1.
Germanic peoples
–
The Germanic peoples are an ethno-linguistic Indo-European group of Northern European origin. They are identified by their use of Germanic languages, which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, the term Germanic originated in classical times when groups of tribes living in Lower, Upper, and Greater Germania were referred to using this label by Roman scribes. Tribes referred to as Germanic by Roman authors generally lived to the north, in about 222 BCE, the first use of the Latin term Germani appears in the Fasti Capitolini inscription de Galleis Insvbribvs et Germ. This may simply be referring to Gaul or related people, the term Germani shows up again, allegedly written by Poseidonios, but is merely a quotation inserted by the author Athenaios who wrote much later. Somewhat later, the first surviving detailed discussions of Germani and Germania are those of Julius Caesar, from Caesars perspective, Germania was a geographical area of land on the east bank of the Rhine opposite Gaul, which Caesar left outside direct Roman control. This usage of the word is the origin of the concept of Germanic languages. In other classical authors the concept sometimes included regions of Sarmatia, also, at least in the south there were Celtic peoples still living east of the Rhine and north of the Alps. Caesar, Tacitus and others noted differences of culture which could be found on the east of the Rhine, but the theme of all these cultural references was that this was a wild and dangerous region, less civilised than Gaul, a place that required additional military vigilance. Caesar used the term Germani for a specific tribal grouping in northeastern Belgic Gaul, west of the Rhine. He made clear that he was using the name in the local sense and these are the so-called Germani Cisrhenani, whom Caesar believed to be closely related to the peoples east of the Rhine, and descended from immigrants into Gaul. Caesar described this group of both as Belgic Gauls and as Germani. Gauls are associated with Celtic languages, and the term Germani is associated with Germanic languages, but Caesar did not discuss languages in detail. It has been claimed, for example by Maurits Gysseling, that the names of this region show evidence of an early presence of Germanic languages. The etymology of the word Germani is uncertain, the likeliest theory so far proposed is that it comes from a Gaulish compound of *ger near + *mani men, comparable to Welsh ger near, Old Irish gair neighbor, Irish gar- near, garach neighborly. Another Celtic possibility is that the name meant noisy, cf. Breton/Cornish garm shout, however, here the vowel does not match, nor does the vowel length ). Others have proposed a Germanic etymology *gēr-manni, spear men, cf. Middle Dutch ghere, Old High German Ger, Old Norse geirr. However, the form gēr seems far too advanced phonetically for the 1st century, has a vowel where a short one is expected. The term Germani, therefore, probably applied to a group of tribes in northeastern Gaul who may or may not have spoken a Germanic language
Germanic peoples
–
Germanic
Thing (governing assembly), drawn after the depiction in a relief of the
Column of Marcus Aurelius, 193 CE.
Germanic peoples
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The gilded side of the
Trundholm sun chariot
Germanic peoples
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The Dejbjerg wagon, National Museum of Denmark
Germanic peoples
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2nd century to 5th century simplified migrations
2.
Upper Rhine
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The Upper Rhine is the section of the Rhine in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basle in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529, the Upper Rhine is one of four sections of the river between Lake Constance and the North Sea. The countries and states along the Upper Rhine are Switzerland, France, the largest cities along the river are Basle, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Mainz. The Upper Rhine was straightened between 1817 and 1876 by Johann Gottfried Tulla and made navigable between 1928 and 1977, the Treaty of Versailles allows France to use the Upper Rhine for hydroelectricity in the Grand Canal dAlsace. On the left bank are the French region of Alsace and the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the bank are the German states of Baden-Württemberg. The first few kilometres are in the Swiss city of Basle, around 35 million years ago, a rift valley of about 300 kilometres long and 50 kilometres wide came into being between the present cities of Basle and Frankfurt. This was due to stresses in the Earths crust and mantle. The moat has been filled up again by sedimentation. On the edges we find mountain ridges, the rift flanks. On the eastern side, they are the Black Forest and Odenwald mountains, in the west the Vosges, during the tertiary, the High Rhine continued west from Basle and flowed via the Doubs and the Saône, into the Rhône. The rift diverted the Rhine into the newly formed Upper Rhine Valley, the two largest tributaries come from the right, the Neckar in Mannheim, the Main across from Mainz. In 1685, Louis XIV started a project to move the Upper Rhine, change its course, by 1840, the river had been moved up to 1.5 kilometres to the east, taking territory away from Baden. Around 1790, large parts of the Rhine Valley were deforested, creating arable land, fields, the length of the Upper Rhine was reduced by 81 kilometres. Some cut-off river arms and ox-bows remain, they are called the Old Rhine or Gießen. The Rhine between Basle and Iffezheim is almost entirely canalised, on a stretch of 180 kilometres, there are 10 dams, provided with hydropower stations and locks. Only when there is a supply of water, then the old river bed will receive more water than the canal. The straightening and channeling reduced the water table by up to 16 metres and thus had an effect on flora. Gravel is also missing from the river, due to the dams and this has caused erosion below the dam at Iffezheim
Upper Rhine
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Satellite View of the Upper Rhine Valley and the upper Rhine; on the top left are the
Rhenish Slate Mountains; on the bottom right
Lake Constance
Upper Rhine
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Sunset on the Rhine at Mannheim
Upper Rhine
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The Rhine at Mainz
Theodor Heuss Bridge in Mainz
Upper Rhine
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Straightening monument
3.
Caracalla
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Caracalla, formally Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus, was Roman emperor from AD198 to 217. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was the eldest son of Septimius Severus, Caracalla reigned jointly with his father from 198 until Severus death in 211. Caracalla then ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta, with whom he had a fraught relationship, Caracallas reign was marked by domestic instability and external invasions from the Germanic people. Caracallas reign was notable for the Antonine Constitution, also known as the Edict of Caracalla, the edict gave all the enfranchised men Caracallas adopted praenomen and nomen, Marcus Aurelius. Towards the end of his rule, Caracalla began a campaign against the Parthian Empire and he did not see this campaign through to completion due to his assassination by a disaffected soldier in 217. He was succeeded as emperor by Macrinus after three days, Caracalla is presented in ancient sources as a tyrant and cruel leader, an image that has survived into modernity. Dio Cassius and Herodian present Caracalla as a soldier first and emperor second, in the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth started the legend of Caracallas role as the king of Britain. Later, in the 18th century, Caracallas memory was revived in the works of French artists due to the parallels between Caracallas apparent tyranny and that of King Louis XVI, Modern works continue to portray Caracalla as a psychopathic and evil ruler. His rule is remembered as being one of the most tyrannical of all Roman emperors, Caracalla was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus. He was renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus at the age of seven as part of his fathers attempt at union with the families of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. According to Aurelius Victor in his Epitome de Caesaribus, he became known by the agnomen Caracalla after a Gallic hooded tunic that he habitually wore and he may have begun wearing it during his campaigns on the Rhine and Danube. Dio generally referred to him as Tarautas, after a famously diminutive, Caracalla was born in Lugdunum, Gaul, on 4 April 188 to Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. He had a younger brother, Geta, who would briefly rule as co-emperor alongside him. Caracallas father, Septimius Severus, appointed Caracalla joint Augustus and full emperor from the year 198 onwards and his brother Geta was granted the same title in 210. In 202 Caracalla was forced to marry the daughter of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, Fulvia Plautilla, by 205 Caracalla had succeeded in having Plautianus executed for treason, though he had probably fabricated the evidence of the plot himself. It was then that he banished his wife, whose later killing might have carried out under Caracallas orders. Caracallas father, Septimius Severus, died on 4 February 211 at Eboracum while on campaign in Caledonia, Caracalla and his brother, Publius Septimius Antoninus Geta, jointly inherited the throne upon their fathers death. Caracalla and Geta ended the campaign in Caledonia after concluding a peace with the Caledonians that returned the border of Roman Britain to the line demarcated by Hadrians Wall
Caracalla
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Caracalla
Caracalla
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O: laureate head of Caracalla ANTONINVS PIVS
AVG GERM
Caracalla
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This medallion exemplifies the typical manner in which Caracalla was depicted.
Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.
4.
Agri Decumates
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The only ancient reference to the name comes from Tacitus book Germania. However the later geographer Claudius Ptolemy does mention the desert of the Helvetians in this area, the meaning of Decumates is lost and has been the subject of much contention. According to the English Classicist Michael Grant, the word refers to an ancient Celtic term indicating the political division of the area into ten cantons. Another theory is that the term implies that a tithe was paid by residents living in this country, according to Tacitus, the region was originally populated by the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii, but soon Germanic and Gaulish settlers arrived. Tacitus writes that, I should not reckon among the German tribes the cultivators of the tithe-lands, although they are settled on the side of the Rhine. Reckless adventurers from Gaul, emboldened by want, occupied land of questionable ownership. After a while, our frontier having been advanced, and our military positions pushed forward, it was regarded as a remote nook of our empire, under the Flavian and later emperors, Romans took control and settled the region. They built a network for military communications and movements. Frontier fortifications were constructed along a line running Rheinbrohl—Arnsburg—Inheiden—Schierenhof—Gunzenhausen—Pförring, the larger Roman settlements were Sumolecenna, Civitas Aurelia Aquensis, Lopodunum. and Arae Flaviae. The Emperor Aurelian may have had the region briefly reoccupied during the Roman resurgence of the late 3rd century under the military emperors. Even if this did occur, re-establishment of Roman rule was brief, after the Emperor Probus death, the region was finally given up and the Alemanni took control. Germanic peoples have inhabited the region since then. However, Roman settlements were not immediately abandoned, there is evidence the Roman way of life continued well into the 5th century, much as Roman patterns continued in neighboring Gaul long after the Western Roman Empires collapse. J. G. F. Lukas, de Blois, The Policy of the Emperor Gallienus, Leiden, E. J. W. Wilson, ISBN 0-7607-4134-4 Hind, whatever Happened to the Agri Decumates. Britannia,5, pp. 187–192 Strayer, Joseph R
Agri Decumates
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The Roman Empire in AD 120 and Germania, with some Germanic tribes mentioned by Tacitus in AD 98
5.
Alsace
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Alsace is a cultural and historical region in eastern France now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Alsace is located on Frances eastern border and on the west bank of the upper Rhine adjacent to Germany, from 1982 until January 2016, Alsace was the smallest of 22 administrative regions in metropolitan France, consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Territorial reform passed by the French legislature in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est. The predominant historical language of Alsace is Alsatian, a Germanic dialect also spoken across the Rhine, but today most Alsatians primarily speak French, the political status of Alsace has been heavily influenced by historical decisions, wars, and strategic politics. The economic and cultural capital as well as largest city of Alsace is Strasbourg, the city is the seat of several international organizations and bodies. The name Alsace can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz, an alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass, meaning seated on the Ill, a river in Alsace. In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters, by 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. It should be noted that Alsace is a surrounded by the Vosges mountains. It creates Foehn winds which, along with irrigation, contributes to the fertility of the soil. In a world of agriculture, Alsace has always been a region which explains why it suffered so many invasions and annexations in its history. By 58 BC, the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture, to protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania Superior, with the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine, Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac, and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized, Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia, which was ruled by the eldest grandson Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts, the part known as Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was given to Lothars son. The rest was shared between Lothars brothers Charles the Bald and Louis the German, the Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, however, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the duchy of Swabia. Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors, Frederick I set up Alsace as a province to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants
Alsace
Alsace
Alsace
Alsace
6.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
Switzerland
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Founded in 44 BC by
Lucius Munatius Plancus,
Augusta Raurica was the first Roman settlement on the Rhine and is now among the most important archaeological sites in Switzerland.
Switzerland
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Flag
Switzerland
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The 1291 Bundesbrief (Federal charter)
Switzerland
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The Old Swiss Confederacy from 1291 (dark green) to the sixteenth century (light green) and its associates (blue). In the other colors are shown the subject territories.
7.
Old High German
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Old High German is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 700 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the half of the 8th century. There are, however, a number of Elder Futhark inscriptions dating to the 6th century, as well as single words, during the migration period, the Elbe Germanic tribes settled in what became Alamannia, the Duchy of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Lombardy. Old High German comprises the dialects of these groups which underwent the Second Sound Shift during the 6th Century, namely all of Elbe Germanic, in the south, the Langobards, who had settled in Northern Italy, maintained their dialect until their conquest by Charlemagne in 774. This area did not become German-speaking again until the German eastward expansion of the early 12th century, though there was some attempt at conquest, Old High German literacy is a product of the monasteries, notably at St. Gallen, Reichenau and Fulda. Its origins lie in the establishment of the German church by Boniface in the mid 8th century, einhard tells how Charlemagne himself ordered that the epic lays should be collected for posterity. It was the neglect or religious zeal of later generations that led to the loss of these records, thus, it was Charlemagnes weak successor, Louis the Pious, who destroyed his fathers collection of epic poetry on account of its pagan content. Hrabanus Maurus, a student of Alcuins and abbot at Fulda from 822, was an important advocate of the cultivation of German literacy, among his students were Walafrid Strabo and Otfrid of Weissenburg. Notker Labeo towards the end of the Old High German period was among the greatest stylists in the language, the main difference between Old High German and the West Germanic dialects from which it developed is that it underwent the High German consonant shift. This is generally dated approximately to the late 5th and early 6th centuries—hence dating its start to around 500, the result of this sound change is that the consonantal system of German remains different from all other West Germanic languages, including English and Low German. Grammatically, however, Old High German remained very similar to Old English, Old Dutch, by the mid 11th century the many different vowels found in unstressed syllables had all been reduced to /ə/. Since these vowels were part of the endings in the nouns and verbs. For these reasons,1050 is seen as the start of the Middle High German period, for this reason the dialects may be termed monastery dialects. It declined after the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by the Franks in 774 and it is classified as Upper German on the basis of evidence of the Second Sound Shift. The continued existence of a West Frankish dialect in the Western, claims that this might have been the language of the Carolingian court or that it is attested in the Ludwigslied, whose presence in a French manuscript suggests bilingualism, are controversial. The charts show the vowel and consonant systems of the East Franconian dialect in the 9th century and this is the dialect of the monastery of Fulda, and specifically of the Old High German Tatian. Old High German had five long vowels and six phonemic short vowels. Both occurred in stressed and unstressed syllables, notes, All back vowels likely had front-vowel allophones as a result of Umlaut
Old High German
–
The (Late Old High) German speaking area of the
Holy Roman Empire around 950.
8.
Battle of Tolbiac
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The Battle of Tolbiac was fought between the Franks, who were fighting under Clovis I, and the Alamanni, whose leader is not known. The date of the battle has traditionally given as 496. The site of Tolbiac, or Tolbiacum, is given as Zülpich, North Rhine-Westphalia. The Franks were successful at Tolbiac and established their dominance over the Alamanni, the Franks were two neighboring peoples, and allies, the Salian Franks, whose king was Clovis, and the Ripuarian Franks, whose capital was Cologne and whose king was Sigebert the Lame. Bordering on Sigeberts kingdom were the Alemanni, a confederation of Germanic tribes, border incidents, looting and punitive raids multiplied between the Alemanni and Ripuarian Franks, but in 496 Sigebert suffered a real invasion and called on Clovis for help. Clovis responded favorably to his ally and raised an army and it is generally accepted that in defending Tolbiac, Sigebert and his army suffered heavy losses. There were two battles of Tolbiac, little is known about the battle, except that the Ripuarian Franks were probably of no help after the first battle. Clovis saw his warriors being killed and felt the battle was getting out of hand, moved to tears, he called upon the God of his wife Clotilde, the God that she had preached to him since their marriage in 493, asking for his help. Indeed, I invoked my gods, and, as I am experiencing, they failed to help me, which makes me believe that they are endowed with no powers, that they do not come to the aid of those who serve. Its to you I cry now, I want to believe in you if only I may be saved from my opponents, at these words, the Alemanni began to flee, as their leader had been killed with an axe. The Franks subdued or killed the remaining Alemanni and he became a Christian in a ceremony at Reims at Christmas 496. The traditional date of the battle of Tolbiac has been established to accord with this firmly attested baptismal date, a surviving letter from Avitus of Vienne, congratulating Clovis on his baptism, makes no mention of the supposed recent battlefield conversion. It came about that as the two armies were fighting fiercely, there was much slaughter, and Cloviss army began to be in danger of destruction. For I have invoked my own gods but, as I find, they have withdrawn from aiding me, I now call upon thee, I desire to believe thee only let me be rescued from my adversaries. And when he said thus, the Alamanni turned their backs, and when they saw that their king was killed, they submitted to the dominion of Clovis, saying, Let not the people perish further, we pray, we are yours now. And he stopped the fighting, and after encouraging his men, retired in peace and this happened in the fifteenth year of his reign. Then the queen asked saint Remi, bishop of Rheims, to summon Clovis secretly, urging him to introduce the king to the word of salvation. And the bishop sent for him secretly and began to urge him to believe in the true God, maker of heaven and earth, and to cease worshipping idols and this was reported to the bishop, who was greatly rejoiced, and bade them get ready the baptismal font
Battle of Tolbiac
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"The Battle of Tolbiac" by
Ary Scheffer.
Galerie des Batailles
Battle of Tolbiac
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Battle of Tolbiac. Fresco at the
Panthéon (
Paris) by
Joseph Blanc, c. 1881.
9.
Franks
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Some Franks raided Roman territory, while other Frankish tribes joined the Roman troops of Gaul. In later times, Franks became the rulers of the northern part of Roman Gaul. The Salian Franks lived on Roman-held soil between the Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse, and Somme rivers in what is now Northern France, Belgium, the kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after 357 CE. Following the collapse of Rome in the West, the Frankish tribes were united under the Merovingians, who succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, which greatly increased their power. The Merovingian dynasty, descendants of the Salians, founded one of the Germanic monarchies that would absorb large parts of the Western Roman Empire, the Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. This empire would gradually evolve into the state of France and the Holy Roman Empire, in the Middle Ages, the term Frank was used in the east as a synonym for western European, as the Franks were then rulers of most of Western Europe. The Franks in the east kept their Germanic language and became part of the Germans, Dutch, Flemings, the Franconian languages, which are called Frankisch in Dutch or Fränkisch in German, originated at least partly in the Old Frankish language of the Franks. Nowadays, the German and Dutch names for France are Frankreich and Frankrijk, respectively, the name Franci was originally socio-political. To the Romans, Celts, and Suebi, the Franks must have seemed alike, they looked the same and spoke the same language, so that Franci became the name by which the people were known. Within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the tribes, though the older names have survived in some place-names, such as Hesse. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English and it has been suggested that the meaning of free was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation. It is traditionally assumed that Frank comes from the Germanic word for javelin, there is also another theory that suggests that Frank comes from the Latin word francisca meaning. Words in other Germanic languages meaning fierce, bold or insolent, eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures, Ubi nunc est illa ferocia. Feroces was used often to describe the Franks, contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. According to their law and their custom, writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that the word Frankish quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of the River Loire everyone seems to have considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest. Two early sources describe the origin of the Franks are a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar. Neither of these works are accepted by historians as trustworthy, compared with Gregory of Tourss Historia Francorum, the chronicle describes Priam as a Frankish king whose people migrated to Macedonia after the fall of Troy
Franks
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Aristocratic Frankish grave goods from the Merovingian period
Franks
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A 19th century depiction of different Franks (AD 400–600)
Franks
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Detail of the
Tabula Peutingeriana, showing Francia at the top
Franks
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A 6th-7th century necklace of glass and ceramic beads with a central amethyst bead. Similar necklaces have been found in the graves of Frankish women in the Rhineland.
10.
Clovis I
–
He is considered to have been the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries. Clovis was the son of Childeric I, a Merovingian king of the Salian Franks, and Basina, in 481, at the age of fifteen, Clovis succeeded his father. Clovis is important in the historiography of France as the first king of what would become France and his name is Germanic, composed of the elements hlod and wig, and is the origin of the later French given name Louis, borne by 18 kings of France. Dutch, the most closely related language to Frankish, reborrowed the name as Lodewijk from German in the 12th century. Clovis was baptized on Christmas Day in 508, numerous small Frankish kingdoms existed during the 5th century. After the collapse of Roman power in the last days of 406 the Salian Franks had expanded to the south of the military highway Boulogne-Cologne. The powerbase of Clovis father was the area around Tournai, in the current province of Hainault, upon the death of his father, Merovech in 457 Childeric I, Clovis father, became king of the subgroup of the Salian Franks based around Tournai. In 463 he fought in conjunction with Aegidius, the magister militum of northern Gaul, Childeric died in 481 and was buried in Tournai, Clovis succeeded him as king, aged just 15. Under Clovis, the Salian Franks came to dominate their neighbours, historians believe that Childeric and Clovis were both commanders of the Roman military in the Province of Belgica Secunda and were subordinate to the magister militum. Clovis then had the Frankish king Chararic imprisoned and executed, a few years later, he killed Ragnachar, the Frankish king of Cambrai, along with his brothers. Another victory followed in 491 over a group of Thuringians to the east. By this time Clovis had conquered all the Frankish kingdoms to the west of the River Maas and he secured an alliance with the Ostrogoths through the marriage of his sister Audofleda to their king, Theodoric the Great. With the help of the Ripuarian Franks he narrowly defeated the Alamanni in the Battle of Tolbiac in 496 and he made Paris his capital and established an abbey dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul on the south bank of the Seine. In 500 Clovis fought a battle with the Burgundian kingdom at Dijon but was unable to subdue them, the battle added most of Aquitaine to Clovis kingdom and resulted in the death of the Visigothic king Alaric II. According to Gregory of Tours, following the Battle of Vouillé, since Clovis name does not appear in the consular lists, it is likely he was granted a suffect consulship. Clovis became the first king of all Franks in 508, after he had conquered Cologne and this contrasted with Catholicism, whose followers believe that God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three persons of one being. By the time of the ascension of Clovis, Gothic Arians dominated Christian Gaul and this included his wife, Clotilde, a Burgundian princess who was a Catholic in spite of the Arianism that surrounded her at court. Clotilde evangelized Clovis to convert to Catholicism, which he initially resisted, Clotilde had wanted her son to be baptized, but Clovis refused to allow it, so Clotilde had the child baptized without Cloviss knowledge
Clovis I
–
Clovis roi des Francs by
François-Louis Dejuinne (1786–1844)
Clovis I
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Clovis I leading the Franks to victory in the
Battle of Tolbiac, in
Ary Scheffer 's 19th-century painting
Clovis I
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Frankish territories at the time of Clovis' death
Clovis I
–
Tomb of Clovis I at the
Basilica of St Denis in
Saint Denis
11.
Frankish Empire
–
The kingdom was founded by Clovis I, crowned first King of the Franks in 496. The tradition of dividing patrimonies among brothers meant that the Frankish realm was ruled, nominally, even so, sometimes the term was used as well to encompass Neustria north of the Loire and west of the Seine. Most Frankish Kings were buried in the Basilica of Saint Denis, modern France is still named Francia in Spanish and Italian. The Franks emerged in the 3rd century as a confederation of smaller Germanic tribes, such as the Sicambri, Bructeri, Ampsivarii, Chamavi and Chattuarii, in the area north and east of the Rhine. Some of these peoples, such as the Sicambri and Salians, already had lands in the Roman Empire, in 357 the Salian king entered the Roman Empire and made a permanent foothold there by a treaty granted by Julian the Apostate, who forced back the Chamavi to Hamaland. As Frankish territory expanded, the meaning of Francia expanded with it, after the fall of Arbogastes, his son Arigius succeeded in establishing a hereditary countship at Trier and after the fall of the usurper Constantine III some Franks supported the usurper Jovinus. Jovinus was dead by 413, but the Romans found it difficult to manage the Franks within their borders. The Frankish king Theudemer was executed by the sword, in c, around 428 the Salian king Chlodio, whose kingdom included Toxandria and the civitatus Tungrorum, launched an attack on Roman territory and extended his realm as far as Camaracum and the Somme. The kingdom of Chlodio changed the borders and the meaning of the word Francia permanently, Francia was no longer barbaricum trans Rhenum, but a landed political power on both sides of the river, deeply involved in Roman politics. Chlodios family, the Merovingians, extended Francia even further south, the core territory of the Frankish kingdom later came to be known as Austrasia. Chlodios successors are obscure figures, but what can be certain is that Childeric I, possibly his grandson, Clovis converted to Christianity and put himself on good terms with the powerful Church and with his Gallo-Roman subjects. In a thirty-year reign Clovis defeated the Roman general Syagrius and conquered the Roman exclave of Soissons, defeated the Alemanni, Clovis defeated the Visigoths and conquered their entire kingdom with its capital at Toulouse, and conquered the Bretons and made them vassals of Francia. He conquered most or all of the neighbouring Frankish tribes along the Rhine, by the end of his life, Clovis ruled all of Gaul save the Gothic province of Septimania and the Burgundian kingdom in the southeast. The Merovingians were a hereditary monarchy, the Frankish kings adhered to the practice of partible inheritance, dividing their lands among their sons. Cloviss sons made their capitals near the Frankish heartland in northeastern Gaul, Theuderic I made his capital at Reims, Chlodomer at Orléans, Childebert I at Paris, and Chlothar I at Soissons. During their reigns, the Thuringii, Burgundes, and Saxons and Frisians were incorporated into the Frankish kingdom, the fraternal kings showed only intermittent signs of friendship and were often in rivalry. Theuderic died in 534, but his adult son Theudebert I was capable of defending his inheritance, which formed the largest of the Frankish subkingdoms and the kernel of the later kingdom of Austrasia. Theudebert interfered in the Gothic War on the side of the Gepids and Lombards against the Ostrogoths, receiving the provinces of Rhaetia, Noricum, and part of Venetia
Frankish Empire
–
The Carolingian Empire at its greatest extent, with the three main divisions of 843 and tributary nations to the east.
Frankish Empire
–
A coin depicting
Charlemagne with the inscription KAROLVS IMP AVG (Karolus imperator augustus)
Frankish Empire
–
Louis the Pious on a sesquisolidus
Frankish Empire
–
Carolingian empire 843-888
12.
Germanic paganism
–
Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period. Germanic paganism took various forms in different areas of the Germanic world, the best documented version was that of 10th and 11th century Norse religion, although other information can be found from Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic sources. Scattered references are found in the earliest writings of other Germanic peoples. The information can be supplemented with archaeological finds and remnants of pre-Christian beliefs in later folklore, Germanic paganism was polytheistic, with similarities to other Indo-European religions. The Common Germanic period begins with the European Iron Age, contemporary to the Celtic La Tene culture to the south, early Germanic history remains in the prehistoric period until the earliest descriptions in Roman ethnography in the 1st century BC. The earliest forms of the Germanic religion can only be speculated on based on archaeological evidence, the first written description is in Julius Caesars Commentarii de Bello Gallico. He contrasts the religious custom of the Gauls with the simpler Germanic traditions. A much more detailed description of Germanic religion is Tacituss Germania, Tacitus describes both animal and human sacrifice. He identifies the chief Germanic god with the Roman Mercury, who on certain days receives human sacrifices, while gods identified by Tacitus with Hercules and Mars receive animal sacrifice. The largest Germanic tribe, Suebians, also sacrifices, allegedly of captured Roman soldiers. Nerthus is revered by Reudignians, Aviones, Angles, Varinians, Nerthus is believed to directly interpose in human affairs. Her sanctuary is on an island, specifically in a wood called Castum, a chariot covered with a curtain is dedicated to the goddess, and only the high priest may touch it. The priest is capable of seeing the goddess enter the chariot, drawn by cows, the chariot travels through the countryside, and wherever the goddess visits, a great feast is held. During the travel of the goddess, the Germanic tribes cease all hostilities, when the priest declares that the goddess is tired of conversation with mortals, the chariot returns and is washed, together with the curtains, in a secret lake. The slaves who administer this purification are afterwards thrown into the lake, according to Tacitus, the Germanic tribes think of temples as unsuitable habitations for gods, and they do not represent them as idols in human shape. Instead of temples, they consecrate woods or groves to individual gods, divination and augury was very popular, To the use of lots and auguries, they are addicted beyond all other nations. Their method of divining by lots is exceedingly simple, from a tree which bears fruit they cut a twig, and divide it into two small pieces. These they distinguish by so many several marks, and throw them at random and without order upon a white garment
Germanic paganism
–
A
Migration Period Germanic gold
bracteate featuring a depiction of a bird, horse, and stylized head wearing a
Suebian knot sometimes theorized to represent Germanic god
Wōden and what would later become
Sleipnir and
Hugin or Munin in
Germanic mythology, later attested in the form of
Norse mythology. The
runic inscription includes the religious term
alu.
Germanic paganism
–
Idunn and the apples of youth.
13.
Germanic Christianity
–
The Germanic peoples underwent gradual Christianization in the course of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. By AD700, England and the Frankish Empire were officially Christian, in the 4th century, the early process of Christianization of the various Germanic people was partly facilitated by the prestige of the Christian Roman Empire among European pagans. Until the decline of the Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes who had migrated there had converted to Christianity, many of them, notably the Goths and Vandals, adopted Arianism instead of the Trinitarian beliefs that were dogmatically defined by the Catholic Church in the Nicene Creed. The gradual rise of Germanic Christianity was, at times, voluntary, from the 6th century, Germanic tribes were converted by missionaries of the Catholic Church. Many Goths converted to Christianity as individuals outside the Roman Empire, most members of other tribes converted to Christianity when their respective tribes settled within the Empire, and most Franks and Anglo-Saxons converted a few generations later. In the 3rd century, East-Germanic peoples migrated into the steppes, north of the Black Sea in what today is South West Ukraine, Crimean Peninsula and from there to Bessarabia and todays Romania. The Greuthungi or Ostrogoths lived in Bessarabia and the Thervingi lived in the provinces of Moldova and Valachia, Gothic culture and identity emerged from various East-Germanic, Sarmatian, local Dacian, and Roman influences. In the same period, Gothic raiders took captives among the Romans, including many Christians, Ulfilas, or Wulfila, was the son or grandson of Christians from Sadagolthina in Cappadocia who had been taken captive by the Goths. In 337 or 341, Ulfilas was sent by Arian emperor Constantius II to preach to the Goths in their language, and became the first bishop of the Goths. By 348, one of the Gothic kings began persecuting the Christian Goths, between 348 and 383, Ulfilas translated the Bible into the Gothic language. The Chronicle of St. Denis relates that, following Clovis conversion, a number of pagans who were unhappy rallied around Ragnachar, though the text remains unclear as to the precise pretext, Clovis had Ragnachar executed. Remaining pockets of resistance were overcome region by region, primarily due to the work of a network of monasteries. The Alamanni became Christians only after a period of syncretism during the 7th century, the Lombards adopted Catholic Christianity as they entered Italy, also during the 6th century. Until 1066, by time the Danes and the Norse had lost their foothold in Britain, theological and missionary work in Germany was largely organized by Anglo-Saxon missionaries. A key event was the felling of Thors Oak in 723 near Fritzlar by Boniface, apostle of the Germans, Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England began around AD600, influenced by the Gregorian mission from the south-east and the Hiberno-Scottish mission from the north-west. Gregory I sent the first Archbishop of Canterbury, Augustine, to southern England in 597 and this process was often only partial, perhaps due to confusion as to the nature of the new religion, or for a desire to take the best of both traditions. A famous case of this was king Raedwald of East Anglia and his suspected burial place at Sutton Hoo shows definite influences of both Christian and pagan burial rites. The last pagan Anglo-Saxon king, the Jutish king Arwald of the Isle of Wight, was killed in battle in 686 fighting against the imposition of Christianity in his kingdom, Scandinavia was the last part of Germanic Europe to convert and most resistant
Germanic Christianity
–
9th century depiction of Christ as a heroic warrior (Stuttgart Psalter, fol. 23, illustration of
Psalm 91:13)
Germanic Christianity
–
Figure carved on the Frankish grave stele of
Niederdollendorf (7th century), known as the earliest material witness of Christian presence in the German Rhineland; the figure is presumably a depiction of Christ as a heroic warrior wielding a lance, with a halo or crown of rays emanating from his head.
Germanic Christianity
–
Ministry of Jesus &
Apostolic Age
14.
Carloman I
–
Carloman I, also Karlmann was king of the Franks from 768 until his death in 771. He was the surviving son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon and was a younger brother of Charlemagne. Little is known of him, except such as touches upon his famous father and brother. Carloman and Charlemagne each inherited a half of the Kingdom of the Franks upon Pepins death, Carlomans reign proved short and troublesome. The brothers shared possession of Aquitaine, which broke into rebellion upon the death of Pepin the Short, the two quarreled at Moncontour, near Poitiers, and Carloman withdrew. This, it had suggested, was an attempt to undermine Charlemagnes power. Charlemagne crushed the rebels, whilst Carlomans behaviour had damaged his own standing amongst the Franks, relations between the two then degenerated further, requiring the mediation of their mother, Bertrada, who appears to have favoured Charlemagne, with whom she would live out her widowhood. In 770, his mother Bertrada began a series of diplomatic offensive to encircle Carloman and these maneuvers had been favorable to the Franks in general, but posed serious threats to Carlomans position. Carlomans position was rescued, however, by Charlemagnes sudden repudiation of his Lombard wife, Desiderius, outraged and humiliated, appears to have made an alliance with Carloman in opposition to Charlemagne and the Papacy, which took the opportunity to declare itself against the Lombards. Carloman died on 4 December 771, at the Villa of Samoussy, at the time of his death, he and his brother Charlemagne were close to outright war, which Charlemagnes biographer Einhard attributes to the miscounsel of Carlomans advisors. Carloman was buried in Reims, but he was reburied in the Basilique Saint-Denis in the 13th century, Carloman had married a beautiful Frankish woman, Gerberga, who according to Pope Stephen III was chosen for him, together with Charlemagnes concubine, Himiltrude, by Pepin the Short. With Gerberga he had two sons, the older of whom was named Pepin after his grandfather, marking him according to Carolingian tradition as the heir of Carloman, and of Pepin the Short. Despite their difficult relationship, and the events following Carlomans death and this had, perhaps, been a public gesture to honour the memory of the boys uncle, and to quell any rumours about Charlemagnes treatment of his nephews. If so, it was away in 781, when Charlemagne had his son renamed as Pepin. He had several children with Gerberga, Pepin, Prince of the Franks unknown son Kunigunde or Auberge Ida, m. Eckbert II, count of Mersebourg Charles, Illegitimate Carloman, Illegitimate
Carloman I
–
A denarius minted by Carloman I
Carloman I
–
Pepin (751–768)
Charlemagne (768–814) Carloman I (768–771)
Louis the Pious (814–840)
Charles the Bald (840–877)
Louis the Stammerer (877–879)
Louis III (879–882)
Carloman II (879–884)
Charles the Fat (884–888)
Charles the Simple (898–922)
Louis IV (936–954)
Lothaire (954–986)
Louis V (986–987)
15.
Carolingian Empire
–
The Carolingian Empire was a large empire in western and central Europe during the early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lombards of Italy from 774. In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III in an effort to revive the Roman Empire in the west during a vacancy in the throne of the eastern Roman Empire. The unity of the empire and the right of the Carolingians continued to be acknowledged. In 884, Charles the Fat reunited all the kingdoms for the last time, but he died in 888 and the empire immediately split up. With the only remaining male of the dynasty a child, the nobility elected regional kings from outside the dynasty or, in the case of the eastern kingdom. The size of the empire at its inception was around 1,112,000 square kilometres, in southern Italy, the Carolingians claims to authority were disputed by the Byzantines and the vestiges of the Lombard kingdom in the Principality of Benevento. Use of the term Carolingian Empire is a modern convention, the language of official acts in the empire was Latin. The empire was referred to variously as universum regnum, Romanorum sive Francorum imperium, Romanum imperium or even imperium christianum. Only the remaining Saxon realms, which he conquered, Lombardy. Further, Martel cemented his place in history with his defense of Christian Europe against a Muslim army at the Battle of Tours in 732, the Iberian Saracens had incorporated Berber lighthorse cavalry with the heavy Arab cavalry to create a formidable army that had almost never been defeated. Christian European forces, meanwhile, lacked the powerful tool of the stirrup, in this victory, Charles earned the surname Martel. Edward Gibbon, the historian of Rome and its aftermath, called Charles Martel the paramount prince of his age, Pepin III accepted the nomination as king by Pope Zachary in about 751. Charlemagnes rule began in 768 at Pepins death and he proceeded to take control over the kingdom following his brother Carlomans death, as the two brothers co-inherited their fathers kingdom. Charlemagne was crowned Roman Emperor in the year 800, the Carolingian Empire during the reign of Charlemagne covered most of Western Europe, as the Roman Empire once had. Prior to the death of Charlemagne, the Empire was divided among members of the Carolingian dynasty. These included King Charles the Younger, son of Charlemagne, who received Neustria, King Louis the Pious, who received Aquitaine, and King Pepin, Pepin died with an illegitimate son, Bernard, in 810, and Charles died without heirs in 811. Although Bernard succeeded Pepin as King of Italy, Louis was made co-Emperor in 813, Louis the Pious often had to struggle to maintain control of the Empire
Carolingian Empire
–
The Carolingian Empire at its greatest extent, with the three main divisions of 843 and tributary nations to the east.
Carolingian Empire
–
A coin depicting
Charlemagne with the inscription KAROLVS IMP AVG (Karolus imperator augustus)
Carolingian Empire
–
Louis the Pious on a sesquisolidus
Carolingian Empire
–
Carolingian empire 843-888
16.
Bishopric of Constance
–
The Bishopric of Constance, or Prince-Bishopric of Constance, was a Prince-Bishopric and Imperial Estate of the Holy Roman Empire from the mid–12th century until its secularisation in 1802–1803. The much larger Roman Catholic Diocese of Konstanz existed from about 585 until its dissolution in 1821 and it belonged to the ecclesiastical province of Mainz since 780/782. They did not include the Imperial City of Constance nor Petershausen Abbey, in the south, the bishops territory bordered on the Landgraviate of Thurgau which was conquered by the Swiss Confederacy in 1460. While the Prince-Bishop was the ruler in his prince-bishopric, his powers in his diocese were limited to the pastoral duties exercised by any bishop. Originally subordinated to the Archdiocese of Besançon, Constance became suffragan to the Archdiocese of Mainz in 782, a deed by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in 1155 confirmed the princely status of the bishop and of his bishopric as an Imperial Estate. The territory of the prince-bishopric contracted during the centuries under pressure from both the Swiss Confederacy and the House of Habsburg. Furthermore, the city of Konstanz was granted the status of an imperial city. In 1527, during the Protestant Reformation, the seat of the Prince-Bishop was finally moved to Meersburg across Lake Constance. In the course of the German Mediatisation in 1803, the Prince-Bishopric was dissolved, while Wessenberg was supported by the government of Baden, the Pope never recognized his election as he disagreed with Wessenbergs liberal views. By a bull of 16 August 1821, the pope dissolved the diocese in order to prevent Wessenberg from becoming bishop, gebhard I von Wetterau, von Tegerfelden 27. Conrad I36 Warmann von Dillingen 32, Franz Johann von Vogt von Altensumerau und Prasberg 96. Johann Franz I. von Praßberg und Altensummerau 97, Johann Franz Schenk von Stauffenberg 99. Karl Theodor von Dahlberg Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg, elected in 1817 but never recognised by Pius VII, caspar Burchard Tuberflug, O. P. Daniel Zehender, O. F. M
Bishopric of Constance
–
The Bishopric of Constance lying astride the western end of Lake Constance
Bishopric of Constance
–
Upper Rhenish dioceses of Constance,
Straßburg,
Speyer, and
Worms, c. 1801
Bishopric of Constance
–
Constance Cathedral
Bishopric of Constance
–
The Old Palace in Meersburg, where the bishops lived until they built a new palace in the 18th century
17.
Raetia Curiensis
–
Raetia Curiensis was an Early medieval province in Central Europe named after the Roman province of Raetia. Its administrative capital was Chur (Curia Raetorum, the Roman province of Raetia was divided into Raetia prima and Raetia secunda under Diocletian in ca.300 AD. The bishopric of Chur was established by 452, nominally under Ostrogothic rule from 476, it appears that the bishops of Chur remained de facto independent rulers of Raetia prima. Theodoric appointed a dux for Raetia prima, who however had only military competences, Churraetia passed under nominal Frankish rule by 548. In the mid-8th century a surviving Lex Romana Curiensis, a Roman Law of Chur, was an epitome of the Breviary of Alaric. Charlemagne from the 770s appointed the bishops of Chur himself, increasing Frankish control over the territory, in 806 or 807, he legislated a division between episcopal and comital property, ending the de facto secular rule of the bishops of Chur, appointing Hunfried I as comes curiensis. For this reason, Churraetia became nominally part of Swabia and by extension of the Holy Roman Empire even though it had not historically part of Alemannia. With this as a base, the Hunfriding heirs were able to gather enough power that Burchard II was able to make himself duke of Swabia. Chur suffered several invasions in the 10th century, by the Magyars in 925/6, in the 12th century, these fell to the counts of Buchhorn, Bregenz and Tyrol, respectively. At the end of the period, political power passed to the Three Leagues which eventually became the Canton of Raetia in the Helvetic Republic. Raetia prima was occasionally known as Raetia Curiensis even from the 4th century, historically, it was also known as Churwalchen, Churwahlen in German. The existence of a medieval German/Latin language boundary at Walensee and the Churfirsten can still be perceived from the prevalence of Latin toponymy, bishopric of Chur Alemannia Medieval Switzerland Elisabeth Meyer-Marthaler. Römisches Recht in Rätien im frühen und hohen Mittelalter, Churrätien im frühen Mittelalter, Ende 5. Lothar Deplazes, Raetia Curiensis in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, otto P. Clavadetscher, Rätien im Mittelalter. ISBN3799570020 Ursus Brunold, Lothar Deplazes, Geschichte und Kultur Churrätiens, festschrift für Pater Iso Müller OSB zu seinem 85. ISBN 3-85637-112-5 Sebastian Grüninger, Grundherrschaft im frühmittelalterlichen Churrätien, ISBN3856373195 Wolfgang von Juvalt, Forschungen über die Feudalzeit im Curischen Raetien
Raetia Curiensis
–
map of Raetia Curiensis during the 9th to 11th centuries
18.
Duchy of Swabia
–
The Duchy of Swabia was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, and its dukes were thus among the most powerful magnates of Germany. Swabia takes its name from the tribe of the Suebi, dwelling in the angle formed by the Rhine and the Danube, they were joined by other tribes, and were called Alamanni, until about the 11th century, when the form Swabia began to prevail. The duchy was proclaimed by Burchard II in 917, Burchard had allied himself with king Conrad I and defeated his rivals for the rule of Alemannia in a battle at Wahlwies in 915. The most notable family to hold Swabia were the Hohenstaufen, who held it, with a brief interruption, for much of this period, the Hohenstaufen were also Holy Roman Emperors. The duchy persisted until 1268, ending with the execution of Conradin, Rudolph I of Germany in 1273 attempted to revive the title of duke of Swabia, bestowing it on his youngest son, the later Rudolf II, who passed it to his son John Parricida. John died without an heir, in 1312 or 1313, marking the end of the revived title, the Margraviate of Baden detached itself from the duchy in the 12th century. In 496 the Alamanni were defeated by King Clovis I, brought under Francia, in the 7th century the people were converted to Christianity, bishoprics were founded at Augsburg and Konstanz, and in the 8th century abbeys at Reichenau Island and Saint Gall. At this time the duchy, which was divided into gaus or counties and it was bounded by the Rhine, Lake Constance, the Lech River and the Duchy of Franconia. During the later and weaker years of the Carolingian Empire the counts became almost independent, the chief family in Alamannia was that of the counts of Raetia Curiensis, who were sometimes called margraves and sometimes, as in the case of Conrad II and Rudolf, dukes. Finally, Burchard I, was called duke of the Alaminnia and he was killed in 911, for which two counts palatine, Bertold and Erchanger, were accused of treason and put to death by order of the German king Conrad I. In 917, Burchard II, son of Burchard I and count in Raetia Curiensis, took the title of duke, and was recognized as such by King Henry I, the Fowler in 919. In the Battle at Winterthur in 919, Burchard defended the Thurgau against the claims of Rudolf II of Burgundy, Rudolf had attempted to expand his territory by capitalising on the feud between the Ahalolfing and Burcharding dynasties. He occupied the palace at Zürich and marched into the Thurgau from there and he was defeated by Burchard near Winterthur and was forced to abandon Zürich, retreating beyond the Reuss. Burchards position was virtually independent, and when he died in 926 he was succeeded by Hermann, a Franconian noble, liudolf revolted, and was deposed, and other dukes followed in quick succession. Burchard III, son of Burchard II, ruled from 954 to 973, when he was succeeded by Liudolfs son, Otto, afterwards duke of Bavaria, to 982, and Conrad I, a relative of Duke Hermann I, until 997. Hermann II, possibly a son of Conrad, succeeded, and, during these years the Swabians were loyal to the kings of the Saxon house, probably owing to the influence of the bishops. Hermann III had no children, and the passed to Ernest II, son of his eldest sister Gisela and Ernest I. In 1045 Henry, who had become German king as Henry III, granted Alamannia to Otto, grandson of the emperor Otto II and count palatine of the Rhine, and, in 1048, to Otto III, count of Schweinfurt
Duchy of Swabia
–
Map showing
Upper Burgundy (green) and the Duchy of Swabia (orange)
19.
Henry the Fowler
–
Henry the Fowler was the duke of Saxony from 912 and the elected king of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. An avid hunter, he obtained the epithet the Fowler because he was fixing his birding nets when messengers arrived to inform him that he was to be king. By his death in July 936 Henry had prevented collapse of royal power, as had happened in West Francia, Henry died on July 2,936 in his royal palace in Memleben, one of his favourite places. He was buried at Quedlinburg Abbey, established by his wife Matilda in his honor, in 906 he married Hatheburg von Merseburg, daughter of the Saxon count Erwin. She had previously been a nun, the marriage was annulled in 909 because her vows as a nun were deemed by the church to remain valid. She had already given birth to Henrys son Thankmar, the annulment placed a question mark over Thankmars legitimacy. Later that year he married Matilda, daughter of Dietrich of Ringelheim, Matilda bore him three sons, one called Otto, and two daughters, Hedwig and Gerberga, and founded many religious institutions, including the Quedlinburg Abbey where Henry is buried. Henry became Duke of Saxony after his fathers death in 912, an able ruler, he continued to strengthen the position of his duchy within the weakening kingdom of East Francia, and was frequently in conflict with his neighbors to the South in Duchy of Franconia. On December 23,918 Conrad I, king of East Francia and Franconian duke, although Henry had rebelled against Conrad I between 912 and 915 over the lands in Thuringia, Conrad recommended Henry as his successor. Kingship now changed from Franks to Saxons, who had suffered greatly during the conquests of Charlemagne and were proud of their identity, Henry, as Saxon, was the first non-Frank on the throne. Conrads choice was conveyed by his brother, duke Eberhard III of Franconia at the Imperial Diet of Fritzlar in 919, the assembled Franconian and Saxon nobles elected Henry to be king with other regional dukes not participating in election. Henry, who was elected to kingship by only Saxons and Franconians at Fritzlar, had to subdue other dukes, Duke Arnulf of Bavaria did not submit until Henry defeated him in two campaigns in 921. Henry besieged his residence at Ratisbon and forced Arnulf into submission, Arnulf had crowned himself as king of Bavaria in 919, but in 921 renounced crown and submitted to Henry while maintaining large autonomy and the right to mint his own coins. Duke Burchard II of Swabia soon swore fealty to the new King, Henry was too weak to impose absolutist rule, and regarded his kingdom as a confederation of stem duchies rather than as a feudal monarchy and saw himself as primus inter pares. In 920 king of West Francia Charles the Simple invaded and marched as far as Pfeddersheim near Worms, on November 7,921, Henry and Charles met and concluded a treaty of friendship. Henry then saw an opportunity to wrest Lotharingia when a war over royal succession began in West Francia after coronation of king Robert I. In 923 Henry crossed the Rhine twice, capturing a part of the duchy. The eastern part of Lotharingia was left in Henrys possession until October 924, in 925 duke Gilbert of Lotharingia rebelled
Henry the Fowler
–
Henry's seal from a document of 30 March 925. He is portrayed as a warrior, with a spear and shield. The words are HEINRICUS REX (King Henry).
Henry the Fowler
–
Legend of the German crown offered to Henry,
Hermann Vogel (1854–1921)
Henry the Fowler
–
Himmler at Henry's grave, 1938
20.
Stem duchy
–
The Carolingians had dissolved the original tribal duchies of the Frankish Empire in the 8th century. As the Carolingian Empire declined in the late 9th century, the old tribal areas assumed new identities as the subdivisions of the realm and these are the five stem duchies, Bavaria, Franconia, Lotharingia, Saxony and Swabia. The term Stammesherzogtum as used in German historiography dates to the mid-19th century, the terms applicability, and the nature of the stem duchies in medieval Germany consequently have a long history of controversy. The overly literal or etymologizing English translation stem duchy was coined in the early 20th century, while later authors tend to clarify the term by using the alternative translation tribal, use of the term stem duchies has become conventional. The derivation of the German people from a number of German tribes developed in 18th to 19th century German historiography and ethnography and this concept of German stems relates to the early and high medieval period and is to be distinguished from the more generic Germanic tribes of Late Antiquity. A distinction was made between the ancient stems, which were in existence in the 10th century, and recent stems. The delineation of the two concepts is necessarily vague, and as a result the concept has a history of political, the terms Stamm, Nation or Volk variously used in modern German historiography reflect the Middle Latin gens, natio or populus of the medieval source material. Traditional German historiography counts six Altstämme or ancient stems, viz. Bavarians, Swabians, Franks, all of these were incorporated in the Carolingian Empire by the late 8th century. The customary or tribal laws of these groups were recorded in the medieval period. Franconian, Saxon and Swabian law remained in force and competed with imperial law well into the 13th century, the use of Stämme, tribes, rather than Völker nations, peoples, emerged in the early 19th century in the context of the project of German unification. Karl Friedrich Eichhorn in 1808 still used Deutsche Völker German nations, Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann in 1815 asked for unity of the German nation in its tribes. This terminology became standard and is reflected in the preamble of the Weimar constitution of 1919, reading Das deutsche Volk, einig in seinen Stämmen The German nation, united in its tribes. The division remains in current use in the classification of German dialects into Franconian, Alemannic, Thuringian, Bavarian. In the Free State of Bavaria, the division into Bavarian stems remains current for the populations of Altbayern, within East Francia were large duchies, sometimes called kingdoms after their former status, which had a certain level of internal solidarity. Early among these were Saxony and Bavaria, which had been conquered by Charlemagne, in German historiography they are called the jüngere Stammesherzogtümer, or more recent tribal duchies, although the term stem duchies is common in English. The duchies are often called younger in order to them from the older duchies which were vassal-states of the Merovingian monarchs. Certainly, their names had already appeared during the Migrations, yet, their political institutional, and biological structures had more often than not thoroughly changed. The kingdom was divided in 864–865 among the sons of Louis the German, after the death of the last Carolingian, Louis the Child, in 911, the stem duchies acknowledged the unity of the kingdom
Stem duchy
–
Linguistic map of
Old High German (Alemannic and Bavarian),
Old Frankish,
Old Saxon and
Old Frisian at the time of
Otto I.
Stem duchy
–
Duchy of Saxony
Stem duchy
–
The
Eastern Frankish Kingdom (919–1125) with the later stem duchies:
Saxony in yellow,
Franconia in blue,
Bavaria in green,
Swabia in light orange, and
Lotharingia in pink
21.
Holy Roman Empire
–
The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
Holy Roman Empire
–
The Holy Roman Empire at its maximal extent, in the 13th century
Holy Roman Empire
–
Imperial Banner
Holy Roman Empire
–
An illustration from
Schedelsche Weltchronik depicting the structure of the Reich: The Holy Roman Emperor is sitting; on his left are three ecclesiastics; on his right are four secular electors.
Holy Roman Empire
–
Double-headed eagle with coats of arms of individual states, symbol of the Holy Roman Empire (painting from 1510)
22.
Alemannic German
–
Alemannic is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. The name derives from the ancient Germanic alliance of tribes known as the Alemanni. S, ISO 639-3 distinguishes four languages, gsw, swg, wae and gct. At this level, the distinction between a language and a dialect frequently is considered a cultural and political question, in part because linguists have failed to agree on a clear standard, the following variants comprise Alemannic, Swabian. Unlike most other Alemannic dialects, it does not retain the Middle High German monophthongs û, î, for this reason, Swabian is sometimes used in opposition to Alemannic. Retain German initial /k/ as rather than fricativising to as in High Alemannic, subvariants, Lake Constance Alemannic Upper-Rhine Alemannic in Southwestern Baden and its variant Alsatian Alemán Coloniero Basel German High Alemannic. Complete the High German consonant shift by fricativising initial /k/ to, subvariants, Bernese German Zürich German Vorarlbergisch Liechtensteinisch Highest Alemannic does not have the hiatus diphthongisation of other dialects of German. For example, instead of, instead of, subvariants, Walliser German Walser German Note that the Alemannic dialects of Switzerland are often called Swiss German or Schwiizertüütsch. The oldest known texts in Alemannic are brief Elder Futhark inscriptions dating to the sixth century, in the Old High German period, the first coherent texts are recorded in the St. Gall and Reichenau Island, a considerable part of the Old High German corpus has Alemannic traits. Alemannic Middle High German is less prominent, in spite of the Codex Manesse compiled by Johannes Hadlaub of Zürich, the rise of the Old Swiss Confederacy from the fourteenth century leads to the creation of Alemannic Swiss chronicles. Huldrych Zwinglis bible translation of the 1520s was in an Alemannic variant of Early Modern High German, the 1665 revision of the Froschauer Bible removed the Alemannic elements, approaching the language used by Luther. Johann Peter Hebel published his Allemannische Gedichte in 1803, Swiss authors often consciously employ Helvetisms within Standard German, notably Jeremias Gotthelf in his novels set in the Emmental, and more recently Tim Krohn in his Quatemberkinder. The diminutive is used frequently in all Alemannic dialects, northern and eastern dialects use the suffix -le, southern dialects use the suffix -li. Depending on dialect, thus, little house could be Heisle, Hüüsle, a significant difference between the high and low variants is the pronunciation of ch after the front vowels and consonants. In Standard German and the variants, this is a palatal, whereas in the higher variants
Alemannic German
–
The traditional distribution area of Western Upper German (=Alemannic) dialect features in the 19th and 20th century
23.
Swabia
–
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. This territory would include all of the Alemannic German area, but the concept of Swabia is more restricted. Swabians are the natives of Swabia and speakers of Swabian German and their number was estimated at close to 0.8 million by SIL Ethnologue as of 2006, compared to a total population of 7.5 million in the regions of Tübingen, Stuttgart and Bavarian Swabia. Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabias borders are not clearly defined, like all of Southern Germany, Swabia was part of the La Tène culture, and as such has a Celtic substrate. In the Roman era, it was part of the Raetia province, in the third century, it was gradually settled by the Elbe Germanic Suebi and other components that came to make up the Alemanni. The Alemanni were ruled by independent kings throughout the fourth and fifth centuries, Swabia became a duchy under the Frankish Empire in 496, following the Battle of Tolbiac. Swabia was one of the stem duchies of East Francia. Due to the foundation of the important abbeys of St. Gallen and Reichenau, in the following years the original duchy gradually broke up into many smaller units. Rudolf I of Habsburg, elected in 1273 as emperor, tried to restore the duchy, but met the opposition of the higher nobility who aimed to limit the power of the emperor. The rural regions were merged into the Reichslandvogtei of Swabia, which was given as Imperial Pawn to Duke Leopold III of Austria in 1379 and again to Sigismund and he took the title of a Prince of Swabia and integrated the Landvogtei of Swabia in the realm of Further Austria. Charlemagnes family is known to have hailed from Swabia, the major dynasties that arose out of the region were the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns, who rose to prominence in Northern Germany. Also stemming from Swabia are the dynasties of the dukes of Württemberg. The Welf family went on to rule in Bavaria and Hanover, smaller feudal dynasties eventually disappeared, however, for example, branches of the Montforts and Hohenems lived until modern times, and the Fürstenberg survive still. The territory of Swabia as understood today emerges in the modern period. It corresponds to the Swabian Circle established in 1512, the Old Swiss Confederacy was de facto independent from Swabia from 1499 as a result of the Swabian War, while the Margraviate of Baden had been detached from Swabia since the twelfth century. Fearing the power of the princes, the cities and smaller secular rulers of Swabia joined to form the Swabian League in the fifteenth century. The region was divided by the Reformation. In the wake of the reorganization of the empire of 1803 by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss
Swabia
–
Map of the
Swabian Circle (1572)
Swabia
–
Imperial abbeys and Free cities in Swabia in the late eighteenth century
24.
Baden
–
Baden is a historical German territory. Together with Württemberg and the former Prussian province of Hohenzollern, two other territories, it currently forms the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. Finally, the state of Baden-Württemberg was formed a few years later, history of Baden List of states in the Holy Roman Empire Baden-Württemberg Province of Hohenzollern Württemberg Baden in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
Baden
–
Territory of Baden 1806-1945.
25.
German-speaking Switzerland
–
The German-speaking part of Switzerland comprises about 65 percent of Switzerland. The variety of the German language spoken in Switzerland is called Swiss German which refers to any of the Alemannic dialects, the only exception within German-speaking Switzerland is the municipality of Samnaun where an Austro-Bavarian dialect is spoken. In 17 Swiss cantons, German is the official language. In the cantons of Bern, Fribourg and Valais, French is co-official, in the canton of Graubünden, more than half of the population speaks German. In each case, all languages are languages of the respective canton. In Germany Welsch and Welschland refer to Italy, there, the term is antiquated, rarely used, by the Middle Ages, a marked difference had developed between the rural cantons of the German-speaking part of Switzerland and the city cantons, divided by views about trade and commerce. After the Reformation, all cantons were either Catholic or Protestant, and the denominational influences on culture added to the differences
German-speaking Switzerland
–
The German-speaking part of
Switzerland is shown in orange on this map of
Languages of Switzerland.
26.
Vorarlberg
–
Vorarlberg is the westernmost federal state of Austria. It has the second-smallest area after Vienna, and although it has the second-smallest population and it borders three countries, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has a Germanic Alpine culture, quite different from the rest of Austria, the only Austrian state that shares a border with Vorarlberg is Tyrol to the east. The capital of Vorarlberg is Bregenz, although Dornbirn and Feldkirch have larger populations, the main rivers in Vorarlberg are the Ill, the Rhine, the Bregenzer Ache and the Dornbirner Ach. One of the shortest rivers is the Galina, however, even before the dam for the power plant was built, Lüner Lake was the largest mountain lake in the Alps. Most of this energy is exported to Germany at peak times. At night, energy from plants in Germany is used to pump water back into some of the lakes. As there are several mountain ranges in Vorarlberg, such as the Silvretta, the Rätikon, the Verwall. Lech is a ski resort on the banks of the river Lech. In recent years Lech has grown to one of the worlds premier ski destinations. With some other neighbouring villages Lech created the largest connected ski area in Austria, together these villages form the Arlberg region, the birthplace of the modern Alpine skiing technique and the seat of the Ski Club Arlberg. Lech is a holiday destination for Royal families and celebrities, for example Jason Biggs, Tom Cruise, Diana - Princess of Wales, and the former Queen Beatrix. Damüls is also recognized as the municipality with the most annual snowfall worldwide, the highest mountain is Piz Buin, whose rocky peak of 3,312 m is surrounded by glaciers. Vorarlberg is supposed to enjoy the greatest scenic diversity within limited confines in the entire Eastern Alps, the distance from Lake Constance and the plains of the Alpine Rhine valley across the medium altitude and high Alpine zones to the glaciers of the Silvretta range is a mere 90 km. Vorarlberg is divided into four districts, from north to south, Bregenz, Dornbirn, Feldkirch. These districts appear on the license plates in form of abbreviations, B, DO, FK. For several years, the Vorarlberg economy has been performing well above the Austrian average, while the overall Austrian GDP in 2004 rose by a mere 2. 0% in real terms, Vorarlberg recorded an increase of 2. 9%. This came as a surprise, particularly as the trading partners in Germany
Vorarlberg
–
"Confederates, help your brothers in peril!" Swiss poster of the Pro Vorarlberg movement advocating for an accession of Vorarlberg, 1919.
Vorarlberg
–
Flag
27.
Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
–
The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
–
Flag
Germany
–
Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
–
Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
28.
French language
–
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
French language
–
The
"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in
Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French language
–
Regions where French is the main language
French language
–
Town sign in
Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of
Rechmaya in
Lebanon.
French language
–
An obsolete 100
Lebanese pound note with the French language inscriptions "Banque du Liban" and "Cent livres".
29.
Spanish language
–
Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
Spanish language
–
A page of
Cantar de Mio Cid, the oldest preserved Spanish
epic poem, in medieval Spanish.
Spanish language
–
Spanish is sole official language at the national level
Spanish language
–
Antonio de Nebrija, author of
Gramática de la lengua castellana, the first grammar of modern European languages.
Spanish language
–
Miguel de Cervantes author of
Don Quixote, considered the first modern European novel.
30.
Portuguese language
–
Portuguese is a Romance language and the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, and has kept some Celtic phonology. Portuguese is also termed the language of Camões, after Luís Vaz de Camões, one of the greatest literary figures in the Portuguese language and author of the Portuguese epic poem, the museum is the first of its kind in the world. In 2015 the museum was destroyed in a fire, but there are plans to reconstruct it, when the Romans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in 216 BCE, they brought the Latin language with them, from which all Romance languages descend. Between 409 CE and 711 CE, as the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe, Portuguese evolved from the medieval language, known today by linguists as Galician-Portuguese, Old Portuguese or Old Galician, of the northwestern medieval Kingdom of Galicia. It is in Latin administrative documents of the 9th century that written Galician-Portuguese words and this phase is known as Proto-Portuguese, which lasted from the 9th century until the 12th-century independence of the County of Portugal from the Kingdom of León, by then reigning over Galicia. In the first part of the Galician-Portuguese period, the language was used for documents. For some time, it was the language of preference for poetry in Christian Hispania. Portugal became an independent kingdom in 1139, under King Afonso I of Portugal, in the second period of Old Portuguese, in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries, the language was taken to many regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century, some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The end of the Old Portuguese period was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende, Most literate Portuguese speakers were also literate in Latin, and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing—and eventually speech—in Portuguese. Portuguese is the language of the majority of people in Brazil and Portugal, perhaps 75% of the population of Angola speaks Portuguese natively, and 85% are fluent. Just over 40% of the population of Mozambique are native speakers of Portuguese, Portuguese is also spoken natively by 30% of the population in Guinea-Bissau, and a Portuguese-based creole is understood by all. No data is available for Cape Verde, but almost all the population is bilingual, there are also significant Portuguese speaking immigrant communities in many countries including Andorra, Bermuda, Canada, France, Japan, Jersey, Namibia, Paraguay, Macau, Switzerland, Venezuela. In some parts of former Portuguese India, namely Goa and Daman and Diu, in 2014, an estimated 1,500 students were learning Portuguese in Goa. Equatorial Guinea made an application for full membership to the CPLP in June 2010. In 2011, Portuguese became its official language and, in July 2014. Portuguese is a subject in The school curriculum in Uruguay
Portuguese language
–
Multilingual sign in Japanese, Portuguese, and English in
Oizumi,
Japan. Return immigration of
Japanese Brazilians has led to a large Portuguese-speaking community in the town.
Portuguese language
–
Percentage of worldwide Portuguese speakers per country.
Portuguese language
–
Library of the
Mafra National Palace, Portugal
Portuguese language
–
Baroque Library of the
Coimbra University, Portugal
31.
Persian language
–
Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
Persian language
–
Old Persian
Persian language
–
Ferdowsi 's
Shahnameh
Persian language
–
Kalilah va Dimna, an influential work in Persian literature.
32.
Turkish language
–
Outside of Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official EU language, in 1928, as one of Atatürks Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination, the basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T–V distinction and usage of honorifics, Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a person out of respect. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group, the Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of languages, a subgroup of the Turkic language family, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia, erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, following the adoption of Islam c. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a reform to replace loanwords of Arabic. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the terms of Arabic or Persian origin. The past few decades have seen the work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance, however, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, political party—also failed to meet with popular approval, some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings, for example betik is now used to mean script in computer science
Turkish language
–
Old Turkic inscription with the
Orkhon script (c. 8th century).
Kyzyl, Russia
Turkish language
–
Countries where Turkish is an official language
Turkish language
–
Road signs in
Prizren,
Republic of Kosovo. Official languages are:
Albanian (top),
Serbian (middle) and Turkish (bottom).
Turkish language
–
Map of the main subgroups of
Turkish dialects.
33.
Welsh language
–
Welsh is a member of the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages. It is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, historically it has also been known in English as the British tongue, Cambrian, Cambric and Cymric. The United Kingdom Census 2011 counted 3.1 million residents of Wales, 27% of whom had been born outside Wales, and 73% of whom reported having no Welsh language skills. Of residents of Wales aged three and over, 19% reported being able to speak Welsh, and 77% of these were able to speak, read and this can be compared with the 2001 Census, in which 20. 8% of the population reported being able to speak Welsh. 787,854 of residents in Wales aged three and over had one or more skills in Welsh, in surveys carried out between 2004 and 2006, 57% of Welsh speakers described themselves as fluent in the written language. An estimated 110,000 to 150,000 people speak Welsh in England, Welsh emerged in the 6th century from Common Brittonic, the common ancestor of Welsh, Breton, Cornish and the extinct language known as Cumbric. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, the name Welsh originated as an exonym given to its speakers by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning foreign speech. The native term for the language is Cymraeg, and for the name of the country of Wales it is Cymru, Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons. Classified as Insular Celtic, the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth. During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, evolving into Welsh and it is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around 550, Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or Early Poets – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was composed in the Hen Ogledd, raising further questions about the dating of the material. An 8th century inscription in Tywyn shows the language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns, the next main period, somewhat better attested, is Old Welsh, poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of the language. Both the works of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin were in this era, Middle Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts, Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The famous cleric Gerald of Wales tells, in his Descriptio Cambriae, during one of the Kings many raids in the 12th century, Henry asked an old man of Pencader, Carmarthenshire whether the Welsh people could resist his army
Welsh language
–
This tattered
Welsh Bible of 1620, in
Llanwnda church, is said to have been rescued from the hands of French invaders in 1797.
Welsh language
–
The 1588 Welsh Bible
Welsh language
–
Trilingual (Spanish, Welsh and English) sign in Argentina
34.
Agathias
–
Agathias was a native of Myrina. A brother of Agathias is mentioned in sources, but his name has not survived. Their probable sister Eugenia is known by name, the Suda clarifies that Agathias was active in the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I, mentioning him as a contemporary of Paul the Silentiary, Macedonius of Thessalonica and Tribonian. Agathias mentions being present in Alexandria as a law student at the time when an earthquake destroyed Berytus, the law school of Berytus had been recognized as one of the three official law schools of the empire. Within a few years, as the result of the earthquake of 551. The dating of the event to 551, as a law student, Agathias could be in his early twenties and he mentions leaving Alexandria for Constantinople shortly following the earthquake. Agathias visited the island of Kos, where he witnessed the devastation caused by the earthquake and he returned to Constantinople in 554 to finish his training, and practised as an advocatus in the courts. John of Epiphania reports that Agathias practiced his profession in the capital, evagrius Scholasticus and Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos describe Agathias as a rhetor. The Suda and a passage of John of Nikiû call him Agathias the scholastic and he is known to have served as pater civitatis of Smyrna. He is credited with constructing public latrines for the city, while Agathias mentions these buildings, he fails to mention his own role in constructing them. Myrina is known to have erected statues to honor Agathias, his father Memnonius and he seems to have been known to his contemporaries more as an advocatus and a poet. There are few mentions of Agathias as a historian, few details survive of his personal life – mainly in his extant poems. One of them tells the story of his pet cat eating his partridge, another responds to his seeing the tomb of the courtesan Lais of Corinth, implying a visit to that city, which he refers to using the poetic name Ephyra. No full account of his life survives, literature, however, was Agathias favorite pursuit, and he remains best known as a poet. Of his Daphniaca, a collection of poems in hexameter on love and romance in nine books. This work largely survives in the Greek Anthology—the edition by Maximus Planudes preserves examples not found elsewhere, Agathiass poems exhibit considerable taste and elegance. He also wrote notes on the Description of Greece of Pausanias. Almost equally valued are Agathiass Histories, which he started in the reign of Justin II and he explains his own motivation in writing it, as simply being unwilling to let the momentous events of his own times go unrecorded
Agathias
–
A game of
τάβλη (tabula) played by Zeno in 480 and recorded by Agathias in circa 530 because of a very unlucky dice result for Zeno. The game is nearly identical to
backgammon; Zeno (red) threw 2, 5 and 6 and was forced to leave eight pieces alone and thus exposed to capture. See "Zeno's Game of τάβλη".
35.
Edward Gibbon
–
Edward Gibbon FRS was an English historian, writer and Member of Parliament. Edward Gibbon was born in 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon at Lime Grove and he had six siblings, five brothers and one sister, all of whom died in infancy. As a youth, Gibbons health was under constant threat and he described himself as a puny child, neglected by my Mother, starved by my nurse. At age nine, he was sent to Dr. Woddesons school at Kingston upon Thames and he then took up residence in the Westminster School boarding house, owned by his adored Aunt Kitty, Catherine Porten. Following a stay at Bath in 1752 to improve his health, at the age of 15 Gibbon was sent by his father to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was enrolled as a gentleman-commoner. He was ill-suited, however, to the atmosphere and later rued his 14 months there as the most idle and unprofitable of his life. In that tract, Middleton denied the validity of such powers, Gibbon promptly objected and he was further corrupted by the free thinking deism of the playwright/poet couple David and Lucy Mallet, and finally Gibbons father, already in despair, had had enough. David Womersley has shown, however, that Gibbons claim to having been converted by a reading of Middleton is very unlikely, and was introduced only into the final draft of the Memoirs in 1792–93. Within weeks of his conversion, the adolescent was removed from Oxford and sent to live under the care and tutelage of Daniel Pavillard, Reformed pastor of Lausanne, Switzerland. It was here that he one of his lifes two great friendships, that of Jacques Georges Deyverdun, and that of John Baker Holroyd. Just a year and a later, after his father threatened to disinherit him, on Christmas Day,1754. The various articles of the Romish creed, he wrote, disappeared like a dream, Gibbon returned to England in August 1758 to face his father. There could be no refusal of the elders wishes, Gibbon put it this way, I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son. He proceeded to cut off all contact with Curchod, even as she vowed to wait for him and their final emotional break apparently came at Ferney, France in the spring of 1764, though they did see each other at least one more time a year later. The following year he embarked on the Grand Tour, which included a visit to Rome, Womersley notes the existence of good reasons to doubt the statements accuracy. In June 1765, Gibbon returned to his fathers house, and these years were considered by Gibbon as the worst five of his life, but he tried to remain busy by making early attempts towards writing full histories. His first historical narrative known as the History of Switzerland, which represented Gibbons love for Switzerland, was never published nor finished, even under the guidance of Deyverdun, Gibbon became too critical of himself, and completely abandoned the project, only writing 60 pages of text. However, after Gibbons death, his writings on Switzerlands history were discovered and published by Lord Sheffield in 1815, soon after abandoning his History of Switzerland, Gibbon made another attempt towards completing a full history
Edward Gibbon
–
Portrait, oil on canvas, of Edward Gibbon by Sir
Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792)
Edward Gibbon
–
Edward Gibbon, by Henry Walton (died 1813)
Edward Gibbon
–
Portchester Castle came under Gibbon's command for a brief period while he was an officer in the Hampshire militia.
Edward Gibbon
–
Blue plaque to Gibbon on Bentinck Street, London
36.
Suebi
–
The Suebi was a large group of related Germanic peoples who lived in Germania in the time of the Roman Empire. They were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with his battles against Ariovistus in Gaul and they actually occupy more than half of Germania, and are divided into a number of distinct tribes under distinct names, though all generally are called Suebi. At one time, classical ethnography had applied the name Suevi to so many Germanic tribes that it appeared as if, in the first centuries AD, classical authors noted that the Suevic tribes, compared to other Germanic tribes, were very mobile and not reliant on agriculture. Various Suevic groups moved from the direction of the Baltic Sea, towards the end of the empire, the Alemanni, also referred to as Suebi, first settled in the Agri Decumates and then crossed the Rhine and occupied Alsace. An area in southwest Germany is still called Swabia, which derives from the Suebi. Other Suebi entered Gaul and some moved as far as Gallaecia, where they established the Kingdom of the Suebi, which lasted for 170 years until its integration into the Visigothic Kingdom. Notably, the Semnones, known to classical authors as one of the largest Suebian groups, also seem to have a name with this same meaning, alternatively, it may be borrowed from a Celtic word for vagabond. Caesar placed the Suebi east of the Ubii apparently near modern Hesse, in the position where later writers mention the Chatti, some commentators believe that Caesars Suebi were the later Chatti or possibly the Hermunduri, or Semnones. Later authors use the term Suebi more broadly, to cover a number of tribes in central Germany. Whether or not the Chatti were ever considered Suevi, both Tacitus and Strabo distinguish the two partly because the Chatti were more settled in one territory, whereas Suevi remained less settled. The definitions of the greater ethnic groupings within Germania were apparently not always consistent and clear, whereas Tacitus reported three main kinds of German peoples, Irminones, Istvaeones, and Ingaevones, Pliny specifically adds two more genera or kinds, the Bastarnae and the Vandili. The Vandals were tribes east of the Elbe, including the well-known Silingi, Goths, and Burgundians, the modern term Elbe Germanic similarly covers a large grouping of Germanic peoples that at least overlaps with the classical terms Suevi and Irminones. In the time of Caesar, southern Germany was Celtic, in addition, also near the Hercynian forest Caesar believed that the Celtic Tectosages had once lived. All of these peoples had for the most part moved by the time of Tacitus, nevertheless, Cassius Dio wrote that the Suebi, who dwelt across the Rhine, were called Celts, which could mean that some Celtic groups were absorbed by larger Germanic tribal confederations. Strabo, in Book IV of his Geography also associates the Suebi with the Hercynian Forest and the south of Germania north of the Danube. He describes a chain of mountains north of the Danube that is like an extension of the Alps, possibly the Swabian Alps. In Book VII Strabo specifically mentions as Suevic peoples the Marcomanni, some of these tribes were inside the forest and some outside of it. Tacitus confirms the name Boiemum, saying it was a survival marking the old population of the place
Suebi
–
Roman bronze statuette representing a Germanic man kneeling, his arms outstretched and his hair in a "
Suebian knot " (50–150 AD)
Suebi
–
Some of the tribes in
Germania during the
Roman empire. Suebian and Hermionic tribes are in magenta.
Suebi
–
Marble bust of Julius Caesar, first century C.E.; recent discovery on the Island of Pantelleri.
Suebi
–
Road sign at the village of Suevos,
Ames (
Galicia).
37.
Abbey of St. Gall
–
The Abbey of Saint Gall is a Roman Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland of a dissolved abbey. The Carolingian-era monastery has existed since 719 and became an independent principality between 9th and 13th centuries, and was for centuries one of the chief Benedictine abbeys in Europe. It was founded by Saint Othmar on the spot where Saint Gall had erected his hermitage, the library at the Abbey is one of the richest medieval libraries in the world. The city of St. Gallen originated as a settlement of the abbey. Following the secularization of the abbey around 1800 the former Abbey church became a Cathedral in 1848, since 1983 the whole remaining abbey precinct has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Around 613 Gallus, according to tradition an Irish monk and disciple and companion of Saint Columbanus and he lived in his cell until his death in 646. in Arbon. The people kept looking for protection at Gallus cell in time of danger, following Gallus death, Charles Martel appointed Otmar as custodian of St Galls relics. Several different dates are given for the foundation of the monastery, including 719,720,747, during the reign of Pepin the Short, in the 8th century, Othmar founded the Carolingian style Abbey of St Gall, where arts, letters and sciences flourished. The abbey grew fast and many Alemannic noblemen became monks, at the end of abbot Otmars reign, the Professbuch mentions 53 names. Two monks of the Abbey of St Gall, Magnus von Füssen and Theodor, with the increase in the number of monks the abbey grew stronger also economically. Much land in Thurgau, Zürichgau and in the rest of Alemannia as far as the Neckar was transferred to the due to Stiftungen. Under abbot Waldo of Reichenau copying of manuscripts was undertaken and a library was gathered. Numerous Anglo-Saxon and Irish monks came to copy manuscripts, at Charlemagnes request Pope Adrian I sent distinguished chanters from Rome, who propagated the use of the Gregorian chant. In 744, the Alemannic nobleman Beata sells several properties to the abbey in order to finance his journey to Rome, in the subsequent century, St Gall came into conflict with the nearby Bishopric of Constance which had recently acquired jurisdiction over the Abbey of Reichenau on Lake Constance. It was not until Emperor Louis the Pious confirmed in 813 the imperial immediacy of the abbey, the abbey became an Imperial Abbey. King Louis the German confirmed in 833 the immunity of the abbey, in 854 finally, the Abbey of St Gall reached its full autonomy by King Louis the German releasing the abbey from the obligation to pay tithes to the Bishop of Constance. From this time until the 10th century, the abbey flourished and it was home to several famous scholars, including Notker of Liège, Notker the Stammerer, Notker Labeo and Hartker. During the 9th century a new, larger church was built, manuscripts on a wide variety of topics were purchased by the abbey and copies were made
Abbey of St. Gall
–
St Gall Cathedral
Abbey of St. Gall
–
The interior of the Cathedral is one of the most important baroque monuments in Switzerland
Abbey of St. Gall
–
The Plan of St Gall, the only surviving major
architectural drawing from the
Early Middle Ages
Abbey of St. Gall
–
Dioceses
38.
Names of Germany
–
In general, the names for Germany can be arranged in six main groups according to their origin,1. From Old High German diutisc or similar 2, from the Latin Germania or Greek Γερμανία3. From the name of the Alamanni tribe 4, from the name of the Saxon tribe 5. Unclear origin Other forms Medieval Hebrew language, Ashkenaz – from biblical Ashkenaz was the son of Japheth, Ashkenaz is thought to be the ancestor of the Germans. Medieval Latin, Teutonia, regnum Teutonicum – after the Teutons, Medieval Greek, Frángoi, frangikós – after the Franks. Tahitian language, Purutia – a corruption of Prusse, the French name for the German Kingdom of Prussia, Lower Sorbian language, bawory or bawery – from the name of the Bavarian tribe. Old Norse, Suðrvegr – literally south way Kinyarwanda, Ubudage, Kirundi, Ubudagi – thought to derive from the greeting guten Tag used by Germans during the colonial times, navajo, Béésh Bich’ahii Bikéyah, in reference to Stahlhelm-wearing German soldiers. Lakota, Iyášiča Makȟóčhe, perhaps in reference to German settlers who didnt speak English fluently, sudovian, miksiskai, Old Prussian miksiskāi – from miksît to stammer. This in turn comes from a Germanic word meaning folk, and was used to differentiate between the speakers of Germanic languages and those who spoke Celtic or Romance languages and these words come from *teuta, the Proto-Indo-European word for people. Also the Italian for German, tedesco, comes from the same Old High German root, French words thiois, tudesque, théotisque and Thiogne and Spanish tudesco share this etymology. The opposite of diutisc was Old High German walhisc or walesc, meaning foreign, in German, welsch is still used to mean foreign, and in particular of Romance origin, in English the word was used to describe the Welsh and the name stuck. (It is also used in several other European regions where Germanic peoples came into contact with cultures, including Wallonia, Valais. The Germanic language which diutisc most likely comes from is West Frankish, a language which died out a time ago. This was the Germanic dialect used in the early Middle Ages, spoken by the Franks in Western Francia, the word is only known from the Latin form theodiscus. For this reason a new word was needed to differentiate between them. Thus the word theodisc evolved from the Germanic word theoda with the Latin suffix -iscus, to mean belonging to the people, the word diutsch and other variants were only used by people to describe themselves, at first as an alternative term, from about the 10th century. It was used, for example, in the Sachsenspiegel, a code, written in Middle Low German in about 1220. The name Germany and the other similar-sounding names above are all derived from the Latin Germania, of the 3rd century BC, in AD98, Tacitus wrote Germania, an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire
Names of Germany
–
Official German-language plaque of a German embassy
Names of Germany
–
Proto-Germanic *Þeudiskaz
Names of Germany
–
The German princes choose their king (Illustration in the
Sachsenspiegel)
Names of Germany
–
Gaius Cornelius Tacitus
39.
Alemannic grave field
–
A grave field is a prehistoric cemetery, typically of Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe. Grave fields are distinguished from necropoleis by the lack of above-ground structures, buildings. Before the middle of the 5th century, grave fields are small, often including less than five graves, the sparsity of graves in the early period may suggest partial cremation. In the mid- to late 5th century, burial customs appear to change, grave fields are often arranged on elevated ground outside settlements. The arrangement of graves is often east to west — the head of the placed on the western end. Until the beginning of the 6th century, these row graves are accompanied by more prestigious single graves including precious grave goods, Quast assumes that the 5th-century change in burial practice was due to a renewed influx of Elbe Germanic settlers. Male graves often include weapons — in the mid-5th century typically a Francisca axe, besides spathas, female graves often include jewellery, such as bracelets, ear-rings and fibulae. The field in Sasbach includes over 2,000 graves, Alemannic graves appear south of the Rhine, in the Swiss Plateau, from the 6th century. Alemannic colonization of the Swiss plateau apparently took place from the Basel area, significant influx of Alemannic settlers to the Swiss plateau begins only in the 7th century. Grave fields from this period include one at Elgg-Ettenbühl near Winterthur, Christianization of the Alemanni during the 7th century brings about the end of the grave field traditions. The dead from this period were buried in graveyards near churches, prestigious graves of local nobility appears to have resisted the Christianization of burial customs into the 8th century, possibly until the 786 decree of Charlemagne outlawing pagan burial. Burial mound Chariot burial Megalithic tomb Ship burial Viking funeral Die Alamannen, ed. Archäologisches Landesmuseum Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart 1997. Dieter Quast, Vom Einzelgrab zum Friedhof, ingo Stork, Als Persönlichkeit ins Jenseits. Michael Hoeper, Alamannische Besiedlungsgeschichte im Breisgau, Reihengräberfelder und Gemarkungsgrenzen, in, Römer und Alamannen im Breisgau. Studien zur Besiedlungsgeschichte in Spätantike und frühem Mittelalter
Alemannic grave field
–
Excavation of the
Alemannic grave field at
Sasbach (Ortenau).
Alemannic grave field
–
Remains of two girls buried in the same grave, 6th- to 7th-century grave in Sasbach.
Alemannic grave field
–
A
maeotae skeleton of the burial ground near Farm of Lenin's Name,
Krasnodar region,
Russia 4th to 2nd century BC
Alemannic grave field
–
6th- to 7th-century jewellery found in the
Freiburg district.
40.
Main River
–
The Main is a river in Germany. With a length of 527 kilometres, including the White Main as 574 km and it is also the longest river lying entirely in Germany. The largest cities along the Main are Frankfurt am Main and Würzburg, the mainspring of the Main River flows through the German states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse. Its basin competes with the Danube for water, as a result, the Main begins near Kulmbach in Franconia at the joining of its two headstreams, the Red Main and the White Main. The Red Main originates in the Franconian Jura mountain range,50 km in length, the White Main originates in the mountains of the Fichtelgebirge, it is 41 km long. In its upper and middle section, it runs through the valleys of the German Highlands and its lower section crosses the Lower Main Lowlands to Wiesbaden, where it discharges into the Rhine. Major tributaries of the Main are the Regnitz, the Franconian Saale, the Tauber, the name Main derives from the Latin Moenus or Menus. It is not related to the name of the city Mainz, the Main is navigable for shipping from its mouth at the Rhine close to Mainz for 396 km to Bamberg. Since 1992, the Main has been connected to the Danube via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, the Main has been canalized with 34 large locks to allow CEMT class V vessels to navigate the total length of the river. The 16 locks in the adjacent Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the Danube itself are of the same dimensions, there are 34 dams and locks along the 380 km navigable portion of the Main, from the confluence with the Regnitz near Bamberg, to the Rhine. Location, City or town where the lock is located, Year built, Year when the lock was put into operation. Main-km, Location on the Main, measured from the 0 km stone in Mainz-Kostheim, the reference point is the center of the lock or lock group. Distance between locks, length in km of impoundment, altitude, height in meters above mean sea level of the upper water at normal levels. Height, Height of the dam in meters, lock length, Usable length of the lock chamber in meters. Lock width, Usable width of the chamber in meters. Most of the dams along the Main also have turbines for power generation, Height, Height of the dam in meters. Power, Maximum power generation capacity in megawatts, turbines, Type and number of turbines. Operator, Operator of the hydroelectric plant, tributaries from source to mouth, Around Frankfurt are several large inland ports
Main River
–
The Main River in
Würzburg
Main River
–
Position of the Main in Germany
Main River
–
The Main in
Frankfurt at night
Main River
–
Main in
Offenbach am Main
41.
Chatti
–
The Chatti were an ancient Germanic tribe whose homeland was near the upper Weser. They settled within the region in the first century B. C, while Julius Caesar was well informed about the regions and tribes on the eastern banks of the Rhine, he never mentioned the Chatti by name. He did make note of the Suebi though, and suggested that they had driven out the Celts to the south of the region corresponding to modern north Hesse in the prior centuries BC. Some commentators believe that Caesars Suebi were possibly the later Chatti and they were poor because they had fought the Romans, and had been defeated and plundered. He says that, settlements begin at the Hercynian forest, where the country is not so open and they are found where there are hills, and with them grow less frequent, for the Hercynian forest keeps close till it has seen the last of its native Chatti. Hardy frames, close-knit limbs, fierce countenances, and a peculiarly vigorous courage and their whole strength is in their infantry, which, in addition to its arms, is laden with iron tools and provisions. Other tribes you see going to battle, the Chatti to a campaign, seldom do they engage in mere raids and casual encounters. It is indeed the peculiarity of a force quickly to win. Fleetness and timidity go together, deliberateness is more akin to steady courage, Tacitus also notes that like other Germanic tribes, the Chatti took an interest in traditions concerning haircuts and beards. The coward and the unwarlike remain unshorn, the bravest of them also wear an iron ring until they have released themselves by the slaughter of a foe. Most of the Chatti delight in these fashions, even hoary-headed men are distinguished by them, and are thus conspicuous alike to enemies and to fellow-countrymen. To begin the battle always rests with them, they form the first line, nor even in peace do they assume a more civilised aspect. It is possible that at first the Chatti moved into place on the Rhine, Cassius Dio describes Drusus establishing a fort in Chatti territory on the Rhine in 11 BC, and that in 10 BC they moved out of an area where the Romans had permitted them. To the north of the Chatti, Tacitus places the area of the Chauci. To the east, the neighbours of the Chatti and Chauci were the Cherusci, after the early third century AD, however, the Chatti virtually disappear from the sources and are only called upon as a topical element or when writing about events of the first century. Cassius Dio is most likely not only the first author to mention the Alamanni, writing about the Germanic war of Caracalla in 213 AD, he has the emperor fight Κέννους, Kελτικòν ἔθνος. This is taken from an excerpt of Dio in the writings of Joannes Xiphilinus, however, the usage of Kελτικός for Germanic peoples was an archaic tradition among Greek writers. After Cassius Dio, the name Chattus appears among others in a panegyric by Sidonius Apollinaris in the fifth century
Chatti
–
The Roman empire under
Hadrian (ruled 117–138), showing the location of the Chatti in central Germany.
42.
Legio II Traiana Fortis
–
Legio secunda Traiana, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army founded by emperor Trajan in 105, along with XXX Ulpia Victrix, for the campaigns in Dacia. There are still records of the II Traiana Fortis in Egypt in the middle of the 5th century, the legions emblem was the demi-god Hercules. In 115, II Traiana Fortis was incorporated in the army used for Trajans Parthian Campaign. In 117, the legion was allocated in Iudaea, to insure peace after the rebellion that was just ending, in 125 they were sent to Aegyptus for the first time, to share camp in Nicopolis with XXII Deiotariana. Between 132-136 they were again in Iudaea to deal with another revolt, the legion was in its base in Nicopolis when a revolt against Roman rule started in south Egypt. The rebels besieged Alexandria for months, plague and famine recked the city. Rescue for the Traiana and the XXII Deiotariana was when Avidius Cassius came with the legions of Syria, the legion was awarded the Fortis title for the valiant defense of Romes Bread Basket. Cassius was ruler of the east for a time, while Marcus Aurelius was busy in his Marcomannic Wars. The legion, with the others, cut off Cassius head, and sent it to Aurelius, the history of II Traiana Fortis gives an example of the political role of the legions. In 194, Pescennius Niger, governor of the province of Syria, rebelled with the support of, among others and his rival was Septimius Severus who would become emperor. In the days before the battle, the legion changed sides. This would prove to be decisive for Pescennius defeat, in the beginnings of the 3rd century, the legion is involved in Caracallas campaign against Germanic tribes and receives the cognomen Germanica. List of Roman legions livius. org account of Legio II Traiana Fortis http, //www. legion2. yolasite. com *
Legio II Traiana Fortis
–
Map of the Roman empire in AD 125, under emperor
Hadrian, showing the Legio II Traiana, stationed at
Alexandria (Alexandria, Egypt), in
Aegyptus province, from AD 125 until the 4th century
43.
Publius Septimius Geta
–
Geta, was a Roman emperor who ruled with his father Septimius Severus and his older brother Caracalla from 209, when he was named Augustus like his brother who had held the title since 198. Severus died in 211, and although he intended for his sons to rule together, Geta was the younger son of Septimius Severus by his second wife Julia Domna. Geta was born in Rome, at a time when his father was only a provincial governor at the service of Emperor Commodus, conflicts between Geta and Caracalla were constant and often required the mediation of their mother. To appease his son, Septimius Severus gave Geta the title of Augustus in 209. During the campaign against the Britons in the early 3rd century CE, Septimius Severus entrusted Julia Domna with the role of counsellor, Caracalla acted as the emperors second in command, and administrative and bureaucratic duties were Getas responsibility. In reality, however, the rivalry and antipathy between the brothers did not abate, when Septimius Severus died in Eboracum in early 211, Caracalla and Geta were proclaimed joint emperors and returned to Rome. Their joint rule was a failure, later sources speculated that the brothers wished to split the empire in two halves. By the end of 211, the situation had become unbearable, Caracalla tried unsuccessfully to murder Geta during the festival of Saturnalia. Finally, on the 19th of December, Caracalla had his mother arrange a meeting with his brother in his mothers apartments. Following Getas assassination, Caracalla ordered his brothers name to be removed from all inscriptions, the now sole emperor also took the opportunity to get rid of his political enemies, on grounds of conspiracy. Cassius Dio stated that around 20,000 men and women were killed or proscribed during this time, very few marble portraits attributable to Geta survive to date, presumably due to the very thorough damnatio memoriae which resulted in the erasing of his images. However Roman coins with his image are plentiful, and can reflect how his father Septimius Severus, images of Geta and his older brother Caracalla cannot be well distinguished until the death of the father. Both sons were supposed to be presented as equally suitable heirs to the throne, on his coins Caracalla, who became Augustus in 197, was shown with a wreath of laurels, while Geta remained bareheaded until he himself became Augustus in 209. Between 209 and their fathers death in February 211, both brothers were shown as mature young men with a short full beard, ready to take over the empire. Septimia Severan dynasty family tree Dio Cassius lxxvii, Herodian iv. I, birley, Anthony R. Septimius Severus, The African Emperor
Publius Septimius Geta
–
Geta
Publius Septimius Geta
–
Head of young Geta at
Glyptothek,
Munich.
Publius Septimius Geta
–
A
denarius of Geta.
44.
Tunic
–
A tunic is any of several types of garment for the body, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the ankles. The name derives from the Latin tunica, the garment worn by both men and women in Ancient Rome, which in turn was based on earlier Greek garments that covered people around their waist. The Roman tunica was adopted by the Roman citizens in the 3rd century BC and it was worn by citizens and non-citizens alike, citizens, though, might wear it under the toga, especially at formal occasions. The length of the garment, the presence or lack of stripes, as well as their width and ornamentation, Roman senators, for example, used the Laticlavus, with broad purple stripes, and members of the equestrian class wore the Angusticlavia, with narrower stripes. Soldiers, slaves and manual workers generally had tunics to a little above the knee, the tunic or chiton was worn as a shirt or gown by both genders among the ancient Romans. The body garment was loose-fitting for males, usually beginning at the neck, a womans garment could be either close fitting or loose, beginning at the neck and extending over a skirt or skirts. Tunics were also worn in ancient Greece, whence the Roman version was adopted, later Greek and Roman tunics were an evolution from the very similar chiton, chitoniskos, and exomis all of which can be considered versions of the garment. In Ancient Greece, a persons tunic was decorated at the hem-line to represent the city-state in which he lived, similar tunics were eventually taken up by the Romans, and found their way into the Byzantine Empire. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the long sleeved Celto-Germanic tunic continued to be worn, being used by both Vikings and Normans, the garment continued as a general male garment into the Middle Ages, still being used in Norway as late as the 17th century. The tunic continued to be the basic garment of the Byzantine Romans of both throughout the medieval period. Except for the military or riding-dress, men and women of higher status wore tunics that came down to the ankles, tunics were often dyed or richly embroidered, although the plainer ones could be used when layering different types. Beyond the reduced empire, the continued to be worn with varying sleeve. Often reaching the knees or ankles, it was worn over underclothes consisting of a shirt. It may be accompanied by hose, wool and Linen were common fabrics used, though the wealthy sometimes wore fancy silk tunics, or a lesser fabric with silk trim. Tunics worn during the Early Middle Ages often featured decorative embroidery or tablet-woven braids along the neck, hem and this was the case, for instance, with tunics worn by both rich and poor Anglo-Saxons before the Norman Conquest. Around 1830, small boys began to be dressed in sashed or belted tunics over trousers, during the Crimean War in the 1850s, it was realized that the waist length jackets which had been worn by British soldiers since Napoleonic times were unsuitable for fighting in winter conditions. A new longer jacket was introduced which reached down to the mid thigh and this type of jacket soon became standard for most armies. In Western culture, its use primarily in a religious
Tunic
–
Wool
Coptic -
Byzantine tunic, small enough for a child (6th century AD) (
Walters Art Museum)
Tunic
–
Germanic tunic of the 4th Century, A.D. found at the
Thorsberg moor
Tunic
–
Tunic (Uncu), ca. 17th century, made in Peru,
Brooklyn Museum
45.
Germania Superior
–
Germania Superior was a province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of todays western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, important cities were Besançon, Strasbourg, Wiesbaden, and Germania Superiors capital, Mainz. It comprised the Middle Rhine, bordering on the Limes Germanicus, although it had been occupied militarily since the reign of Augustus, Germania Superior was not made into an official province until c.85 AD. Lower Germania was occupied by the Belgae, the Romans did not abandon this region at any time after then. They were to be restored to the senate in 10 years under proconsuls elected by the senate, among these independent provinces were upper Germania. Apparently it had become a province in the last years of the republic, tacitus also mentions it as the province of Germania Superior in his Annales. Cassius Dio viewed the Germanic tribes as Celts, an impression given perhaps by Belgica, Dio does not mention the border, but he views upper Germany as extending to the source of the Rhine. It is not clear if he was aware of the Upper Rhine in Switzerland, today we call the section of the Rhine running through upper Germania the middle Rhine. Augustus had planned to all of central Germania in one province. This plan was frustrated by the Germanic tribesmen at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, Augustus decided to limit the empire at the Rhine-Danube border. Thereafter continual conflict prevailed along it, forcing the Romans to conduct punitive expeditions, by 12 BC, major bases existed at Xanten and Mainz, from which Drusus operated. A system of forts gradually developed around these bases, in 69-70, all the Roman fortications along the Rhine and Danube were destroyed by Germanic insurrections and civil war between the legions. At the conclusion of this violent but brief social storm they were more extensively than before, with a road connecting Mainz. Domitian went to war against the Chatti in 83-85, who were north of Frankfurt, at this time the first line, or continuous fortified border, was constructed. It consisted of a zone of observation, a palisade where practicable, wooden watchtowers. The system reached maximum extent by 90, a Roman road went through the Odenwald and a network of secondary roads connected all the forts and towers. The plan governing the development of the limes was relatively simple, the bulge divided the densely populated Celtic settlements along the entire river system in two. Invading forces could move up under cover of the Black Forest, Roman defensive works therefore cut across the base of the bulge, denying the protected corridor and shortening the line
Germania Superior
–
Northern part of the province with the Limes Germanicus.
Germania Superior
46.
Ammianus Marcellinus
–
Ammianus Marcellinus was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity. Ammianus was born between 325 and 330 in the Greek-speaking East, possibly in Syria or Phoenicia and his native language was most likely Greek, he learned Latin as a second language, and was probably familiar with Syriac as well. The surviving books of his cover the years 353 to 378. Ammianus served as a soldier in the army of Constantius II and Julian in Gaul and he professes to have been a former soldier and a Greek, and his enrollment among the elite protectores domestici shows that he was of middle class or higher birth. Consensus is that Ammianus probably came from a family. He entered the army at an age, when Constantius II was emperor of the East, and was sent to serve under Ursicinus, governor of Nisibis in Mesopotamia. He returned with Ursicinus to Italy when Ursicinus was recalled by Constantius to begin an expedition against Claudius Silvanus, Silvanus had been forced by the allegedly false accusations of his enemies into proclaiming himself emperor in Gaul. Ammianus campaigned in the East twice under Ursicinus, on one occasion he was separated from the officers entourage and took refuge in Amida during the siege of the city by the Sassanids of shah Shapur II, he reportedly barely escaped with his life. He accompanied Julian, for whom he expresses enthusiastic admiration, in his campaigns against the Alamanni, after Julians death, Ammianus accompanied retreat of the new emperor Jovian as far as Antioch. He was residing in Antioch in 372 when a certain Theodorus was thought to have identified the successor to the emperor Valens by divination. Speaking as an eyewitness, Marcellinus recounts how Theodorus and several others were made to confess their deceit through the use of torture. He eventually settled in Rome and began the Res Gestae, the precise year of his death is unknown, but scholarly consensus places it somewhere between 392 and 400 at the latest. Modern scholarship generally describes Ammianus as a pagan who was tolerant of Christianity and he was not blind to the faults of Christians or of pagans, he observed in his Res Gestae that no wild beasts are so deadly to humans as most Christians are to each other. And he condemns his hero Julian for excessive attachment to sacrifice and he presumably completed the work before 391, as at 22.16. The Res Gestae was originally composed of books, but the first thirteen have been lost. The surviving eighteen books cover the period from 353 to 378, as a whole it is extremely valuable, constituting the foundation of modern understanding of the history of the fourth century Roman Empire. Although criticised as lacking literary merit by his biographers, he was in fact quite skilled in rhetoric. His work has suffered terribly from manuscript transmission, aside from the loss of the first thirteen books, the remaining eighteen are in many places corrupt and lacunose
Ammianus Marcellinus
–
A bust of Emperor
Constantius II from Syria.
Ammianus Marcellinus
–
The walls of Amida, built by
Constantius II before the
Siege of Amida of 359
Ammianus Marcellinus
–
A copy of the Res Gestae from 1533
47.
Limes Germanicus
–
At its height, the limes stretched from the North Sea outlet of the Rhine to near Regensburg on the Danube. Those two major rivers afforded natural protection from mass incursions into imperial territory, with the exception of a gap stretching roughly from Mogontiacum on the Rhine to Castra Regina, the total length was 568 km. It included at least 60 forts and 900 watchtowers, Roman border defences have become much better known through systematic excavations financed by Germany and through other research connected to them. The Saalburg is a fortification and museum of the Limes near Frankfurt. The first emperor who began to build fortifications along the border was Augustus, originally there were numerous Limes walls, which were then connected to form the Upper Germanic Limes along the Rhine and the Rhaetian Limes along the Danube. Later these two walls were linked to form a common borderline, from the death of Augustus until after 70 AD, Rome accepted as her Germanic frontier the water-boundary of the Rhine and upper Danube. Beyond these rivers she held only the plain of Frankfurt, opposite the Roman border fortress of Moguntiacum, the southernmost slopes of the Black Forest. The northern section of this frontier, where the Rhine is deep and broad, the upper Rhine and upper Danube are easily crossed. The frontier which they form is inconveniently long, enclosing an acute-angled wedge of foreign territory between the modern Baden and Württemberg, the Germanic populations of these lands seem in Roman times to have been scanty, and Roman subjects from the modern Alsace-Lorraine had drifted across the river eastwards. The first advance came about 74 AD, when what is now Baden was invaded and in part annexed, the point of the angle was broken off. The second advance was made by Domitian about 83 AD, among the blockhouses was one which by various enlargements and refoundations grew into the well-known Saalburg fort on the Taunus near Bad Homburg. This advance necessitated a third movement, the construction of a frontier connecting the annexations of AD74 and we know the line of this frontier which ran from the Main across the upland Odenwald to the upper waters of the Neckar and was defended by a chain of forts. The angle between the rivers was now almost full, but there remained further advance and further fortification. This is the frontier which is now visible and visited by the curious, the southern part of the Pfahlgraben is remarkably straight, for over 50 km it points almost absolutely true for Polaris. This frontier remained for about 100 years, and no doubt in that long period much was done to it to which precise dates are difficult to fix and it cannot even be absolutely certain when the frontier laid out by Pius was equipped with the manpitts and other special fortifications. Germanic invasions in the late 3rd century led to the abandonment of the so-called Upper Raetian Limes in favour of a Roman defence line along the rivers Rhine, Iller and Danube. Support was provided to some degree by fast river boats, the navis lusoria being the standard type, watch towers were in sight contact and heavily fortified castra placed at important passes and in the hinterland of the frontier. The limes itself is a simple construction
Limes Germanicus
–
Reconstructed Limes near Saalburg, Germany.
Limes Germanicus
Limes Germanicus
–
Reconstructed stone wall near Rainau-Buch. In the foreground: stone tower "WP 12/77"
Limes Germanicus
–
The tower "WP 14/55" at the Upper German-Raetian border wall
48.
Trajan
–
Trajan was Roman emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born in the city of Italica in the province of Hispania Baetica, Trajans non-patrician family was of Italian, Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in 89 Trajan supported Domitian against a revolt on the Rhine led by Antonius Saturninus, in September 96, Domitian was succeeded by Marcus Cocceius Nerva, an old and childless senator who proved to be unpopular with the army. After a brief and tumultuous year in power, culminating in a revolt by members of the Praetorian Guard, Nerva was compelled to adopt the more popular Trajan as his heir and he died on 27 January 98 and was succeeded by his adopted son without incident. Early in his reign, he annexed the Nabataean Kingdom, creating the province of Arabia Petraea and his conquest of Dacia enriched the empire greatly, as the new province possessed many valuable gold mines. However, its position north of the Danube made it susceptible to attack on three sides, and it was later abandoned by Emperor Aurelian. Trajans war against the Parthian Empire ended with the sack of the capital Ctesiphon and his campaigns expanded the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent. In late 117, while sailing back to Rome, Trajan fell ill and he was deified by the Senate and his ashes were laid to rest under Trajans Column. He was succeeded by his adopted son Hadrian, as an emperor, Trajans reputation has endured – he is one of the few rulers whose reputation has survived nineteen centuries. Every new emperor after him was honoured by the Senate with the wish felicior Augusto, among medieval Christian theologians, Trajan was considered a virtuous pagan. As far as ancient literary sources are concerned, an extant continuous account of Trajans reign does not exist, only fragments remain of the Getiká, a book by Trajans personal physician Titos Statilios Kriton. The Parthiká, a 17-volume account of the Parthian Wars written by Arrian, has met a similar fate, book 68 in Cassius Dios Roman History, which survives mostly as Byzantine abridgments and epitomes, is the main source for the political history of Trajans rule. Besides this, Pliny the Youngers Panegyricus and Dio of Prusas orations are the best surviving contemporary sources and it is certain that much of text of the letters that appear in this collection over Trajans signature was written and/or edited by Trajans Imperial secretary, his ab epistulis. Therefore, discussion of Trajan and his rule in modern historiography cannot avoid speculation, as well as recourse to sources such as archaeology. Marcus Ulpius Traianus was born on 18 September 53 AD in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica, Trajans birthplace of Italica was founded as a Roman military colony in 206 BC, though it is unknown when the Ulpii arrived there. Trajan was the son of Marcia, a Roman noblewoman and sister-in-law of the second Flavian Emperor Titus, and Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Marcus Ulpius Traianus the elder served Vespasian in the First Jewish-Roman War, commanding the Legio X Fretensis. Trajan himself was just one of many well-known Ulpii in a line that continued long after his own death and his elder sister was Ulpia Marciana, and his niece was Salonina Matidia. The patria of the Ulpii was Italica, in Spanish Baetica, as a young man, he rose through the ranks of the Roman army, serving in some of the most contested parts of the Empires frontier
Trajan
–
Marble bust of Trajan.
Trajan
–
Denarius of Trajan, minted in Rome between 101–102 AD
Trajan
–
Bust of Trajan in 108 AD, in the
Museum of Art History in Vienna, Austria
Trajan
–
Trajan's Column, Rome
49.
Germania Inferior
–
Germania Inferior was a Roman province located on the west bank of the Rhine. According to Ptolemy, Germania Inferior included the Rhine from its mouth up to the mouth of the Obringa, the territory included modern Luxembourg, southern Netherlands, part of Belgium, and part of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, west of the Rhine. The army of Germania Inferior, typically shown on inscriptions as EX. GER. INF, included several legions at various times, of these, Legions I Minervia and XXX Ulpia Victrix were the most permanent. The Roman Navys Classis Germanica, charged with patrolling the Rhine, the first confrontations between a Roman army and the peoples of Germania Inferior occurred during Julius Caesars Gallic Wars. Germanic influence increased during Roman times, leading to the assimilation of all Celtic peoples in the area, Germania Inferior had Roman settlements since around 50 BC and was at first part of Gallia Belgica. Although it had occupied since the reign of Augustus, it wasnt formally established as a Roman province until around AD85. It later became an Imperial province and it lay north of Germania Superior, these two together made up Lesser Germania. The adjective Inferior refers to its downstream position, as attested in the early 5th century Notitia Dignitatum, the province was renamed Germania Secunda in the 4th century. It was administered by a consularis and formed part of the Diocese of Gaul, up to the end of Roman control, it was an intensely garrisoned province that was inhabited by Romans and Ripuarian Franks in the 5th century. After the final abandonment of the province it became the core of the Frankish Kingdom, de Romeinen tussen Schelde en Maas. Livius. org, Germania inferior http, //www. library. ucla. edu/yrl/reference/maps/blaeu/germania-inferior-nt. htm#qvarta_branbantiae Blaeu Atlas Germania Inferior Hilary of Poitiers, an open letter sent to the bishop of the province of Germania Secunda, among others
Germania Inferior
–
The province of Germania Inferior within the Roman Empire, c. 117
50.
Dendrochronology
–
Dendrochronology is the scientific method of dating tree rings to the exact year they were formed in order to analyze atmospheric conditions during different periods in history. Dendrochronology is useful for determining the timing of events and rates of change in the environment and also in works of art and architecture, such as old panel paintings on wood, buildings and it is also used in radiocarbon dating to calibrate radiocarbon ages. New growth in trees occurs in a layer of cells near the bark, a trees growth rate changes in a predictable pattern throughout the year in response to seasonal climate changes, resulting in visible growth rings. Each ring marks a complete cycle of seasons, or one year, as of 2013, the oldest tree-ring measurements in the Northern Hemisphere extend back 13,900 years. Dendrochronology derives from Ancient Greek, δένδρον, meaning tree limb, χρόνος, meaning time, and -λογία, the Greek botanist Theophrastus first mentioned that the wood of trees has rings. In his Trattato della Pittura, Leonardo da Vinci was the first person to mention that trees form rings annually, in 1737, French investigators Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon examined the effect of growing conditions on the shape of tree rings. They found that in 1709, a severe winter produced a distinctly dark tree ring, the English polymath Charles Babbage proposed using dendrochronology to date the remains of trees in peat bogs or even in geological strata. During the latter half of the century, the scientific study of tree rings. In 1859, the German-American Jacob Kuechler used crossdating to examine oaks in order to study the record of climate in western Texas, in 1866, the German botanist, entomologist, and forester Julius Ratzeburg observed the effects on tree rings of defoliation caused by insect infestations. By 1882, this observation was already appearing in forestry textbooks, in the 1870s, the Dutch astronomer Jacobus C. Kapteyn was using crossdating to reconstruct the climates of the Netherlands, in 1881, the Swiss-Austrian forester Arthur von Seckendorff-Gudent was using crossdating. From 1869 to 1901, Robert Hartig, a German professor of forest pathology, wrote a series of papers on the anatomy, in 1892, the Russian physicist Fedor Nikiforovich Shvedov wrote that he had used patterns found in tree rings to predict droughts in 1882 and 1891. During the first half of the 20th century, the astronomer A. E. Douglass founded the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. Growth rings, also referred to as tree rings or annual rings, growth rings are the result of new growth in the vascular cambium, a layer of cells near the bark that is classified as a lateral meristem, this growth in diameter is known as secondary growth. Visible rings result from the change in speed through the seasons of the year, thus, critical for the title method. If the bark of the tree has been removed in a particular area, the rings are more visible in temperate zones, where the seasons differ more markedly. The inner portion of a ring is formed early in the growing season, when growth is comparatively rapid and is known as early wood. Many trees in temperate zones make one growth ring each year, hence, for the entire period of a trees life, a year-by-year record or ring pattern is formed that reflects the age of the tree and the climatic conditions in which the tree grew
Dendrochronology
–
Drill for dendrochronology sampling and growth ring counting
Dendrochronology
–
The growth rings of a tree at
Bristol Zoo, England. Each ring represents one year; the outside rings, near the bark, are the youngest.
Dendrochronology
–
Diagram of
secondary growth in a
tree showing idealised vertical and horizontal sections. A new layer of
wood is added in each growing season, thickening the stem, existing branches and roots, to form a growth ring.
Dendrochronology
–
Pinus taeda Cross section showing annual rings,
Cheraw, South Carolina.
.svg)
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Alamanni". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 468. Endnote: See
