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Bructeri

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The approximate positions of some Germanic peoples reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the first century.

The Roman-era Bructeri (from Latin; Greek: Βρούκτεροι, Broukteroi, or Βουσάκτεροι, Bousakteroi) and their successors, the early medieval Boructuare, were a Germanic people, who lived in north-western Germany, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, just outside the Roman empire. The Romans originally reported them living east of the lower Rhine river, stretching from both sides of the upper River Ems in the north, to both sides of the River Lippe in the south. At its greatest extent, their territory apparently stretched between the vicinities of the Rhine in the west and the Teutoburg Forest and Weser river in the east.

By the fourth century AD the Bructeri had moved south of the Lippe to settle upon the east bank of the Rhine facing Roman Cologne, probably absorbing their long-time neighbours the Tencteri who were reported living in this area previously. In this period the Bructeri were categorized by at least some Roman authors using the new term, "Franks".

Name

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In the first century forms such as Latin Bructeri and Greek Βρουκτεροι dominate, but much later names which seem to evolved from those tend to begin with Bo-, Borhter, Borahtra, and Boructuarii. The name is formed in a way which is notably similar to the neighbouring Tencteri.[1] Concerning the name's first component there have been several proposals to connect the name to Germanic languages, as listed by Neumann:

  • One proposal is that the name's first component is related to the verb "to break" and would have meant "defection, resistance, rebellion", perhaps indicating that they were "the rebels" - either as a character trait, or because of some historical event involving the tribe.
  • Another proposals is that it is related to Middle High German brogen ("to rise, display pride"), ultimately derived from an Indo-European root bheregh- meaning "high", or "elevated". This would make it related to Germanic words referring to fortifications, but Neumann considers this explanation unlikely because of the exact form of the Bructeri name.
  • Thirdly, the name may arise from the Germanic root bruk-, meaning "useful, beneficial".
  • A fourth proposal listed by Neumann is that the word derives from a proposed Indo-European root bhr̥g- meaning "brushwood", or "thicket".

First century

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During the reign of Augustus and his dynasty's campaigns east of the Rhine into Germania Magna, the Bructeri were among the most dangerous enemies of Rome along with the Cherusci and Chatti. Compared to many neighbouring tribes they had a relatively large population and homeland, and could put significant armies into the field.[2]

The Bructeri were one of the Germanic peoples, along with the coastal Frisii and Chauci who were divided by the geographer Strabo writing in about 20 AD into major and minor divisions. He described the Lippe river running through the territory of the lesser Bructeri (Βουσάκτεροι), about 600 stadia from the Rhine. Ptolemy's much later geography, written in the second century AD, clearly used older sources such as Strabo, and also divided the Bructeri into lesser and greater sections. Ptolemy assumes that the Rhine was parallel to the Ems, and enters the sea while still flowing northwards. The Lesser Bructeri on the Rhine just south of the coastal Frisii on the east side of the Rhine mouths. Ptolemy places the greater Bructeri between the Ems and the Weser, to the south of a part of the Chauci.[3]

In surviving Roman works, the first mention of the Bructeri was in the autumn of 12 BC, when Drusus the Elder fought the Bructeri's boats on the Ems River with his fleet. Petrokovits argues that this implies that that the Bructeri must have lived north of Rheine on the Ems at this time, in order for the river to be big enough for a naval battle.[4]

In 4 AD Velleius Paterculus, described how Tiberius crossed the Rhine that year and attacked, according to the badly transcribed text, “cam ui faciat Tuari Bructeri” indicating, according to modern interpretations, that he moved from north of the Rhine delta in what is now the Netherlands, first through the lands of either the Chamavi or Cananefates, then east through the country of the Chattuari, and then further east to the Bructeri. From there they went still further to the Cherusci.[5]

Based upon reports of the aftermath, in 9 AD the Bructeri must have been part of the alliance under the leadership of Arminius that defeated the Roman general Varus and annihilated his three legions at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. In 11 CE, Tiberius probably marched from present-day Neuss on the Rhine, to defeat the southern Bructeri living near the Lippe.[6] Germanicus took a similar route in 14 CE, to fight the Marsi, and the Bructeri, Tubantes, and Usipetes, who presumably all lived close by, attempted to ambush the Romans during their return from this slaughter, but it did not work.[7]

In 15 AD, during Germanicus’ summer campaign, the Romans clashed with the Bructeri twice. Aulus Caecina Severus led 40 cohorts through the territory of the northern Bructeri to the Ems, showing that the Bructeri at this time had settlements west of that river. The Bructeri resisted but were defeated by one of the generals serving under Germanicus, Lucius Stertinius. Among the booty captured by Stertinius was the eagle standard of Legio XIX that had been lost at Teutoburg Forest. The Romans then turned to the rest of the Bructeri country. According to Tacitus, the "troops were then marched to the furthest frontier of the Bructeri, and all the country between the rivers Amisia and Luppia was ravaged, not far from the forest of Teutoburgium, where the remains of Varus and his legions were said to lie unburied".[8] Bructeri prisoners were paraded alongside other Germanic captives in Germanicus’ triumph in 17 CE.[9]

In 69-70 AD the Bructeri participated in the Batavian rebellion. The best known of the Bructeri was their wise virgin Veleda, the spiritual leader of the Batavi rising, regarded as a goddess.[10] She foretold the success of the Germans against the Roman legions during the Batavian revolt. A Roman Munius Lupercus was sent to offer her gifts but was murdered on the road.[11] The inhabitants of Cologne, the Ubii, asked for her as an arbiter; "they were not, however, allowed to approach or address Veleda herself. In order to inspire them with more respect they were prevented from seeing her. She dwelt in a lofty tower, and one of her relatives, chosen for the purpose, conveyed, like the messenger of a divinity, the questions and answers."[12]

In his Germania, Tacitus reported that the Chamavi and Angrivarii had moved to the territories of the Bructeri, after having driven them out and totally annihilated them, in alliance with other nearby populations, whom the Latin writer thanks for "offering delight to Roman eyes", without Rome having to intervene. More than 60,000 of the Bructeri fell.

"May the tribes, I pray, ever retain if not love for us [Romans], at least hatred for each other; for while [...], fortune can give no greater boon than discord among our foes."[13]

Tacitus (56 AD – 117 AD) on the other hand, states that the Bructeri had been forced from their territory, which he describes as having been north of the Tencteri who were on the Rhine at the time, between Cologne and the Chatti. This was done by the Chamavi and Angrivarii, who neighbored the Bructeri upon their north, along with other neighboring tribes. More than sixty thousand fell in this conflict, which the Romans had been able to observe with satisfaction.[14] Pliny the Younger (died 113) mentioned in a letter (2.7) that in his time "a triumphal Statue was decreed by the Senate to Vestricius Spurinna", at the notion of the emperor, because he "had brought the King of the Bructeri into his Realm by force of War; and even subdu'd that rugged Nation, by the Sight and Terror of it, the most honourable kind of Victory".

Later antiquity

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The Bructeri eventually disappear from historical records, apparently absorbed into the Frankish communities of the early Middle Ages. The final mentions of their name seem to indicate this, and also that they had moved south from their old position north of the Lippe.

In 307–308, after having spent the year before fighting Franci raiding along the Rhine and the executions of instigators Ascaric and Merogais, emperor Constantine led a punitive expedition against the Bructeri over the Rhine and built a bridge at Cologne.

In 392 AD, according to a citation by Gregory of Tours, Sulpicius Alexander reported that Arbogast crossed the Rhine to punish the Franks for incursions into Gaul. He first devastated the territory of the Bricteri, near the bank of the Rhine, then the Chamavi, apparently their neighbours. Neither of these tribes confronted him. The Ampsivarii and the Chatti however were under military leadership of the Frankish princes Marcomer and Sunno and they appeared "on the ridges of distant hills". At this time the Bructeri apparently lived near Cologne.

In the Peutinger map, the Bructeri also appear as a distinct entity on the opposite side of the Rhine to Cologne and Bonn, the Burcturi, with Franks to their north, and Suevi to their south. This has been interpreted to mean that the Bructeri had moved into the area previously inhabited by the Tencteri and Usipetes, which had in the time of Caesar been inhabited by the Ubii (who had in turn crossed the Rhine to inhabit Cologne as Roman citizens during imperial times).

Sidonius Apollinaris, in his Poems, VII, lists the Bructeri among the allies who crossed the Rhine into Gaul under Attila in 451, leading to the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields. (After them are listed the Franks living along the Neckar River.) But it is possible, according for example to E. A. Thompson that Sidonius included names of historical tribes, for effect.

The name of the Arboruchoi (Αρβόρυχοι), a people described by Procopius (550s) as living in Gaul next to the Franks who lived along the lower Rhine during the time of Clovis I (c. 490), have also been proposed to be Bructeri. According to Procopius, they were Roman foederati who warred with the Franks before joining and merging with them, although they retained some of the customs from their Roman service down to Procopius' time. Not all scholars accept their identification with the Bructeri, however, which depends on a misspelling by Procopius (Arboruchoi for Arboruchtoi).[15]

Boructuari and Borthari

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At the beginning of the eighth century, Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People lists among the peoples "from whom the Angles and Saxons who now live in Britain derive their origin" the Boructuari (original Latin,[16] Old English Bede Boructuare). In the same passage Bede also lists the Frisians, Rugians, Danes, Huns and continental Saxons. This name is usually identified with that of the Bructeri.[17] According to Walter Pohl, the mention of these later Boructuari, may be a classical allusion designed to establish continuity between the barbarian present and past.[18] Ian Wood, noting that the Bricteri of Gregory of Tours are usually considered either a Saxon or Frankish group, suggests that the Boructuari represent a Frankish component in the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.[19] Gregory also reported that Saint Suitbert tried to convert these Boructuari to Christianity in the late 7th century, when he was bishop of the Frisians, but that during this period they were attacked by the Saxons.[20]

Bede records that around 692, the Saxons conquered the Boructuari.[21]

After the Saxons had conquered their homeland, Bructeri were found in Thuringia; their name is preserved in the names Großbrüchter and Kleinbrüchter, in the municipality Helbedündorf.[22]

About 738, the Borthari are one of the peoples of Germania addressed in a letter of Pope Gregory III, the others being the Hessians, Thuringians, Nistresi, Wedrecii, Lognai, Suduodi and Graffelti. The letter was carried by Boniface. In it, Gregory advises the peoples and their princes to accept Boniface's religious authority and to abandon the pagan customs they had rejected at baptism. The Borthari are usually identified with Bede's Boructuari.[23]

Under the Carolingians the name of the Bructeri was still being used for a gau in the region near where they had originally lived, the so-called Brukterergau (or Borahtra, Botheresgau, Botheresge, Pagus Boroctra). This was however now south of the Lippe, and north of the Ruhr river, in the area classically inhabited by the Sicambri. This area is today the well-known and heavily populated Ruhr region of Germany.[24]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Neumann 1978.
  2. ^ Petrokovits 1978, p. 585.
  3. ^ Schütte 1917, p. 61 and Schmidt 1940, pp. 420–421 citing Strabo, Geography 7.1 and Ptolemy 2.10
  4. ^ Petrokovits 1978, p. 582 citing Strabo 7.1.3 p.290
  5. ^ Lanting & van der Plicht 2010, pp. 55&60 citing Velleius Paterculus 2.105
  6. ^ Petrokovits 1978, p. 584 citing Velleius 2.105.1; Tacitus, Annales 1.50; Suetonius, Tiberius 19.
  7. ^ Petrokovits 1978, p. 584 citing Tacitus, Annales, 1.51.
  8. ^ Petrokovits 1978, p. 585 citing Tacitus, Annales, 1.60
  9. ^ Petrokovits 1978, p. 584 citing Strabo 7.1.4.
  10. ^ Tac. Ger. 8
  11. ^ Tac. Hist. 4.61
  12. ^ Tac. Hist. 4.65
  13. ^ Tac. Ger. 33
  14. ^ Tac. Ger. 33
  15. ^ Jean-Pierre Poly (2016), "Freedom, Warriors' Bond, Legal Book: The Lex Salica Between Barbarian Custom and Roman Law", Clio et Thémis, 11: 1–25[permanent dead link‍], at 10.
  16. ^ Michael Lapidge (ed.), Paolo Chiesa (trans.), Beda, Storia degli Inglesi = Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Arnoldo Mondadori, 2010), p. 358.
  17. ^ Windy A. McKinney (2011), Creating a gens Anglorum: Social and Ethnic Identity in Anglo-Saxon England through the Lens of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica (PDF) (PhD diss.), University of York, pp. 10 & 135.
  18. ^ Walter Pohl (1997), "Ethnic Names and Identities in the British Isles: A Comparative Perspective", in John Hines (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, Boydell Press, pp. 7–32, at 15.
  19. ^ Ian N. Wood (1997), "Before and After the Migration to Britain", in John Hines (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, Boydell Press, pp. 41–53, at 41 & 44.
  20. ^ Bede https://archive.org/details/CompleteWorksOfVenerableBedeV03/page/n211/mode/2up
  21. ^ John-Henry Clay, In the Shadow of Death: Saint Boniface and the Conversion of Hessia, 721–54 (Brepols, 2010), p. 157.
  22. ^ Schimpff, Volker (2007). "Sondershausen und das Wippergebiet im früheren Mittelalter - einige zumeist namenkundliche Bemerkungen eines Archäologen". Alt-Thüringen (in German). 40: 291–302.
  23. ^ John-Henry Clay, In the Shadow of Death: Saint Boniface and the Conversion of Hessia, 721–54 (Brepols, 2010), pp. 197–198. The Nistresi are perhaps the Niftharsi or else the people of the river Nister. The Wedrecii are probably people of the river Wetschaft. The Suduodi are unidentifiable. The Graffelti are the people of the Grabfeld.
  24. ^ Zeuss (1837), Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme

Bibliography

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