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Alemanni

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Area settled by the Alemanni, and sites of Roman–Alemannic battles, 3rd to 6th centuries

The Alemanni or Alamanni[1] were a confederation of Germanic peoples who first appeared in the region east of the Upper Rhine river during the third century AD, where they eventually took control of a large swathe of lands previously ruled by the Roman empire, within the province of Germania Superior.

From about the fifth century, written records start occasionally referring to the Alemanni with an old name, Suebi, that had traditionally been used by Roman writers to refer to a diverse range of Germanic peoples found in several parts of Europe. This name used to refer to their medieval and modern successors, the Swabians, whose country eventually came to be called Swabia (German: Schwaben). The connection between the Swabians and the ancient Suebi is however unclear and likely to have been indirect.

The first apparent written mention of the Alemanni that has survived is in reports of the works of Cassius Dio, who mentioned them in the context of a campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla in 213 AD. The Alemanni captured the Agri Decumates in 260 AD, and later expanded into present-day Alsace and northern Switzerland, leading to the establishment of the Old High German language in those regions, which by the 8th century were collectively referred to as Alamannia.[2]

In 496 AD, the Alemanni were conquered by the Frankish leader Clovis and incorporated into his dominions. Mentioned as still pagan allies of the Christian Franks, the Alemanni were gradually Christianized during the 7th century. The Lex Alamannorum is a record of their customary law during this period. Until the 8th century, Frankish suzerainty over Alemannia was mostly nominal. However, after an uprising by Theudebald, the Duke of Alamannia, Carloman executed the Alamannic nobility and installed Frankish dukes.

As the Carolingian Empire weakened in later years, the Alemannic counts became almost independent, and a struggle for supremacy took place between them and the Bishopric of Constance. The chief family in Alamannia was that of the counts of Raetia Curiensis, who were sometimes called margraves, and one of whom, Burchard II, established the Duchy of Swabia, which was recognized by Henry the Fowler in 919 AD and became a stem duchy of the Holy Roman Empire.

The area settled by the Alemanni corresponds roughly to the area where Alemannic German dialects remain spoken, including German Swabia and Baden, French Alsace, German-speaking Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg. The French-language name of Germany, Allemagne, is derived from their name, from Old French aleman(t),[3] and from French was loaned into a number of other languages, including Middle English, which commonly used the term Almains for Germans.[4][5] Likewise, the Arabic name for Germany is ألمانيا (Almanya), the Turkish is Almanya, the Catalan is Alemanya, the Spanish is Alemania, the Portuguese is Alemanha, the Welsh is Yr Almaen and the Persian is آلمان (Alman).

Name

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The name Alamanni is generally analysed as a Germanic compound of *ala- and *man(n)-, the latter meaning "man" or "person".[6][7] The precise sense of the compound is disputed. Rübekeil interprets *ala- as having a collective or universal sense, and understands the name approximately as "the Manni as a whole" or "the totality of the Manni", rather than as "men from all tribes".[6] Haubrichs argues that *ala- could instead have an intensifying sense, so that the name may have meant something like "true", "complete", or "pre-eminent men".[7]

The sixth-century historian Agathias, citing a tradition which he attributed to Gaius Asinius Quadratus in the third century, reports that the Alemanni were "gathered together and mixed" people and that their name expressed this character. Modern linguistic discussions do not generally treat this as the literal meaning of a different name formation. Rather, Rübekeil and Haubrichs both interpret it as a hostile or mocking reinterpretation of a Germanic name whose components were transparent.[6][8]

An older proposal that the first element was *alah "sanctuary" is incompatible with the early spellings of the name and is not accepted by scholars anymore.[9]

Relationship with the Suebi

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Modern scholars think it is probable that Suebian groups such as the Neckar Suebi or Semnones contributed to the ancestry of the Alemanni.[10][11] On the other hand, although the two terms Alemanni and Suebi gradually became interchangeable in later centuries, the reasons for this are unclear today, and it is unclear whether any third or fourth century Alemanni would have seen themselves as Suebi. In this period the term Suebi was not normally associated by Roman authors with the Alemanni, but most often with the neighbours and allies of the Marcomanni and Quadi who lived north of the Danube.[12]

The distinction is also visible in the early fourth-century Laterculus Veronensis, probably compiled in 314. In its geographically ordered list of peoples near the Rhine, it gives the sequence Burgunziones Alamanni Sueui Franci ... Iotungi, treating the Alemanni, Suebi and Juthungi as separate names within the same broad regional ethnic landscape.[13]

There are on the other hand some indications of a Suebian association in early records. A third century monument associates the Juthungi with the Semnones, who were certainly known as Suebi, and the Juthungi at least eventually came to be seen as part of the Alemannic population in the fourth century.[14] The Laterculus Veronensis is important in this respect because it still lists the Juthungi separately from the Alemanni in the early fourth century, whereas Ammianus Marcellinus later described them as a division of the Alemanni (Alamannorum pars).[15] The distinction is also reflected in the Tabula Peutingeriana, which shows Svevia and Alamannia as neighbouring but separate regions beyond the Rhine. The surviving map is medieval, and these particular labels have sometimes been regarded as later additions, but Liccardo argues that they could preserve a late antique geographical scheme: the name Alamannia was already in Roman use by 297/298, and the separate representation of Svevia and Alamannia fits a period when the two names had not yet become synonymous.[16]

Another special case is the fourth-century poet Ausonius, who described his captive Bissula as a "Suebian girl", although he located her homeland beyond the Rhine near the sources of the Danube, in an area otherwise associated with the Alemanni. Modern scholars have generally regarded this use of Suebi as literary or archaizing rather than as evidence that the names Suebi and Alemanni were normally interchangeable in the fourth century.[17]

The connection between the names of the Suebi and Alemanni may have developed later. For example, writing about fifth-century events, the 6th-century writer Jordanes described a group of Suebi who moved from the east under the rule of a leader named Hunimund, after he lost a battle with the Ostrogoths. He reported that they settled together with the Alemanni, but treats them as a distinct group living in the same area.[18] By the time of the Ravenna Cosmography, compiled around 700, the names Suebi and Alamanni had become interchangeable, and the corresponding regional names were likewise equated in geographical writing.[19] In the ninth century the two names could be treated explicitly as synonyms. Walafrid Strabo, himself writing in Alemannia, stated that Alamanni and Suebi were two names for the same gens: neighbouring Latin-speaking peoples used the former, while local Germanic usage employed the latter.[20]

Prehistory

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Before the third century, much of the region east of the Rhine where the Alemanni later became established was under Roman control, but Germanic groups had been settling there since the first century AD. Around the lower Neckar, a Suebian population known as the Neckar Suebi (Suebi Nicretes) was centred on Lopodunum (Ladenburg), and their settlement community later developed into the Roman Civitas Ulpia Sueborum Nicretum.[21]

The connection between these populations and the later Alemanni is unclear, but connections are likely. Modern scholarship generally rejects the older model in which an already formed Alemannic people migrated into the region in the third century. The prevailing view instead places the formation of the Alemanni after the abandonment of the Upper German–Raetian limes, among groups settling between the Upper Rhine and the Danube.[22] Archaeological evidence likewise suggests origins among several different groups rather than a single migrating population.[23]

On the other hand, in the third century the wider Germanic world was itself undergoing major changes since the Marcomannic Wars (166–180), and a part of the Alemanni probably entered the region from elsewhere. Older political groupings and elites were disrupted and new confederations emerged, eventually including the Alemanni.[24] The Alemanni are not named in contemporary accounts of those wars, but for example the Juthungi are associated with the Semnones in a third-century Roman monument. In short, Germanic peoples known from before the third century probably contributed to the population which later formed the Alemanni, though a direct continuity cannot be demonstrated.[25][26]

Earliest mentions

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The earliest undoubted contemporary mention of the Alemanni under that name is a panegyric delivered for Maximian in 289, although many scholars accept evidence that the name was used much earlier. The early history of the Alemanni, like their northern neighbours the Franks, is difficult to reconstruct because before the late third-century contemporary sources mainly describe the enemies of the Romans there using broad terms such as Germani or barbari. Later historians sometimes identify groups involved in third-century events as Alemanni or Franks. Notably for example, the third-century Juthungi are specifically described as Alemanni in later records. However, modern scholars consider such later mentions to be uncertain, and possibly anachronistic.[27]

A further possible third-century attestation is preserved by the sixth-century historian Agathias, who attributes to the mid-third-century writer Asinius Quadratus a description of the Alemanni as a mixed people, but once again some modern scholars consider this uncertain because it is only reported in a much later source.[28]

A strong but uncertain contender for the earliest possible written references to the Alemanni is in the surviving fragments of Cassius Dio's account of Caracalla's German campaign of 213, although the textual evidence is complicated. The relevant portion of Dio's work no longer survives, but parts are preserved in the Constantinian Excerpta de virtutibus et vitiis, other Byzantine excerpts, and the later epitome of John Xiphilinus.[29] The Excerpta de virtutibus et vitiis uses the form Ἀλαμβαννοί, implying Alambanni, on several occasions, and Ἀλβανοί (Albani) on one occasion, while also naming the Chatti (Χάττοι) as being involved in these events. The Excerpta de sententiis, in a passage attributed to Peter the Patrician, who was using Dio for this period, implies Albanni (Ἀλβαννοί). Xiphilinus calls another group involved in the campaign Κέννοι (Kenni), but their identity is unclear, and they have been identified in modern scholarship with either the Alemanni or the Chatti.[30]

Scholars therefore disagree about whether Dio really mentioned the Alemanni by that name in his account of Caracalla's campaign. Lawrence Okamura, Matthias Springer, and Helmut Castritius have all argued against it, while Bleckmann, Hummer and other scholars have defended the widespread acceptance of the idea that Dio mentioned them.[31][32][33] Most recently, Becker compared the Constantinian excerpts with those portions of Dio for which the original text survives. He found that the excerpts preserve the order of Dio's narrative and provide no parallel for the interpolation of new ethnic names. He therefore considers it very likely that the forms Ἀλαμβαννοί and Ἀλβανοί derive from Dio himself, and argues that they can plausibly represent scribal variants of Ἀλαμαννοί or Alamanni.[34] The identification nevertheless remains disputed.[35]

Caracalla's campaign of 213

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The Limes Germanicus 83 to 260 CE
Alamannia is shown beyond Silva Marciana (the Black Forest) in the Tabula Peutingeriana. Suevia is indicated separately, further downstream of the Rhine, beyond Silva Vosagus.
Alemannic belt mountings, from a seventh-century grave in the grave field at Weingarten

The surviving evidence indicates that Caracalla conducted a German campaign beyond the Upper German–Raetian frontier in 213. Contemporary records show that on 11 August he was preparing to cross the frontier of Raetia into territory beyond the empire. The precise route of the campaign is uncertain, but later tradition places at least some of the fighting near the Main. Aurelius Victor, writing around 360, states that Caracalla defeated the Alamanni, "near the river Main".[36] This has often been used to locate the campaign in the Main region, although it does not by itself show that the Alemanni were permanently settled there.

The surviving Dio tradition contains several anecdotes about Caracalla's dealings with Germanic groups during the campaign. In one passage he is described as intervening among them, ordering forts and settlements to be established and changing place names. In another, he summoned men of military age on the pretext of recruiting them as mercenaries and then had them surrounded and killed. A further passage reports that people identified in the transmitted text as Alemanni claimed to have caused an illness of Caracalla by magical means, while the emperor attempted to counter them by invoking ancestral spirits.[37]

Invasions of Italy, 250–280

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Centuries later, the sixth-century writer Gregory of Tours described an Alemannic king named Chrocus who invaded Gaul during the reigns of Valerian (reigned 253–260) and Gallienus (reigned 253–268), causing widespread destruction before his capture and execution at Arles. Modern scholars have sometimes connected this account with the invasions of 259–260, known from other sources, but this connection is uncertain.[38]

More securely, Roman-era chronicles (still written well after the events) describe Germanic incursions into Italy in 260, and some refer to them as Alemanni. Prosper of Aquitaine and the Chronica Gallica of 511 state that Alamanni crossed into Italy after devastating Gaul, while Eutropius and Orosius call the invaders more generally Germani. This may be related to a 260 Roman victory altar erected near Augsburg, which records the defeat of a group described as the Semnones sive Iouthungi. Scholars have interpreted the word sive in different ways, with some seeing it as expressing doubt about the identity of the invaders, and others reading it as "Semnones, or — more precisely — Juthungi".[39]

In 268, Claudius II (reigned 268–270) defeated another Germanic force near Lake Garda, at the Battle of Lake Benacus. The much later Epitome de Caesaribus calls these invaders Alemanni, although there is no contemporary source identifying them by that name.[40] A group of these invaders was subsequently defeated by Gallienus at the Battle of Mediolanum near Milan.[38]

In 269, the Historia Augusta also attributes to the short-lived emperor Marius a speech referring to omnis Alamannia omnisque Germania, "all Alamannia and all Germania". Because the work was composed much later and frequently projects later terminology and circumstances into the third century, this is not considered secure evidence that the regional name Alamannia was already in use in 269.[41]

In 270 or, more probably, 271, another invasion of northern Italy led to a defeat of Aurelian (reigned 270–275) at the Battle of Placentia, followed by Roman victories at the Battle of Fano (Fanum Fortunae) and Battle of Pavia (Ticinum). The ancient sources use different names for the invaders. The only contemporary source, the Greek historian Dexippus, calls them Juthungi, while Zosimus later called them Alemanni. The Historia Augusta, an exceptionally problematic late-antique source containing numerous anachronisms and fabrications, instead calls them Marcomanni.[42]

Tetrarchy period, 289–305

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The first secure contemporary mention of the Alemanni under that name occurs in a Latin panegyric delivered at Trier in 289 for Maximian (reigned 286–305). The panegyrist clearly states that the Burgundiones et Alemanni had invaded Gaul together in 287 with a very large force, but that their numbers contributed to famine among them, which allowed Maximian to defeat them.[43][44]

The Burgundians were previously unknown in this area, but mentioned by Ptolemy as living near the Vistula in the second century.[45] A further panegyric delivered in 291 shows that relations between the Burgundians and Alemanni had changed, but also seems to suggest that the Burgundians had recently suffered defeat in the east. It states that the Burgundians had occupied Alemannic farmland (Burgundiones Alamannorum agros occupauere), which the Alemanni were attempting to recover. The same passage also refers to a Burgundian defeat by the eastern European Goths, and says that the Alemanni "again armed themselves for/as the defeated" (rursumque pro victis armantur Alemanni), a difficult phrase whose precise historical meaning is uncertain.[46] In later records Roman historians such as Ammianus report the Burgundians living east of the Alemanni in an area which included old Roman border forts.[47]

In 297/298 a panegyric for Constantius Chlorus (Caesar 293–305) referred to the devastation of Alamannia, apparently the earliest definite surviving contemporary use of that territorial name.[48] Between 298 and 302 Constantius won major victories over the Alemanni, including the Battle of Lingones near modern Langres and the Battle of Vindonissa near modern Windisch.[48]

Constantine and Alamannia, 306–337

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Under Constantine the Great (reigned 306–337), Roman pressure on the Rhine continued. Panegyrics delivered in his reign describe campaigns against barbarian groups beyond the Rhine and explicitly include the Alemanni among his enemies. After a campaign in 313 Constantine celebrated another victory over the Rhine barbarians at Trier.[49]

At about the same time, Alamannia also appeared in imperial propaganda as a territorial designation. Gold coins struck at Trier between 310 and 313 show a mourning female personification labelled ALAMANNIA beneath the legend GAVDIVM ROMANORVM, "joy of the Romans".[50]

Alemanni and the Constantinian dynasty, 354–361

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From the middle of the fourth century the evidence for the Alemanni becomes much more detailed, above all through the contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who was himself in Gaul between 353 and 357. His account does not describe a single centralized Alemannic kingdom, but numerous kings and peoples which could make war or peace with Rome separately.[51][52] Ammianus uses varying terms such as gens, populus, pagus and pars to describe different peoples or divisions of the Alemanni, some of which had their own kings and policies. Among the groups he associates with the Alemanni are the Bucinobantes, Lentienses and Juthungi. Other groups known from fourth-century sources include the Brisigavi and Raetovarii.[53]

In 354 Constantius II (reigned 337–361) campaigned successfully against Alemanni near Augst and concluded peace with the Breisgau kings Gundomadus and Vadomarius. In 355 he defeated the Lentienses near Lake Constance. Germanic attacks nevertheless continued, and later that year Constantius appointed his cousin Julian as Caesar and sent him to restore Roman control in Gaul.[51]

In 356 Julian assembled his army at Reims and marched eastwards. During the march an Alemannic force ambushed the two legions forming the Roman rear guard and nearly destroyed them before Roman reinforcements arrived. This episode is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Reims.[54] Julian subsequently recovered several Roman positions along the Rhine.

In 357 a large coalition of Alemannic rulers under Chnodomarius and Serapio confronted Julian at the Battle of Strasbourg. Ammianus names seven kings in the coalition, together with subordinate regales and other leading men. The Alemanni were defeated and Chnodomarius was captured.[55] The scale of the battle has sometimes been emphasized in modern accounts, although the ancient figures for the size of the armies and casualties are probably exaggerated.[56]

Julian continued campaigning east of the Rhine in 357–359 and concluded separate agreements with several Alemannic kings. In 358 he forced Suomarius and Hortarius to submit and return Roman prisoners; in 359 he made treaties with Macrianus, Hariobaudes, Vadomarius, Urius, Ursicinus and Vestralpus.[57] In 360/361 he accused Vadomarius of encouraging attacks on Raetia, captured him, and imposed another peace settlement.[58]

Conflicts under Valentinian and Gratian, 364–378

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Relations deteriorated again after Valentinian I became emperor in 364. In 365–366 Alemannic groups penetrated deeply into Gaul. The Roman commander Charietto was killed in January 366, but in the following months Jovinus defeated the invaders near Châlons.[59]

In 368 repeated raids led Valentinian to cross the Rhine and campaign against the Alemanni in a difficult engagement conventionally known as the Battle of Solicinium. During the same period the Alemannic ruler Rando took advantage of the absence of Roman troops to raid Mainz.[59] Valentinian subsequently strengthened the Rhine frontier with new fortifications. These works themselves caused further conflict when Roman construction extended into territory claimed by Alemannic groups.[60]

In 370/371 the Romans attacked the Lentienses from Raetia, while Burgundians, acting in cooperation with Valentinian, advanced from the east through Alemannic territory. Valentinian also attempted to remove the Bucinobantian king Macrianus, but eventually concluded a treaty with him in 374.[60]

In 378 the Lentienses, led by their king Priarius, invaded Roman territory and were defeated at the Battle of Argentovaria by an army commanded by Nannienus and Mallobaudes. Priarius was killed, and the emperor Gratian (reigned 367–383) pursued the survivors across the Rhine before concluding a treaty under which fighting men were taken into Roman service.[61] Gratian's involvement in this campaign delayed his movement east to support Valens against the Goths before the Battle of Adrianople later that year.[61]

Later battles between Romans and Alemanni

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Europe at the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD

In the great mixed invasion of 406, the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine river a final time, conquering and then settling what is today Alsace and a large part of the Swiss Plateau.[62] The Chronicle of Fredegar gives an account. At Alba Augusta (Alba-la-Romaine) the devastation was so complete, that the Christian bishop retired to Viviers, but in Gregory's account at Mende in Lozère, also deep in the heart of Gaul, bishop Privatus was forced to sacrifice to idols in the very cave where he was later venerated.[63] It is thought this detail may be a generic literary ploy to epitomize the horrors of barbarian violence.[64]

Subjugation by the Franks

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Alemannia (yellow) and Upper Burgundy (green) around 1000

The kingdom of Alamannia between Strasbourg and Augsburg lasted until 496, when the Alemanni were conquered by Clovis I at the Battle of Tolbiac. The war of Clovis with the Alemanni forms the setting for the conversion of Clovis, briefly treated by Gregory of Tours. (Book II.31) After their defeat in 496, the Alemanni bucked the Frankish yoke and put themselves under the protection of Theodoric the Great of the Ostrogoths[65] but after his death they were again subjugated by the Franks under Theudebert I in 536.[66] Subsequently, the Alemanni formed part of the Frankish dominions and were governed by a Frankish duke.

In 746, Carloman ended an uprising by summarily executing all Alemannic nobility at the blood court at Cannstatt, and for the following century, Alemannia was ruled by Frankish dukes. Following the treaty of Verdun of 843, Alemannia became a province of the eastern kingdom of Louis the German, the precursor of the Holy Roman Empire. The duchy persisted until 1268.

Culture

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Language

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The traditional distribution area of Western Upper German (Alemannic) dialect features in the 19th and 20th centuries

The German spoken today over the range of the former Alemanni is termed Alemannic German, and is recognised among the subgroups of the High German languages. Alemannic runic inscriptions such as those on the Pforzen buckle are among the earliest testimonies of Old High German. The High German consonant shift is thought to have originated around the fifth century either in Alemannia or among the Lombards; before that, the dialect spoken by Alemannic tribes was little different from that of other West Germanic peoples.[67]

Alemannia lost its distinct jurisdictional identity when Charles Martel absorbed it into the Frankish empire, early in the eighth century. Today, Alemannic is a linguistic term, referring to Alemannic German, encompassing the dialects of the southern two-thirds of Baden-Württemberg (German State), in western Bavaria (German State), in Vorarlberg (Austrian State), Swiss German in Switzerland and the Alsatian language of the Alsace (France).

Political organization

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The Alemanni established a series of territorially defined pagi (cantons) on the east bank of the Rhine. The exact number and extent of these pagi is unclear and probably changed over time.

Pagi, usually pairs of pagi combined, formed kingdoms (regna) which, it is generally believed, were permanent and hereditary. Ammianus describes Alemanni rulers with various terms: reges excelsiores ante alios ("paramount kings"), reges proximi ("neighbouring kings"), reguli ("petty kings") and regales ("princes"). This may be a formal hierarchy, or they may be vague, overlapping terms, or a combination of both.[68] In 357, there appear to have been two paramount kings (Chnodomar and Westralp) who probably acted as presidents of the confederation and seven other kings (reges). Their territories were small and mostly strung along the Rhine (although a few were in the hinterland).[69] It is possible that the reguli were the rulers of the two pagi in each kingdom. Underneath the royal class were the nobles (called optimates by the Romans) and warriors (called armati by the Romans). The warriors consisted of professional warbands and levies of free men.[70] Each nobleman could raise an average of c. 50 warriors.[71]

Religion

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The gold bracteate of Pliezhausen (sixth or seventh century) shows typical iconography of the pagan period. The bracteate depicts the "horse-stabber underhoof" scene, a supine warrior stabbing a horse while it runs over him. The scene is adapted from Roman era gravestones of the region.[72]
The seventh-century Gutenstein scabbard, found near Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, is a late testimony of pagan ritual in Alemannia, showing a warrior in ritual wolf costume, holding a ring-spatha.

The Christianization of the Alemanni took place during Merovingian times (sixth to eighth centuries). We know that in the sixth century, the Alemanni were predominantly pagan, and in the eighth century, they were predominantly Christian. The intervening seventh century was a period of genuine syncretism during which Christian symbolism and doctrine gradually grew in influence.

Some scholars have speculated that members of the Alemannic elite such as king Gibuld due to Visigothic influence may have been converted to Arianism even in the later fifth century.[73]

In the mid-6th century, the Byzantine historian Agathias records, in the context of the wars of the Goths and Franks against Byzantium, that the Alemanni fighting among the troops of Frankish king Theudebald were like the Franks in all respects except religion, since

they worship certain trees, the waters of rivers, hills and mountain valleys, in whose honour they sacrifice horses, cattle and countless other animals by beheading them, and imagine that they are performing an act of piety thereby.[74]

He also spoke of the particular ruthlessness of the Alemanni in destroying Christian sanctuaries and plundering churches while the genuine Franks were respectful towards those sanctuaries. Agathias expresses his hope that the Alemanni would assume better manners through prolonged contact with the Franks, which is by all appearances, in a manner of speaking, what eventually happened.[75]

Apostles of the Alemanni were Columbanus and his disciple Saint Gall. Jonas of Bobbio records that Columbanus was active in Bregenz, where he disrupted a beer sacrifice to Wodan. Despite these activities, for some time, the Alemanni seem to have continued their pagan cult activities, with only superficial or syncretistic Christian elements. In particular, there was no change in burial practice, and tumulus warrior graves continued to be erected throughout Merovingian times. Syncretism of traditional Germanic animal style with Christian symbolism is also present in artwork, but Christian symbolism became more and more prevalent during the seventh century. Unlike the later Christianization of the Saxons and of the Slavs, the Alemanni seem to have adopted Christianity gradually, and voluntarily, spread in emulation of the Merovingian elite.[76]

From c. the 520s to the 620s, there was a surge of Alemannic Elder Futhark inscriptions. About 70 specimens have survived, roughly half of them on fibulae, others on belt buckles (see Pforzen buckle, Bülach fibula) and other jewellery and weapon parts. The use of runes subsides with the advance of Christianity. The Nordendorf fibula (early seventh century) clearly records pagan theonyms, logaþorewodanwigiþonar read as "Wodan and Donar are magicians/sorcerers", but this may be interpreted as either a pagan invocation of the powers of these deities, or a Christian protective charm against them.[77] A runic inscription on a fibula found at Bad Ems reflects Christian pious sentiment (and is also explicitly marked with a Christian cross), reading god fura dih deofile ᛭ ("God for/before you, Theophilus!", or alternatively "God before you, Devil!"). Dated to between AD 660 and 690, it marks the end of the native Alemannic tradition of runic literacy. Bad Ems is in Rhineland-Palatinate, on the northwestern boundary of Alemannic settlement, where Frankish influence would have been strongest.[78]

The establishment of the bishopric of Konstanz cannot be dated exactly and was possibly undertaken by Columbanus himself (before 612). In any case, it existed by 635, when Gunzo appointed John of Grab bishop. Constance was a missionary bishopric in newly converted lands, and did not look back on late Roman church history unlike the Raetian bishopric of Chur (established 451) and Basel (an episcopal seat from 740, and which continued the line of Bishops of Augusta Raurica, see Bishop of Basel). The establishment of the church as an institution recognized by worldly rulers is also visible in legal history. In the early seventh century Pactus Alamannorum hardly ever mentions the special privileges of the church, while Lantfrid's Lex Alamannorum of 720 has an entire chapter reserved for ecclesial matters alone.

Genetics

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A genetic study published in Science Advances in September 2018 examined the remains of eight individuals buried at a seventh-century Alemannic graveyard in Niederstotzingen, Germany. This is the richest and most complete Alemannic graveyard ever found. The highest-ranking individual at the graveyard was a male with Frankish grave goods. Four males were found to be closely related to him. They were all carriers of types of the paternal haplogroup R1b1a2a1a1c2b2b. A sixth male was a carrier of the paternal haplogroup R1b1a2a1a1c2b2b1a1 and the maternal haplogroup U5a1a1. Along with the five closely related individuals, he displayed close genetic links to northern and eastern Europe, particularly Lithuania and Iceland. Two individuals buried at the cemetery were found to be genetically different from both the others and each other, displaying genetic links to Southern Europe, particularly northern Italy and Spain. Along with the sixth male, they might have been adoptees or slaves.[79]

According to Gretzinger et al. (2024), the early medieval Alemannic and Bavarian populations of southern Germany had considerably more steppe-related ancestry and, consequently, significantly less Early European Farmer (EEF) ancestry than the pre-Roman Iron Age Hallstatt population, which they saw as being consistent with "the arrival of Germanic-speaking tribes from northern Germany or Denmark". The data indicates a significant increase in Scandinavian-related ancestry—a proxy for Germanic-speaking groups—in the first half of the first millennium AD, with "median northern European ancestry" rising significantly, reaching high levels in the early medieval period. This population turnover was associated with the introduction of new paternal haplogroups, such as I1-M253, which is commonly found in "Continental North European-like ancestry". These Alemannic and Bavarian populations of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages were genetically indistinguishable from Iron Age and Medieval groups in Northern Germany and Scandinavia, and showed the closest resemblance to present-day populations from Denmark, northern Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia.[80]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ The spelling with "e" is used in Encyc. Brit. 9th. ed., (c. 1880), Everyman's Encyc. 1967, Everyman's Smaller Classical Dictionary, 1910. The current edition of Britannica spells with "e", as does Columbia and Edward Gibbon, Vol. 3, Chapter XXXVIII. The Latinized spelling with a is current in older literature (so in the 1911 Britannica), but remains in use e.g. in Wood (2003), Drinkwater (2007).
  2. ↑ in pago Almanniae 762, in pago Alemannorum 797, urbs Constantia in ducatu Alemanniae 797; in ducatu Alemannico, in pago Linzgowe 873. From the ninth century, Alamannia is increasingly used of the Alsace specifically, while the Alamannic territory in general is increasingly called Suebia; by the 12th century, the name Suebia had mostly replaced Alamannia. S. Hirzel, Forschungen zur Deutschen Landeskunde 6 (1888), p. 299.
  3. ↑ recorded as aleman in c. 1100, and with final dental, alemant or alemand, from c. 1160. Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé s.v. allemand.
  4. ↑ F.C. and J. Rivington, T. Payne, Wilkie and Robinson: The Chronicle of Iohn Hardyng, 1812, p. 99.
  5. ↑ H. Kurath: Middle English Dictionary, part 14, University of Michigan Press, 1952, 1345.
  6. 1 2 3 Rübekeil 2004, pp. 129–131.
  7. 1 2 Haubrichs 2002, pp. 30–38.
  8. ↑ Haubrichs 2002, pp. 19–21.
  9. ↑ Haubrichs 2002, p. 32.
  10. ↑ Hummer 1998, pp. 25–26.
  11. ↑ Steuer 2023, § 13.
  12. ↑ Hummer 1998, pp. 19–25.
  13. ↑ Liccardo 2024, pp. 55–64.
  14. ↑ Hummer 1998, pp. 13–20.
  15. ↑ Liccardo 2024, pp. 63–65.
  16. ↑ Liccardo 2024, pp. 213–218.
  17. ↑ Hummer 1998, p. 20 citing Ausonius, Bissula 1–3, 17–28.
  18. ↑ Hummer 1998, pp. 20–24 citing Jordanes, Getica 273–281.
  19. ↑ Liccardo 2024, pp. 217–218.
  20. ↑ Springer & Castritius 2008, p. 442 citing Walafrid Strabo.
  21. ↑ Nuber 1984, pp. 279–283.
  22. ↑ Geuenich 2023, § 4.
  23. ↑ Steuer 2023, § 12.
  24. ↑ Hummer 1998, pp. 2–3.
  25. ↑ Hummer 1998, pp. 4–5.
  26. ↑ Witschel 2020, p. 485.
  27. ↑ Witschel 2020, pp. 423–424.
  28. ↑ Witschel 2020, p. 462.
  29. ↑ Becker 2026, pp. 287–290.
  30. ↑ Becker 2026, pp. 289–290.
  31. ↑ Becker 2026, pp. 289–291.
  32. ↑ Bleckmann 2002, pp. 147–151.
  33. ↑ Hummer 1998, pp. 2–6.
  34. ↑ Becker 2026, pp. 292–294.
  35. ↑ Geuenich 2023, § 1.
  36. ↑ Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus 21.2.
  37. ↑ Bleckmann 2002, pp. 147–153.
  38. 1 2 Witschel 2020, pp. 466–467.
  39. ↑ Runde 1998, pp. 658–659 citing Prosper, Epitoma chronicon 876; Chronica Gallica of 511 420; Eutropius, Breviarium 9.7–8; Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos 7.22.7.
  40. ↑ Witschel 2020, p. 450.
  41. ↑ Runde 1998, p. 659.
  42. ↑ Witschel 2020, pp. 450–451 citing Dexippus, fragments 28 and 30 (Martin); Historia Augusta, Aurelian 18.3, 18.6, 21.1–5; Peter the Patrician, fragment 193; Zosimus 1.49.1; and Epitome de Caesaribus 35.2.
  43. ↑ Runde 1998, p. 661.
  44. ↑ Nixon & Rodgers 1994, pp. 61–62, 525.
  45. ↑ Anton 1981, p. 237.
  46. ↑ Nixon & Rodgers 1994, pp. 100–101, 541.
  47. ↑ Anton 1981, pp. 237–238.
  48. 1 2 Runde 1998, p. 662.
  49. ↑ Liccardo 2024, pp. 91–96 citing Panegyrici Latini 12(9).22–23 and 4(10).18.
  50. ↑ Liccardo 2024, pp. 215–216.
  51. 1 2 Runde 1998, p. 666.
  52. ↑ Hummer 1998, pp. 8–11.
  53. ↑ Hummer 1998, pp. 9–11.
  54. ↑ Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 16.2.8–11.
  55. ↑ Runde 1998, pp. 666–667.
  56. ↑ Runde 1998, p. 667.
  57. ↑ Runde 1998, pp. 667–668.
  58. ↑ Runde 1998, p. 669.
  59. 1 2 Runde 1998, p. 670.
  60. 1 2 Runde 1998, p. 671.
  61. 1 2 Runde 1998, p. 672.
  62. ↑ Wikisource One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Alamanni". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 468.
  63. ↑ "Cambridge Medieval Textbooks". Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568: 593–595. 2007-12-20. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511802393.020.
  64. ↑ Duff, Paul B. (2007). "Violence in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and Practices. Edited by H. A. Drake. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate. xxii + 400 pp. $99.95 cloth". Church History. 76 (4): 825–826. doi:10.1017/s0009640700500080. ISSN 0009-6407.
  65. ↑ Jonathan J. Arnold (2016). A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy. Brill. p. 93. ISBN 978-90-04-31376-7.
  66. ↑ Ian Wood (1998). Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective. The Boydell Press. p. 33. ISBN 0-85115-723-8.
  67. ↑ "Alamanni/Alemanni (= Suebi/Suevi, Semnones) | Freyia Völundarhúsins" (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  68. ↑ Drinkwater (2007) 118, 120
  69. ↑ Drinkwater (2007) 223 (map)
  70. ↑ Speidel (2004)
  71. ↑ Drinkwater (2007) 120
  72. ↑ Michael Speidel, Ancient Germanic warriors: warrior styles from Trajan's column to Icelandic sagas, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 978-0415311991, p. 162. Harald Kleinschmidt, People on the move: attitudes toward and perceptions of migration in medieval and modern Europe, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, ISBN 978-0275974176, p. 66.
  73. ↑ Schubert, Hans (1909). Das älteste germanische Christentum oder der Sogenannte "Arianismus" der Germanen. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr. p. 32. Cf. also Bossert, G. "Alemanni" in: Jackson, S.M. (Ed.). New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 1, p. 114: "[the Alamannic] prince, Gibuld, was an Arian, probably converted by Goths".
  74. ↑ Murinaeus, Agathias; Scholasticus, Agathias; Agathias (1975). trans. Joseph D. Frendo (1975). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-003357-1. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
  75. ↑ R. Keydell, Agathiae Myrinaei historiarum libri quinque Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae. Series Berolinensis 2. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1967, p. 18f. 7. Νόμιμα δὲ αὐτοῖς [τῶν Ἀλαμανῶν ἔθνος] εἰσι μέν που καὶ πάτρια, τὸ δέ γε ἐν κοινῷ ἐπικρατοῦν τε καὶ ἄρχον τῇ Φραγγικῇ ἕπονται πολιτείᾳ, μόνα δέ γε τὰ ἐς (5) θεὸν αὐτοῖς οὐ ταὐτὰ ξυνδοκεῖ. δένδρα τε γάρ τινα ἱλάσκονται καὶ ῥεῖθρα ποταμῶν καὶ λόφους καὶ φάραγγας, καὶ τούτοις, ὥσπερ ὅσια δρῶντες, ἵππους τε καὶ βόας καὶ ἄλλα ἄττα μυρία καρατομοῦντες ἐπιθειάζουσιν. 2 ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἡ τῶν Φράγγων αὐτοὺς ἐπιμιξία, εnὖ ποιοῦσα, καὶ ἐς τόδε μετακοσμεῖ καὶ ἤδη ἐφέλκεται τοὺς εὐφρονεστέρους, οὐ πολλοῦ δὲ οἶμαι (10) χρόνου καὶ ἅπασιν ἐκνικήσει. 3 τὸ γὰρ τῆς δόξης παράλογόν τε καὶ ἔμπληκτον καὶ αὐτοῖς οἶμαι τοῖς χρωμένοις, εἰ μὴ πάμπαν εἶεν ἠλίθιοι, γνώριμόν τέ ἐστι καὶ εὐφώρατον καὶ οἶον ἀποσβῆναι ῥᾳδίως. ἐλεεῖσθαι μὲν οὖν μᾶλλον ἢ χαλεπαίνεσθαι δίκαιοι ἂν εἶεν καὶ πλείστης μεταλαγχάνειν συγγνώμης ἅπαντες, ὅσοι δὴ τοῦ ἀληθοῦς ἁμαρτάνουσιν. οὐ γὰρ (15) δήπου ἑκόντες εἶναι ἀλῶνται καὶ ὀλισθαίνουσιν, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἐφιέμενοι, ἔπειτα σφαλέντες τῇ κρίσει τὸ λοιπὸν ἔχονται τῶν δοκηθέντων ἀπρίξ, ὁποῖα ἄττα καὶ τύχοιεν ὄντα. 4 τήν γε μὴν τῶν θυσιῶν ὠμότητα καὶ κακοδαιμονίαν οὐκ οἶδα εἰ οἷόν τε λόγῳ ἀκέσασθαι, εἴτε ἄλσεσιν ἐπιτελοῖντο ὥσπερ ἀμέλει παρὰ βαρβάροις, εἴτε τοῖς πάλαι νενομισμέ-(20)νοις θεοῖς, ὁποῖα αἱ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐθέλουσιν ἁγιστεῖαι.
  76. ↑ Hillgarth, J. N. (1995-04-01). "Ian Wood. The Merovingian Kingdoms 450–751. New York: Longman. 1994. Pp. xii, 395". The American Historical Review. 100 (2): 502–503. doi:10.1086/ahr/100.2.502-a. ISSN 1937-5239.
  77. ↑ Düwel, Klaus (1982). "Runen und Interpretatio Christiana: Zur Religioneschichtlichen Stellung der Bügelfidel von Nordendorf I". In Kamp, Norbert; Wollasch, Joachim (eds.). Tradition als Historische Kraft. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 78–86. ISBN 3-11-008237-3.
  78. ↑ Wolfgang Jungandreas, 'God fura dih, deofile †' in: Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 101, 1972, pp. 84–85.
  79. ↑ O'Sullivan et al. 2018: "Genome-wide analyses were performed on eight individuals to estimate genetic affiliation to modern west Eurasians and genetic kinship at the burial. Five individuals were direct relatives. Three other individuals were not detectably related; two of these showed genomic affinity to southern Europeans... These five related individuals had culturally diverse grave goods despite the evidence that all of them showed local isotope signals with northern European genetic affiliations... Niederstotzingen North individuals are closely related to northern and eastern European populations, particularly from Lithuania and Iceland."
  80. ↑ Gretzinger, Joscha; et al. (3 June 2024). "Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe". Nature Human Behaviour. 8 (8): 1467–1480. doi:10.1038/s41562-024-01888-7. ISSN 2397-3374.

Sources

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Primary sources

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Old modern works

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  • C. Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme (Munich, 1837), pp. 303 ff.
  • O. Bremer in H. Paul, Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (2nd ed., Strassburg, 1900), vol. iii. pp. 930 ff.
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