Bructeri
The Bructeri (from
Role in history
The Bructeri formed an alliance with the
Six years later, one of the generals serving under Germanicus, Lucius Stertinius defeated the Bructeri near the Ems and devastated their lands. Among the booty captured by Stertinius was the eagle standard of Legio XIX that had been lost at Teutoburg Forest. "The troops were then marched to the furthest frontier of the Bructeri, and all the country between the rivers Amisia and Luppia was ravaged, not far from the forest of Teutoburgium, where the remains of Varus and his legions were said to lie unburied."[2] Scholars consider the Bructeri among the most dangerous Germanic enemies of Rome.[3]
The Bructeri in 69-70 participated in the
In his Germania, Tacitus reported that the Chamavi and Angrivarii had moved to the territories of the Bructeri, after having driven them out and totally annihilated them, in alliance with other nearby populations, whom the Latin writer thanks for "offering delight to Roman eyes", without Rome having to intervene. More than 60,000 of the Bructeri fell.
"May the tribes, I pray, ever retain if not love for us [Romans], at least hatred for each other; for while [...], fortune can give no greater boon than discord among our foes."[7]
Geography
The Bructeri were sometimes divided into major and minor divisions.
Later history
The Bructeri eventually disappear from historical records, apparently absorbed into the Frankish communities of the early Middle Ages. The final mentions of their name seem to indicate this, and also that they had moved south from their old position north of the Lippe.
In 307–308, after having spent the year before fighting
In 392 AD, according to a citation by Gregory of Tours, Sulpicius Alexander reported that Arbogast crossed the Rhine to punish the Franks for incursions into Gaul. He first devastated the territory of the Bricteri, near the bank of the Rhine, then the Chamavi, apparently their neighbours. Both tribes did not confront him. The Ampsivarii and the Chatti however were under military leadership of the Frankish princes Marcomer and Sunno and they appeared "on the ridges of distant hills". At this time the Bructeri apparently lived near Cologne. (Note that the Chamavi and the Ampsivarii are the two peoples that Tacitus had long before noted as having conquered the Bructeri from their north.)
In the
The name of the
By 690 Bructeri were found in Thuringia, after the Saxons had conquered their homeland; their name is preserved in the names Großbrüchter and Kleinbrüchter, in the municipality
At the beginning of the eighth century, Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People lists among the peoples "from whom the Angles and Saxons who now live in Britain derive their origin" the Boruhtware (original Latin Bede Boructuari, Old English Bede Boructuare). In the same passage Bede also lists the Frisians, Rugians, Danes, Huns and continental Saxons. This name is usually identified with that of the Bructeri.[15] According to Walter Pohl, the mention of the Bructeri (or Boructuarii, as he calls them) may be a classical allusion designed to establish continuity between the barbarian present and past.[16] Ian Wood, noting that the Bricteri of Gregory of Tours are usually considered either a Saxon or Frankish group, suggests that the Boructuarii represent the Frankish component in the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.[17]
See also
- List of ancient Germanic peoples
- Barbarian invasions
Literature
- Ralf G. Jahn: Der römisch-germanische Krieg (9-16 n. Chr.). Inaugural-Dissertation, Bonn 2001.
- Günter Neumann, Harald von Petrikovits, Rafael von Uslar: Brukterer. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Bd. 3, S. 581ff.
References
- ISBN 9780191744457. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
Bructeri. A Germanic people who lived near the Ems River in northern Germany.
- ISBN 9780191735257. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
Bructeri, a Germanic people living north of the Lippe in the neighbourhood of modern Münster. A powerful people...
- ^ Tac. Ann. 1.60
- ^ Brukterer, § 2 (Historisches). In: Germanische Altertumskunde Online. Vol. 3 (1978), S. 585.
- ^ Tac. Ger. 8
- ^ Tac. Hist. 4.61
- ^ Tac. Hist. 4.65
- ^ Tac. Ger. 33
- ^ Strabo, Geography 7.1
- ^ Ptolemaeus 2.11. and also at lacuscurtius site
- ^ Tac. Ger. 33
- ^ Schütte, Ptolemy's maps of northern Europe, a reconstruction of the prototypes
- ^ Jean-Pierre Poly (2016), "Freedom, Warriors' Bond, Legal Book: The Lex Salica Between Barbarian Custom and Roman Law", Clio et Thémis, 11: 1–25[permanent dead link], at 10.
- ^ Schimpff, Volker (2007). "Sondershausen und das Wippergebiet im früheren Mittelalter - einige zumeist namenkundliche Bemerkungen eines Archäologen". Alt-Thüringen (in German). 40: 291–302.
- ^ Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme
- ^ Windy A. McKinney (2011), Creating a gens Anglorum: Social and Ethnic Identity in Anglo-Saxon England through the Lens of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica (PDF) (PhD diss.), University of York, pp. 10 & 135.
- ^ Walter Pohl (1997), "Ethnic Names and Identities in the British Isles: A Comparative Perspective", in John Hines (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, Boydell Press, pp. 7–32, at 15.
- ^ Ian N. Wood (1997), "Before and After the Migration to Britain", in John Hines (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, Boydell Press, pp. 41–53, at 41 & 44.
External links
- Legio XIX, www.livius.org Archived 2015-05-06 at the Wayback Machine „In 15, the eagle of the nineteenth was recovered by the Roman commander Lucius Stertinius among the Bructeri.“