The Historia

Seeking Veracity

baut0@greytrek.com

ARBOGAST SECURES GAUL BEFORE GOING TO WAR - 393

"To secure Gaul during his absence (at war) Arbogast determined to impress the barbarians with a wholesome dred of Bructeri and Chamavi, while Alemanni and Franks were forced to accept terms of peace whereby they agreed to furnish recruits for the Roman armies." - 18,  p.  246

"The Bructeri, the Ampsivarii, and the Chatti were, like the Chamavi, reckoned as Franks.  They are mentioned as such in a well-known passage of Slupicius Alexander which is cited by Gregory of Tours (Historia Francorum, II. 9).  Arbogast, a barabarian general in the service of Rome, desires to take vengeance on the Franks and their chiefs -- subreguli -- Sunno and Marcomir.  Consequently in midwinter of the year 392 collecto exercitu transgressus Rhenum, Bructeros ripae proximos, pagum etiam quem Chamavi incolunt depopulatus est, nullo unquam occursante, nisi quod pauci ex Ampsivariis et Catthis Marcomere duce in ulterioribus collium jugis apparuere.  It is this Marcomir, chief of the Ampsivarii and Chatti, whom the author of the Liber Historiae makes the father of Pharamond, though he has nothing whatever to do with the Salian Franks." - 18A,  p.  295

"He goes on:"

'That same year Arbogast, urged on by tribal hatred, went in search of Sunno and Marcomer, the kinglets of the Franks.  He came to Cologne in the full blast of winter, for he knew well that all the retreats of Frankland could be penetrated and burnt out now that the leaves were off the trees and that the bare and sapless forests could offer no concealment for an ambushed foe.  He therefore collected an army together, crossed the River Rhine, and laid waste the land nearest to the bank, where the Bructeri lived, and the region occupied by the Chamavi.  He did this without meeting any opposition, except that a few Amsivarii and Chatti showed themselves on the far-distant ridges of the hills, with Marcomer as their war-leader.' - 21,  p.  122

"A few pages further on, having given up all talk of 'duces' and 'regales', he states clearly that the Franks had a king, but he forgets to tell us what his name was." - 21,  p.  122