Lentienser

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The Lentienser ( Latin : lentienses , today's name: Linzgauer or Linzgaubewohner ) were an Alemannic tribe north of Lacus Brigantiae, today's Lake Constance , for example in the area between the Danube in the north, Iller in the east and Lake Constance in the south. The tribe is only mentioned under its special name by the Roman writer Ammianus Marcellinus (330–395).

Lore

They first appear in the year 355, when the Magister equitum Arbetio tried to punish them for their repeated incursions into Roman territory on behalf of Emperor Constantius II . He was ambushed, but Arbetio succeeded in repelling further attacks and driving the Lentiens to flight.

The second and last time they are mentioned in 378. A Lentienser from the imperial bodyguard who was on home leave reported at home that Emperor Gratian wanted to move east with his troops to help his uncle Valens against the Goths . Thereupon the Lentiens gathered an army and in February moved across the frozen Upper Rhine to Roman territory. At first the Lentiens were repulsed, but soon afterwards they invaded the Roman territory again, owing to the growth of other Alemannic tribes, supposedly 40,000 or even 70,000 strong. When they advanced into Alsace , however, they were defeated by Emperor Gratian in the Battle of Argentovaria , near today's Oedenburg-Biesheim near Neuf-Brisach . Their King Priarius was killed there. The emperor then pursued the fleeing Lentiens into their own country, which compelled them to promise the Romans that they would deliver auxiliary troops. It was to be the last campaign that a Roman emperor undertook in the Limes area on the right bank of the Rhine.

Since these events their trace has been lost in history; only her name, which is a Latin derivation from the Celtic place name Lentia , is preserved in " Linzgau ". The Lentienser were described in the historical sources as a particularly combative tribe. It is not known whether the Lentiens referred to themselves as such.

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literature

  • Lentienser . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity . XII, 2. JM Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1925.
  • Karlheinz Fuchs, Martin Kempa, Rainer Redies: The Alamannen (exhibition catalog) . Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1535-9 .
  • Robert Rollinger : On Constiantius II's Alemannic campaign on Lake Constance and the Rhine in 355 AD and on Julian's first stay in Italy. Reflections on Ammianus Marcellinus . In: Manfred Clauss , Hans-Joachim Gehrke (ed.): KLIO contributions to ancient history . tape 80 . Akademie Verlag, 1998, ISSN  0075-6334 .
  • Hans Stather: Questions about the Lentiens . In: Association for the history of the Hegaus, singing; Hegau-Geschichtsverein, Lindau (ed.): Hegau - magazine for history, folklore and natural history of the area between the Rhine, Danube and Lake Constance . No. 53 . Thorbecke, 1996, ISSN  0438-9034 , p. 5-12 .