The Salian Franks , also called the Salians ( Latin : Salii ; Greek : Σάλιοι, Salioi ), were a northwestern subgroup of the early Franks who appear in the historical record in the fourth and fifth centuries. They lived west of the Lower Rhine in what was then the Roman Empire and today the Netherlands and Belgium .
134-559: The traditional historiography sees the Salians as one of the main divisions of the Franks alongside the Ripuarians . Recent scholarship, however, has often questioned the ethnic significance of both these terms. Various etymologies are proposed. The ethnonym is unrelated to the name for the dancing priests of Mars, who were also called Salii . In line with theories that the Salians already existed as
268-663: A Lombardic identity after the defeat of the Ostrogoths by the emperor Justinian , and many may therefore have subsequently entered Italy with the Lombards. The region subsequently came under the control of the Pannonian Avars , and it is probably during this period that Slavic languages eventually became dominant in the areas where the Quadi had lived. The record which mentions the Suebi joining
402-565: A Suevian kingdom also existed. As in the case of the Suevi in Hispania, many scholars believe that this group included Suevian peoples such as the Quadi who had previously gone by other names. Herwig Wolfram for example: Writing in the 6th century, Jordanes reported a series of conflicts in the 460s between a Suevian king Hunimund and the Ostrogothic king Thiudimir , whose people had settled within
536-584: A northern area around the river Meuse in what is now Belgium and the southern Netherlands. In Gaul, a fusion of Roman and Germanic societies was occurring. During the period of Merovingian rule, the Franks began to adopt Christianity following the baptism of Clovis I in 496, an event that inaugurated the alliance between the Frankish kingdom and the Roman Catholic Church . Unlike their Gothic , Burgundic and Lombardic counterparts, who adopted Arianism ,
670-509: A refuge." From a Roman point of view he noted that the closest point of access to Bohemia was via Carnuntum . This was between present-day Vienna and Bratislava, and near the Quadi territory where the Morava river enters the Danube. The Quadi leader at the time when Maroboduus moved to Bohemia was apparently named Tudrus . He is mentioned only by Tacitus, who is also the first author to clearly mention
804-622: A region the Franks later called Neustria , was called the Salic law . Their dynasty, the Merovingians , were named after Childeric's father Merovech , whose birth was associated with supernatural elements. Childeric and Clovis were described as Kings of the Franks, and rulers of the Roman province of Belgica Secunda . Clovis became the absolute ruler of a Germanic kingdom of mixed Galloroman-Germanic population in 486. He consolidated his rule with victories over
938-650: A result of the troops in Italy. Tacitus reported in the late first century that the Osi , who spoke a language similar to the Pannonian Aravisci who lived near present day Budapest, and the Cotini , a Celtic -speaking people, mined iron in the mountainous regions north of the Quadi, in present day Slovakia, and paid tribute to the Quadi and their Sarmatian allies in present day Hungary. Also in these mountainous regions Tacitus places
1072-534: A series of attacks which they organized together with their eastern neighbours the Sarmatians. Together they repeatedly attacked Illyricum. There was a Roman campaign against the Quadi in 283-284 AD, and as a result emperor Carinus (co-emperor 283-285) and Numerian (co-emperor 284-285) celebrated this as two personal triumphs in 283 and 284. Nevertheless the Quadi were again mentioned among attacking Germanic tribes in 285 AD. This situation seems to have been pacified in
1206-466: A single assembly in 509. Gregory says "after the death of Theudebald (ca. 555), Lothar took over the lands of the Ripuarian Franks." Evidently Theudebald had possessed them. He was the son of Theudebert , who was the son of Theuderic , a son of Clovis, as was Lothar. Clovis (died 511) had left his kingdom to his four sons, Theuderic, Chlodomer, Childebert and Lothar. Part of that inheritance
1340-536: A tribe outside the Roman Empire, the name may have derived from the name of the IJssel river, formerly called Hisloa or Hisla , and in ancient times, Sala , which may be the Salians' original residence. Today this area is called Salland . Alternatively, the name may derive from a proposed Germanic word * saljon meaning friend or comrade, indicating that the term initially implied an alliance. In that case,
1474-520: A triumphal arch in Carnuntium, today known as the Heidentor , but raids did not stop. Some years after the death of Constantius, the new emperor Valentinian I (reigned 364-375) reinforced the borders. He fortified the northern and eastern banks of the Danube, and by 373 AD he ordered construction of a garrisoned fort within Quadi territory itself. In 374, when complaints from the Quadi delayed construction
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#17330941315581608-657: A wall at the approach of the Roman commander Stilicho. He says that all the fertile lands between the Black Sea and Adriatic were subsequently like uninhabited deserts, specifically including Dalmatia and Pannonia. At the same time, the Gothic general Alaric I , who had loyally served with his Gothic troops under Theodosius I at the Battle of Frigidus only a few months early, was beginning his rebellion, and started leading his army south, first towards Constantinople, and later towards Greece. This
1742-538: Is Strabo's spelling of Quadi with an "L" unexpected when compared to later references, but also the implication that Maroboduus lived within Quadi territory. Errors are therefore suspected in the surviving text. A contemporary of Strabo, Velleius Paterculus , didn't mention the Quadi by name but described "Boiohaemum", where Maroboduus and the Marcomanni lived, as "plains surrounded by the Hercynian forest", and he said this
1876-549: Is considered likely that Hunimund and at least some of his people escaped this defeat and that he is also the person of that name who was mentioned in the biography of Saint Severinus of Noricum, by Eugippius . This Hunimund attacked Saint Severinus's community at Passau with "barbarians". Passau was also troubled by the Alemanni. It is also likely that some of the Suevi continued to live under Gothic rule in this area. It may also be during this period that some Suevi settled south of
2010-511: Is in any case clear that the two peoples were always closely connected during the many centuries in which they appear in records. Velleius said that Maroboduus drilled his Bohemian soldiers to almost Roman standards, and that although his policy was to avoid conflict with Rome, the Romans came to be concerned that he could invade Italy. "Races and individuals who revolted from us [the Romans] found in him
2144-566: Is not perfectly clear, it is most often presumed that the Quadi first settled in Moravia around the same time that the Marcomanni settled in Bohemia. There is however a proposal that the Quadi moved into the Bohemian area before the Marcomanni, based on archaeological evidence of Elbe Germanic peoples in the region already before the Marcomanni defeat. The archaeological evidence left by these two peoples
2278-552: Is similar, making it difficult to define the borders between them, but it confirms their connections with the Elbe Germani , who were living near the central Elbe river and the Saale . The archaeological material culture which unites these groups, and distinguishes them from the previous Celtic inhabitants, is referred to as the "Grossromstedt horizon". It was influenced not only by the older Jastorf culture of this region, but also by
2412-583: Is that the name Ripuarii was a mixed word to begin with, perhaps *ripwarjoz . It seems to be analogous to the later formation, Ribuarius , in which Gallo-Roman *ribbar replaces Roman ripa . From the Gallo-Roman came the French rive , "bank," and a group of words based on it. The term Franks first appears in the 3rd century on the right bank of the Rhine. Tribes who had lived in the same area in Roman times included
2546-635: Is the Hercynian forest , and within this forest are tribes of Suebi "just as the tribes of the Coldui [καθάπερ τὰ τῶν κολδούων], in whose territory lies Buiaimon [Βουίαιμον, the original " Bohemia "], the royal seat of Maroboduus ". King Maroboduus, he wrote, had led several peoples into this forested region, including his own people the Marcomanni . He therefore became ruler of Suevi peoples in this forested region, and also over other Suevi living outside it. Not only
2680-465: Is uncertain ) crossed the Lower Danube into Roman territory where they were quickly defeated. Dio Cassius reports that these events worried several of the barbarian nations. A group of them selected Ballomarius, king of the Marcomanni, and ten other representatives of the other nations, in a peace mission to the governor of Roman Pannonia. Oaths were sworn and the envoys returned home. Some scholars think
2814-568: The Alamanni . He was called "the lame" because of a wound he had received at the Battle of Tolbiac , 496, the same year as Clovis' conversion to Catholicism. Clovis believed he had won by calling on the name of Christ and now had a mandate from God to Christianize all Neustria . This was a long process not free from resistance. In 509 he sent a messenger to Chloderic to state that if his father, Sigobert, were to die, he, Clovis, would ally himself to Chloderic. Whatever Clovis may have meant, as Sigobert
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#17330941315582948-595: The Benrath Line . The Rhine crosses it in the vicinity of Düsseldorf . The section of the Rhine including Cologne forms the so-called " Rhenish Fan ", where dialects are found which form intermediate stages between Dutch and High German . In the first half of the 7th century the Ripuarians received the Ripuarian law ( Lex Ripuaria ), a law code applying only to them, from the dominating Salian Franks. The Salians, following
3082-576: The Buri tribe , who Tacitus describes as speaking a similar Suebian language. In the second century the geographer Ptolemy described the position of the Buri as being near the sources of the Vistula river. Despite the occasional tensions, the Quadi and their Suebi neighbours had a relatively stable relationship with the Romans as a client state during this period, but this was interrupted under emperor Domitian during
3216-599: The Drava river in a region more directly under Gothic control and known during this time as Suavia. The alliance of Hunimund with the Allemanni has been interpreted as evidence of a new Alemannic-Suebi ethnogenesis in the second half of the 5th century, which could explain the documented use of the Suevi name to refer to the Alemanni after about 500. Many of the Suevi who remained in the Pannonian region are believed to have taken up
3350-742: The Gallo-Romans and all the other Frankish tribes and established his capital in Paris . After he had defeated the Visigoths and the Alemanni , his sons drove the Visigoths to Spain and subdued the Burgundians , Alemanni and Thuringians . After 250 years of this dynasty, marked by internecine struggles, a gradual decline occurred. The position in society of the Merovingians was taken over by Carolingians , who came from
3484-700: The Germanische Altertumskunde Online , the etymologies proposed for the ethnonym are all fraught with difficulties: The Quadi start to appear in contemporary works only after their neighbours the Marcomanni settled in central Bohemia . This happened after their defeat during the Germania campaign of the elder Drusus in about 9 BC. The defeated Marcomanni soon received a new king Maroboduus, who had been brought up in Rome. He proceeded to lead his own people and their Suebian allies into more isolated regions in
3618-488: The Huns , Alans and Goths . In 395 AD however, Saint Jerome listed the Quadi and their neighbours the Sarmatians, Marcomanni, and Vandals , as peoples who had recently been ransacking the nearby Roman provinces together with these newcomers. In 409 he placed the Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Heruli , and even inhabitants of Roman Pannonia, in another list of peoples who had recently moved west and occupied parts of Gaul. These were
3752-717: The Notitia Dignitatum based on the Rhône river. In the 7th century, the country around Cologne was described as " ripa Rheni ", and so it seems clear that the Latin word for a riverbank was sometimes used to describe the region. The form Rip u arii is irregular, however, and has been explained by a hypothetical native (Germanic) name underlying the Latin. This hypothetical self-designation might be restored as either *hreop-waren , *hrepa-waren "river[-bank] people". or *hreop-wehren , *hrepa-wehren "river[-bank] defenders". Conversely,
3886-655: The Parthian campaign in the Middle East, and badly affected by the Antonine plague . However, the Historia Augusta especially blames the Marcomanni and Victohali for throwing everything into confusion while other tribes had been driven on by the more distant barbarians. Although a Roman offensive could not start in 167, two new legions were raised and in 168 the two emperors, Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius, set out to cross
4020-605: The Przeworsk culture from further east in present day Poland. The variant which developed in the old Boii lands is called the Plaňany-Group, and also shows the residual influence of their older Celtic La Tène culture of the Boii, which had itself already come under Przeworsk influence in the generations before the Germanic influx. The evidence indicates that the Quadi initially lived near
4154-675: The Rhine river in modern Germany. Their western neighbours were the Salii, or " Salian Franks ", who were named already in late Roman records, and settled with imperial permission within the Roman Empire in what is today the southern part of the Netherlands , and Belgium , and later expanded their influence into the northern part of France north of the Loire river, creating the Frankish empire of Francia . Both
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4288-701: The Roman border on the Danube river. After probably first settling near the Morava river the Quadi expanded their control eastwards over time until they also stretched into present day Hungary. This was part of the bigger region which had been partly vacated a generation earlier by the Celtic Boii , and their opponents the Dacians . The Quadi were the easternmost of a series of four related Suebian kingdoms that established themselves near
4422-653: The Salii iuniores Gallicani based in Hispania , the Salii seniores based in Gaul. There is also record of a numerus Saliorum . While their relationship to Chlodio is uncertain, Childeric I and his son Clovis I , who gained control over Roman Gaul were said to be related, and the legal code they published for the Romance speaking country between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria ,
4556-488: The Sicambri , Chamavi , Bructeri , Chattuarii , and Tencteri . The Franks replaced those older tribes in the record and most probably represent a new alliance of all or some of them. These independent Franks crossed the Rhine frequently to establish bases there from which they raided further into the Roman empire. The Romans eventually bought peace by exchanging freedom to settle on the left bank for cooperation in maintaining
4690-587: The Visigoths , and integrated into their kingdom in 585. Meanwhile, until he died in 453, the empire of Attila controlled the Middle Danubian region. Smaller kingdoms were subsequently founded in or near the old Marcomanni and Quadi kingdoms, by the "Danube Suevi", as well as the Rugii , Heruli and Sciri . These "Danube Suevi" are likely to have included descendants of the Quadi, Marcomanni and other Suebian peoples of
4824-572: The Western Roman Empire , called upon his Germanic allies on Roman soil to help fight off an invasion by Attila 's Huns . Franks answered the call and fought in the battle of the Catalaunian Fields in a temporary alliance with Romans and Visigoths , which temporarily ended the Hunnic threat to Western Europe. The Notitia dignitatum listing Roman military units in the 5th century mentions
4958-411: The civitas of Tongeren . The first historian to say that the Salians had been pushed into the empire from outside was Zosimus , but his description of events seems to be confused and derived from others. The account of Zosimus, that the Salians had been pushed into the empire as a single tribe, is still often accepted. In this case, their homeland may have been between the Rhine and the IJssel in
5092-404: The Alemanni is also one of the first records mentioning the early Bavarians , or Baiuvarii , who were also living south of the Danube, to the east of the Alemanni, in what had been Roman territory. It is generally believed that their name is Germanic, and that it indicates an origin in the nearby regions to the east, which were once inhabited by the Boii. It is therefore considered very likely that
5226-400: The Chamavi, normally considered Frankish, as the Germanic tribe who had entered the empire in this area at this time. Unlike the Salii, these Chamavi were expelled from Roman lands. Their grain was disappointingly unready for Roman use. In a poem from 400, Claudian celebrates Stilicho 's pacification of the Germani using names of people which may only be poetic: "Salian now tills his fields,
5360-503: The Danube border and went first to Carnuntum, which was damaged and deserted, and then Aquincum (now part of Budapest). He sent one force north into the Quadi heartlands, and took another force across the Danube near present-day Budapest, where the enemies had settlements, and they slaughtered everyone they could find. He then made his winter quarters on the Roman side of the Danube in Bregetio (present-day Komárom ). Here Quadi envoys came to plead for peace. However, when they maintained that
5494-430: The Elder saw the Quadi area as the edge of Germania , with the Iazyges sitting outside of it, and the kingdom of Vannius within it. In line with this, Ptolemy (2.11.11) mentions a "great nation" of Baimoi (Βαῖμοι) between the Quadi and the Danube, and these are likely to be the subjects of Vannius who originated from Bohemia. Vannius personally benefitted from the new situation and became very wealthy and unpopular. He
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5628-414: The Franks and first king to convert to Christianity, subjected the previously independent Ripuarians. Without naming the people as Ripuarian, but referring to Cologne and its vicinity, Gregory of Tours explains how they voluntarily gave up their sovereignty to Clovis. The region of Cologne was under the rule of Sigobert the Lame , an old campaigner who had fought side by side with Clovis in the wars against
5762-495: The Franks, the Romanized Ubii had been the main Germanic people within the region of Cologne since early Roman imperial times. They had been allowed to move from the other side of the Rhine. Colonia Agrippinenses ( Cologne ) was placed among them as a Roman colony to assist them "keep the gate against intruders." While the Ubii had moved under pressure from the Suebi to their east, other related tribes under similar pressure from more distant neighbours had moved in to replace them on
5896-453: The Great). Still later during the cold winter of 469/470, Thiudimir attacked the Suevi unexpectedly by crossing the frozen Danube. The Suavi were now together in a confederation with the Alemanni, in an Alpine region with streams that flowed loudly into the Danube, Baiuvarii (early Bavarians) on the east, Franks on the west, Burgundians on the south, and Thuringians on the north. Thiudimir returned as victor to his own home in Pannonia. It
6030-452: The Heruli were already settled on the Danube near the Marcomanni and Quadi for some time. The Gepids had already settled somewhere near their future location in Dacia in the 3rd century, among the Quadi's eastern neighbours. The chain of events which led to large numbers of Middle Danubian people to suddenly move west along the Danube, towards Gaul, are not well understood but several are frequently discussed. Many scholars believe that
6164-490: The Huns and their allies, and Roman power was ineffective in this region. In 427 the chronicle of Marcellinus Comes says that the provinces of Pannonia, "which had been held by the Huns for fifty years, were reclaimed by the Romans". However, in 433 Flavius Aëtius effectively ceded Pannonia to Attila. Although there is no direct contemporary evidence that the Quadi continued to exist as subjects of Attila under their old name, centuries later Paulus Diaconus listed them among
6298-401: The Iazyges on the one hand, and the Suevi and the kingdom of Vannius on the other, was the Morava river or else the "Duria", which is a river that is no longer clearly identifiable. The 2nd-century Greek geographer Ptolemy similarly placed the Quadi on the edge of Germania, making the "Sarmatian mountains" (Σαρματικὰ ὄρη) the border, which he understood to run in a north-easterly direction from
6432-407: The Marcomanni or Quadi would still have been identified under those names in 451, because more contemporary sources never mention these names anymore in this period. After the death of Attila in 453 some of the smaller peoples who had lived within under his hegemony begin to appear in more records, but instead of the Marcomanni and Quadi, only Suevians appear. After the Battle of Nedao in 454, when
6566-439: The Middle East, and in 176 Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus held a triumph as victors over Germania and Sarmatia . The situation remained disturbed in subsequent years. The Romans declared a new war in 177 and set off in 178, against the Marcomanni, Hermunduri, Sarmatians, and Quadi as specific enemies. Rome executed a successful and decisive battle against them in 179 at Laugaricio (present-day Trenčín in Slovakia) under
6700-425: The Morava river, in southwestern Slovakia, southern Moravia , and north-eastern Lower Austria . However, their population, perhaps divided into two distinct states, was later more concentrated to the east of the Little Carpathians , in what is now Slovakia, and they eventually extended as far as Vác in present-day Hungary. At its height, their kingdom also possibly stretched west into present-day Bohemia. Over time
6834-534: The Ostrogothic king Valamir . Valamir lost his life, but the Sciri and Suevi lost the battle, and the Sciri were almost destroyed. A little later, in 469, at the Battle of Bolia , Hunimund and Alaric, apparently both kings of the Suevi, called upon the Sarmatians, and the remnants of the Sciri, led by Edica and Hunwulf , and also the Gepids and Rugians. However, Thiudimir and his Goths defeated these allies, confirming their position as dominant power in this region (from which they would later invade Italy under Theoderic
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#17330941315586968-533: The Quadi and Romans in the third and fourth centuries. However, while the original Marcomanni settlements in the northern Bohemian forest subsequently shrunk and became less important, the Quadi thrived near the Danube, and became more culturally integrated with both their Roman and Sarmatian neighbours. Around 400 AD the Marcomanni and Quadi names suddenly disappeared from contemporary records. Since about 380 AD their Middle Danubian homelands had been dominated by peoples who had migrated from eastern Europe, most notably
7102-453: The Quadi had rebelled again, and they expelled their Roman-approved king Furtius , replaced by Ariogaisos. In a major battle between 172 and 174, a Roman force was almost defeated, until a sudden rainstorm allowed them to defeat the Quadi. The incident is well-known because of the account given by Dio Cassius , and on the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. By 175 the cavalry from the Marcomanni, Naristae, and Quadi were forced to travel to
7236-419: The Quadi in ancient records: To the east of the Quadi Strabo mentioned that the Suevian neighbours of Maroboduus bordered upon the " Getae ", which in this case refers to the Dacians . Later, Pliny the Elder mentioned that the Dacians had been pushed east to the Tisza , into the mountainous country (later referred to as Dacia ) by the Sarmatian Iazyges. Pliny expressed doubt about whether the boundary between
7370-431: The Quadi kingdom itself. Unfortunately the Cusus river has not been identified with certainty. However, Slovak archaeological research locates the core area of the Vannius kingdom in the fertile southwestern Slovakian lowlands around Trnava , east of the Little Carpathians . The swampy zone between the Little Carpathians and Danube provided an obstacle for possible attacks from non-Roman Pannonia. Geographically, Pliny
7504-415: The Quadi listed by Jerome in 409, and perhaps most of those listed, must have previously entered Gaul in a large and coordinated crossing of the Rhine involving Vandals and Alans, which is traditionally dated to 31 December 406 AD. According to this proposal the Quadi changed their name to Suevi, never used the old name anymore, and then coordinated with the Vandals and Alans to conquer Hispania. Because of
7638-455: The Quadi may have been involved in this raid, or at least allowed it to happen. However the Quadi and their neighbours were facing their own problems with raiders from further north, and had been trying for some time to get more support from the empire. On their side, the Romans were apparently planning for a Germania campaign, and knew that Italy itself was threatened by these pressures, but were deliberately diplomatic while they were occupied with
7772-449: The Quadi". An inferior of his was Usafer, a prominent noble, who led "some of the Sarmatians". In the negotiations the emperor declared that the Sarmatians were Roman dependents and demanded hostages. He then learned that there had been social upheaval among the Sarmatians, and some of the nobility had even fled to other countries. He gave them a new king, Zizais, a young prince who was the first leader to surrender. He then met with Vitrodorus
7906-491: The Rhine, the Ripuarian Franks had control over the river basin of the Main , in later years also called Franconia , one of the five stem duchies , from which in the middle of the 9th century the kingdom of Germany was formed. In the 7th century a law code for Austrasia was published as the Lex Ripuaria . After the reign of the last capable Salian Frankish king, Dagobert I in 639, the Carolingian Austrasian mayordomos gradually took over power, transforming Austrasia into
8040-425: The Rhineland or Ripuarian Franks. The Lex Ripuaria originated about 630 and has been described as a later development of the Frankish laws known from Lex Salica . On the other hand, following the interpretation of Springer the Lex Salica may simply have meant something like "Common Law". Apart from some isolated fragments, there is no record of the Salian Frankish language but it is presumed to be ancestral to
8174-409: The Roman authorities rejected these agreements and the Visigoths began to work against the four kingdoms. After many of the Vandals and Alans moved to Carthage, the Suevi were the last of them to hold an independent kingdom, which they succeeded to hold until 585, when the kingdom was absorbed by the Visigothic kingdom. By the early 5th century the Middle Danube region had come under the domination of
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#17330941315588308-415: The Roman empire just to the south. In 467 or 468, Hunimund led a campaign into Dalmatia . After stealing Gothic cattle, the Suevi were attacked near Lake Balaton by Thiudimir, and Hunimund was captured. He was subsequently released from Gothic captivity after he submitted and adopted as Thiudimir's "son by arms" ( filius per arma ). However, in 468 or early 469, Hunimund plotted with the Sciri and attacked
8442-401: The Roman empire, near the Quadi homeland, and expected to do military service for Rome. It is not clear how the Quadi reacted to the changed situation, but their name no longer appears in the records of this region. It is however likely that many crossed into Roman territory while others participated in the large movements of mixed peoples which were happening on both sides of the Danube. After
8576-410: The Roman general charged with getting it done invited their king Gabinius to dinner and then murdered him. As Ammianus wrote "the Quadi, who had long been quiet, were suddenly aroused to an outbreak". Neighbouring tribes including the Sarmatians sprung into action and began raids across the Danube, repulsing the Roman military's first poorly coordinated attempts to confront them. Valentinian moved to
8710-413: The Roman river delta. The emperor Julian the Apostate took the opportunity to allow the Salii to settle in Toxandria, south of Batavia, where they had previously been expelled: "[Julian] commanded his army to attack them briskly; but not to kill any of the Salii, or prevent them from entering the Roman territories, because they came not as enemies, but were forced there [...] As soon as the Salii heard of
8844-399: The Romans to an area near the Danube, between the Morava and "Cusus" rivers, and placed under the control of the Quadian king Vannius . There are proposals that the Romans were deliberately trying to create a buffer state with this settlement, but there is no consensus about this. The area where Vannius ruled over the Marcomanni exiles is generally considered to have been a distinct state to
8978-427: The Romans. Whatever their origins, Zosimus says they were being pushed out of Batavia by a Saxon group known as the "Kouadoi", a Greek spelling of " Quadi " which some authors believe might be a misunderstanding for the Frankish Chamavi, who were mentioned by Ammianus. According to Zosimus, these Saxons had used boats on the Rhine to get around other Frankish tribes who effectively protected the Roman frontier, and into
9112-479: The Salians adopted Catholic Christianity early on; giving them a relationship with the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and their subjects in conquered territories. The division of the Frankish kingdom among Clovis’s four sons (511) was an event that would repeat in Frankish history over more than four centuries. By then, the Salic Law had established the exclusive right to succession of male descendants. This principle turned out to be an exercise in interpretation, rather than
9246-404: The Salians came to some form of agreement with the Romans, which allowed them to keep settlements south of the delta in Toxandria, between the rivers Scheldt , Meuse , and Demer , roughly the area of the Campine , which contains the modern Dutch province of North Brabant , and adjacent parts of the two bordering Belgian Limburg and Antwerp Provinces . The first mention of Franks in the area
9380-402: The Salii and Ripuarii were new names and represented new groupings of older tribal groups on the Roman Rhine border. The ancestors of the Ripuarii originally lived on the right bank of the Rhine, where there had been a long history of friendly and unfriendly contact. Under pressure from their northern enemies, the Saxons , they were first able to infiltrate the left bank of the Rhine in 274 AD. In
9514-444: The Spanish Suevi were from present-day northern Germany, and could have come by ship. Some modern scholars propose that the Quadi among the Spanish Suevi lost their name because this was a mixed group which included Quadi along with other types of Suevi. There is no record which specifically connects Quadi with the crossing of 406, but there are two near-contemporary records which imply that Suevi were involved. Hydatius says that in
9648-508: The Suevi in Spain were Quadi, then it is inconceivable that they and others writing about them would give up and even forget this famous name after leaving Gaul. He also argued that Hydatius and Orosius are not reliable for the events involved. He noted for example that in disagreement with Hydatius, the Gallic Chronicle of 452 registered the Suevi as arriving in Hispania already in 408, before
9782-767: The Sygambrian beats his straight sword into a curved sickle". (The Sugambri had apparently long ago been defeated and moved by the Romans.) From the first half of the fifth century onwards, a group of Franks pushed south west through the boundary of the Roman inhabited Silva Carbonaria and expanded their territory to the Somme in northern France . These Franks, headed by a certain Chlodio , conquered an area which included Turnacum (the modern Belgian city of Tournai ) and Cameracum (the modern French city of Cambrai ). According to Lanting & van der Plicht (2010), this probably happened in
9916-547: The a large group of peoples named the Lugii . According to him the Osi and Cotini did not speak Germanic languages and worked the mines, paying the Quadi tribute. In The Annals , Tacitus recounts that Maroboduus was deposed by an exiled noble named Catualda around 18 AD. Catualda was in turn defeated by the Hermunduri king, Vibilius .The subjects of Maroboduus and Catualda were moved by
10050-479: The alps. Either in 167, before the Romans setting, or in 169, after the Romans came to a stop when Verus died, the Marcomanni and Quadi led a crossing of the Danube, and an attack into Italy itself. They destroyed Opitergium (present-day Oderzo ) and put the important town of Aquileia under siege. Whatever the exact sequence of events, the Historia Augusta says that with the Romans in action several kings of
10184-606: The autumn of 409 when the Alans, and the Hasdingi and Silingi Vandals, entered Hispania they were together with Suevi. Orosius specified that they fought at the same crossing when the Franks attempted to defend Gaul against the Vandals. He even believed that the Suevi, Vandals, Alans and Burgundians were all part of a heretical movement driven by the Roman military leader Stilicho , whose father
10318-496: The barbarians retreated, and some of the barbarians put anti-Roman leaders to death. In particular, the Quadi, having lost their king, announced they would not confirm an elected successor without approval from the emperors. Marcus Aurelius returned to Rome but headed north again in the autumn of 169. He established a Danubian headquarters in Carnuntum between present-day Vienna and Bratislava. From here he could receive embassies from
10452-557: The building of a barrier was begun "unjustly and without due occasion", which had roused rude spirits to anger, Valentinian was enraged, became sick, and died. This ended this round of conflict, and the Romans and Quadi were soon preoccupied with bigger problems in the Danubian region. In 380 the Romans suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Adrianople , which was caused by a sudden movement of peoples including Goths , Alans and Huns coming from present-day Ukraine. According to Ammianus,
10586-522: The chaotic years after the definitive collapse of Roman power in western Europe, they managed to occupy the Roman city of Cologne and the lower and middle Rhineland in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia . Few historical details are known before the Rhineland kingdom eventually became an important part of the Merovingian Frankish empire in the sub-kingdom known as Austrasia , which also included
10720-410: The citizens of Cologne, denied the murders, saying "It is not for me to shed the blood of one of my fellow kings, for that is a crime …" He advised them to place themselves under his protection, after which he was shouted into office by a voice vote and raised up on their shields in a ceremony of installation. Thus the independent kingdom of the Ripuarian Franks was voted out of existence by the people at
10854-452: The classical mentions of them seem to derive from one mention by Ammianus Marcellinus of "Franks, those namely whom custom calls the Salii ". Ammianus, who served in the Roman military, reported that the Salii were pushed from their home in Batavia (the civitas of Nijmegen ), into Toxandria (both within the empire), by the non-Roman Chamavi . The account implies that they entered into
10988-566: The command of legate and procurator Marcus Valerius Maximianus . By 180 AD the Quadi and Marcomanni were in a state of occupation, with Roman garrisons of 20,000 men each permanently stationed in both countries. The Romans even blocked the mountain passes so that they could not migrate north to live with the Semnones . Marcus Aurelius was considering the creation of a new imperial province called Marcomannia when he died in 180. Around 214/215 AD, Dio Cassius reports that because of raids into Pannonia,
11122-466: The custom of the Romans before them, were mainly re-authorizing laws already in use by the Ripuarians, so that the latter could retain their local constitution. Quadi The Quadi were a Germanic people during the Roman era , who were prominent in Greek and Roman records from about 20 AD to about 400 AD. By about 20 AD they had a kingdom centred in the area of present-day western Slovakia , north of
11256-532: The death of emperor Theodosius I in 395, Saint Jerome listed the Marcomanni and Quadi together with several of the eastern peoples causing devastation in the Roman provinces stretching from Constantinople to the Julian Alps , including Dalmatia, and all the provinces of Pannonia: "Goths and Sarmatians, Quadi and Alans, Huns and Vandals and Marcomanni". Claudian describes them crossing the frozen Danube with wagons, and then setting wagons rigged around themselves like
11390-417: The different peoples north of the Danube. Some were given the possibility to settle in the empire, others were recruited to fight on the Roman side. The Quadi were pacified, and in 171 they agreed to leave their coalition, and returned deserters and 13,000 prisoners of war. They supplied horses and cattle as war contributions, and promised not to allow Marcomanni or Jazyges passage through their territory. By 173
11524-669: The early Frankish language. Of some 1,400 Latin inscriptions in Roman Germania Inferior a little over 100 are from the rural lands of the Germanic Ubii , into whose lands the Ripuarii would move. The inscriptions are most frequent in the 3rd century. Most are from the major cities of Germania Inferior. The right bank of the Rhine, where the Ripuarii originated, does not have such a wealth of Latin inscriptions. The High German consonant shift occurred south of an east-west zone called
11658-466: The eastern Quadi became an important cultural bridge between Romans, Sarmatians and the more distant peoples to the north and east. Strabo , writing about 23 AD, appears to have written the earliest surviving mention of the Quadi, although aspects of the text are somewhat doubtful. Strabo described a mountain range running north of the Danube, like a smaller version of the Alps which runs south of it. Within it
11792-575: The emperor Caracalla invited the Quadi king Gaiobomarus to meet him, and then had him executed. According to this report Caracalla "claimed that he had overcome the recklessness, greed, and treachery of the Germans by deceit, since these qualities could not be conquered by force", and he was proud of the "enmity with the Vandili and the Marcomani, who had been friends, and in having executed Gaïobomarus". During
11926-442: The emperor died on campaign in this region, there were new peace agreements between Rome and the Quadi, but these did not resolve the longer term problems which the region continued to face. Populations from more distant regions periodically disrupted the area, increasing tensions with Rome. Small scale raiding from the neighbouring Sarmatian plain into Roman Pannonia continued, and this played a role in triggering more conflicts between
12060-471: The end that an exchange may keep up the strength of their mounts and that their freshness may be renewed by alternate periods of rest". In 358 the emperor crossed the Danube and resistance quickly fell apart. The leaders who came to negotiate with the emperor represented different parts of the populations who had participated. An important one was prince Araharius, who ruled "a part of the Transiugitani and
12194-652: The family bond was made clear by the Salic Law , which ordained that an individual had no right to protection if not part of a family. While the Goths or the Vandals had been at least partly converted to Christianity since the mid-4th century, polytheistic beliefs are thought to have flourished among the Salian Franks until the conversion of Clovis to Catholicism shortly before or after 500, after which paganism diminished gradually. On
12328-603: The form Ripuarii may also be due to a loan of the Latin Riparii into Germanic. This view is based on a word-pair given in the Summarium Heinrici , an 11th-century revision of Isidore of Seville , stating the Old High German equivalents of some Latin words, including Ripuarii: Riphera . The latter is textually reconstructed to *ripfera , except that "phonetically *ripf- cannot come from rip-;" A third possibility
12462-629: The heartland of the Carolingian Empire . The name Ripuarii clearly has a meaning of "river people", but the exact way in which the name developed is unclear and may have involved both Latin and Germanic. The regular Latin form would be Riparii , meaning "[men] of the river bank". The term " milites rip(ari)ensis " was a Latin term used for border soldiers on river frontiers, at least on the Danube and Rhône. Jordanes referred to soldiers described this way from Gaul, fighting under Aetius , but Eugen Ewig has argued that these soldiers can be found in
12596-579: The historical record, being subsumed in the Frankish core province of Austrasia . Apart from Roman military lists and mention by Jordanes in Getica of some unknown Ripuarii who fought as auxiliaries of Flavius Aetius in the Battle of Chalons in 451, the first mention of the Ripuarii comes from Gregory of Tours , in Historia Francorum . He says that the Salian Frank Clovis , first king of all
12730-507: The incomplete records, scholars take different positions about the proposal that significant numbers of Quadi moved to Hispania, but Castritius, for example, believed that the majority of the Quadi became Suevi and finished up in Spain. Not all scholars agree. Others propose that the Hispania Suevi were from other Suevian groups. For example, medieval historians such as Gregory of Tours understood them to be Alemanni. Reynolds proposed that
12864-457: The kindness of emperor Julian the Apostate, some of them went with their king into the Roman territory, and others fled to the extremity of their country, but all humbly committed their lives and fortunes to Caesar's gracious protection." The Salians were then brought into Roman units defending the empire from other Frankish raiders. Ammianus Marcellinus (late 4th century), on the other hand, mentions
12998-503: The last clear contemporary records of the Quadi doing anything under their old name. Given their presence in Gaul in 409 AD the Quadi are considered likely to have been prominent among the Suevi who moved west into Iberia by 409 AD and founded the Kingdom of the Suebi in Gallaecia , in present day Spain and Portugal. This Gallaecian kingdom lasted for more than a century, until it was defeated by
13132-414: The letter of Jerome, and before the Vandals and Alans. When the Vandals, Alans and Suevi arrived in Hispania, it was under the control of a rebel Roman general Gerontius who came to agreements with them as military allies in his struggle against Roman forces. The four groups proceeded to divide Hispania between themselves into four kingdoms, with the agreement of Gerontius. After the defeat of Gerontius,
13266-448: The meaning of the term Frank changed over time and that these pirate Franks were actually Frisii , or some other coastal people. Centuries before the Vikings , the term "Saxon" came to refer to coastal Germanic groups specialised in raiding Roman territories by boat, whereas the Franks were strongly associated with the inland Rhine region. In the later period when the Salians first appear in
13400-517: The modern day Dutch region of the Veluwe , Gelderland , and they may have given their name to the region of Salland . It has also been proposed that the Salii might have been one of the peoples making up the large nation of the Chauci during the Roman Empire, most of whom apparently became Saxons . (The difference between Saxons and Franks in the earliest records which mention them is not clear.) In 358,
13534-529: The modern family of Low Franconian dialects, which are represented today by Dutch and Flemish dialects, and Afrikaans . Before the Merovingian takeover, the Salian tribes apparently constituted a loose confederacy that only occasionally banded together, for example to negotiate with Roman authority. Each tribe consisted of extended family groups centered on a particularly renowned or noble family. The importance of
13668-409: The name may have originated in the empire itself, or the river and/or region might be named after the inhabitants (rather than the reverse). The Salians, unlike other Franks, first appear living inside the Roman Empire, living in the Rhine delta in the modern Netherlands. Although often treated as a tribe it has also been argued by Matthias Springer that this might represent a misunderstanding. All of
13802-588: The original Germanic speaking Salian region. Austrasia included not only the Rhineland-Palatinate , but apparently the whole of the Germania Inferior (re-named in the Late Roman Empire as Germania II) and Gallia Belgica II. The border between Austrasia and Neustria was the Silva Carbonaria in modern Wallonia , but the exact definition of this forest region is now unclear. On the right bank of
13936-477: The other hand it is possible many Salians in Gaul were already Arian Christians, like contemporary Germanic kingdoms. Ripuarians Ripuarian or Rhineland Franks (Latin: Ripuarii or Ribuarii ) were one of the two main groupings of early Frankish people , and specifically it was the name eventually applied to the tribes who settled in the old Roman territory of the Ubii , with its capital at Cologne on
14070-566: The others appear to have been long-term neighbours from the Middle Danube area. The Vandals and Sarmatians listed next after the Quadi are generally understood to include the Hasdingi Vandals and Sarmatians who had been eastern neighbours of the Quadi for centuries. The Pannonians from within the empire were the Quadi's long-term neighbours to the south. The Cosmographia written by Julius Honorius , and Liber Generationis , indicate that
14204-493: The peace. Many of these Franks rose to high office in the empire. In the area of the Ripuarii, the Rhine had been defined as a border of the Roman empire under the early emperors. The Romans created two provinces: Upper and Lower Germany . The dividing line was marked and maintained by a major base at Mainz . Lower Germany, which faced the Ripuarii, later became Germania Secunda . Roman cities in this region included Castra Vetera ( Xanten ), Cologne , and Bonn . Long before
14338-552: The peoples of Germania to the north, the Roman Empire to the south, and the Sarmatian peoples, most notably the Iyzyges , who settled in the same period to their east in present day Hungary. The Marcomannic wars , during the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and his co-emperors, involved several rounds of particularly destructive conflict against the Quadi and their neighbours, who at one point even invaded Italy itself. By 180 AD when
14472-453: The peoples who were occupying Gaul at that time: "Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemanni and—alas! for the commonweal!—even Pannonians". Scholars note that apart from the Saxons, Burgundians and Alemanni, who were already well-known near the Rhine, and the Alans who were newcomers from Ukraine who had already played an important role in the Roman military,
14606-595: The period 445–450. Chlodio is never referred to as Salian, only Frankish, and his origins unclear. He is said by Gregory of Tours (II.9) to have launched his attack on Tournai through the Carbonaria Silva from a fort named Dispargum , which was in "Thuringia". The most common interpretations of these names are neither in Salian Batavia nor in Toxandria. In 451, Chlodio's opponent Flavius Aëtius , de facto ruler of
14740-438: The present day Czech Republic , which was surrounded by forests and mountains. It is possible that the name "Quadi" was new, and that the same group had previously been one of those mentioned in Roman accounts under the more general name "Suebi". This was for example the name given to one of the groups who the Romans defeated in the battle after they defeated the Marcomanni in 9 BC. While the literary and archaeological evidence
14874-474: The record, the term Frank was not associated with seafaring or coastal tribes. Their origins before they lived in Batavia are uncertain. Much later, it was only Zosimus, and not Ammianus Marcellinus whose work he possibly partly followed, who claimed that the Salians had once lived under the same name outside the Roman Empire, saying that they had been forced away by Saxons, and had come to share control of Batavia with
15008-411: The region of the Marcomanni and Quadi were among the areas first affected by the "a savage horde of unknown peoples, driven from their abodes by sudden violence". Although there is no consensus about the details, the Romans tried new approaches to settling newcomers in large numbers. One of the armed groups responsible for the defeat, led by Alatheus and Saphrax , were settled into the Pannonian part of
15142-413: The region. Their short-lived independent kingdom was defeated by Ostrogoths at the Battle of Bolia in 469. Many of them apparently moved westwards under their king Hunimund , into present-day western Austria and southern Germany, where they became allies of the Alemanni . Other Quadi are presumed to have remained in the Middle Danube region and adapted to the subsequent waves of conquerors, either among
15276-473: The reign of Philip the Arab (reigned 244-249), who cut off gifts which were being paid to Ukrainian Goths under the rule of Ostrogotha , the 6th century writer Jordanes believed that the Marcomanni were paying tribute to Ostrogotha, and the princes of the Quadi were effectively slaves of the Goths. By the middle of the third century the Quadi seem to have rejected their client relationship with Rome, and they began
15410-648: The remaining settled communities, or among the more mobile groups which were prominent during this " migration period ". Like their neighbours the Heruli, Rugii and Sciri, many probably became followers of the large forces which successfully invaded Italy from the Middle Danube under Odoacer (476), Theoderic the Great (493), and finally the Suebian Langobards (starting in 568), who are believed to have integrated Danubian Suebi into their ranks before moving into Italy. According to
15544-577: The right bank of the Rhine, including the Bructeri , Tencteri , Sicambri and Usipetes . These remained in contact with the province of the Ubii, as is described by Tacitus concerning the Batavian revolt . It is thought that all of these relatively Romanized Germanic tribes may have contributed to the origins of the Ripuarii in later centuries. The Ripuarian Franks lost their independence almost as soon as they entered
15678-408: The river frontier after 9 BC, during a period of major Roman invasions into both western Germania to the northwest of it, and Pannonia to the south of it. The other three were the Hermunduri , Naristi (also known as Varisti), and the Quadi's powerful western neighbours the Marcomanni . Despite frequent difficulties with the Romans, the Quadi survived to become an important cultural bridge between
15812-468: The sharp bend in the Danube to the "head of the Vistula" (κεφαλῆς τοῦ Οὐιστούλα ). He names some neighbouring tribes starting from the mountains and forests to the north, and going south to the Danube. To the north of the Marcomanni and Quadi Tacitus names four peoples, the Marsigni , Cotini (or "Gotini"), Osi , and Buri , dwelling in a range of mountains running from west to east which separated them from
15946-477: The simple implementation of a new model of succession. No trace of an established practice of territorial division can be discovered among Germanic peoples other than the Franks. The later Merovingian kings responsible for the conquest of Gaul are thought to have had Salian ancestry, because they applied so-called Salian law ( Lex Salica ) in their Roman-populated territories between the Loire and Silva Carbonaria , although they also clearly had connections with
16080-516: The son of Viduarius the King of the Quadi. They also gave hostages and they drew their swords "which they venerate as gods" in order to swear loyalty. As a next step he moved to the mouth of the Tisza and slaughtered or enslaved many of the Sarmatians who lived on the other side and had felt themselves protected by the river from the Romans. King Viduarius was probably king of the western Quadi. Constantius erected
16214-578: The sons of Attila and their Ostrogothic allies were defeated, the victors were able to consolidate independent kingdoms north of the Middle Danube. The largest and longest lasting, the Gepids, was based in Dacia. To the west, north of the Danube where the Marcomanni and Quadi had been were the Rugii, Heruli, and Sciri. And on the south of that stretch of the Danube, in what used to be the northern part of Roman Pannonia Valeria,
16348-534: The subject peoples who Attila could call upon. In addition to the better-known Goths and Gepids he listed "Marcomanni, Suebi, Quadi, and alongside them the Herules, Thuringi and Rugii". Taken at face value this implies that the Quadi might for example have been present at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, fighting for Attila. However this is a much later source, and modern scholars especially doubt whether
16482-440: The time of Diocletian (reigned 284-305). In the first part of the 4th century there is evidence that the Quadi had developed a better relationship with the Romans. Their region of influence spread down the Danube towards present-day Budapest and it seems that their economy support a wealthy Romanised nobility. In 357 a new phase of confrontation began during the reign of Constantius II (reigned 337-361) which gives insight into
16616-479: The time of emperor Nerva . The relationship between the Romans and the Quadi and their neighbours was far more seriously and permanently disrupted during the long series of conflicts called the Marcomannic wars, which were fought mainly during the rule of emperor Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161-180). In the 150s or 160s, 6000 Langobardi ( Lombards originally from present-day north Germany) and Obii (whose identity
16750-635: The way in which the culture of the Quadi had changed. The Quadi and Sarmatians were making raids across the Danube into Roman Pannonia and Moesia. The account given by Ammianus Marcellinus shows that in this period the Quadi had become more accustomed to actions on horseback. He reported that the involved Quadi and Sarmatians "were neighbours and had like customs and armour", "better fitted for brigandage than for open warfare, have very long spears and cuirasses made from smooth and polished pieces of horn, fastened like scales to linen shirts". They had "swift and obedient horses" and they generally had more than one, "to
16884-477: The years 89-97, after the Quadi and Marcomanni refused to assist in a conflict against the Dacians. According to Dio Cassius, Domitian reacted by entering Pannonia to make war, killed the peace envoys sent to him, but was then defeated by the Marcomanni. This campaign was referred to as the war against the Suebi, or the Suebi and Sarmatians, or the Marcomanni, Quadi and Sarmatians. The relationship then stabilized again in
17018-399: Was a Vandal officer in the Roman army, and who wanted to destabilize Gaul for his own benefit. (Such accusations against Stilicho are not accepted by modern scholars.) On this basis many scholars therefore suggest that the Quadi in Gaul must have changed their name to "Suevi". Arguing against the proposal that the Quadi changed name to Suevi and moved to Spain, Reynolds argued in 1957 that if
17152-595: Was about 286 AD, during the reign of emperor Probus (276–282), when Carausius was put in charge of defending the coasts of the Straits of Dover against Saxon and Frankish pirates. In the time of Probus there is also record of a large group who decided to hijack some Roman ships and return with them from the Black Sea ;– reaching the Atlantic after causing chaos through Greece, Sicily and Gibraltar. It has been proposed that
17286-666: Was defeated and fled with his followers across the Danube, where they were assigned land in Roman Pannonia . This settlement is convincingly associated with Germanic finds from the 1st century AD in Burgenland , west of Lake Neusiedl , within Roman Pannonia. Quadi soldiers subsequently participated second battle of Bedriacum under Sido and Italicus, perhaps the son of Vangio, in 69 AD at Cremona in Italy. An influx of North Italian green-glazed ceramics into southwestern Slovakia might be
17420-510: Was himself eventually also deposed by Vibilius and the Hermunduri, together with the neighbouring Lugii , in 50/51 AD. Vannius's soldiers during this conflict are described here as infantry, but he also called for cavalry from his Sarmatian allies, the Iazyges . This was coordinated with his nephews Vangio and Sido , who then divided his realm between themselves as loyal Roman client kings. Vannius
17554-479: Was sleeping at noon in his tent in the forest across the Rhine from Cologne after a walk, Chloderic's hired assassins killed him. Chloderic sent to Clovis offering some of Sigobert's treasury as enticement. Clovis sent messengers refusing the treasure but asked to see it. Complying with their request to sink his arms into it so that they could see how deep it was, Chloderic was dispatched by the blow of an axe, unable to defend himself. Arriving in person Clovis assembled
17688-447: Was the country of the Ripuarian Franks. The fact that it was attacked by Saxons, who entered it from their own country and "laid waste as far as the city of Deutz ," identifies the country around Cologne as being in their territory. After the death of Lothar (561) his four sons inherited the kingdom jointly. Sigibert received the share formerly Theuderic's (Austrasia) and set up a capital at Rheims . There are no direct attestations of
17822-465: Was the only part of Germania which the Romans did not control in the period before the Roman defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. Velleius also remarked that Maroboduus subjugated all his neighbours either by war or treaty. Hofeneder notes that many modern scholars interpret this to mean that the Quadi were also under his overlordship. Although there is no consensus about this, it
17956-443: Was triggered by internal Roman conflicts after the death of Theodosius. Claudian claimed that they were all incited by an Eastern Roman consul and enemy of Stilicho, Rufinus . The exact connection between Alaric and those who crossed the Danube remains unclear. The last contemporary mention of the Quadi as an identifiable people is in another letter by Saint Jerome from 409, but it places them far from home. He lists them first among
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