Brukterer

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Roman Gaul and Germania on the right bank of the Rhine around AD 70.

The Brukterer (Latin Bructeri , Greek  οἱ Βρούκτεροι ) were a Germanic tribe that originally settled between the middle Ems and the upper lip in the 1st century AD . The Brukterer were in late antiquity on ethnogenesis process of francs involved and were part of the new tribal federation, although the sources are mentioned for some time by name.

history

In the ancient geographical works a distinction is made between the "smaller" and "larger" Brukterern. This is probably due to the rather extensive settlement area of ​​the tribe. Otherwise, the Brukterer are mentioned in Roman sources mainly in connection with military conflicts. They were born in 12 BC. Defeated by Drusus (see Drusus campaigns ) and belonged to the Germanic tribes that took part in the Varus Battle in 9 AD , where they captured the standard of the 19th Legion. There were repeated battles between the Brukteri and the Romans, with the latter largely retaining the upper hand. In the course of the immensum bellum , an uprising in the years 1 to 5 AD , the Brukterer were again subjugated by Tiberius (autumn 4 AD). Germanicus devastated the area of ​​the Brukterer in 15 AD ( Germanicus campaigns ), whereby the captured legionary eagle fell back into Roman hands. The tribe's will to resist was apparently not broken. In research, the Brukterer are counted among the most dangerous Germanic enemies of Rome.

The most famous personality from the Brukterer tribe was the respected seer Veleda , who apparently also had political influence in the tribe. In the years 69/70 the Brukterer took part in the Batavian uprising under Civilis . At the end of the 1st century (before the year 98) they were crushed by the Angrivarians and Chamaven and allegedly almost completely wiped out, but this is possibly an exaggerated representation by the Roman historian Tacitus in his work Germania . In any case, the Brukterer fled to the territory of the Tenkerer allied with them and settled south of the Lippe.

In the 3rd century, the Brukterians evidently spread to the right of the Rhine and came back into the field of vision of the Romans in the early 4th century. When Constantine the Great was proclaimed emperor by his troops in Britain in 306, Germanic tribes took advantage of his absence in the Rhine area and raided Roman territory. The Brukterer, who were now counted by the Romans to the new tribal association of the Franks , were also involved. The Roman counter-offensive followed in the summer / autumn of 306, with Constantine and his troops invading the respective tribal areas on the right bank of the Rhine. In this context, two Frankish petty kings named Ascaricus and Merogaisus were captured and brutally executed. Maybe these little kings are leaders of the Brukterer.

A large part of the other Franks incursions that have come down to us in the 4th century came from the Brukterians. The late antique historian Sulpicius Alexander , of whose work only excerpts have been preserved in the histories of the early medieval bishop and historian Gregory of Tours , reports of attacks by various petty kings (see Sunno , who was possibly a Brukterer). In this context, Gregor clearly counted the Brukterer among the Franks. The Brukterer, who settled on the Rhine, were forced to form alliances with Rome through Roman offensives under Arbogast (in 392/93) and Stilicho (396). In 451 at least parts of the Brukterer took part in the Gaul campaign of Attila , king of the Huns , but afterwards they disappear from the sources. Whether the mention of the Boructuari by the Anglo-Saxon scholar Beda Venerabilis refers to the Brukterians, who were subjugated by the Saxons at the end of the 6th century , is now disputed.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ For the name forms see Brukterer, § 1 (Linguistic) . In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Vol. 3 (1978), pp. 581f. (Retrieved from Germanische Altertumskunde Online at De Gruyter Online).
  2. ^ Ulrich Nonn: The Franks. Stuttgart 2010, p. 21.
  3. ^ Brukterer, § 2 (Historical) . In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Vol. 3 (1978), p. 585.
  4. ↑ Cf. Brukterer, § 2 (Historical) . In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Vol. 3 (1978), p. 584.
  5. ^ Tacitus, Germania 33.
  6. ↑ Cf. Ulrich Nonn: The Franks. Stuttgart 2010, p. 21.
  7. ↑ Cf. Brukterer, § 2 (Historical) . In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Vol. 3 (1978), p. 584.
  8. ↑ On the military conflicts during this period see Eugen Ewig : Die Franken und Rom (3rd – 5th centuries). An attempt at an overview . In: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter . Volume 71, 2007, pp. 1-42.
  9. ^ Ulrich Nonn: The Franks. Stuttgart 2010, p. 22.
  10. ^ Ulrich Nonn: The Franks. Stuttgart 2010, p. 23.