Armorica (then being conquered by the Bretons ) but only the Tractus Armoricanus ,
8256-436: The Pious . Following Louis the Pious's death, however, according to Frankish culture and law that demanded equality among all living male adult heirs, the Frankish Empire was now split between Louis' three sons. Germanic peoples, including those tribes in the Rhine delta that later became the Franks, are known to have served in the Roman army since the days of Julius Caesar . After the Roman administration collapsed in Gaul in
8385-434: The Rhine became so frequent that the Romans began to settle the Franks on their borders in order to control them. The Franks appear to be mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana , an atlas of Roman roads . (It is a 13th-century copy of a 4th or 5th century document that reflects information from the 3rd century.) Several tribal names are written at the mouth of the Rhine. One of these says Hamavi; Quietpranci , which
8514-433: The Roman Province of Belgica Secunda , by its spiritual leader in the time of Clovis, Saint Remigius . Clovis later defeated the son of Aegidius, Syagrius , in 486 or 487 and then had the Frankish king Chararic imprisoned and executed. A few years later, he killed Ragnachar , the Frankish king of Cambrai, and his brothers. After conquering the Kingdom of Soissons and expelling the Visigoths from southern Gaul at
8643-424: The Roman army during the mid 4th century. From the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus it is evident that both Frankish and Alamannic tribal armies were organised along Roman lines. After the invasion of Chlodio , the Roman armies at the Rhine border became a Frankish "franchise" and Franks were known to levy Roman-like troops that were supported by a Roman-like armour and weapons industry. This lasted at least until
8772-423: The Romans. And the Germans, wishing to make this people subject to themselves, since their territory adjoined their own and they had changed the government under which they had lived from of old, began to plunder their land and, being eager to make war, marched against them with their whole people. But the Arborychi proved their valour and loyalty to the Romans and shewed themselves brave men in this war, and since
8901-407: The Salians they appear in Roman records both as raiders and as contributors to military units. Unlike the Salii, there is no record of when, if ever, the empire officially accepted their residence within its borders. They eventually succeeded to hold the city of Cologne, and at some point seem to have acquired the name Ripuarians, which may have meant "river people". In any case a Merovingian legal code
9030-409: The United States the unofficial national motto until 1956 was E pluribus unum meaning "Out of many, one". The motto continues to be featured on the Great Seal . It also appears on the flags and seals of both houses of congress and the flags of the states of Michigan, North Dakota, New York, and Wisconsin. The motto's 13 letters symbolically represent the original Thirteen Colonies which revolted from
9159-447: The University of Kentucky, the University of Oxford and also Princeton University. There are many websites and forums maintained in Latin by enthusiasts. The Latin Misplaced Pages has more than 130,000 articles. Italian , French , Portuguese , Spanish , Romanian , Catalan , Romansh , Sardinian and other Romance languages are direct descendants of Latin. There are also many Latin borrowings in English and Albanian , as well as
9288-474: The archaeological evidence. The Lex Ribuaria , the early 7th century legal code of the Rhineland or Ripuarian Franks, specifies the values of various goods when paying a wergild in kind; whereas a spear and shield were worth only two solidi , a sword and scabbard were valued at seven, a helmet at six, and a "metal tunic" at twelve. Scramasaxes and arrowheads are numerous in Frankish graves even though
9417-511: The banks of the Danube and the Ocean Sea. Again splitting into, two groups, half of them entered Europe with their king Francio. After crossing Europe with their wives and children they occupied the banks of the Rhine and not far from the Rhine began to build the city of "Troy" (Colonia Traiana-Xanten). According to historian Patrick J. Geary , those two stories are "alike in betraying both the fact that
9546-425: The benefit of those who do not understand Latin. There are also songs written with Latin lyrics . The libretto for the opera-oratorio Oedipus rex by Igor Stravinsky is in Latin. Parts of Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana are written in Latin. Enya has recorded several tracks with Latin lyrics. The continued instruction of Latin is seen by some as a highly valuable component of a liberal arts education. Latin
9675-409: The careful work of Petrarch, Politian and others, first the demand for manuscripts, and then the rush to bring works into print, led to the circulation of inaccurate copies for several centuries following. Neo-Latin literature was extensive and prolific, but less well known or understood today. Works covered poetry, prose stories and early novels, occasional pieces and collections of letters, to name
9804-415: The classicised Latin that followed through to the present are often grouped together as Neo-Latin , or New Latin, which have in recent decades become a focus of renewed study , given their importance for the development of European culture, religion and science. The vast majority of written Latin belongs to this period, but its full extent is unknown. The Renaissance reinforced the position of Latin as
9933-441: The conquests of Clovis I in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Frankish military strategy revolved around the holding and taking of fortified centres ( castra ) and in general these centres were held by garrisons of milities and laeti , who were descendants of Roman soldiers with Germanic origin, granted a quasi-national status under Frankish law. These milites continued to be commanded by tribunes. Throughout Gaul,
10062-521: The context of their joint efforts during the Crusades starting in the 11th century. A key turning point in this evolution was when the Frankish Merovingian dynasty based within the collapsing Western Roman Empire first became the rulers of the whole region between the rivers Loire and Rhine . From this starting point they imposed power over many other post-Roman kingdoms both inside and outside
10191-473: The continuation of what has become known as the Carolingian Renaissance . The Carolingian Empire was beset by internecine warfare, but the combination of Frankish rule and Roman Christianity ensured that it was fundamentally united. Frankish government and culture depended very much upon each ruler and his aims and so each region of the empire developed differently. Although a ruler's aims depended upon
10320-514: The conversion of Clovis. In his own day, Procopius writes, the descendants of the Arborychoi still followed Roman customs and carried their old banners. The name Arborychoi is usually regarded as a corruption of Latin Armorici or Armoricani . This identification was current as early as the 18th century, when it was questioned by Edward Gibbon on the basis of geography. Ernst Stein accepted it, but Ferdinand Lot argued that Procopius had garbled
10449-461: The country's full Latin name. Some film and television in ancient settings, such as Sebastiane , The Passion of the Christ and Barbarians (2020 TV series) , have been made with dialogue in Latin. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/television series as The Exorcist and Lost (" Jughead "). Subtitles are usually shown for
10578-467: The date of the beginning of the conquest of Gaul. The Byzantine authors present several contradictions and difficulties. Procopius denies the Franks the use of the spear while Agathias makes it one of their primary weapons. They agree that the Franks were primarily infantrymen, threw axes and carried a sword and shield. Both writers also contradict the authority of Gallic authors of the same general time period ( Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours ) and
10707-453: The days of the scholar Procopius (c. 500 – c. 565), more than a century after the demise of the Western Roman Empire, who wrote describing the former Arborychoi , having merged with the Franks, retaining their legionary organization in the style of their forefathers during Roman times. The Franks under the Merovingians melded Germanic custom with Romanised organisation and several important tactical innovations. Before their conquest of Gaul,
10836-493: The decline in written Latin output. Despite having no native speakers, Latin is still used for a variety of purposes in the contemporary world. The largest organisation that retains Latin in official and quasi-official contexts is the Catholic Church . The Catholic Church required that Mass be carried out in Latin until the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965 , which permitted the use of the vernacular . Latin remains
10965-491: The descendants of Roman soldiers continued to wear their uniforms and perform their ceremonial duties. Immediately beneath the Frankish king in the military hierarchy were the leudes , his sworn followers, who were generally 'old soldiers' in service away from court. The king had an elite bodyguard called the truste . Members of the truste often served in centannae , garrison settlements that were established for military and police purposes. The day-to-day bodyguard of
11094-421: The east bank of the Rhine. Gregory of Tours (Book II) reported that small Frankish kingdoms existed during the fifth century around Cologne , Tournai , Cambrai and elsewhere. The kingdom of the Merovingians eventually came to dominate the others, possibly because of its association with Roman power structures in northern Gaul, into which the Frankish military forces were apparently integrated to some extent. In
11223-570: The educated and official world, Latin continued without its natural spoken base. Moreover, this Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin, such as the Germanic and Slavic nations. It became useful for international communication between the member states of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies. Without the institutions of the Roman Empire that had supported its uniformity, Medieval Latin
11352-606: The emperors of the Western Roman Empire . As such, the Carolingian Empire gradually came to be seen in the West as a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire. This empire would give rise to several successor states, including France, the Holy Roman Empire and Burgundy , though the Frankish identity remained most closely identified with France. After the death of Charlemagne , his only adult surviving son became Emperor and King Louis
11481-405: The first time. It seems likely that the term Frank in this first period had a broader meaning, sometimes including coastal Frisii . The Life of Aurelian , which was possibly written by Vopiscus, mentions that in 328, Frankish raiders were captured by the 6th Legion stationed at Mainz . As a result of this incident, 700 Franks were killed and 300 were sold into slavery. Frankish incursions over
11610-679: The invention of printing and are now published in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the Loeb Classical Library , published by Harvard University Press , or the Oxford Classical Texts , published by Oxford University Press . Latin translations of modern literature such as: The Hobbit , Treasure Island , Robinson Crusoe , Paddington Bear , Winnie the Pooh , The Adventures of Tintin , Asterix , Harry Potter , Le Petit Prince , Max and Moritz , How
11739-448: The king was made up of antrustiones (senior soldiers who were aristocrats in military service) and pueri (junior soldiers and not aristocrats). All high-ranking men had pueri . The Frankish military was not composed solely of Franks and Gallo-Romans, but also contained Saxons , Alans , Taifals and Alemanni . After the conquest of Burgundy (534), the well-organised military institutions of that kingdom were integrated into
11868-675: The language of the Roman Rite . The Tridentine Mass (also known as the Extraordinary Form or Traditional Latin Mass) is celebrated in Latin. Although the Mass of Paul VI (also known as the Ordinary Form or the Novus Ordo) is usually celebrated in the local vernacular language, it can be and often is said in Latin, in part or in whole, especially at multilingual gatherings. It is the official language of
11997-440: The large areas where it had come to be natively spoken. However, even after the fall of Western Rome , Latin remained the common language of international communication , science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the early 19th century, by which time modern languages had supplanted it in common academic and political usage. Late Latin is the literary language from the 3rd century AD onward. No longer spoken as
12126-462: The late seventeenth century, when spoken skills began to erode. It then became increasingly taught only to be read. Latin grammar is highly fusional , with classes of inflections for case , number , person , gender , tense , mood , voice , and aspect . The Latin alphabet is directly derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets . Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and
12255-431: The later part of the Roman Republic , up to 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin . It is attested both in inscriptions and in some of the earliest extant Latin literary works, such as the comedies of Plautus and Terence . The Latin alphabet was devised from the Etruscan alphabet . The writing later changed from what was initially either a right-to-left or a boustrophedon script to what ultimately became
12384-622: The less Romanised regions of Gaul. On an intermediate level, the kings began calling up territorial levies from the regions of Austrasia (which did not have major cities of Roman origin). All the forms of the levy gradually disappeared, however, in the course of the 7th century after the reign of Dagobert I . Under the so-called rois fainéants , the levies disappeared by mid-century in Austrasia and later in Burgundy and Neustria. Only in Aquitaine, which
12513-421: The less prestigious colloquial registers , attested in inscriptions and some literary works such as those of the comic playwrights Plautus and Terence and the author Petronius . While often called a "dead language", Latin did not undergo language death . By the 6th to 9th centuries, natural language change eventually resulted in Latin as a vernacular language evolving into distinct Romance languages in
12642-555: The men. His contemporary, Agathias, who based his own writings upon the tropes laid down by Procopius, says: The military equipment of this people [the Franks] is very simple ... They do not know the use of the coat of mail or greaves and the majority leave the head uncovered, only a few wear the helmet. They have their chests bare and backs naked to the loins, they cover their thighs with either leather or linen. They do not serve on horseback except in very rare cases. Fighting on foot
12771-419: The more general levies were composed of pauperes and inferiores , who were mostly farmers by trade and carried ineffective weapons, such as farming implements. The peoples east of the Rhine – Franks, Saxons and even Wends – who were sometimes called upon to serve, wore rudimentary armour and carried weapons such as spears and axes . Few of these men were mounted. Merovingian society had
12900-463: The name of Franks (meaning "fierce"). A decade later the Romans killed Priam and drove away Marcomer and Sunno , the sons of Priam and Antenor, and the other Franks. The most important contemporary sources mentioning the early Franks include the Panegyrici Latini , Ammianus Marcellinus , Claudian , Zosimus , Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours . The Franks are first mentioned in
13029-454: The old empire. Although the Frankish name does not appear until the 3rd century, at least some of the original Frankish tribes had long been known to the Romans under their own names, both as allies providing soldiers, and as enemies. The term is first used to describe the tribes working together to raid Roman territory. Frankish peoples subsequently living inside Rome's frontier on the Rhine river are often divided by historians into two groups –
13158-412: The only ones armed with spears, while all the rest were foot soldiers having neither bows nor spears, but each man carried a sword and shield and one axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides, while the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at a signal in the first charge and thus to shatter the shields of the enemy and kill
13287-409: The only people in the world who are not cowards. While the above quotations have been used as a statement of the military practices of the Frankish nation in the 6th century and have even been extrapolated to the entire period preceding Charles Martel 's reforms (early mid-8th century), post-Second World War historiography has emphasised the inherited Roman characteristics of the Frankish military from
13416-462: The other varieties, as it was largely separated from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire. Spoken Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing. For many Italians using Latin, though, there
13545-485: The political alliances of his family, the leading families of Francia shared the same basic beliefs and ideas of government, which had both Roman and Germanic roots. The Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. With the coronation of their ruler Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800 AD, he and his successors were recognised as legitimate successors to
13674-509: The political centre of gravity in the kingdom gradually shifted eastwards to the Rhineland. The Frankish realm was reunited in 613 by Chlothar II , the son of Chilperic, who granted his nobles the Edict of Paris in an effort to reduce corruption and reassert his authority. Following the military successes of his son and successor Dagobert I , royal authority rapidly declined under a series of kings, traditionally known as les rois fainéants . After
13803-466: The present day they are dearly recognized as belonging to the legions to which they were assigned when they served in ancient times, and they always carry their own standards when they enter battle, and always follow the customs of their fathers. And they preserve the dress of the Romans in every particular, even as regards their shoes. Franks The Franks ( Latin : Franci or gens Francorum ; German : Franken ; French : Francs ) were
13932-472: The region for about a decade before they were subdued and expelled by the Romans. In 287 or 288, the Roman Caesar Maximian forced a Frankish leader Genobaud and his people to surrender without a fight. In 288, the emperor Maximian defeated the Salian Franks , Chamavi , Frisii and other Germanic people living along the Rhine and moved them to Germania inferior to provide manpower and prevent
14061-493: The reigns of the brothers Sigebert I and Chilperic I , which was largely fuelled by the rivalry of their queens, Brunhilda and Fredegunda , and which continued during the reigns of their sons and their grandsons. Three distinct subkingdoms emerged: Austrasia , Neustria and Burgundy, each of which developed independently and sought to exert influence over the others. The influence of the Arnulfing clan of Austrasia ensured that
14190-424: The same time being unwilling to yield to their enemy who were Arians, gave themselves, together with their military standards and the land which they had long been guarding for the Romans, to the Arborychi and Germans; and they handed down to their offspring all the customs of their fathers, which were thus preserved, and this people has held them in sufficient reverence to guard them even up to my time. For even at
14319-610: The scene by the 8th century. Merovingian armies used coats of mail , helmets, shields , lances , swords , bows and arrows and war horses . The armament of private armies resembled those of the Gallo-Roman potentiatores of the late Empire. A strong element of Alanic cavalry settled in Armorica influenced the fighting style of the Bretons down into the 12th century. Local urban levies could be reasonably well-armed and even mounted, but
14448-413: The settlement of other Germanic tribes. In 292, Constantius , the father of Constantine I defeated the Franks who had settled at the mouth of the Rhine. These were moved to the nearby region of Toxandria . Eumenius mentions Constantius as having "killed, expelled, captured [and] kidnapped" the Franks who had settled there and others who had crossed the Rhine, using the term nationes Franciae for
14577-589: The sixth century a fairly recent creation, a coalition of Rhenish tribal groups who long maintained separate identities and institutions." The other work, the Liber Historiae Francorum , previously known as Gesta regum Francorum before its republication in 1888 by Bruno Krusch, described how 12,000 Trojans, led by Priam and Antenor , sailed from Troy to the River Don in Russia and on to Pannonia , which
14706-695: The south, and the Suevi also lived beyond the Thuringians, and the Alamani, powerful nations. All these were settled there as independent peoples in earlier times. But as time went on, the Visigoths forced their way into the Roman empire and seized all Spain and the portion of Gaul lying beyond the Rhone River and made them subject and tributary to themselves. By that time it so happened that the Arborychi had become soldiers of
14835-422: The still-pagan trans-Rhenish stem duchies on the orders of a monarch. The Saxons , Alemanni and Thuringii all had the institution of the levy and the Frankish monarchs could depend upon their levies until the mid-7th century, when the stem dukes began to sever their ties to the monarchy. Radulf of Thuringia called up the levy for a war against Sigebert III in 640. Soon the local levy spread to Austrasia and
14964-535: The stretch of the Rhine from roughly Mainz to Duisburg , the region of the city of Cologne , are often considered separately from the Salians, and sometimes in modern texts referred to as Ripuarian Franks. The Ravenna Cosmography suggests that Francia Renensis included the old civitas of the Ubii , in Germania II ( Germania Inferior ), but also the northern part of Germania I (Germania Superior), including Mainz . Like
15093-405: The use of siege engines . In wars waged against external foes, the objective was typically the acquisition of booty or the enforcement of tribute. Only in the lands beyond the Rhine did the Merovingians seek to extend political control over their neighbours. Latin language Latin ( lingua Latina , pronounced [ˈlɪŋɡʷa ɫaˈtiːna] , or Latinum [ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃] )
15222-460: The way to there, and this became the Frankish kingdom of Neustria , the basis of what would become medieval France. Childeric's son Clovis I also took control of the more independent Frankish kingdoms east of the Silva Carbonaria and Belgica II. This later became the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia , where the early legal code was referred to as "Ripuarian". The Rhineland Franks who lived near
15351-532: The western kingdom founded by them outside the original area of Frankish settlement. In the 5th century, Franks under Chlodio pushed into Roman lands in and beyond the " Silva Carbonaria " or "Charcoal forest", which ran through the area of modern western Wallonia . The forest was the boundary of the original Salian territories to the north and the more Romanized area to the south in the Roman province of Belgica Secunda , which now lies in northern France. Chlodio conquered Tournai , Artois , Cambrai , and as far as
15480-466: The works of Virgil and Hieronymus : Blessed Jerome has written about the ancient kings of the Franks, whose story was first told by the poet Virgil: their first king was Priam and, after Troy was captured by trickery, they departed. Afterwards they had as king Friga, then they split into two parts, the first going into Macedonia, the second group, which left Asia with Friga were called the Frigii, settled on
15609-429: Was by building upon the basis of this Merovingian empire that the subsequent dynasty, the Carolingians , eventually came to be seen as the new emperors of Western Europe in 800, when Charlemagne was crowned by the pope. In 870 , the Frankish realm came to be permanently divided between western and eastern kingdoms, which were the predecessors of the later Kingdom of France and Holy Roman Empire respectively. It
15738-591: Was called the Lex Ribuaria , but it probably applied in all the older Frankish lands, including the original Salian areas. Jordanes , in his Getica mentions a group called the "Riparii" as auxiliaries of Flavius Aetius during the Battle of Châlons in 451, and distinct from the "Franci": "Hi enim affuerunt auxiliares: Franci, Sarmatae, Armoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundiones, Saxones, Riparii, Olibriones ..." But these Riparii ("river dwellers") are today not considered to be Ripuarian Franks, but rather
15867-516: Was fast becoming independent of the central Frankish monarchy, did complex military institutions persist into the 8th century. In the final half of the 7th century and first half of the 8th in Merovingian Gaul, the chief military actors became the lay and ecclesiastical magnates with their bands of armed followers called retainers. The other aspects of the Merovingian military, mostly Roman in origin or innovations of powerful kings, disappeared from
15996-413: Was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose that the speech was uniform either diachronically or geographically. On the contrary, Romanised European populations developed their own dialects of the language, which eventually led to the differentiation of Romance languages . Late Latin is a kind of written Latin used in the 3rd to 6th centuries. This began to diverge from Classical forms at
16125-794: Was in 289. [...] The Chamavi were mentioned as a Frankish people as early as 289, the Bructeri from 307, the Chattuarri from 306 to 315, the Salii or Salians from 357, and the Amsivarii and Tubantes from c. 364 to 375. The Franks were described in Roman texts both as allies ( laeti ) and enemies ( dediticii ). About the year 260, during the Crisis of the Third Century , one group of Franks penetrated as far as Tarragona in present-day Spain, where they plagued
16254-496: Was much more liberal in its linguistic cohesion: for example, in classical Latin sum and eram are used as auxiliary verbs in the perfect and pluperfect passive, which are compound tenses. Medieval Latin might use fui and fueram instead. Furthermore, the meanings of many words were changed and new words were introduced, often under influence from the vernacular. Identifiable individual styles of classically incorrect Latin prevail. Renaissance Latin, 1300 to 1500, and
16383-441: Was no complete separation between Italian and Latin, even into the beginning of the Renaissance . Petrarch for example saw Latin as a literary version of the spoken language. Medieval Latin is the written Latin in use during that portion of the post-classical period when no corresponding Latin vernacular existed, that is from around 700 to 1500 AD. The spoken language had developed into the various Romance languages; however, in
16512-478: Was shut down in June 2019), and Vatican Radio & Television, all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin. A variety of organisations, as well as informal Latin 'circuli' ('circles'), have been founded in more recent times to support the use of spoken Latin. Moreover, a number of university classics departments have begun incorporating communicative pedagogies in their Latin courses. These include
16641-594: Was the inhabitants of western kingdom who eventually came to be known as "the French " ( French : Les Français , German : Die Franzosen , Dutch : De Fransen , etc.) and this kingdom is the forerunner of the nation state of France. However, in various historical contexts, such as during the medieval crusades, not only the French, but also people from neighbouring regions in Western Europe , continued to be referred to collectively as Franks. The crusaders in particular had
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