Rhine crossing from 406

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In historical research, the Rhine crossing of 406 denotes the crossing of several large, predominantly Germanic warrior groups across the Rhine and their associated penetration into the western half of the Roman Empire at the turn of the year 406/07.

The temporary collapse of the Roman defense of the Rhine, together with the turmoil of the civil war in the empire, made it possible for several Germanic warrior associations to establish themselves in Hispania for a time , which contributed to the process of the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire . The Vandals who came into the empire on this occasion were to eventually reach Africa from Hispania and conquer this province. The kingdom of the Suebi in northern Hispania lasted until the 6th century, while the Burgundians pushed forward to the Rhine after a defeat against the Roman army master Flavius ​​Aëtius(436), established his own empire in Gaul in the second half of the 5th century .

Starting position

The year 406 was a year of crisis for the Western Roman Empire. Already in 405 the Goth Radagaisus had invaded Italy with a large army and could only be stopped by the master Stilicho with the support of Hunnic , Vandal and Alan mercenaries in August 406 in the battle of Faesulae in Etruria .

Also in the year 406 there was a series of usurpations in Britain , which the church father Jerome described as " a province fertile for tyrants ( usurpers ) ". According to the late antique historian Olympiodorus of Thebes , who wrote a comprehensive historical work about this time, which has only survived in fragments, the troops in Britain first raised a soldier named Marcus to Augustus . However, this was eliminated after a while. Instead, the civil servant Gratian was proclaimed emperor , but was also murdered after four months. Finally, in the autumn of 406, the British troops raised a previously unknown soldier named Constantinus as Constantine III. as the emperor, whose name was perhaps his only asset, Constantine the Great had also begun his way to power in Britain and had finally been victorious.

The reason for the British usurpations is very probably not only due to the fact that the imperial government saw oneself neglected on the island, which is far away from the western Roman court in Ravenna . A note from the historian Zosimos (who, however, is not always reliable) suggests that the cause is to be found on the continent, where the movements of barbaric gentes in the border area probably also caused unrest in Britain (for details see Migration ). According to Zosimos, the British troops wanted to protect the empire in Gaul. That the British usurper Constantine III. finally translated with his field army from the island to Gaul in the year 407 (or already 406) , offers a certain confirmation of this. Zosimos reports that most of the cities of Gaul fell away from Honorius and overflowed to Constantine.

The Rhine crossing 406/07

Probably at the turn of the year 406/07 larger barbarian groups of warriors crossed the Rhine and advanced into Gaul. Jerome mentions several gentes involved in a letter , including the Vandals (divided into the Hasdingen and Silingen tribes ), the Suebi and the Iranian Alans . The Rhine crossing is also mentioned in other late antique sources, but numerous details are controversial due to the sparse sources. The sources are silent about the exact background for the break-up of the polyethnic association, as well as the exact place, time and duration of the Rhine crossing are disputed. It is possible that the various groups took advantage of the weakness of the Roman Rhine defenses at that time - after all, several associations had been withdrawn due to the conflict with the Visigoths under Alaric in 402 and later due to the battles against Radagaisus - and set out for Gaul in search of better living conditions. However, an escape from the Huns cannot be ruled out either.

It is also questionable how large these groups were and where exactly they translated. In modern research, a Rhine crossing is often assumed at Mogontiacum , but this must ultimately remain open. It is very likely that the transition took place between today's cities of Mainz (Mogontiacum) and Worms , because these were the first to be attacked by the intruders. If the Rhine bridge at Mogontiacum was still intact, it would come into question as a possible crossing point. Sometimes it is speculated in some modern representations that the barbarians crossed the frozen Rhine, but this is not mentioned in the sources. It is also unlikely that larger associations could have managed the crossing in just one night, as is often deduced from the note by Prosper Tiro of Aquitaine , who, although other sources report hardly any details, gives the date of the Rhine crossing as December 31, 406 :

"CCCLXXIX. Arcadio VI and Probo. Wandali et Halani Gallias traiecto Rheno ingressi II k. Ian. "
"When Arcadius (for the sixth time, ie 406) and Probus were consuls, Vandals and Alans invaded Gaul after crossing the Rhine, one day before the calendar of January."

So December 31st will mark the beginning of the crossing of the Rhine, with the groups then split up.

Some sources (including Orosius first ) state that the Germanic associations did not march into Gaul on their own initiative, but were hired by Stilicho. However, since the passage in question clearly distorts events, this testimony is viewed by many historians as defamation.

In any case, it was not possible for the few remaining troops on the Rhine border to offer effective resistance to the attackers. However, the crossing of the Rhine does not seem to have resulted in the complete collapse of the border defense, because the Mainz ducat (military district) was then re-established. In any case, Gaul was open to the warriors who attacked and plundered numerous cities. We are only partially informed about the following moves of the different groups. It is not even certain that the various locations indicated by Jerome were actually all conquered. After all, Jerome was in distant Bethlehem at the time and learned more about what was going on from second hand. After crossing the Rhine, the barbarians moved first to the northwest, then to the south and southwest.

According to many historians, the Rhine crossing of 406/7 was extremely momentous for the empire. Basically, it was about the only successful invasion of Germanic warrior groups into the western empire during the 5th century (the attempt by Radagaisus had been repulsed in 406, and the Romans had brought the Visigoths into the empire themselves in 375). The groups that entered the empire in 406/7 played an important role again and again in the following decades, because the Romans were not in a position to permanently control the warrior groups that had now entered the empire, on the contrary: the vandals invaded 409 within the framework Further internal Roman conflicts set in in Hispania, then crossed to North Africa in 429 and wrested control of their richest province from the Western Roman government.

The Burgundians and Alans, who had pushed forward to the Rhine, were active as emperors and elevated Jovinus, a noble Gallo novel, to emperor who was largely dependent on them. From 443 the Burgundians, like the Vandals before them, successfully built their own empire - just like the Suebi in Hispania. The 418 Visigoths settled in Aquitaine , from which the Western Roman government hoped to have a stabilizing effect, broke the foedus in 468 and expanded at the expense of the empire. As a result, the barbarian invasions in 407 were probably so devastating that Olympiodorus of Thebes perhaps started his historical work this year.

New dating by Kulikowski

It has already been mentioned that the British field army under the usurper Constantine III. intervened in 407 and translated to Gaul. The note from Zosimos, also already mentioned, now suggests that in Britain something was already known about the displacement of peoples in the Gallic border area at the time of the uprising of the usurper Marcus. This is supported by the fact that the late antique historian Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus reports on clashes of barbaric groups in the run-up to the crossing of the Rhine. Accordingly, shortly before the Rhine crossing, Franconians (probably as Roman federates ) fought against vandals. Their King Godigisel fell in battle, and the Vandals were only saved by the intervention of a troop of Alans under Respendial .

A few years ago, the American historian Michael Kulikowski took up a research approach already represented by Norman Baynes in 1922, according to which the crossing of the Rhine should not be dated to the turn of the year 406/07, but to 405/06. Kulikowski came to this conclusion by rereading the sources, especially Prospers, who is the only one who gives an exact date. In Kulikowski's opinion it would be more in keeping with Prosper's style if it were not December 31, 406, but December 31, 405.

Kulikowski's thesis was also taken up from other sources, as it would also result in a more homogeneous overall picture of Zosimos' note. The usurpations in Britain would also gain plausibility, since (if one follows Kulikowski's approach) the crossing of the Rhine was known there as early as 406 and the British troops wanted to intervene to defend Gaul.

However, there are also some reasons against this thesis, since Kulikowski does not provide a satisfactory answer to the question why the Western Roman army master Stilicho , who in fact directed the fortunes of the western empire until 408, did not confront the invaders in Gaul after the victory over Radagaisus. This fact would rather suggest that in the summer of 406 no barbaric groups had invaded Gaul.

The reasoning Anthony R. Birleys , who spoke out against the re-dating, also has even prompted Kulikowski to question his approach.

literature

  • Guido M. Berndt : Conflict and Adaptation. Studies on migration and ethnogenesis of the vandals (= historical studies 489) . Matthiesen, Husum 2007, pp. 85-94.
  • Bruno Bleckmann : The barbarian invasion of 406 and the rising of the usurper Constantinus III. On a chronological problem of the early fifth century . In: Ligia Ruscu, Carmen Ciongradi, Radu Ardevan , Cristian Roman, Cristian Gǎzdac (eds.): Orbis Antiquus. Studia in honorem Ioannis Pisonis (= Bibliotheca Musei Napocensis. Volume 21). Nereamia Napocae Press, Cluj-Napoca 2004, ISBN 973-7951-55-7 , pp. 41-44.
  • Helmut Castritius : The Vandals. Stages of a search for traces (= Kohlhammer-Urban-Taschenbücher 605). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-018870-9 .
  • John F. Drinkwater: The Usurpers Constantine III (407-411) and Jovinus (411-413). In: Britannia 29, 1998, pp. 269-298.
  • Guy Halsall: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376-568. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-43491-1 .
  • Peter J. Heather : The Fall of the Roman Empire. Macmillan, London 2005, ISBN 0-333-98914-7 .
  • Peter J. Heather: Why Did the Barbarian Cross the Rhine? In: Journal of Late Antiquity 2, 2009, pp. 3-29.
  • Michael Kulikowski: Barbarians in Gaul, Usurpers in Britain. In: Britannia 31, 2000, pp. 325-345.
  • Ralf Scharf: The Dux Mogontiacensis and the Notitia Dignitatum. A study of late antique border defense (= Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Supplementary volumes 50). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2005, ISBN 3-11-018835-X .
  • Roland Steinacher: The vandals. The rise and fall of a barbarian empire. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-608-94851-6 , p. 49ff.
  • Courtenay Edward Stevens: Marcus, Gratian, Constantine . In: Athenaeum 35, 1957, ISSN  0004-6566 , pp. 316-347.
  • Phillip Wynn: Frigeridus, the British tyrants and the early fifth century barbarian invasions of Gaul and Spain. In: Athenaeum 85, 1997, pp. 69-117.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hieronymus, Epistulae 133,9.
  2. ↑ Olympiodoros, fragment 12 [fragment 13.1 in the edition by R. Blockley].
  3. ↑ See Orosius , Adversum Paganos 7,40,4. See also Drinkwater (1998), p. 272.
  4. ↑ Zosimos 6.3.
  5. ↑ Hieronymus, Epistulae 123.
  6. ^ Overview in Guy Halsall: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376-568. Cambridge et al. 2007, p. 211, note 117.
  7. ↑ Roland Steinacher: Die Vandalen offers an up-to-date overview with a discussion of the research . The rise and fall of a barbarian empire. Stuttgart 2016, p. 49ff .; concise but informative: Guy Halsall: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376-568. Cambridge et al. 2007, pp. 210-212.
  8. ↑ See Helmut Castritius: The Vandals. Stuttgart et al. 2007, p. 48ff.
  9. ↑ So above all Peter Heather, who recently argued against researchers like Guy Halsall and Walter Goffart , who see internal conflicts in the empire (and not external attackers) as decisive, as these would have led the barbarians to attack in the first place. See Peter J. Heather: Why Did the Barbarian Cross the Rhine? In: Journal of Late Antiquity 2, 2009, pp. 3-29.
  10. ↑ Andy Merrills, Richard Miles: The Vandals. Oxford-Malden / MA 2010, p. 35 f.
  11. ↑ See also Roland Steinacher: Die Vandalen. The rise and fall of a barbarian empire. Stuttgart 2016, p. 50.
  12. ↑ Prosper 1229 f., In: Chronica Minora I, ed. by Theodor Mommsen ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , AA 9), Berlin 1892, p. 465.
  13. ↑ See Helmut Castritius: The Vandals. Stuttgart et al. 2007, p. 50 f.
  14. ↑ Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos 7,38,1-4.
  15. ↑ For details see Ralf Scharf: Der Dux Mogontiacensis and the Notitia Dignitatum. Berlin et al. 2005.
  16. ↑ General Peter J. Heather: The Fall of the Roman Empire. London 2005, p. 206 ff.
  17. ↑ See Stevens Courtenay Edward Stevens: Marcus, Gratian, Constantine. In: Athenaeum 35, 1957, here p. 317 f.
  18. ^ Frigeridus, Historia , received as an excerpt from Gregor von Tours , Decem libri historiarum , 2.9. Helmut Castritius: The Vandals. Stuttgart et al. 2007, p. 59f. relocates this event to the year 410 and to Hispania, with which he follows the reinterpretation by Phillip Wynn ( Frigeridus, the British tyrants and the early fifth century barbarian invasions of Gaul and Spain. In: Athenaeum 85, 1997, pp. 69–117) connects. Usually this episode is dated immediately before the Rhine crossing, see for example Michael Kulikowski: Barbarians in Gaul, Usurpers in Britain. In: Britannia 31, 2000, here p. 326; John Martindale et al .: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . Vol. 2. Cambridge 1980, pp. 515f.
  19. ^ Michael Kulikowski: Barbarians in Gaul, Usurpers in Britain. In: Britannia 31, 2000, pp. 325-345.
  20. ^ Michael Kulikowski: Barbarians in Gaul, Usurpers in Britain. In: Britannia 31, 2000, here p. 328 f.
  21. ↑ Ralf Scharf: The Dux Mogontiacensis and the Notitia Dignitatum. Berlin et al. 2005, p. 121 ff., On the criticism of Kulikowski's approach: ibid., P. 122: “If Radagais was the obstacle up to this point, which obstacle is still in the way? Neither Kulikowski nor Schumacher answer this question in particular. They closed one of their alleged loopholes in the causal chain by simply tearing open another. "
  22. ↑ See AR Birley: The Roman Government of Britain. Oxford 2005, pp. 455ff.
  23. ↑ See the self-critical statement in Michael Kulikowski: Rome's Gothic Wars . Cambridge 2007, p. 217, note 37.