Ampsivarii

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Ampsivarii

The Ampsivarii, sometimes referenced by modern writers as Ampsivari (a simplification not warranted by the sources), were a Germanic tribe mentioned by ancient authors. Their homeland was originally around the middle of the river Ems, which flows into the North Sea

North Sea

The North Sea is a marginal sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean....
, at the Dutch-German border.

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North Sea

Bructeri

The Bructeri were a Germanic tribe located in northwestern Germany , between the Lippe River and Ems rivers south of the Teutoburg Forest, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia around 100 BC through 350....
minori (located at the delta of the Yssel) and the Bructerii maiori that were living south of them at the end of the Ems. The name for them is supposed to be a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
rendering of the Germanic "Ems-werer", meaning "men of the Ems". Reconstruction of the location of other tribes in the area places the Ampsivarii at the lower Ems. In fact at least two modern cities are names after the Ems there: Emden

Emden

Emden is a city and seaport in the northwest of Germany, on river Ems . It is the main city of the region of East Frisia; in 2006, the city had a total population of 51,692....
(German) and Emmen (Dutch).

Tacitus

The first history tells us of this Germanic identity is very nearly its end. Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman Senate and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories —examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors....
in Annales

Annales

Annals or annales are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year....
Chapter 13.54,56, relates the sad fate of the men of the Ems, at which they arrived because they refused to accept a greater identity than that of a tribesman; i.e., to become part of a nation. The problem began with their refusal to support Arminius

Arminius

Arminius, also known as Armin or Hermann was a chieftain of the Cherusci who defeated a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest....
in his surprise attack on three Roman legions at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest took place in 9 A.D. when an alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius, the son of Segimer of the Cherusci, ambushed and destroyed three Roman Empire Roman legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus....
in the year 9. The tribes that did support him later became the greater alliance of the Franks

Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
and Saxons

Saxons

The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic peoples. Their modern-day descendants in Saxony are considered ethnic Germans; those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch people; those in north eastern Belgium are considered to be ethnic Flemish people; and those in southern England ethnic English people ....
.

Subsequently the Chauci

Chauci

The Chauci were a populous Germanic tribes that inhabited the extreme northwestern shore of Germany between Frisia in the west and the Elbe estuary in the east....
attacked them (the year 58) and drove them from their lands on the Ems. They became refugees, hosted by various tribes in the west of Germany. Meanwhile, the Roman army had cleared out the lower Rhine

Rhine

File:Swiss Grand Canyon.jpgThe Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at , with an average discharge of more than ....
, which they were using as a no-man’s land between Germany and Belgium. The principate had resolved to stop imperial expansion at the Rhine.

The Frisii, however, misinterpreted Roman inaction. Believing a rumor that the Roman army had been ordered not to move against them, they occupied some lands along the Rhine, and were told in no uncertain terms to get out. When they refused a troop of Roman cavalry swept them out.

The Ampsivarii now made a bid for the land, petitioning the Roman commander in the region. Their chief, Boiocalus, having personally refused Arminius (spending some time in prison for it and then serving Rome in some capacity) had received the status of friend of Rome. The petition went sour, but Tacitus does not clarify the reason. The Romans were insisting on the meliorum imperia, the "authority of betters", which seems to imply that the Ampsivarii were being invited to throw in their lot with the Romans.

Privately Boiocalus, as a memento of his 50-year friendship, was promised land though he felt obliged to reject on the grounds that it would make him a traitor. It is possible that his Celt

Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
ic name reflects a Celtic origin of his family, in which case the question of betrayal might have been an issue, or it might simply have been that he was known to have been loyal to Rome. As it turned out the Roman offer was to be the last the Ampsivarii would receive.

They now formed a defensive alliance with the Tencteri and Bructeri

Bructeri

The Bructeri were a Germanic tribe located in northwestern Germany , between the Lippe River and Ems rivers south of the Teutoburg Forest, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia around 100 BC through 350....
, two more tribes of the future Franks, but this hasty relationship was too little and too late. The Romans entered the lands of the Tencteri and threatened to annihilate them. Both allies withdrew from the alliance, the Romans withdrew from their country, and the Ampsivarii stood alone. Having to chosen to join nether side at the critical moment, they now had all sides against them.

They went on up the Rhine, hosted by some tribes, resisted by others, until the fighting men were all dead. The survivors were distributed as praeda, booty, meaning slaves, to various tribes and so the identity did not go on to appear in Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman Greek mathematics, Greek astronomy, geographer and astrologer. He lived in History of Roman Egypt, and was probably born there in a town in the Thebaid called Ptolemais Hermiou; he died in Alexandria around 168 AD....
.

Sulpicius Alexander

The name appearing in the title belonged to a historian of Germanic tribes, Sulpicius Alexander

Sulpicius Alexander

Sulpicius Alexander was a Roman Empire historian of Germanic tribes. His work is lost, but his Historia in at least four books is quoted by Gregory of Tours....
, whose works are all lost except for quotes in Gregory of Tours

Gregory of Tours

Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman History and Bishops of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather....
. In one quote the Ampsivarii appear again some few hundred years after their loss in Tacitus. In the quote, a Roman general of Frankish family, Arbogastes (died 394), attacked the Franks across the Rhine and works some devastation. A force of Chatti

Chatti

The Chatti were an ancient Germanic tribes whose homeland was near the Weser. They settled in central and northern Hesse and southern Lower Saxony, along the upper reaches of the Weser river and in the valleys and mountains of the Eder, Fulda and Werra river regions, a district approximately corresponding to Hesse-Kassel, though probably so...
and Ampsivarii under Marcomer

Marcomer

Marcomer was a Franks leader in the late 4th century that invaded the Roman Empire in the year 388, when the usurper and leader of the whole of Roman Gaul, Magnus Maximus was surrounded in Aquileia by Theodosius I....
was seen on a distant hill, but the two did not engage. The circumstances imply that some Ampsivarii had found refuge among the Chatti and still held a tribal identity.

Notitia Dignitatum

Not long after the death of Arbogastes the emperor, Honorius

Honorius

Honorius may refer to:* Honorius , western Roman emperor 395-423* Honorius of Canterbury , archbishop of Canterbury 627-655* Honoratus of Amiens , bishop of Amiens...
, had little time to spend on the Franks, as Italy was being overrun by Goths

Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
. Honorius was the emperor who replied to the British request for help against Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
invaders that they should defend themselves as best they could. The Notitia Dignitatum

Notitia Dignitatum

The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Ancient Rome imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western Roman empires, listing several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial level....
, which lists Roman units and their heraldry, indicates that the Franks were taken as auxiliaries into the Roman army. A unit of Ampsivarii appears there.

Ampsivarii

Tacitus

Sulpicius Alexander

Notitia Dignitatum

See also

External links