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The Ripuarian Franks (Latin: Ripuari) were 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....
 that lived in along the middle-Rhine River during the Roman Era.

name Ripuarian, and variants Ripaurii and Riparii, may have come from the Roman word ripa, (Latin for "river bank"), to mean people from the 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 ....
 according to Perry, although the connection to "ripa" is considered "doubtful" to other historians.






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The Ripuarian Franks (Latin: Ripuari) were 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....
 that lived in along the middle-Rhine River during the Roman Era.

Etymology

The name Ripuarian, and variants Ripaurii and Riparii, may have come from the Roman word ripa, (Latin for "river bank"), to mean people from the 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 ....
 according to Perry, although the connection to "ripa" is considered "doubtful" to other historians. Generally Ripuarian refers to a people river-dwelling along the Rhine, and would be used to differentiate them from the Salian Franks
Salian Franks

File:Seal_of_Childeric_I_Tournai tomb.jpgThe Salian Franks or Salii were a subgroup of the early Franks who originally had been living north of the limes in the coastal area above the Rhine River in the northern Netherlands, where today there still is a region called Salland....
 (the Franks of the Sal, the IJssel River
IJssel

River IJssel , sometimes called Gelderse IJssel to avoid confusion with its Hollandse IJssel namesake in the west of the Netherlands, is a branch of the Rhine in the Netherlands provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel....
 , or the Franks of the salty sea.) The first obscure reference to the Ripuarians has been attributed to the historian of the Goths Jornandes (aka Jordanes)
Jordanes

Jordanes , was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat , who turned his hand to history later in life.Though he also wrote Romana , a book about the history of Rome, his most known work is his Getica, written in Constantinople about AD 551 ....
. Jordanes alludes to them in Getica
Getica (Jordanes)

De origine actibusque Getarum , or the Getica, written by Jordanes in 551, is a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the origin and history of the Goths, the now lost Libri XII De Rebus Gestis Gothorum....
 (The Origin and Deeds of the Goths), dated approximately 551 AD, where he listed the "Riparii" as one of the Aetius
Aetius

Aetius or A?tius may refer to:* Aetius , 1st-century B.C. peripatetic philosopher* A?tius of Antioch, 4th-century Anomean theologian, called "Aetius the Atheist" by his enemies...
' allies in the Battle of Chalons
Battle of Chalons

The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains , also called the Battle of Ch?lons-en-Champagne or Battle of the Campus Mauriacus, took place in 451 between a coalition led by the Roman Empire general Flavius Aetius and the Visigoths king Theodoric I on one side and the Huns and their allies commanded by Attila the Hun on the other....
, in an auxiliary
Auxiliaries

The term auxiliaries comes from the Latin auxilia .It is generally used to describe people employed in an organisation, often pre-existing as a reserve force, acting in support of a main military force....
 of tribes:

"Hi enim affuerunt auxiliares: Franci, Sarmatae, Armoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundiones, Saxones, Riparii, Olibriones ..."


Culture

Ripuarian was also the name of this people's language, it was known as one of the Central Franconian
Central Franconian

Central Franconian is a name for the following set of dialect groups:* Ripuarian Franconian * Moselle Franconian * Luxembourgish language Luxembourgish is often included within Moselle Franconian, but sometimes regarded as a separate group....
 dialects.

Ancient mythology
Frankish mythology

File:Bees from the tomb of Childeric.jpgFrankish mythology comprises the mythology of the Franks, from its roots in polytheistic Germanic paganism through the inclusion of Greek mythology-Roman mythology components in the Early Middle Ages....
 and religion was pagan and Germanic
Germanic paganism

Germanic paganism refers to the religion beliefs of the Germanic peoples preceding Christianization. The best documented version of the Germanic pagan religions is 10th and 11th century Norse paganism, though other information can be found from Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic mythology....
 in nature. Their polytheistic beliefs are thought to have flourished among the Franks until the conversion of Clovis to Christianity, after which paganism withered slowly.

History

The people who came to be known as the Ripuarians probably composed the Frankish army that was defeated by Emperor Maximian
Maximian

Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus Herculius , commonly referred to as Maximian, was Caesar from July 285 and Augustus from April 1, 286 to May 1, 305....
 (250-310) in the battle at Treves
Trèves

Tr?ves may refer to:* The French name of the city of Trier, in Germany...
. They began to populate the regions of Andernach
Andernach

Andernach is a town in the district of Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany of currently about 30,000 inhabitants which are named der/die Andernacher , and the lady/-ies are die Andernacherin/-nen ....
 down the Rhine through the 5th Century and took possession of Cologne
Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants....
, where they held the left banks of the Rhine in the area known as Germania Secunda
Germania Secunda

In the early fourth-century Notitia Dignitatum, Germania Secunda , situated along the Lower Rhine and administered by a Consularis, was the name under the Dominate of Germania Inferior, a military border territory which had been established under the Flavian reorganization of the Roman Empire, out of northeasternmost Gaul, separated from Bel...
. They also spread into Belgica Secunda as far south as the Moselle River
Moselle River

The Moselle is a river flowing through France, Luxembourg and Germany. It is a left tributary of the Rhine river, joining it at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is also drained by the Mosel through the Our River....
, although without taking the City of Treves.

The Ripuarians appear in written history in the first half of the 7th century, when they received their Ripuarian laws (Lex Ripuaria
Lex Ripuaria

The Lex Ripuaria is a 7th century collection of Early Germanic law, the laws of the Ripuarian Franks. It is a major influence on the Lex Saxonum of AD 802....
) from the dominating Salian Franks.

See also

  • Ripuarian language
  • Salian Franks
    Salian Franks

    File:Seal_of_Childeric_I_Tournai tomb.jpgThe Salian Franks or Salii were a subgroup of the early Franks who originally had been living north of the limes in the coastal area above the Rhine River in the northern Netherlands, where today there still is a region called Salland....


Footnotes