Chauci

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Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)
Map of Germania tribes

Chauci were an ancient Germanic tribe living in the low-lying region between the Rivers Ems and Elbe, on both sides of the Weser and ranging as far inland as the upper Weser. They were integral part of Saxons.

Variants

Jat clans

History

Along the coast they lived on artificial mounds called terpen, built high enough to remain dry during the highest tide. A dense population of Chauci lived further inland, and they are presumed to have lived in a manner similar to the lives of the other Germanic peoples of the region.

Their ultimate origins are not well understood. In the Germanic pre-Migration Period (i.e., before c. 300 AD) the Chauci and the related Frisians, Saxons, and Angles inhabited the Continental European coast from the Zuyder Zee to south Jutland.[1] All of these peoples shared a common material culture, and so cannot be defined archaeologically.[2] The Chauci originally centered on the Weser and Elbe, but in c. AD 58 they expanded to the River Ems by expelling the neighboring Ampsivarii,[3][4] whereby they gained a border with the Frisians to the west. The Romans referred to the Chauci living between the Weser and Elbe as the 'Greater Chauci' and those living between the Ems and Weser as the 'Lesser Chauci'.[5]

The Chauci entered the historical record in descriptions of them by classical Roman sources late in the first century BC in the context of Roman military campaigns and sea raiding. For the next 200 years the Chauci provided Roman auxiliaries through treaty obligations, but they also appear in their own right in concert with other Germanic tribes, opposing the Romans. Accounts of wars therefore mention the Chauci on both sides of the conflict, though the actions of troops under treaty obligation were separate from the policies of the tribe.

The Chauci lost their separate identity in the third century when they merged with the Saxons,[6] after which time they were considered to be Saxons. The circumstances of the merger are an unsettled issue of scholarly research.

Society and life

The Germans of the region were not strongly hierarchical. This had been noted by Tacitus, for example when he mentioned the names of two kings of the first century Frisians and added that they were kings "as far as the Germans are under kings".[7]Haywood (Dark Age Naval Power, 1999) says the Chauci were originally neither highly centralised nor highly stratified, though they became more so after 100 AD.[8] Barbara Yorke, speaking of the fifth century, describes the 'Continental Saxons' (which then included the Chauci) as having powerful local families and a dominant military leader.[9]

Writing in AD 79, Pliny the Elder said that the Germanic tribes were members of separate groups of people, suggesting a distinction among them. He said that the Chauci, Cimbri and Teutoni — the people from the River Ems through Jutland and for some distance inland—were members of a group called Ingaevones (a "Cimbri" people were also given as members of a different group, and this is likely a different people).[10]

Tacitus, writing in AD 98, described the inland, non-coastal Chauci homeland as immense, densely populated, and well-stocked with horses. He was effusive in his praise of their character as a people, saying that they were the noblest of the Germans, preferring justice to violence, being neither aggressive nor predatory, but militarily capable and always prepared for war if the need arose.[11]

Pliny (AD 23–79) had visited the coastal region and described the Chauci who lived there. He said that they were "wretched natives" living on a barren coast in small cottages (or huts) on hilltops, or on mounds of turf built high enough to stay dry during the highest tide (i.e., terpen). They fished for food, and unlike their neighbors (i.e., those living inland, away from the coast) they had no cattle, and had nothing to drink except rainwater caught in ditches. They used a type of dried mud (i.e., "surface peat") as fuel for cooking and heating. He also mentioned their spirit of independence, saying that even though they had nothing of value, they would deeply resent any attempt to conquer them.[12]

Sea raiding

The Chauci were one of the most prominent early Germanic sea raiders.[13] They are probable participants in the Germanic flotilla that was destroyed by Drusus in 12 BC. They were raiding the coasts of Roman Belgica in AD 41,[14]long before they participated in further raids of the same coasts under Gannascus in AD 47. It is likely that their raiding was endemic over the years, as the few surviving accounts probably do not reflect all occurrences. Tacitus describes the Chauci as 'peaceful' in his Germania (AD 98), but this is in a passage describing the non-coastal, inland Chauci,[15] whereas sea raiders are necessarily a coastal people.

By the late second century Chauci raiding was ongoing and more serious than before, continuing in the English Channel until their last recorded raids c. 170–175.[16] While there are no historical sources to inform us one way or the other, it is likely that the Chauci continued their raiding and then played a role in the formation of the new Germanic powers, the Franks and Saxons who were raiders in the third century.[17]

There is archaeological evidence of destruction by raiders between 170–200, ranging along the Continental coast down to the Bay of Biscay, to northwest Belgica (e.g., fire destruction at Amiens, Thérouanne, Vendeuil-Caply, Beauvais, Bavai, Tournai, and Arras), to coastal Britain (e.g., fire destruction at the Essex sites of Chelmsford, Billericay, Gestingthorpe, Braintree, Wickford, Kelvedon, Great Chesterford, and Harlow). The perpetrators are unknown, but Chauci raiders are among the prime suspects.[18]

The Romans responded with defensive measures. Caistor-by-Norwich, Chelmsford and Forum Hadriani (present day Voorburg) (the civitas of the Canninefates near The Hague) were all fortified c. 200, and the Romans began a defensive system of protection especially along the coasts of Britain and the Continent. This system would be continually maintained and improved upon, which the Romans would not have done unless there was a continuing threat to be addressed. The system would continue to evolve through the disappearance of Chauci raiders and their replacement by the Frankish and Saxon ones, up to the end of the fourth century. By then it would be known as the Saxon Shore, a name given it by the Notitia Dignitatum.[19]

A passage written by Zosimus has been interpreted as one of the last mentions of the Chauci, and one where they are specifically mentioned as a Saxon group; but it depends upon whether we can equate them with the "Kouadoi" in Zosimus's Greek, a name he had apparently used wrongly.[20] Julian fought against Saxons and Franks, including the Salians, but then allowed the Salians "descended from the Franks" to settle in Toxandria in 358. According to Zosimus, this happened in response to an attack from the sea by the "Kouadoi" Saxons which affected both Romans and Salians, who had been living in the river delta.[21]

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Haywood 1999:14, Dark Age Naval Power. Haywood uses the term 'North German' to distinguish them from the 'Rhine Germans' (the Caninnefates, Batavians, and "Frankish" tribes).
  2. ↑ Haywood 1999:17–19, Dark Age Naval Power. Haywood cites Todd's The Northern Barbarians 100 BC–AD 300 (1987) for this conclusion.
  3. ↑ Tacitus 117:253–254, The Annals, Bk XIII, Ch 55. Events of AD 54–58. The Germans under Arminius had wiped out 3 Roman legions under Varus at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The Ampsivarii had not supported the German cause and had been ostracised as a result. Many years later, c. AD 58, the Chauci then took the opportunity to expel them and occupy their land at the mouth of the River Ems.
  4. ↑ Haywood 1999:17–19, Dark Age Naval Power. Haywood cites Tacitus as well as a number of other sources.
  5. ↑ Tacitus 117:355, The Annals, Translator's note on Bk XI, Ch 19.
  6. ↑ Haywood 1999:28, Dark Age Naval Power.
  7. ↑ Tacitus 117:253, The Annals, Bk XIII, Ch 54. Events of AD 54–58.
  8. ↑ Haywood 1999:19–20, Dark Age Naval Power. The referenced footnote notes that the Chauci heartland between the Elbe and Weser contained huge cremation cemeteries with a uniform range of poor quality grave goods. In the second century aristocratic cemeteries with rich grave goods appear.
  9. ↑ Yorke, Barbara (2006), Robbins, Keith (ed.), The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain c.600–800, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, p. 59, ISBN 978-0-582-77292-2
  10. ↑ Pliny the Elder 79a:346–347, Natural History, Bk IV, Ch 28: Germany. A footnote suggests that the two references to the Cimbri in two different groups were not references to the same people.
  11. ↑ Tacitus & 98:61–62, The Germany, XXXV.
  12. ↑ Pliny the Elder 79b:339, Natural History, Bk XVI, Ch I: Countries that have no trees. Pliny also notes that the Chauci lived between the Rivers Ems and Elbe.
  13. ↑ Haywood 1999:15, Dark Age Naval Power.
  14. ↑ Haywood 1999:21, Dark Age Naval Power.
  15. ↑ Tacitus & 98:61–62, The Germany, XXXV.
  16. ↑ Haywood 1999:28, Dark Age Naval Power.
  17. ↑ Haywood 1999:24, Dark Age Naval Power.
  18. ↑ Haywood 1999:24–25, Dark Age Naval Power.
  19. ↑ Haywood 1999:24–28, Dark Age Naval Power.
  20. ↑ Haywood, John (January 1991), Dark Age Naval Power: A Re-Assessment of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Seafaring ..., p. 42, ISBN 9780415063746
  21. ↑ Zosimus Nova Historia Book III
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