Königreich der Sueben
The Suebic Kingdom of Galicia was the first barbarian kingdom to separate from the Roman Empire and mint coins. Located in Gallaecia and northern Lusitania, it was established in 410 and lasted until 584 after a century of slow decline. Smaller than the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy or the Visigothic kingdom in Hispania, it never reached major political relevance.
The historiography of Suebic Galicia was long marginalised in Spanish culture; it was left to a German scholar to write the first connected history of the Suebi in Galicia, as writer-historian Xoán Bernárdez Vilar has pointed out.[1]
Origins
Little is known about the Suevi before they crossed the Rhine on the night of December 31, 406 A.D. and entered the Roman Empire. It is speculated that the Suevi are the same group as the Quadi, who are mentioned in early writings, and lived north of the middle Danube located today in lower Austria and western Slovakia.[2] The reasoning behind the believe that the Suevi and Quadi are the same, or at least related groups comes from a letter written by St. Jerome to Ageruchia, listing the invaders of the 406 crossing into Gaul, in which the Quadi are listed and the Suevi are not.[3] The argument for this theory, however, is based solely on the disappearance of mention of the Quadi in Gaul and the emergence of the Suevi. Additionally the lack of mention of the Suevi could mean that they are not a distinct ethnic group. Perhaps the Suevi were the result of many smaller groups who banded together during the migration from central Europe to the Iberian Peninsula.[4]
Settlement and integration
The Suebi, (Quadi and Marcomanni) settled mainly in the areas of Braga (Bracara Augusta), Porto (Portus Cale), Lugo (Lucus Augusta) and Astorga (Asturica Augusta). Bracara Augusta, the modern city of Braga and former capital of Roman Gallaecia, became the capital of the Suebi. Another Germanic group that accompanied the Suebi and settled in Gallaecia were the Buri. They settled in the region between the rivers Cávado and Homem, in the area known as Terras de Bouro (Lands of the Buri).[5]
As the Suebi quickly adopted the local Hispano-Roman language, few traces were left of their Germanic tongue, but some examples in the Galician language and Portuguese language remained, like laverca in Portuguese and Galician (synonyms of cotovia - lark).
Swebic kingdom
In 438 Hermeric ratified peace with the Hispano-Roman local population and, weary of fighting, abdicated in favour of his son Rechila.
The irruption of Visigoths into the Iberian Peninsula after 416, sent from Aquitania by the Emperor of the West to fight the Vandals and the Alans, resulted in an ephemeral expansion of the Suebi Kingdom; at its heyday Suebic Gallaecia extended as far as Mérida or Seville.
In 448, Rechila died, leaving the crown to his son Rechiar who had converted to Roman Catholicism circa 447. In 456, Rechiar died after being defeated by the Visigothic king Theodoric II, and Suebic glory began to fade. The Suebic kingdom became cornered in the hostile northwest, and political division arose across the river Minius (Minho or Miño) with two different kings ruling on either side of the river.
The Suebi remained mostly pagan and their subjects Priscillianist until an Arian missionary named Ajax, sent by the Visigothic king Theodoric II at the request of the Suebic unifier Remismund, converted them in 466 and established a lasting Arian church which dominated the people until their conversion to Catholicism in the 560s.
Conversion to Catholicism
The conversion of the Suebi to Catholicism is presented very differently in the primary records. The only contemporary record, the minutes of the First Council of Braga—which met on 1 May 561—state explicitly that the synod was held at the orders of a king named Ariamir. While his Catholicism is not in doubt, that he was the first Catholic monarch of the Suebes since Rechiar has been contested on the grounds that he is not explicitly stated to have been.[6] He was, however, the first to hold a Catholic synod. The Historia Suevorum of Isidore of Seville states that a king named Theodemar brought about the conversion of his people from Arianism with the help of the missionary Martin of Dumio.[7] According to the Frankish historian Gregory of Tours on the other hand, an otherwise unknown sovereign named Chararic, having heard of Martin of Tours, promised to accept the beliefs of the saint if only his son were cured of leprosy. Through the relics and intercession of Saint Martin the son was healed; Chararic and the entire royal household converted to the Nicene faith.[8] Finally, the Suebic conversion is ascribed, not to a Suebe, but to a Visigoth by the name of John of Biclarum, which puts their conversion alongside that of the Goths, occurring under Reccared I in 587–589.
Most scholars have attempted to meld these stories. It has been alleged that Chararic and Theodemir must have been successors of Ariamir, since Ariamir was the first Suebic monarch to lift the ban on Catholic synods; Isidore therefore gets the chronology wrong.[9][10] Reinhart suggested that Chararic was converted first through the relics of Saint Martin and that Theodemir was converted later through the preaching of Martin of Dumio.[6] Dahn equated Chararic with Theodemir, even saying that the latter was the name he took upon baptism.[6] It has also been suggested that Theodemir and Ariamir were the same person and the son of Chararic.[6] In the opinion of some historians, Chararic is nothing more than an error on the part of Gregory of Tours and never existed.[11] If, as Gregory relates, Martin of Dumio died about the year 580 and had been bishop for about thirty years, then the conversion of Chararic must have occurred around 550 at the latest.[8] Finally, Ferreiro believes the conversion of the Suevi was progressive and stepwise and that Chararic's public conversion was only followed by the lifting of a ban on Catholic synods in the reign of his successor, which would have been Ariamir; Thoedemir was responsible for beginning a persecution of the Arians in his kingdom to root out their heresy.[12]
Twilight
Late in the fifth century and early in the sixth century, immigrants from Britain and Brittany settled in the north of Galicia, which thus acquired the name Britonia.[13] Most of what is known about the settlement comes from ecclesiastical sources; records from the 572 Second Council of Braga refer to a diocese called the Britonensis ecclesia ("British church") and an episcopal see called the sedes Britonarum ("See of the Britons"), which was likely the monastery of Santa Maria de Bretoña.[13] The bishop representing this diocese at the council bore the clearly Brythonic name of Mailoc.[13] The see continued to be represented at councils through the 7th century. Britonia evidently covered a substantial area; parishes of the Britonensis ecclesia extended from the coast of the Bay of Biscay southwards to near the town of Mondoñedo, and eastwards into Asturias.[13]
In 569 Theodemir called the First Council of Lugo,[14] which dealt with Arianism and established a bishopric of Britonia, whereas the council of Braga in 561 had dealt with Priscillianism.
In 570 the Arian king of the Visigoths, Liuvigild, made his first attack on the Suebi. Between 572 and 574, Liuvigild invaded the valley of the Douro, pushing the Suebi northwards. In 575 the Suebic king, Miro, made a peace treaty with Liuvigild, but in 583 he supported the rebellion of the Catholic Gothic prince Hermenegild and was overthrown. The kingdom could not survive Liuvigild's response. First Andeca in 585 and then Malaric were defeated and the Suevic kingdom was no more.
List of Galician Suebic monarchs
- Hermeric, c. 409–438
- Heremigarius, 427–429, leader in Lusitania
- Rechila, 438–448
- Rechiar, 448–456
- Aioulf, 456–457, foreigner, possibly appointee of the Visigoths
- Maldras, 456–460, in opposition to Framta after 457
- Framta, 457, in opposition to Maldras
- Richimund, 457–464, successor of Framta
- Frumar, 460–464, successor of Maldras
- Remismund, 464–469, succeeded Frumar, reunited the Suebi
- Period of obscurity
- Hermeneric fl. c. 485
- Veremund fl. 535
- Theodemund fl. 6th century
- Chararic, after c.550–558/559, existence sometimes doubted
- Ariamir, 558/559–561/566
- Theodemar, 561/566–570
- Miro, 570–583
- Eboric, 583–584, deposed and put in a monastery by Andeca.
- Andeca, 584–585, deposed and put in a monastery by Leovigild.
- Malaric, 585, opposed Leovigild and was defeated.
Bibliography
- Arias, Jorge C. "Identity and Interactions: The Suevi and the Hispano-Romans." University of Virginia: Spring 2007.
- Ferreiro, Alberto. "Braga and Tours: Some Observations on Gregory's De virtutibus sancti Martini." Journal of Early Christian Studies. 3 (1995), p. 195–210.
- Thompson, E. A. "The Conversion of the Spanish Suevi to Catholicism." Visigothic Spain: New Approaches. ed. Edward James. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980. ISBN 0-19-922543-1.
Notes
External links
- The Chronicle of Hydatius is the main source for the history of the suevi in Galicia and Portugal up to 468.
- Medieval Galician anthroponomy
- Minutes of the Councils of Braga and Toledo, in Collectio Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis
- Orosius' Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri VII
- ↑ http://www.culturagalega.org/temadia_arquivo.php?id=4740
- ↑ Thompson, Romans and Barbarians, 152
- ↑ Thompson, Romans and Barbarians, 152
- ↑ Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 13, Late Antiquity: The Late Empire, ed. Averil Cameron and others (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2001), s.v. "Barbarian Invasions and first Settlements"
- ↑ Domingos Maria da Silva, Os Búrios, Terras de Bouro, Câmara Municipal de Terras de Bouro, 2006. (in Portuguese)
- ↑ a b c d Thompson, 86.
- ↑ Ferreiro, 198 n8.
- ↑ a b Thompson, 83.
- ↑ Thompson, 87.
- ↑ Ferreiro, 199.
- ↑ Thompson, 88.
- ↑ Ferreiro, 207.
- ↑ a b c d Koch, John T. (2006). "Britonia". In John T. Koch, Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, p. 291.
- ↑ Ferreiro, 199 n11.