Caretenes

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Caretene († September 16, 506 ) was the presumed wife of Gundobad, a Burgundian queen.

Life

Caretene is known for its preserved metric epitaph . Although its original was destroyed in the course of the wars of religion in the 17th century, the text of this grave inscription can be found in a manuscript written in the 9th century. In some of the older research literature, the view was held that Caretene was the wife of Gundobad's brother Chilperich and Chrodechild's mother - not mentioned by name by the bishop and historian Gregor von Tours, who was very important for the knowledge of Burgundian history - an opinion that still differs in The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . More recent scholars such as Martina Hartmann and Reinhold Kaiser , however, are convinced that Caretene is Gundobad's wife. In this case she was probably the mother of Sigismund and perhaps later, as Gerd Kampers probably tried to do, because of her now possibly lost ability to bear further children, she had to move to a monastery on the instructions of her husband. Gundobad would then have been able to take a new wife who would have given birth to his future offspring.

In contrast to Gundobad, who was an Arian , Caretene professed to be Catholic . According to her epitaph, she acted as an important advisor to her husband and endeavored to turn her children and grandchildren to Catholicism. She evidently had quite a fortune, as she donated the Saint-Michel d'Ainay church and its affiliated nunnery, which was dedicated to the Archangel Michael and located on the Saône in Lyon . She entered this monastery herself. When the dedication of this oldest known grave church , founded by a queen, took place and Caretene was asked by Bishop Marcellus von Die for tax relief for his civitas , she was able to implement this concern with her husband. After her death in 506, she was also buried in St. Michael's Church in Lyon. Perhaps later queens of the Merovingians such as Chrodechild and Radegunde took Caretenes ecclesiastical foundation as a model when they founded the monastery.

epitaph

Sceptrorum columen, terræ decus et jubar orbis ,
Hoc artus tumulo vult Caretena tegi  :
Quâ famulam tu, Christe, tuam, rerumque potentem ,
De mundi regnis ad tua regna vocas ,
Thesaurum ditem felici fine secutam ,
Fotis pauperilla De quem .
Jamdudùm castum castigans aspera corpus ,
Delituit vestis murice sub rutilo .
Occuluit læto jejunia sobria vultu ,
Secretèque dedit regia membra cruci ,
Principis excelsi curas partita mariti ,
Adjuncto rexit culmina consilio .
Præclaram sobolem dulcesque gavisa nepotes ,
Ad veram doctos sollicitare fidem .
Dotibus hic pollens sublimi mente subire ,
Non sprevit sacrum post diadema jugum .
Cedat odoriferis quondam dominata Sabæis ,
Expetiit mirum quæ Salomonis opus .
Condidit hæc templum præsens quod personat orbe ,
Angelicisque dedit limina celsa choris .
Laxatura reos, regi quas sæpè ferebat ,
Has offerre preces, nunc tibi, Christe, potest .
Quam cùm post decimum rapuit mors invida lustrum ,
Accepit melior tum sine fine dies .
Jamque bis octonâ septembrum luce movebat ,
noun Messalse consulis annus egens .

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Avitus von Vienne : Epistulae, Homiliae Carmina , Appendix 6, in: Rudolf Peiper (Ed.): MGH AA 6,2 (1883), p. 185.
  2. ↑ Martina Hartmann: The Queen in the Early Middle Ages , p. 206 with note 421.
  3. ↑ Martina Hartmann: The Queen in the Early Middle Ages , p. 11.
  4. ↑ Reinhold Kaiser: Die Burgunder , pp. 63, 124 and 159; Martina Hartmann: The Queen in the Early Middle Ages , p. 11 and 159.
  5. ↑ Alain Maret, Essai pour servir à l'histoire politique de Lyon, depuis les temps historiques jusqu'à la domination des Franks , Dorier, Lyon, 1846, ( p. 329 ).
personal data
SURNAME Caretenes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION burgundian queen
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 506