Sicambri

The approximate positions of some Germanic peoples reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 1st century.

Roman Gaul and Germania east of the Rhine around AD 70. The Sicambri by this point may have been living in the area labelled Cugerni.

The Sicambri (also Sugambri) were a Germanic people who lived in the area between the Rhine, Lippe, and Wupper rivers, in what is now Germany, near the border with the Netherlands. They were first reported by Julius Caesar, who encountered them in 55 BC. They became a significant opponent of Roman imperial power in the Rhine region. After a major defeat by the Romans in 8 BC a significant part of the Sicambri were moved into Roman territory.

Caesar categorized them as a Germanic people (Germani), although he did not necessarily define ethnicity in terms of language. Whether or not the Sicambri spoke a Germanic or Celtic language, or something else, is not certain. They lived in a contact zone where these two language families came into contact and were both influential.

By the 3rd century, the region in which they and their neighbours had lived had become part of the territory of the Franks, which was a new name that possibly represented a new alliance of older tribes, possibly including the Sicambri. However, many Sicambri had been moved into the Roman empire by this time.

Name and language

The specific way the name is spelt differs can differ considerably across sources. The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography gives four variant spellings under the entry Sicambri: Sycambri, Sygambri, Sugambri, and Sucambri. The earliest source, Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, calls them Sugambri but in later sources they are more commonly called Sicambri.

A Germanic etymology has been proposed for the name of the Sicambri or Sugambri. The first element su- is proposed to be a little-known Germanic version of Indo-European meaning "good", which is better attested in Celtic languages. The second part of the name is associated with the little-known Gambrivii, who are mentioned twice by Roman sources, and sometimes associated with the Sicambri by modern scholars, because of the similar names.

The material culture of the early Sicambri which was a variant of the La Tène culture, which is associated with Celtic languages. Like the Cimbri, and like their neighbours across the Rhine, the Eburones, many names of Sicambrian leaders end in typical Celtic suffixes like -rix (Baetorix, Deudorix, etc.). If the Sicambri were not Celtic speakers themselves, this could also indicate intense contacts with Celtic peoples across the Rhine in Gaul.

History

Gallic Wars

The first mention of the Sicambri is in the fourth book, corresponding to year 55 BC, of Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico. Caesar reports that near the confluence of the Rhine and Meuse, a battle took place in the land of the Menapii with a large number of mobile Tencteri and Usipetes, who had come to the Rhine from east, and were planning to move south into the territory of the Eburones. When these two peoples were routed by Caesar, their cavalry escaped and found asylum on the far side of the Rhine with the Sicambri. Caesar then built a bridge across the river to punish the Sicambri. The Sicambri, however, did not wait for his arrival, but, on the advice of their wards, withdrew into forests and uninhabited areas where Caesar was unable to follow them. However, their villages, farms, and grain fields were systematically destroyed.

In 53 BC, after Caesar defeated the Eburones, but failed to capture their leader Ambiorix, he reported that he invited all of the peoples that were interested to destroy the remainder. The Sicambri responded to Caesar's call quickly, Caesar commenting that "these men are born for war and raids" and were unstoppable by any swamp or marsh. However, instead of raiding the Eburone refugees they targeted the Romans who had plundered them. The Roman plunder was weakly defended at what had been the Eburone fort, called Atuatuca. They destroyed some of Caesar's units, and retired back across the Rhine.

Imperial period

The location of the Sicambri at this time is interpreted by modern historians as lying roughly between the Sieg and Lippe rivers, with a core area between the Rhine, Lippe, and Wupper. This is believed to have been an area of substantial economic and strategic significance for trading networks. Under the ensuing hegemony of the Romans in this region, the Rhine became a frontier, and the successors of Caesar helped fortify and reinforce their allies the Ubii, to the south of the Sicambri near modern Cologne. A faction of Chatti were also able to settle in Roman-controlled Batavia, in the Rhine delta just east of the Sugambri, becoming the Batavians. The Sicambri were thus enclosed within a pincer movement by Rome's frontier policy.

In 16 BC, during the reign of Augustus (reigned 27 BC-14 AD), the Sicambrian leader Melo, brother of Baetorix, organised a raid including Tencteri and Usipetes, which defeated a Roman army under the command of Marcus Lollius. The Sugambri had damaged the prestige of the emperor, and they were quickly willing to negotiate agreements to prevent Roman reprisals. It nevertheless sparked a reaction from the Roman Empire and helped start the series of Germanic Wars. Among actions undertaken at this time the Romans established a fort at present day Xanten.

From 12 BC-8 BC, the Roman empire put pressure upon the Sicambri and other opponents in this region in multiple campaigns, facing the Sicambri core lands. In 12 BC the Sicambri made attacks across the Rhine. Nero Claudius Drusus (Drusus the Elder) launched an attack from Batavia, moving first through the lands of the Usipetes, and then devasted the Sicambrian country. In 11 BC he then devastated the Usipetes' country, and built a bridge over the Lippe in order to once again enter the Sicambrian lands. There he faced little resistance because they were in a conflict with their neighbours the Chatti. He was able to cross this country and reach the Cherusci frontier near the Weser. Drusus faced stiff resistance upon his return, but he defeated the Sicambri and it was probably at this time that the Romans built their fort at Oberaden, well east of the Rhine in Sicambrian territory. These descriptions show that the tribe was living to the south of the river Lippe, with the Usipetes now settled to their northwest.

In 9 BC the Sicambri battled Drusus as part of a major alliance with the Cherusci and Suevi and lost. In 8-7 BC, after this defeat and the death of Drusus, the future emperor Tiberius forced the Sicambri, or a part of them, to move to the western, Roman-controlled, side of the Rhine. Modern historians speculate that they possibly merged into Romanized population immediately facing their old lands, who were known from about this time as the Cugerni. The more detailed description of this period by Cassius Dio however describes the results of the victories of Tiberius somewhat differently:

Accordingly all the barbarians except the Sugambri, through fear of them, made overtures of peace; but they gained nothing either at this time, — for Augustus refused to conclude a truce with them without the Sugambri, — or, indeed, later. To be sure, the Sugambri also sent envoys, 3 but so far were they from accomplishing anything that all of these envoys, who were both many and distinguished, perished into the bargain. For Augustus arrested them and placed them in various cities; and they, being greatly distressed at this, took their own lives. The Sugambri were thereupon quiet for a time, but later they amply requited the Romans for their calamity.

It appears that Tiberius used a diplomatic approach where by the Sicambrian nobles were isolated as the Germanic region became more peace-seeking. More cooperative Germanic leaders took the upper hand. They accepted a Roman demand to move about 40,000 individuals people to the Xanten area west of the Rhine and elites were settled under the watchful eye of the Roman military.

In 9 AD, Deudorix, son of Baetorix, joined the Germanic rebellion of Arminius, of the Cherusci, which annihilated the 3 Roman legions of Publius Quinctilius Varus. After the defeat of this alliance, Deudorix was among the captives paraded in Rome during the triumph of Germanicus.

Strabo, writing around 20 AD, described the position of Sicambri using similar words to Caesar, and possibly based upon them. He placed them next to the Menapii, "who dwell on both sides of the river Rhine near its mouth, in marshes and low thorny woods. It is opposite to these Menapii that the Sicambri are situated". Strabo describes them as Germanic, and notes that beyond them are the Suevi and other peoples. Elsewhere however, Strabo mentions that the Rhine valley Germans have mainly been displaced: "there are but few remaining, and some portion of them are Sicambri". He apparently understood their position on the Rhine to literally be on the coast. With the German wars still on-going, he describes them as being one of the most well-known Germanic tribes in his time.

In contrast to those Sicambri who were moved west of the Rhine, the main part of the Sicambri "migrated deep into the country anticipating the Romans" according to Strabo. It has been suggested that the Marsi were a part of the Sicambri who managed to stay east of the Rhine after most had been moved from the area to join the Eburones and other Germani cisrhenani. By the time of Rome's conflict with the British Silures, Tacitus reports that the Sicambri could be mentioned as an historical example of a tribe who "had been formerly destroyed or transplanted into Gaul".

Claudius Ptolemy, in the second century AD, still located the Sicambri, together with the Bructeri Minores, at the most northern part of the Rhine and south of the Frisii who inhabit the coast north of the river. However it is likely that this part of his geography was based upon earlier Roman authors.

Legacy

Although the Sicambri ceased to exist as an independent political entity in 8 BC, their legacy was preserved through the traditional names of three Roman auxiliary cohorts, and a Roman literary tradition which portrayed them as archetypical warlike savages, with a resistance to higher culture.

In 26 AD, some Sicambrian auxiliaries allied to Rome were involved in crushing an uprising of Thracian tribesmen. All inscriptions found mentioning the Sicambri are from the period 76-157 AD, with the exception of one uncertain example from Mauretania in North Africa, which is dated to 255 AD. After this the Sicambri only live on as a literary trope. There are around 20 inscriptions mentioning the cohortes Sugambrorum found mainly in the north of the Balkans, where they apparently helped defend the Lower Danube frontier regions in present day Romania, Bulgaria, and North Macedonia. Others are found in Turkey, and the city of Rome itself.

As a literary trope the Sicambri were used by some of the best-known poets of the Augustan era, setting an example for later literature. For example, in the later part of the first century AD, Martial, in his Liber De Spectaculis, a series of epigrams written to celebrate the games in the Colosseum under Titus or Domitian, noted the attendance of numerous peoples, including the Sicambri: "With locks twisted into a knot, are come the Sicambrians..." Another poet who used this trope was Ovid.

Late antique authors regularly, by convention, referred to foreign tribes with names drawn from older sources such as Herodotus and Tacitus. In such sources, including Claudian and Sidonius Apollinaris, the Franks were called Sicambri. Other examples of such appelation can be found in Venantius Fortunatus, Panegyrici Latini, Life of King Sigismund, and Life of King Dagobert.

This literary tradition had an influence lasting into the early middle ages. Gregory of Tours metaphorically referred to Clovis I as a rough Sugambrian who needed to abandon his impetuous nature and open himself to the beneficial influence of Christianity, referring to his baptism, around the year 500.

The Sicambri were also later referenced in Frankish mythology, with an anonymous work from AD 727 called Liber Historiae Francorum creating a mythological Trojan ancestry. It reports that following the fall of Troy, 12,000 Trojans led by chiefs Priam and Antenor moved to the Tanais (Don) river, settled in Pannonia near the Sea of Azov and founded a city called Sicambria. After altercations the Alans and Emperor Valentinian (r. 364–375), who renamed them Franks, they moved to the Rhine. Frankish chronicler Fredegar also has the Franks originate in Troy but lets them move straight to the Rhine. These stories have obvious difficulties and are rejected as fictitious. Historians and archaeologists firmly place Frankish origins in the Rhine region.

Bibliography

Modern sources

• Creer, Tyler (2019). "Ethnography in Caesar's Gallic War and its implications for composition". Classical Quarterly. 69 (1): 246–263. doi:10.1017/S0009838819000405. ISSN 0009-8388.
• Derks, Tom (2009). "Ethnic identity in the Roman frontier. The epigraphy of Batavi and other Lower Rhine tribes". In Derks, Ton; Roymans, Nico (eds.). Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity: The Role of Power and Tradition. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-90-8964-078-9.
• Heinrichs, Johannes (2005). "Sugambrer". In Beck, Heinrich; Geuenic h, Dieter; Steuer, Heiko (eds.). Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (in German). Vol. 30 (2 ed.). De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-018385-6.
• Krüger, Bruno (1983). Die Germanen: Geschichte und Kultur der germanischen Stämme in Mitteleuropa (in German). Vol. 4, 1. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. doi:10.1515/9783112617809. ISBN 978-3-11-261780-9.
• Lanting, J. N.; van der Plicht, J (Dec 15, 2010). "De ¹⁴C Chronologie van de Nederlandse Pre- en Protohistorie VI". Palaeohistoria. 51/52. Barkhuis. ISBN 9789077922736. Retrieved 2015-04-25.
• Neumann, Günter (1998), "Gambrivii, Namenkundliches", in Beck, Heinrich; Geuenic h, Dieter; Steuer, Heiko (eds.), Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 10 (2 ed.), ISBN 978-3-11-015102-2
• Schönfeld, Moritz (1931). "Sugambri". Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (in German). Vol. IV A, 1. Stuttgart: Butcher. cols. 659–61.
• Sitzmann, Alexander; Grünzweig, Friedrich E; Nedoma, Robert; Reichert, Hermann (2008). Die altgermanischen Ethnonyme: ein Handbuch zu ihrer Etymologie. Philologica Germanica (in German). Wien: Fassbaender. ISBN 978-3-902575-07-4.
• Van Loon, Jozef (2016). "Lanaken en de vroegste geschiedenis van Franken en Merovingen". Verslagen & Mededelingen (in Dutch). 126 (1–2). ISSN 2033-6446.
• Wolters, Reinhard (2008). Die Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald: Arminius, Varus und das römische Germanien (in German). München: C H Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-57674-4.
• Wood, Ian (1993). The Merovingian Kingdoms. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-582-49372-8.

Ancient sources

• Caesar. Commentarii de Bello Gallico.
• Dio. Roman History.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Fredegar (1960). The fourth book of the Chronicle of Fredegar; with its continuations. Translated by Wallace-Hadrill, J M. OCLC 401901.
• Martial. Liber de Spectaculis. Chapter 3.
• Ptolemy. Geography.
• Strabo. Geography.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Suetonius. The Deified Augustus. Lives of the Caesars.
• Tacitus. Annales.

See also

• List of Germanic peoples
• Cimmerians

External links

• Le mythe de l'origine troyenne (in French)
• Archaeological search for Sicambria (in Hungarian)