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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 2, 9. What They Tell Concerning the Franks

Now concerning the kings of the Franks, it is unknown to many who was the first in order. For though Sulpicius Alexander in his history narrateth many things of them, Valentinus names not their first king, but says that they followed dukes. I will set forth that which he recounts. Where he relates that Maximus dwelled in Aquileia, abandoning all hope of empire, and as a man demented, he continues: ‘At that time under these dukes Genobaud, Marcomer, and Sunno the Franks broke into Germany, and after forcing the frontier, with much slaughter and ravaging the most fertile districts, they struck terror even into Cologne. When the news reached Trèves, Nanninus and Quintinus, masters of the soldiery, to whom Maximus had entrusted his infant son and the defence of Gaul, collected their troops and joined forces at Cologne. But the enemy, after pillaging the richest parts of the province, crossed the Rhine laden with spoil, leaving many of their number behind on Roman soil, ready to lay all waste again. These the Romans encountered at their advantage, and many of them were put to the sword in the forest of Carbonniére. It was hotly debated whether they should cross over to Frankish soil, but Nanninus refused, because he knew that the enemy were not unprepared and that they would without doubt be the stronger on their own ground. As this counsel was displeasing to Quintinus and the rest of the army, Nanninus withdrew to Mayence. But Quintinus with the army crossed the Rhine near the fort of Neuss, and after two days’ march came upon houses void of their inhabitants and large townships all abandoned. For the Franks, pretending fear, had retired into the more remote forests, at the edges of which they had prepared abattis. The Roman soldiers burned down every house, thinking in their cowardly stupidity that to vent their rage on houses was proof of complete victory; they passed an anxious night under the burden of their heavy arms. At dawn, led by Quintinus, they entered the woods; towards midday they became involved in a maze of tracks and wandered wholly at large. At length, finding everything enclosed by great fences, they tried to make their way out into the marshy flats adjoining the woods. Thereupon a few of the enemy showed themselves standing upon piled-up tree-trunks or abattis, as it might be on tower ramparts, and thence discharged a shower of arrows thick as missiles shot from engines of war, and smeared with poisonous herbs, so that mere flesh wounds, and those not in dangerous places, were followed by certain death. And now the army, surrounded by increasing numbers of the enemy, eagerly streamed into the open ground left unoccupied by the Franks. The horsemen were first swallowed up in the morass, men and horses in confusion bearing each other down in one common ruin. The foot-soldiers, though not crushed under the weight of the horses, were caught in the mud, from which they could hardly draw out their feet. Seized with panic, they ran back to hide themselves in the forest from which not long before they had so hardly emerged. The ranks thus thrown into disorder, the legions were cut to pieces. Heraclius, tribune of the Jovinians, and almost all the officers were slain; only a few found a refuge in the darkness of night and in the recesses of the forest.’ Such is the relation of Sulpicius in the third book of his History.

In the fourth book, describing the murder of Victor, son of the tyrant Maximus, he says: ‘At this time¹ Carietto and Syrus, appointed in the place of Nanninus, were stationed in Germany with an army collected to oppose the Franks.’ A little farther on, after stating that the Franks carried off spoils from the Roman province, he continues: ‘Arbogast, impatient of all delay, urged the emperor to exact just retribution from the Franks unless they instantly restored all the booty taken in the previous year, when the legions were cut up, and unless they surrendered the instigators of the war, who were responsible for the treacherous violation of the peace. He relates that this happened when the Franks were led by dukes, and further says: “A few days afterwards, a hurried parley was held with Marcomer and Sunno, chiefs of the Franks; hostages were demanded² according to usage, and Arbogast retired into winter quarters at Trèves.” When he calls them chiefs we do not know whether he would say real kings, or leaders representing kings. The same writer, recording the straits of the emperor Valentinian, adds these words: “While in the East various events occurred in Thrace, in Gaul the government was thrown into confusion. The emperor Valentinian was confined within the palace at Vienne and reduced almost to the position of a private citizen; the control of military affairs was abandoned to Frankish mercenaries; even civil administration had passed into the hands of Arbogast’s sworn followers. Among all those bound by the military oath, not a man was found who dared obey the private orders or the commands of the emperor.” ’ He then proceeds: ‘In the same year Arbogast, pursuing Sunno and Marcomer, the Frankish petty kings, with a tribal hatred,³ came to Cologne during the full severity of winter, assured that all the retreats of the Franks might safely be penetrated and burned out now that the leaves were fallen, and the bare woods could no longer conceal an ambushed foe. He therefore collected an army and crossed the Rhine, first ravaging the country of the Bructeri which was nearest the river, and the region inhabited by the Chamavi; and meeting with no opposition, except that a few Ampsivarii and Chatti, under the command of Marcomer, appeared on the farthest ridges of the hills.’ In another passage, without a word more about dukes or petty kings, he states openly that the Franks had a king, though he omits mention of his name; he proceeds as follows: ‘Then the tyrant Eugenius undertook an expedition to the borders of the Rhine, to renew, as usual, the old treaties made with the kings of the Alamanni and the Franks, and to display in the sight of their savage peoples an army of immense size for those times.’ These things the above-named chronicler of the Franks relates. Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, whom I have mentioned above, in his account of the capture and ruin of Rome by the Goths writes as follows: ‘Meanwhile, Goar having gone over to the Romans, Respendial, king of the Alans,⁴ withdrew his forces from the Rhine, while the Vandals were hard pressed in war against the Franks. Godegisel their king was slain, about twenty thousand men of their army had fallen, and the whole Vandal people might have been exterminated, had not the troops of the Alans come to their aid in time.’ It is a matter of surprise to us that though the author mentions kings of other tribes and of the Franks, yet where he says that Constantine, having proclaimed himself tyrant, commanded his son to come to him out of Spain, he writes thus: ‘The tyrant Constantine summoned his son Constans, also tyrant, out of Spain that they might consult together on affairs of State. Constans left his court and his consort at Saragossa, and entrusted all his interests in Spain to Gerontius; he then travelled without a pause to meet his father. After they had met, and many days had passed without any news from Italy to alarm them, Constantine yielded to gluttony and drunkenness and bade his son return to Spain. Constans had sent on his troops in advance, but was himself still with his father, when envoys came from Spain with the news that Gerontius had proclaimed as emperor Maximus, one of his dependants, who now stood in arms with his barbaric following. Alarmed by this report, Constans and the prefect Decimus Rufus, formerly master of the offices, dispatched Edobech to the peoples of Germany, and themselves set out for Gaul, purposing to return with all speed to Constantine with the Franks, the Alamanni, and all the available fighting men.’ Likewise, describing the siege undergone by Constantine, he says: ‘The siege of Constantine had hardly entered on its fourth month, when messengers suddenly arrived from northern Gaul with the tidings that Jovinus had assumed the imperial insignia, and was about to fall upon the besiegers with Burgundians, Alamanni, Franks, Alans, and all his forces. The end was no longer delayed; the gates were opened and Constantine came out. He was at once sent to Italy, but was beheaded upon the Mincio by executioners sent by the emperor to meet him.’ Shortly afterwards this writer records that: ‘In those same days Decimus Rusticus, prefect of the tyrants, Agroecius, formerly chief of the secretaries of Jovinus, and many of the nobles were captured in Auvergne by the generals of Honorius and cruelly done to death. The city of Trèves was sacked and burned by the Franks, this being their second irruption into the town.’ After noting the elevation of Asterius to the patriciate by imperial rescript, he adds: ‘At the same time Castinius, count of the domestics, was sent to Gaul, where an expedition against the Franks had been undertaken.’ These are the statements of these authors about the Franks. And Orosius, himself a historian, relates as follows in the seventh book of his work: ‘Stilicho, at the head of the assembled tribes, crushed the Franks, crossed the Rhine, traversed Gaul, and penetrated as far as the Pyrenees.’ Such are the accounts which the remaining chroniclers have left us of the Franks, but without recording any names of kings. It is a common tradition that this people issued from Pannonia and first colonized the banks of the Rhine; that then they passed the river and traversed Thuringia, setting over them, according to their country districts and cities, long-haired kings belonging to the first and, so to speak, the most noble family of their race. This is proved later by the victories of Clovis, as I shall subsequently narrate. Moreover, we read in the consular Fasti, that Theudemer, king of the Franks, son of Richemer, and Ascyla his mother, were slain by the sword. Tradition has it that Chlogio, distinguished among his people for his capacity and most noble birth, was king of the Franks; he made his home at Dispargum, in the land of the Thuringians. On this side, that is, towards the south, Romans were dwelling as far as the river Loire, beyond which lay the dominions of the Goths. The Burgundians, who belonged to the Arian sect, lived across the Rhône, on which is the city of Lyons. Chlogio sent scouts to the city of Cambrai, who first explored everything. Thereupon he followed in person, crushed the Romans, and took possession of the city. He remained there only a short time before he occupied the whole country to the river Somme. Some assert that Merovech, father of Childeric, was of his family.

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