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FRANKS

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 35 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRANKS . The name Franks seems to have been given in the 4th See also:

century to a See also:group of Germanic peoples dwelling See also:north of the See also:Main and reaching as far as the shores of the North See also:Sea; See also:south of the Main was the See also:home of the See also:Alamanni. The names of some of these tribes have come down to us. On the Tabula Peutingeriana appear the " Chamavi qui et Pranci," which should doubtless read " qui et Franci"; these Chamavi apparently dwelt between the Yssel and the See also:Ems. Later, we find them a little farther south, on the See also:banks of the See also:Rhine, in the See also:district called Hamalant, and it is their customs which were brought together in the 9th century in the document known as the Lex Francorum Chamavorum. After the Chamavi we may mention the Attuarii or Chattuarii, who are referred to by See also:Ammianus See also:Marcellinus (xx. ro, 2): " Rheno exinde transmisso, regionem pervasit (Julianus) Francorum quos Atthuarios vocant." Later, the pages Attuariorum corresponds to the district of See also:Emmerich and Xanten. It should be noted that this name occurs again in the See also:middle ages in See also:Burgundy, not far from See also:Dijon; in all See also:probability a detachment of this See also:people had settled in that spot in the 5th or 6th century. The Bructeri, Ampsivarii and See also:Chatti may also be classed among the Frankish tribes. They are mentioned in a celebrated passage of Sulpicius See also:Alexander, which is cited by See also:Gregory of See also:Tours (Historia Francorum, ii. 9). Sulpicius shows the See also:general See also:Arbogast, a See also:barbarian in the service of See also:Rome, seeking to take vengeance on the Franks (392): " Collecto exercitu, transgressus Rhenum, Bricteros ripae proximos, pagum etiam See also:quern Chamavi incolunt depopulatus est, nullo unquam occursante, nisi quod pauci ex Ampsivariis et Catthis Marcomere duce in ulterioribus collium jugis apparuere." It is evidently this Marcomeres, the See also:chief of these tribes, who is regarded by later historians as the See also:father of the legendary Faramund (Pharamund) although in fact Marcomeres has nothing to do with the Salian Franks. The earliest mention in See also:history of the name Franks is the entry on the Tabula Peutingeriana, at least if we assume that the See also:term " et Franci " is not a later emendation.

The earliest occurrence of the name in any author is in the Vita Aureliani of Vopiscus (ch. vii.). When, in 241, See also:

Aurelian, who was then only a See also:tribune, had just defeated some Franks in the See also:neighbour-See also:hood of See also:Mainz and was marching against the Persians, his troops sang the following refrain: Mille Sarmatas, mille Francos, semel et semel occidimus; Mille Persas, quaerimus. All these Germanic tribes, which were known from the 3rd century onwards by the generic name of Franks, doubtless spoke a similar See also:dialect and were governed by customs which must scarcely have differed from one another; but this was all they had in See also:common. Each tribe was politically See also:independent; they formed no confederations. Sometimes two or three tribes joined forces to wage a See also:war; but, the struggle over, the See also:bond was broken, and each tribe resumed its isolated See also:life. See also:Waitz holds with some show of probability that the Franks represent the See also:ancient Istaevones of See also:Tacitus, the Alamanni and the See also:Saxons representing the Herminones and the Ingaevones. Of all these Frankish tribes one especially was to become prominent, the tribe of the Salians. They are mentioned for the first See also:time in 358, by Ammianus Marcellinus (xvii. 8, 3), who says that the See also:Caesar See also:Julian " See also:petit primos omnium Francos, videlicet eos quos consuetudo Salios appellavit." As to the origin of the name, it was See also:long held to be derived from the See also:river Yssel or Saal. It is more probable, however, that it arose from the fact that the Salians for a long See also:period occupied the shores of the See also:salt sea.1 The Salians inhabited the sea-See also:coast, whereas the Ripuarians dwelt on the banks of the river Rhine. The Salians, at the time when they are mentioned by Ammianus, occupied Toxandria, i.e. the region south of the See also:Meuse, between that river and the See also:Scheldt. Julian defeated them completely, but allowed them to remain in Toxandria, not, as of old, as conquerors, but as foederati of the See also:Romans.

End of Article: FRANKS

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