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The Alamanni

All Men

The ancient German tribe known as the Semnones were probably the founding fathers of the Suebi and later the Alamanni.

From 450-600 AD, Alamannic territory was just south of modern Mainz, with pockets in the Palatinate, especially near Worms (Dalsheim) and Bad Dürkheim. The main area known as Alamannia was in the Black Forest, the Swabish Alps, and in Switzerland. Local Alamannic government in Switzerland was structured whereby a Ammann was the head of each valley, and a Landammann was responsible for each territory. They were the intermediaries between seignorial power and the local residents. The Alamannic area in Germany became known in time as Swabia - or Swabian - indicating the old Suebi tribe. In Switzerland, the Alamanni became Swiss. They were also in the Alsace of France where Ariovistus fought Caesar in 58 BC. In the Mohawk Valley, they were called High Dutch.

The Alamanni confederation formed from the re-alignment of tribes during the Marcomanni Wars in the area that was formerly held by the Hurmunduri and Suebi (Suevi) near the Elbe River. The Semnones were a large part of the new confederation along with other straggling anti-Roman tribes. The name Semnone probably means something like "Same-Men".

The year 213AD, marks the the first appearance of the Alamanni in history. The name is believed to mean "All-Men", suggesting some sort of democratic view of life, which is a characteristic that seems to be constant throughout their history. Elements of the Alamanni later became the Swiss Confederation, and also, many of the people known as the High Dutch, or Palatines, of the colonial Mohawk Valley.

The following excerpt is a description of Suebia by the Roman historian Tacitus. It is a unique list of the tribes living in Suebia, some of which, coalesed together and formed the Alamanni confederation. Several tribes not mentioned by Tacitus living near the Rhein River could have also been part of the Alamanni. They were the Vangiones, Triboci, and the Nemetes.

German Tribes of Suebia

An Excerpt from Germania

by Tacitus

We must now speak of the Suebi, who do not, like the Chatti or the Tencteri, constitute a single nation. They occupy more than half Germany, and are divided into a number of separate tribes under different names, though all are called by the generic title of 'Suebi'.

It is a special characteristic of this nation to comb the hair sideways and tie it in a knot. This distinguishes the Suebi from the rest of the Germans, and, among the Suebi, distinguishes the freeman from the slave.

Individual men of other tribes adopt the same fashion, either because they are related in some way to the Suebi, or merely because the imitative instinct is so strong in human beings; but even these few abandon it when they are no longer young. The Suebi keep it up till they are grey-headed; the hair is twisted back so that it stands erect, and is often knotted on the very crown of the head. The chiefs use an even more elaborate style. But this concern about their personal appearance is altogether innocent. These are no love-locks to entice women to accept their advances. Their elaborate coiffure is intended to give them greater height, so as to look more terrifying to their foes when they are about to go into battle.

The oldest and most famous of the Suebi, it is said, are the Semnones, and their antiquity is confirmed by a religious observance. At a set time, deputations from all the tribes of the same stock gather in a grove (near modern Berlin) hallowed by the auguries of their ancestors and by immemorial awe. The sacrifice of a human victim in the name of all marks the grisly opening of their savage ritual. Another observance shows their reverence for this grove. No one may enter it unless he is bound with a cord, by which he acknowledges his own inferiority and the power of the deity. Should he chance to fall, he may not raise himself or get up again, but must roll out over the ground. The grove is the centre of their whole religion. It is regarded as the cradle of the race and the dwelling-place of the supreme god to whom all things are subject and obedient. The Semnones gain prestige from their prosperity. The districts they inhabit number a hundred, and their multitude makes them believe that they are the principal people of the Suebi.

The Langobardi, by contrast, are famous because they are so few. Hemmed in as they are by many mighty peoples, they find safety, not in submission, but in facing the risks of battle. After them come the Reudigni, Aviones, Anghi, Varini, Fudoses, Suarines, and Nuitones, all of them safe behind ramparts of rivers and woods.

There is nothing noteworthy about these tribes individually, but they share a common worship of Nerthus, or Mother Earth. They believe that she takes part in human affairs, riding in a chariot among her people. On an island of the sea stands an inviolate grove, in which, veiled with a cloth, is a chariot that none but the priest may touch. The priest can feel the presence of the goddess in this holy of holies, and attends her with deepest reverence as her chariot is drawn along by cows. Then follow days of rejoicing and merry-making in every place that she condescends to visit and sojourn in. No one goes to war, no one takes up arms; every iron object is locked away. Then, and then only, are peace and quiet known and welcomed, until the goddess, when she has had enough of the society of men, is restored to her sacred precinct by the priest. After that, the chariot, the vestments, and (believe it if you will) the goddess herself, are cleansed in a secluded lake. This service is performed by slaves who are immediately afterwards drowned in the lake.

Thus mystery begets terror and a pious reluctance to ask what that sight can be which is seen only by men doomed to die.

The section of the Suebian territory that I have described stretches out into the less-known part of Germany. Nearer to us - to follow now tile course of the Danube as we previously followed that of the Rhine - are our faithful allies the Hermunduri. Because they are so loyal, they are the only Germans who trade with us not merely on the river bank but far within our borders, and indeed in the splendid colony that is the capital of Raetia. They come over where they will, and without a guard set over them. The other Germans are only allowed to see our armed camps; to the Hermunduri we exhibit our mansions and country-houses without their coveting them. In their country are the sources of the Elbe, a river well known and much talked of in earlier days, but now a mere name.

Next to the Hermunduri dwell the Naristi, followed by the Marcomanni and the Quadi.

The Marcomanni are conspicuous in reputation and power: even their homeland (modern Bavaria), from which they drove out the Boii, was won by their bravery. Nor do the Naristi and Quadi fall below their high standard. These peoples form the front, so to speak, presented to us by that part of Germany which is girdled by the Danube. Down to our own times the Marcomanni and Quadi still had kings of their own race, the noble line of Marobodus and Tudrus; but now they sometimes have foreign rulers set over them. The power of the kings depends entirely on the authority of Rome. They occasionally receive armed assistance from us, more often financial aid, which proves equally effective.

Close behind the Marcomanni and Quadi are the Marsigni, Cotini, Osi, and Buri. Of these, the Marsigni and Buri are exactly like the Suebi in language and mode of life. The Cotini and the Osi are not Germans: that is proved by their languages, Celtic in the one case, Pannonian in the other, and also by the fact that they submit to paying tribute. The payments are exacted from them, as foreigners, by the Quadi and by the Sarmatians respectively - of which the Cotini have all the more reason to be ashamed inasmuch as they work iron mines. All these peoples are settled in country with few plains, consisting mostly of mountains and upland valleys.

Suebia, in fact, is cut in two down the middle by an unbroken range of mountains, beyond which live a multitude of tribes, of whom the Lugii are the most widely spread, being divided into a number of smaller units. I need only give the names of the most powerful: the Harii, Helvecones, Manimi, Helisii, and Naharvali.

The Naharvali proudly point out a grove associated with an ancient worship. The presiding priest dresses like a woman; but the deities are said to be the counterpart of our Castor and Pollux. This indicates their character, but their name is the Alci. There are no images, and nothing to suggest that the cult is of foreign origin; but they are certainly worshipped as young men and as brothers. As for the Harii, not only are they superior in strength to the other peoples I have just mentioned, but they minister to their savage instincts by trickery and clever timing. They black their shields and dye their bodies, and choose pitch dark nights for their battles. The shadowy, awe--inspiring appearance of such a ghoulish army inspires mortal panic; for no enemy can endure a sight so strange and hellish. Defeat in battle starts always with the eyes.

Beyond the Lugii are the Gothones (Goths), who are governed by kings. Their rule is somewhat more autocratic than in the other German states, but not to such a degree that freedom is destroyed.

Then, immediately bordering on the sea, are the Rugii and Lemovii. All these peoples are distinguished by the use of round shields and short swords, and by submission to regal authority.

Next come the states of the Suiones, right out in the sea. They are powerful not only in arms and men but also in fleets. The shape of their ships differs from the normal in having a prow at each end, so that they are always facing the right way to put in to shore. They do not propel them with sails, nor do they fasten a row of oars to the sides. The rowlocks are movable, as one finds them on some river craft, and can be reversed, as circumstances require, for rowing in either direction.

Wealth, too, is held in high honour; and so a single monarch rules, with no restrictions on his power and with an unquestioned claim to obedience. Arms are not, as in the rest of Germany, allowed to all and sundry, but are kept in charge of a custodian - who in fact is a slave. There are two reasons for this control of weapons: the sea makes sudden invasion impossible, and idle crowds of armed men easily get into mischief As for not putting any noble or freeman, or even a freedman, in charge of the arms - that is a part of royal policy.

Beyond the Suiones we find another sea, sluggish and almost stagnant. This sea is believed to be the boundary that girdles the earth because the last radiance of the setting sun lingers on here till dawn, with a brilliance that dims the stars. Popular belief adds that you can hear the sound he makes as he rises from the waves and can see the shape of his horses and the rays on his head. So far and no farther (in this, report speaks truly) does the world extend.

Turning, therefore, to the right hand shore of the Suebian sea, we find it washing the country of the Aestii, who have the same customs and fashions as the Suebi, but a language more like the British. They worship the Mother of the gods, and wear, as an emblem of this cult, the device of a wild boar, which stands them in stead of armour or human protection and gives the worshipper a sense of security even among his enemies.

They seldom use weapons of iron, but clubs very often. They cultivate grain and other crops with a perseverance unusual among the indolent Germans. They also ransack the sea. They are the only people who collect amber - glaesum is their own word for it - in the shallows or even on the beach. Like true barbarians, they have never asked or discovered what it is or how it is produced. For a long time, indeed, it lay unheeded like any other refuse of the sea, until Roman luxury made its reputation. They have no use for it themselves. They gather it crude, pass it on in unworked lumps, and are astounded at the price it fetches.

Amber, however, is certainly a gum of trees, as you may see from the fact that creeping and even winged creatures are often seen shining through it. Caught in the sticky liquid, they were then imprisoned as it hardened. I imagine that in the islands and continents of the West, just as in the secret chambers of the east, where the trees exude frankincense and balm, there must be woods and groves of unusual productivity.

Their gums, drawn out by the rays of their near neighbor the sun, flow in liquid state into the adjacent sea and are finally washed up by violent storms on the shores that lie opposite. If you test the properties of amber by applying fire to it, you will find that it lights like a torch and bums with a smoky, pungent flame, soon becoming a semi-fluid mass like pitch or resin.

Bordering on the Suiones are the nations of the Sitones. They resemble them in all respects but one -woman is the ruling sex. That is the measure of their decline, I will not say below freedom, but even below decent slavery.

Here Suebia ends. I do not know whether to class the tribes of the Peucini, Venedi, and Fenni with the Germans or with the Sarmatians. The Peucini, however, who are sometimes called Bastamae, are like Germans in their language, manner of life, and mode of settlement and habitation. Squalor is universal among them and their nobles are indolent. Mixed marriages are giving them something of the repulsive appearance of the Sarmatians.

Since Suebia was divided by the mountain range, the Alamanni probably formed from the tribes between the mountains and the Rhein & Danube Rivers.

The Alamanni

By 180AD, the Germans had been pushed back into Germania again. Emperor Marcus Aurelius was dead and Rome entered that crisis for about one hundred years. The entire Roman system was altered as a result; and added to Rome's troubles, a new German confederation tribe had formed that contained the Christmann seed. They were the "Alamanni".

The Alamanni formed from the realignment of tribes during the Marcomanni Wars. They originally formed in the area formerly held by the Hurmunduri and Suebi (Suevi) near the Elbe River. The Semnones were a large part of the new confederation along with other straggling anti-Roman tribes. The name Semnone probably means something like "Same-Men".

By 233AD, the frontier borders of Germania Superior erupted in chaos. The Alamanni and other tribes took advantage of the undermanned Roman front and the Roman internal turmoil. The private wars within the Roman army caused the northern frontier to fall into a shambles as the Alamanni invaded and plundered and sacked towns all the way into southern Gaul and Italy. At one point 40,000 Alamannic warriors on horseback raided so deep into Italy that they displayed their banners in the sight of Rome itself. The Senate quickly mustered an army together and drove them back to Alamannia with their booty, and a few years later, Emperor Aurelian ordered a large wall to be built around Rome that was 12 miles long and 54 feet high. Walls were built around most towns and cities in Gaul as well.

But the Alamanni were not the only invaders. Other new confederations had formed and they invaded at the same time. Tribes like the "Franks" - a new confederation tribe on the lower Rhein in an area called Franconia- invaded Gaul as well. The "Goths", farther east, plundered and sacked cities all the way to the Black Sea and the Aegean. In the Eastern Empire the Persians took Mesopotamia and Syria. It was a very nasty time for the Roman Empire.

The Alamanni were "in constant conflict with the Romans." And when they first appeared the Alamannic Warriors were cavalry forces. The Romans were still an infantry. The entire concept of doing battle was changing.

"In the reign of the emperor Caracalla, an innumerable swarm of Suevi appeared on the banks of the Mein, and in the neighborhood of the Roman provinces, in quest either of food, of plunder, or of glory. The hasty army of volunteers gradually coalesced into a great and permanent nation, and as it was composed from so many different tribes, assumed the name of Alemanni, or All-men; to denote at once their various lineage and their common bravery. The latter was soon felt by the Romans in many a hostile inroad.

The Alemanni fought chiefly on horseback; but their cavalry was rendered still more formidable by a mixture of light infantry, selected from the bravest and most active of the youth, whom frequent exercise had enuted to accompany the horsemen in the longest march, the most rapid charge, or the most precipitate retreat."

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Edward Gibbon

The Roman emperor Probus had to restore 60 towns in Gaul destroyed by the Alamanni and Franks, Gaul only had 115 towns to begin with.

The Battle at the Milvan Bridge

As soon as Galerius died, Constantine and Maxtenius began raising troops to battle for total control of the empire. Constantine's force included 90,000-foot soldiers and 8,000 cavalry. The troops included the pro-Roman Franks and Alamanni, who marched to Italy for battle.

Two savage battles were fought to a stalemate when, at the last chance of the third and final battle at the Milvan Bridge near Rome:

"The emperor, whilst earnestly praying to the true God for light and help at this critical time, saw, together with his army, in clear daylight towards evening, a shining cross in the heavens above the sun, with the inscription: By this Conquer, and in the following night Christ himself appeared to him while he slept, and directed him to have a standard prepared in the form of this sign of the cross, and with that to proceed against Maxtenius and all other enemies."

- History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff

Constantine defeated the heathen tyrant Maxentius, and he perished with his army in the Tiber River on October 27, 312 AD. Constantine's account of what had happened was given under oath, and there are a couple of heathen testimonies to support it.

"Nazarius in a pangyric upon the emperor, pronounced March 1, 321, apparently at Rome, speaks of an army of divine warriors and a divine assistance, which Constantine received in the engagement with Maxentius..."

- The History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff

Julian the Apostate

Constantine did a lot; but he didn't live forever. And when he died the empire went to his children. They were not the leaders that dad was. They were prototype spoiled brats and they started fighting over the empire and killing each other over it. Eventually the empire came under the control of one son, Constantius.

In 355AD, Constantius felt the weight of being the sole guardian over the restless borders of a giant empire, and he appointed Julian to be the Caesar of the west.

Ironically, Julian, as a child, had survived the murder of his family by Constantius to prevent his father, a cousin of Constantius, from becoming the Caesar of the west. Now Julian had become that Caesar, and appointed to the position by the man who killed his father. Julian was a bitter man toward Christianity.

Julian had been raised under the Arian influence in the imperial court of Constantius, and he came to hate all Christians because of the murder of his family. Arian or Orthodox, it didn't matter to Julian. He saw them all as being hypocrites when he was growing up in Constantinople. And he was right; but that didn't make him right.

With Julian as Caesar in the west, Constantius had united the Roman Empire once again, and he maintained control of the united empire until he died of natural causes in 361 AD, as a strict adherent of Arianism.

After Constantius died, Julian became the new emperor known to history as Julian the Apostate 361-363 AD. He lasted for twenty months as emperor and when he died so did the last of the Constantinian rulers as well as the pagan emperors. Julian is a noteworthy character in this chronology because of the situation he inherited in Germany and Gaul during his appointment as Caesar by Constantius.

The Alamanni and the Franks

Anti-Roman Interior Tribes of Terror

While Constantine was solving heresy and building a new city, and his sons were fighting each other for control of the empire after he died, the province of Gaul and the German border had been neglected for a while. And during that time, some of the German soldiers in the Roman army defending Gaul had risen through the ranks and become very influential. But they had a bent toward the interior clans by nature with a tendency to look away when they made trouble. The Germans in the Roman army were mostly Franks, but some were Alamanni too. And Julian soon found himself dealing with a tough situation in Gaul because of it.

By that time the average person living in Gaul didn't really care who was controlling things as long as life was pretty stable. But life near the German border was becoming increasingly unstable because of an ever increasing number of plundering raids for booty by the interior Alamannic Warriors. And the raids went deeper and deeper into Gaul because the Roman legions had lost their spirit and the commanders were turning their heads.

So after receiving the royal purple in Milan, Julian went to Gaul with only 360 soldiers to straighten out the mess at the border. And Julian showed everyone a new spirit of leadership. In a short time he managed to revive the moral of the Roman legions and the troops were excited about their new leader.

Once the troops were restored to order, Julian and his troops began a campaign to seek out the enemy. They started out from Rheims, France, and soon the campaign had a very unpleasent experience. Julian met his first real test in combat. And it was another ambush.

On a dark and dreary day the Alamanni launched a surprise attack on the Julians rear guard and destroyed two entire legions before disappearing back into the forest again. Julian regrouped and hunted them down. He advanced as far as the Rhein River and surveyed the ruins of Cologne, which the Alamanni had sacked just before he got there. The Alamanni Warriors were like phantoms and Julian could do nothing. So without any success in his first campaign, Julian retreated back to his winter quarters in the middle of Gaul. Once there, the Alamanni suddenly appeared and surrounded him in a siege. But they only maintained the siege for a month, not liking the slow and tedious process of starving out a well-supplied enemy. They had better things to do.

On a dark and dreary day the Alamanni launched a surprise attack on the Julians rear guard and destroyed two entire legions before disappearing back into the forest again. Julian regrouped and hunted them down.

He advanced as far as the Rhein River and surveyed the ruins of Cologne, which the Alamanni had sacked just before he got there. The Alamanni Warriors were like phantoms and Julian could do nothing. So without any success in his first campaign, Julian retreated back to his winter quarters in the middle of Gaul.

Once there, the Alamanni suddenly appeared and surrounded him in a siege. But they only maintained the siege for a month, not liking the slow and tedious process of starving out a well-supplied enemy. They had better things to do.

Julian spent the rest of the winter learning the location of Alamanni camps and devising a strategy for a new campaign. In the spring he advanced to a strategic position near the center of the camps at Saverne, and he sent word to Milan for reinforcements. From that position, he could check the Alamanni invasions, or intercept their retreat, while he waited for his reinforcements to get there from Milan with 30,000 troops.

When the troops arrived Julian gave his orders. The Milan army prepared to build a bridge over the Rhein River near Basil, Switzerland, to attack directly into the Alamannic homeland. The plan was to press the Alamanni on two sides hoping to force them to leave Gaul and defend their homeland. But then something disastrous happened that tested Julians leadership to the limit.

Julians commander of the Milan army was a traitor and allowed the Alamanni to return freely. Then he retreated back to Milan with the Roman troops. Julian was caught in a trap.

The Alamanni prepared to attack with their king Chnodomar at the helm. He had six other Alamannic kings with him and 35,000 troops. Julian was stuck with only 13,000 troops, and after deciding that he had nothing to loose, he attacked the Alamanni. Remarkably, after a fierce and brutal battle, the Alamanni retreated back into their homeland after suffering 6,000 dead to Julians 247, and King Chonodomarius was captured. The battle was near Strassburg in 375 A.D., not far from the Roman battle with Ariovistus in 58 BC.

After driving the Alamanni out of upper Gaul, Julian went to lower Gaul and stopped the anti-Roman Frank raids as well. Julian was a hero.

Praises of Julian spread throughout the empire and soon he became the new Roman Emperor. But it didn’t last long. Only twenty months and he was dead.

And as soon as he died, the Alamanni revived the attacks into Gaul and sacked Mainz in 368 AD. The end was near for Rome.

The Final Invasions of the Alamanni, the Franks, the Goths, & the Anglo-Saxons

Toward the end the Romans had a hard time finding troops for border duty. The Alamanni fought the Romans so valiantly that the Romans coveted them as soldiers for their own army. Theodomar was one of the Alamanni chiefs, whose valor was recognized and acclaimed by the Romans. Constantine used Alamannic Warriors and Frank Warriors at the battle of the Milvan Bridge.

But back on the border of Germania Superior it was a different story, the Romans and the Alamanni constantly rocked back and forth in battle.

Germans in the Roman army fought against Germans; brother fought brother. Nothing is new. Sometimes the Alamanni won, sometimes they lost. But time and time again, they couldn’t unhorse for very long the Roman will to conquer. It was the strongest will that the world has ever known. But the Alamanni resisted every step of the way keeping pressure at the border. Hit, plunder, and run. Year after year. Decade after decade. It wore at the Roman will and demoralized the eight legions stationed in the Rhine Valley. The Roman soldiers became wearied until Julian revived their spirit for that short time. After Julian was gone the indifference returned.

In all the years of intimate association with the Romans, the Alamanni and Franks learned a great deal from them about efficiency in war. And in 425 AD, about 50 years after being oppressed by the now pathetically revamped Roman occupation of the Rhine Valley after Julian, the Alamanni began yet another invasion of Germania Superior. Roman power waned yet again. And this time it was universal. This time the lethargy occurred like cancer in its final stage, all along the empire’s borders, from east to west.

The Roman Emperors totally lost control of protecting the empire in the fourth and fifth centuries. And this time there were two kinds of invasions; invasions for booty, and invasions for settlement. It was like the Marcomannic Wars again but with much more power. The Germans took full advantage of the weakened Roman situation.

There is an old German proverb: Go slow now; Go fast later. And the Germans attacked seemingly all at once. It was like a blitzkrieg in the fullness of time. Rome’s time was up, its cancer was terminal. The Alamanni invaded and conquered Alsace and a large section of Switzerland. The Franks plundered deep into France. The Goths invaded farther east. The Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain from the coasts of Germany and Denmark.

The Fall of the Roman Empire

Roman paganism had no message of hope for the people, and when the first century Christians were willing to die for their belief in Christ, the pagans were oddly attracted to them. As more and more people heard the gospel of Christ the church grew in numbers.

The Roman army took the gospel to the empire's frontier. Constantine became the first Christian Roman Emperor. And then something happened to the church. Everybody who wanted to kiss up to the emperor all of the sudden became a Christian, and almost instantly, the world overcame the church as much as the church overcame the world. Before long the Arian heresy entered the church.

Constantine also moved the capitol of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople, now called Istanbul, Turkey. The empire divided in two parts - which had started with Diocletian's reforms.

The eastern part, or Byzantine Empire, began to flourish, and the western part went into decline. After Constantine died, his sons battled for control. The German frontier was neglected, and Julian the Apostate restored order by beating the Alamanni back from Strassbourg. But by 368AD, the Alamanni invaded Gaul again and sacked Mainz. The Roman Empire was falling apart.

Julian was the last pagan emperor. After he died, a new succession of Christian emperors continued unbroken, and the East-West split in the empire was becoming more and more apparent. At the same time the Church became increasingly powerful and influential and set the patterns that glued the western part of the empire together after the Roman Empire finally collapsed for good. It was the end of the ancient pagan world and the slow rise of the western world under Christianity was about to begin – but with a continuous and ongoing conflict between the church and the state that exists to this very day.

During the period of total chaos from 355 to 476AD, the emperors lost control of protecting the borders of the empire. Incursion's of invaders continued throughout the fourth and the fifth centuries. There were invasions for booty, and invasions for settlement. The first type of invasion helped to spark the second, and this time the fiercest booty-raiders were not the Germans, and they were already heading west from the Asian steppes when Julian the Apostate was fighting the Alamanni at Strassburg. Who were they?

The Huns

Well, just to the east of the German Goths were the Slavs. They were another savage group of people that also gave the Roman Empire trouble. But farther east was an even more savage group called the Huns, led by the famous Attila the Hun.

After marauding east and hitting a dead end at the Great Wall of China, they turned to the west and plundered through the Asian steppes until they were in south Russia by 355AD, and they destroyed the Ostrogothic kingdom on the Dnieper River by 374AD.

Then the Huns moved across the Hungarian plain and threatened the Visigoths. The Visgoths pleaded with the Roman officials and were allowed to cross the Danube River in 376AD.

That led to the Battle of Adrianople. It was a virtual deathblow to the Roman army. After the Visigoths crossed the Danube, they killed two-thirds of the Roman army in the east, its best generals, and, Emperor Valens. The Visigoths were among those invaders for settlement bringing with them an entire migration of men, women, and children riding in carts; as well as a mounted army. Their horsemen destroyed the Roman infantry. The Battle of Adrianople is considered to be the turning point of history where the ancient world became the medieval. It was also a turning point for warfare. Now a cavalry would dominate the field of battle.

The Visigoth leader, Alaric, led his forces through Greece and then went on to capture Rome itself. However, the Visigoths thought that Italy was too poor of a country - which gives an indication of its fallen state of disrepair - so they moved across Gaul and into Spain, where they stayed, and created the Visigothic Kingdom until things changed in the early 8th Century. After the Visigoths left Italy, the Ostrogoths moved into Italy creating the Ostrogothic kingdom.

The Vandals were the rudest of the Germanic invaders and known for mindless destruction. They plundered their way through Gaul and Spain and set up a robber kingdom in Carthage on the African coast. They too plundered Rome in 455AD, and stripped the roof off of the Capital because they thought it was gold. In North Africa, the Vandals, who were Arians, fiercely persecuted the orthodox Christians, and destroyed the Catholic Church. It never rose again in that area and Islam eventually conquered the remnants.

And so it came to pass that Atilla the Hun caused some commotion as he plundered his way west. He was appropriately called the “Scourge of God”.

By 451AD, the Huns were in Gaul, plundering everything in sight while pushing the Franks, Alamanni, Suevi, Vandals, and Burgundians in front of them. The Huns were the ugliest people that anybody had ever seen, besides having a rank body odor, and they were constantly on the move.

The Burgundians didn't penetrate very far into Gaul and settled in the middle of the Rheinland. The weakened Roman defenders were desperate. Everybody was attacking the Romans. So the the Romans actually hired the Huns to attack the Burgundians and the Huns defeated them for the Romans. It was crazy. The Burgundian remnant moved further south, and in 443AD, they were allowed by Rome to establish themselves at the western end of Lake Geneva where they became Christianized as Orthodox. That played a very important role for a certain husband of a Burgundian princess in the near future as God actually was arranging the chessboard of the future in the fullness of time.

Atilla devastated the whole region between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and everyone who was not killed had to serve in his army. What fun that must have been! However, Attila could not take Constantinople. Even with a siege. So with his captured Ostrogoths, Attila invaded deep into Gaul again, and the Roman General Aetius managed to raise a united army of Romans and Visgoths, as well as some Franks, Alamanni, and Burgundians.

In 451, at the Battle of Chalons near Troyes, the united force defeated Attila in one of the bloodiest battles of ancient history. About 300,000 soldiers and warriors were butchered. As Aetius pushed Attila to the Rhein River, he stopped the pursuit. Atilla got away.

The next year Atilla regained the strength of his army and was advancing on Rome once again, when Pope Leo I, in a personal interview with heavy payments, talked Attila out of the plan to attack. Attila died in 453AD, and the Huns disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

The Germans Take Control of Western Europe

The severely weakened Roman army gradually withdrew from Britain and was replaced by the Picts, Scottish tribes, and Anglo-Saxons, from the coasts of Germany and Denmark. The native population which was part Briton and part Roman fought the Saxons for two centuries before they were forced to Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany across the Channel.

The Franks strengthened their position on the lower Rhein and pushed into the middle of France, and the Alamanni expanded their holdings into Switzerland, bordering the Burgundians at Geneva. The Alamanni also took the Alsace. The Alamanni set up a New Kingdom which lasted until 495 AD, occupying the territory between the Vosges and the Rhine and around Lake Constance. It was their most prosperous period, but it lasted only 70 years.

The inhabitants of the crumbling Roman province of Gaul pleaded to the emperor for help, but were told that they would just have to learn to take care of themselves.

Roman legend says that Romulus and Remus founded Rome on Palatine Hill. The last Roman emperor of Roman blood was ironically a boy named Romulus Augustulus. In 476, he was deposed by a Goth named Odoacer. The date marks the historical official end to the Roman Empire in the West.

The Germans were now in total control of everything in Europe.

Although the Dark Ages officially begin when the German Tribes took over the western Roman Empire for good, it was a very, very, dark time during the period of total chaos from 355 – 476 AD. As far as chaos goes it may have been the darkest period. But there was a different kind of darkness on the horizon, and the two darknesses combined to bring the death of one empire and the birth of another.

Evolution of Germanic Tribes into Kingdoms: Dark Age

The Middle Ages spans about one thousand years in two phases.
• The Dark Ages, from roughly 500-1000
• The High Middle Ages, from roughly 1000-1500

The Middle Ages, in an overall sense, marks the end of the ancient peasant culture based on agriculture and it marks the beginning of the modern world rising from it that we are living in now.

It began like this:

In the fullness of time the Roman Empire disintegrated. And with the Roman authority out of the way, the conquering German confederations fought each other for domination over the province of Gaul and Germania.

Clovis I (Louis, Chlodwig or Ludwig) - King of the Franks - consolidated control of the Rhein by defeating his rival Frank kings and uniting the Frank subtribes. The Frank tribes had coalesced in two groups - Saliens west of the Rhein, whose leading family was the Merovingian; and, the Ripuarians east of the Rhein just north of Alamannia. Clovis was a Merovingian.

By 459, the Franks occupied Mainz and Trier, and in 475, Metz and Toul. In 486, Clovis drove out the last Roman Emperor in northern Gaul at the Battle of Soisons.

The Franks had grown powerful. They were fierce warriors. And only one thing stood in the way of the Franks - the Alamanni. The Franks and the Alamanni became arch rivals. And in a struggle of German tribes that changed the course of western history beginning in 496, Clovis and his Franks began to fight the Alamanni. It was winner takes all. And in critical times like that, God does the choosing.

In the crucial battle with the Alamanni at Tolbiac (Tolbiacum, Zulpich) near Cologne, Clovis prayed upon the name of the God of his Christian wife, the Burgundian Princess, Clotilda, to enable him to defeat the enemy.

The name of her God was Jesus Christ.

Clovis converted his subjects, believers in heresy, to Orthodox Christianity. On Christmas day, in the year 496, at the Cathedral of Rheims in France, Clovis baptized three thousand of his warriors. Forced baptisms became a habit after that.

"When they arose from the waters, as Christian disciples, one might have seen fourteen-centuries of empire rising with them; the whole array of chivalry, the long series of crusades, the deep philosophy of the schools, in one word all the heroism, all the liberty, all the learning of the later ages. A great nation was commencing its career in the world - that nation was the Franks."

- Ozanam, Etudes Germaniques, II.54

And so it came to be that after a very hard and protracted contest, Clovis finally defeated the Alamanni in 506, thereby controlling the modern day Rheinland/Pfalz, soon to be known as the Palatinate. The Franks also took control of Alamannic territory in the Alsace of France, and Switzerland.

Thus the Alamanni were subjugated by the Franks. But the Alamanni retained their dominant identity in those areas as well as in their former homeland areas of the Black Forest and the Swabish Alps. The Alamanni had a tendency to be clannish, and they didn't like outsiders. And the Franks didn’t really care as long as they were content and didn’t make trouble.

Population Explosion, Fragmentation ... and the End of the Dark Ages

The Saxons were a German confederation just to the northeast of Franconia, and they ruled the Holy Roman Empire at the turn of the millennium. The Saxons were followed by the Salian Franks. And as the human race automatically entered into the next phase of Gods plan for us, the High Middle Ages began in Europe with a population explosion.

Alamannia was controlled by the Duchy of Swabia. The important Alamannic domains had been incorporated into the royal Frankish treasury by 746, after the completion of their subjugation by Carolman, the son of Charles Martel. Most of the Alamannic aristocracy had been eliminated and replaced by then, but the territorial organization as well as Alamannic identity remained intact.

The Alamanni are responsible for organizing the regions of Germany called "gaus". For example, The Rheingau, or the famous Oberammergau, and Schwangau, etc.

The Alamanni & Christianity

The Gospel of Jesus Christ was introduced to Britain in the second century following the path of the Roman army, but its first introduction is involved in uncertainty.

Nevertheless, early in the fifth century, Saint Patrick, a Christian Briton, was somehow captured by Irish pirates. He learned their language, and began the conversion of Ireland. The Irish Church then developed a special character independent of Rome, and was entirely monastic in its organization. St. Columbanus, an Irish monk, left Ireland with twelve companions and crossed the sea into Gaul in 585 or 590. He traveled for several years preaching in the true spirit of humility and charity with his faithful companions. They lived in poverty in the eaves and the solitude of the woods, where their food consisted of wild-berries and herbs.

During their travels, St. Columbanus made his way to Burgundy, and was kindly received by King Gontran, who was a grandson of Clovis. But the missionary and his followers refused the offers of the king for a quiet retreat in the Vosges Mountains in an old ruined Roman fort. So they stayed in Burgundy. In time, he established several monasteries with several hundred disciples. One of those monastaries, Luxeuil, became the monastic capital of Gaul. Then something happened.

St. Columbanus became embittered in a controversy he had with the French clergy from Rome as well as the court of Burgundy. He adhered strictly to his Irish theology and was called before a synod in 602 or 603. His defense arguments with the court of Burgundy resulted in his banishment, he was sent to prison at Besancon, and then expelled from the kingdom in 610.

The persecution of St. Columbanus by the Franks was a blessing for the Alamanni because he and his Irish friends then went to the lake of Zurich, and then on to Bregenz, and then on to Lake Constance. He preached to the Alamanni and destroyed their heathen idols. After a while he crossed the Alps and went to Lombardy and Rome, but he left his disciple, St. Gall, at Bregenz.

St. Gall was the most celebrated disciple of St. Columbanus and he founded the monastery and the city that is named after him. The monastery at St. Gall became one of the most celebrated schools of learning in Switzerland and Germany; a place where other missionaries were trained for evangelism in that area. St. Gall died when he was ninety-five years old, and at the time of his death, the whole surrounding country of the Alamanni had been nominally Christianized.

The conversion of the Alamanni was different than the Franks and other German tribes. The Alamanni received the gospel willingly because of the evangelical zeal of the missionaries. When the Franks were converted it was a forced wholesale conversion by command of their leaders, which continued through Charlemagne who forced the Saxons to be baptized or die. Louis the XIV tried the same thing with the Huguenots, many descendants of the Alamanni.

If the Alamannic zeal of life can be analyzed, its plain to see that they were somewhat unique. And it goes way back to when the confederation formed. The name Alamann means “All-Men” suggesting some type of democratic view of life. And the way that they willingly accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ suggests a hunger for the truth and justice. They had Ammanns and Landamanns to represent them, which were the forerunners of the representative republic. Furthermore, Alamannia is the area that gave birth to the Swiss Confederation, a virtual independent republic within the tyranny of the Holy Roman Empire. Alamannia is also the birthplace of the Swiss Reformation, and the Anabaptists, and the Huguenots. Geneva Switzerland was the capital of the Reformed Movement under John Calvin. I find it as no coincidence that God led them into a situation that brought certain people to the Palatinate and New York in the fullness of time.

Schwabia

The Alamanni, retained their strong identity as a local population. And the original homeland was now called the “Duchy of Schwabia”. Overall, they were still based in the upper Alpine Valleys, southern Germany, the Alsace, part of the Palatinate, and they had penetrated deeply into the Alps into the St. Gotthard Valley.

By 1098, Schwabia was partitioned between two houses:

• The Hohenstaufens kept the actual duchy of Swabia and the important Alamannic domains in southern Germany, but their influence to the south of the Rhein was limited.
• The Zahringens renounced the duchy of Schwabia and kept the ducal title attached to their own house as well as important Alamannic domains and fiefs from the Black Forest to the Alps.

The accord of 1098 gave the Zahringens Zurich - nobilisium Sueviae oppidum - the most notable town of the Swiss. The Zahringens were the first dynasty who's area corresponded largely with the territory of present day Switzerland. It is likely that the Christman ancestors of the Ephratah, New York, lived in Switzerland area at the turn of the first millennium.

The urban landscape was greatly modified by the Zahringens and their founding of new cities. They founded Freiburg in Breisgau in 1120, Freibourg in 1157, and Bern, as well as Thun, in 1191. Words like "frei" meaning free, and all-men, of the "Alamann", indicate a great love for freedom by these people. That love of freedom was so profound that it had an immeasurable impact on our world today, in both the secular, and most importantly, the spiritual.

Last updated 11.10.2008