Sicambri

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Sicambri

The Sicambri (var. Sicambers, Sicambres, Sigambrer, Sugumbrer, or Sugambri) were a Germanic people living in what is now called the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
at the turn of the first millennium. Originating in the Germanic

Germanic peoples

Nordwestblock

The Nordwestblock , is a hypothetical cultural region, that several 20th century scholars propose as a prehistoric culture, thought to be roughly bounded by the rivers Werra, Aller, Somme and Oise during the Bronze and Iron Ages ....
), they had become Frankish

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....
by the 4th century, associated with the Low Franconian Salians

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....
.

Sicambri appear in history around 55 BC, during the time of conquests of Gaul

Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
by Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
and his expansion of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
.

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Encyclopedia

The Sicambri (var. Sicambers, Sicambres, Sigambrer, Sugumbrer, or Sugambri) were a Germanic people living in what is now called the Netherlands

Netherlands

Germanic peoples

Nordwestblock

Franks

Salian Franks

History

The Sicambri appear in history around 55 BC, during the time of conquests of Gaul

Gaul

Julius Caesar

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. Caesar wrote in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico
Commentarii de Bello Gallico

Commentarii de Bello Gallico is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of his nine years of Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. The Latin title, literally Commentaries about the Gallic War, is often retained in English translations of the book, and the title is also translated to About the Gallic War, Of the Ga...
that at the confluence of 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 ....
and Meuse River

Meuse River

File:01-Namur-290305 JPG.jpgThe Meuse , is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea....
a battle took place in the land of the Menapii

Menapii

Category:Tribes involved in Caesar's Gallic WarsThe Menapii were a Belgae tribe of northern Gaul in pre-Roman and Roman Empire times....
with Tencteri and Usipetes. When these two peoples were routed by him their cavalry escaped and found asylum north of the river with the Sicambri. Caesar then built a bridge across the river to punish the Sicambri.

Claudius Ptolemy located the Sicambri, together with the Bructeri Minores

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....
, at the most northern part of the Rhine and south of the Frisians

Frisians

The Frisians are an ethnic group of Germanic people living in coastal parts of The Netherlands and Germany. They are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia....
who inhabit the coast north of the river. Strabo

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
located the Sicambri next to the Menapii, “who dwell on both sides of the river 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 ....
near its mouth, in marshes and woods. It is opposite to these Menapii that the Sicambri are situated". So the Sicambri must have lived at the lower Rhine in what is now called the Netherlands.

When Caesar defeated the Eburones

Eburones

The Eburones , were a people of Germanic or Celtic descent that lived in the upper north of Gaul largely between the Rhine and the Maas, east of the Menapii....
he invited all of the peoples that were interested to destroy the remainder. The Sicambri responded to Caesar's call. They took large amounts of cattle, slaves and plunder. Caesar commented that "these men are born for war and raids", "No swamp or marsh will stop them". After the raid on Eburones they moved on against the Romans. They destroyed some of Caesars units, in revenge of his campaign against them and when the remains of the legion withdrew into the city Atuatuca the Sicambri went back across the Rhine.

In 16 BC their leader Melo, brother of Baetorix, organised a raid and defeated a Roman army under the command of Marcus Lollius

Marcus Lollius

Marcus Lollius Paulinus, Ancient Rome was a general, the first governor of Galatia and served as consul in 21 BC. In 16 BC, when governor of Gaul , he was defeated by the Sicambri and Tencteri and Usipetes, German tribes who had crossed the Rhine....
, which sparked a reaction from the Roman Empire and helped start the series of Germanic Wars

Germanic Wars

The Germanic Wars is a name given to a series of Wars between the Ancient Rome and various Germanic tribes between 113 BC and 439 A.D. The nature of these wars varied through time between Roman conquest, Germanic uprisings and later Germanic invasions in Roman Empire that started in the late 2nd century....
. Later the Sicambri under Deudorix, son of Baetorix, joined the rebellion of 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....
with whom they terminated the 3 Roman legions of Publius Quinctilius Varus

Publius Quinctilius Varus

Publius Quinctilius Varus was a Ancient Rome politician and general under emperor Augustus, mainly remembered for having lost three Roman legions and his own life when attacked by Germanic tribes leader Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest....
.

In 11 BC, a part of this tribe was forced by Nero Claudius Drusus

Nero Claudius Drusus

Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus , born Decimus Claudius Drusus also called Drusus, Drusus I, Nero Drusus, or Drusus the Elder was a Roman Empire politician and military commander....
to move to the south side of the lower Rhine, where they evidently formed a component 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....
. The main part of the Sicambri "migrated deep into the country anticipating the Romans" according to Strabo

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
.

Language

Many names of Sicambrian leaders end in typical Belgicized

Belgae

The Belgae were a group of tribes living in northern Gaul in the 1st century BC, and later also in Roman Britain. They gave their name to the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, and later, to the modern country of Belgium, where they are colloquially known as the "Old Belgians"....
suffixes like -rix, probably indicating intense contacts with Belgian neighbours like the Menapi, and different from other Germanic tribes. In Frankish times, these Belgicisms are attested as the main difference by which to distinguish Frankish and Old Dutch

Old Dutch

Old Dutch is a linguistic term denoting the forms of West Franconian spoken and written during the early Middle Ages in the Netherlands and the northern part of present-day Belgium....
from other Germanic languages like High German.

Sicambri as poetic equation of Salian Franks

In Roman and Merovingian times, it was a custom to declare panegyrics. These poetic declarations were held for fun or propaganda to entertain guests and please rulers. Those panegyrics played an important role in the transmission of culture. One of the ritual customs of these poetic declarations is the use of archaic names for contemporary things. Romans were often called "Trojans", and 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....
were called Sicamber. An example of this custom is remembered by the 6th century historian 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....
(II, 31), who states that the Merovingian Frankish leader Clovis I

Clovis I

Clovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Franks under one king. He succeeded his father Childeric I in 481 as King of the Salian Franks, one of the Frankish tribes who were then occupying the area west of the lower Rhine, with their centre around Tournai and Cambrai along the modern frontier between France and Belgium, in an...
, on the occasion of his baptism into the Catholic

Catholic

Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek language adjective , meaning "whole" or "complete". In the context of Christianity ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages....
faith, was referred to as Sicamber by Saint Remigius

Saint Remigius

Saint Remigius , was Bishop of Reims and Apostle of the Franks, . On 24 December 496 he baptism Clovis I, List of Frankish monarchs. This baptism, leading to the conversion of the entire Frankish people to Nicene Christianity, was a momentous success for the Roman Catholic Church and a seminal event in European history....
, the officiating bishop of Rheims. At the crucial moment of Clovis' baptism, Remigius declared "Now you must bend down your head, you proud Sicamber. Honour what you have burnt. Burn what you have honoured". It is likely that in this way, a link between the Sicambri and the Salian Franks, who were Clovis' people, was recalled.

More examples of Salians being called Sicamber can be found in the Panegyrici Latini

Panegyrici Latini

The Panegyrici Latini or Latin Panegyrics is a collection of twelve Ancient Rome panegyric orations. The authors of most of the speeches in the collection are anonymous, but appear to have been Gallic in origin....
, Life of King Sigismund, Life of King Dagobert and other sources.

Sicambri in Frankish mythology

An anonymous work of 727 called Liber Historiae Francorum
Liber Historiae Francorum

Liber historiae Francorum is a book that briefly starts as secondary source for early Franks in the time of Marcomer, and it gives a short breviarum until the time of the late Merovingians, where it becomes an important primary source of the contemporain history....
states that following the fall of Troy

Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
, 12,000 Trojans led by chiefs Priam

Priam

In Greek mythology, Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means "exceptionally courageous"....
and Antenor

Antenor (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Antenor was a son of the Dardanian noble Aesyetes by Cleomestra. He was one of the wisest of the Trojan elders and counsellors....
moved to the Tanais

Tanais

Tanais is the ancient name for the Don River, Russia in Russia. Strabo regarded it as the boundary between Europe and Asia.In antiquity, Tanais was also the name of a city in the Don river delta that reaches into the northeasternmost part of the Sea of Azov, which the Greeks called Lake Maeotis....
(Don) river, settled in Pannonia

Pannonia

Pannonia is an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
near the Sea of Azov

Sea of Azov

The Sea of Azov is the world's shallowest sea, linked by the Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south. It is bounded on the north by Ukraine, on the east by Russia and on the west by the Crimean peninsula....
and founded a city called Sicambria. In just 2 generations from the fall of Troy (by modern scholars dated in the late Bronze Age) they arrive in the late 4th century AD at the Rhine. A variation of this story can also be read in Fredegar, and similar tales continue to crop up repeatedly throughout obscure, mediaeval-era European literature.

These stories have obvious difficulties. Historians, including eyewitnesses like Caesar, have given us accounts that place the Sicambri firmly at the delta of the Rhine, and archaeologists have confirmed ongoing settlement of peoples. Furthermore the myth does not come from the Sicambri themselves, but from later Franks, and includes an incorrect geography. But most of all these stories are a "farrago nonsense" (Wood), for a man does not live that long. For these reasons, and since the Sicambri were known to have been Germanic

Germanic peoples

File:Germanische-ratsversammlung 1-1250x715.jpgThe Germanic peoples are a historical Ethnolinguistics group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European languages Germanic languages which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age....
, and not Scythian or Cimmerian as the story claims, modern scholars reject it as an unhistorical legend. For example J.M. Wallace-Hadrill states that "this legend is quite without historical substance". Ian Wood says that "these tales are obviously no more than legend" and "nonsensical", "in fact there is no reason to believe that the Franks were involved in any long-distance migration".

External links

(in French)

Sources

Julius Caesar - Commentarii de Bello Gallico
Commentarii de Bello Gallico

Commentarii de Bello Gallico is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of his nine years of Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. The Latin title, literally Commentaries about the Gallic War, is often retained in English translations of the book, and the title is also translated to About the Gallic War, Of the Ga...
, particularly Book 6, Chapter 35
Tacitus - Annals
Strabo - Geography
Ptolemy - The Geography
Fredegar - The 4th book of the chronicle of Fredegar with its continuations, translated by J. M. Wallace-Hadrill. Books on Demand, reprint 2005.
Ian Wood - The Merovingian Kingdoms. Pearson Education, 1994.