The Angrivarii (or Angrivari ) were a Germanic people of the early Roman Empire , who lived in what is now northwest Germany near the middle of the Weser river . They were mentioned by the Roman authors Tacitus and Ptolemy .
36-794: They were part of the Germanic alliance of Arminius and his defeat of the Romans at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in the 9th year of the common era. The Angrivarii lived in an area which was later called Angria ( Modern German " Engern ") in the Middle Ages , which was a major part of the Carolingian Duchy of Saxony . Both names probably derive from geographical terminology. In his Germania Tacitus described
72-525: A region bordering the northern bank of the mouth of River Elbe in what is now Western Holstein . As land became scarce, the Saxon population began to expand southward where it absorbed indigenous populations such as Cherusci , Chamavi and Chatti , and remaining portions of the Langobardi ( Lombards ) and Suebi . This broader domain is called "Old Saxony". The Chauci , according to Tacitus, also lived in
108-627: A triumph for his victory over lower Germany and his uncle sent him off to the east. Arminius died and the Angrivarii, the other west Germans and their successor tribes continued friendly towards Rome, providing it with elite troops and urban and palace police. Together with the Cherusci and the Chatti , the Angrivari belong to the three tribes that Tacitus particularly emphasizes in his account of
144-585: Is a general consensus that it cannot be derived from the PIE root *wih x rós , "man", surviving in English " were -wolf". Their geographical-based name is associated with the 8th century region called Angria (Angaria, Angeriensis, Aggerimensis and Engaria), which was one of four subdivisions of Old Saxony (the others were Westfalahi and Ostfalahi and Nordalbingia ). This region is now referred to in modern German as Engern, and it corresponds reasonably well with
180-599: Is recorded that at this time Old Saxony was divided into the ancient dioceses of Münster , Osnabrück , and Paderborn . However, by 695 the pagan Saxons had become extremely hostile to the Christian priests and missionaries in their midst and began to realize that their aim was to convert their overlord and destroy their temples and religion. Ewald the Fair was quickly murdered, but Ewald the Black they subjected to torture, and he
216-681: The Chamavi , the Angrivarii had invaded the lands formerly held by the Bructeri to their south, the Bructeri having been expelled and utterly destroyed by an alliance of neighboring peoples... . The Bructeri had lived near the Ems and Lippe rivers, between the Rhine and Weser. This occurred after the battle of the Teutoburg Forest . Nevertheless, in the second century AD the geographer Ptolemy reported
252-676: The Elbe . North of all these peoples lived the Chauci , living along the North Sea coast in what is now Germany. Among the more detailed mentions of the Angrivarii which Tacitus makes in his Annals , he describes them also as neighbours to the powerful Cherusci people, of Arminius , who apparently lived east of them. They had built a dike to mark the boundary and this was west of the Weser. Tacitus also notes in his Germania that together with
288-584: The Ems river, which flowed from the heart of the country occupied by the tribes that became the Franks . These were still under Arminius , who had led the German confederation to the victory in 9. Unlike Arminius' native tribe, the Cherusci , the loyalty of the other tribes in the confederation was at best equivocal. The Angrivarii's defection or revolt ( defectio ) in the middle of Arminius's renewed operations against
324-521: The Merovingian kingdom of Franks , but practically remained independent and maintained their old pagan religion . The Saxon pagan religion appears to have focused on the worship of the Irminsul or "great pillar"; a divine tree that connected Heaven and Earth and is thought to have existed at a site close to modern Obermarsberg . For the most part, the Saxon lands were a broad plain, save on
360-615: The Rhine . News of the will was welcomed by the Germans, thinking it gave them a free hand in the region. Germanicus found it necessary to pacify the border, which he did by a combination of scorched earth raids and offers of alliance with Rome - in short, stick and carrot. These raids also kept the army of the lower Rhine distracted from the possibility of mutiny, which had broken out on Augustus's death and only been quelled by concessions and executions. For punitive expeditions Germanicus used
396-477: The gaue , which are equivalent to modern Districts of Germany ( Kreise ), and were equivalent to the English shires (modern counties ). It should not be confused with the modern German state of Saxony , which is in eastern Germany, adjoining the northwest border of the Czech Republic . Ptolemy 's Geographia , written in the 2nd century, is sometimes considered to contain the first mentioning of
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#1732772305848432-459: The 8th century as the early Germans described by Tacitus in Germania had lived. The long warfare with the Franks largely reduced but did not wholly obliterate their distinct cultural identity. Adam of Bremen , writing in the 11th century, compared the shape of Old Saxony to a triangle, and estimated from angle to angle the distance was eight days journey. In area Old Saxony was the greatest of
468-689: The Angrivarii and their western neighbours the Chamavi living east of the Frisii who lived towards the Rhine river which was the official border of the Roman Empire , and behind them, further from the Romans, were "the Dulgubini and Chasuarii , and other tribes not equally famous". The Chasuarii probably lived near the Hase river, north of them, and the Dulgubini probably lived further east towards
504-629: The Angrivarii he positions the Langobardi , and then the Dulgubnii. Unfortunately, Ptolemy's positioning of these peoples is confused in various places. The name appears earliest in the Annales and Germania of Tacitus as Angrivarii. In Greek, Ptolemy called them the Angriouarroi ( Ancient Greek : Ἀνγριουάρροι ), which transliterates into Latin Angrivari. In post-classical history
540-538: The Bructeri still living in the same approximate area, with a lesser Bructeri group living near the mouth of the Rhine near the Frisii, and a larger group just south of the coastal Chauci who lived between the Ems and Weser rivers. He places the Chamavi (Chamai) south of these Bructeri. He reports the Angrivarii east of the Weser river, just south of the "greater" Chauci who lived on the coast between Weser and Elbe. South of
576-600: The Frankish king, died and the Saxons used this opportunity for war. The Saxons were defeated by Chlothar I , Theudebald's successor. Some of their Frankish successors fought against the Saxons, while others were allied with them; Chlothar II won a decisive victory against the Saxons. In 690, two priests called Ewald the Black and Ewald the Fair set out from Northumbria to convert the Old Saxons to Christianity . It
612-571: The German tribal duchies . It included the entire territory between the lower Elbe and Saale rivers almost to the Rhine. Between the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser it bordered the North Sea . The only parts of the territory which lay across the Elbe were the counties of Holstein and Ditmarsch . The tribal lands were roughly divided into four kindred groups: the Angrians , along the right bank of
648-415: The Saxons. Some copies of this text mention a tribe called Saxones in the area to the north of the lower River Elbe , thought to derive from the word Sax or stone knife. However, other copies call the same tribe Axones , and it is considered likely that it is a misspelling of the tribe that Tacitus in his Germania called Aviones . These earliest known tribal Saxons inhabited " Northern Albingia ",
684-531: The Teutoburg Forest must have been secured in advance by Germanicus. Even if it was not, a cavalry attack soon brought the Angrivarii's capitulation. Soon afterwards, however, they are back in alliance with the Cherusci and opposition to the Romans, setting an ambush at the Cheruscan border, which was a high dirt embankment. They hid their cavalry in the woods and stationed their infantry on the reverse slope of
720-736: The Weser; the Westphalians , along the Ems and the Lippe; the Eastphalians , on the left bank of the Weser; and the Nordalbingians , in modern Holstein . But not even with these four tribal groups was the term of tribal division reached. For the Saxon “nation” was really a loose collection of clans of kindred stock. For example, the Nordalbingians alone were divided into lesser groups: Holsteiners , Sturmarii , Bardi , and
756-643: The area where the Angrivarii lived, comprising most of the country surrounding the middle Weser, including both flat land, as around Minden , and low hills ( Holzminden ). Although the Angrivarii receive brief mention in Ptolemy (2.10) and the Germania of Tacitus (33), they appear mainly at several locations in Annales . They were involved marginally in the wars fought by the talented Germanicus Caesar on behalf of his uncle Tiberius , emperor of Rome, against
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#1732772305848792-444: The bank. The Romans had intelligence of the plan beforehand. They assaulted the embankment, preceding their assault with volleys from slings and spears thrown by machines. Driving the Angrivarii from the bank, they went on to pursue the cavalry in the woods. Once again the Angrivarii were totally routed. Once the Cherusci had been dealt with, Germanicus turned his attention to the Angrivarii. They, however, surrendered unconditionally to
828-820: The creation of various Saxon kingdoms in England including that of the South Saxons ( Sussex ), the West Saxons ( Wessex ) and the East Saxons ( Essex ) alongside others established by the Angles and the Jutes and are the foundations of the modern English nation. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century the Old Saxons who remained in Germania were loosely associated with
864-690: The eastern seaboard of Britain from here during the 3rd and 4th centuries (prompting the construction of maritime defences in eastern Britain called the Saxon Shore ) and it is thought that following the collapse of the Roman defences on the Rhine in 407 pressure from population movements in the east forced the Saxons and their neighbouring tribes the Angles and the Jutes to migrate westwards by sea and invade
900-636: The fertile lowland areas of Britain. The traditional date for this invasion is 449 and is known as the Adventus Saxonum . However, there is little archaeological evidence of any subsequent long-term conflict, and the evidence for large-scale Germanic migration into Britain is equally scant. It is possible that the level of migration was relatively minimal and that the ethnic makeup of the post-Roman population in Britain remained largely unchanged. The cultural and linguistic changes were stark and led to
936-480: The first element from an Indo-European root *ang-, "to bend, bow." From this root are also derived German Anger , English dialect ing , Danish eng , Swedish äng , Dutch eng / enk , and many other forms in Germanic languages, all meaning "meadow, pasture." Cf. the similar element Angeln . The second element -varii is most prolific among Germanic tribal names, commonly taken to mean "inhabitants of", "dwellers in". Its precise etymology remains unclear, but there
972-529: The general area later known as Old Saxony and were highly respected among Germanic tribes. He describes them as peaceful, calm, and levelheaded. At some point they may have merged with, or were perhaps synonymous to, the Saxons. It has been claimed that the Old Saxons were composed of an aristocracy of nobles, a free warrior class of distinction and renown, leading freemen united and controlled by ancient custom of kindred and clan. "Social differences were jealously guarded by social prescription. The death penalty
1008-457: The general sent by Germanicus and placed themselves in the status of suppliants, begging for mercy, which Germanicus granted. This later reaped dividends for the Angrivarii played a major role in securing the return of ships and men lost in a North Sea storm which scattered the Roman fleet upon the shore of hostile or neutral Germanic tribes. Finally, on May 26 of the year 17, Germanicus celebrated
1044-405: The name of the people had a number of different spellings in addition to the ones just mentioned. The name Angrivarii can be segmented Angri-varii meaning "the men of Engern", parallel to Ampsi-varii , "the men of the Ems". Engern, their region, is related to a word for meadows, as in modern German " Anger " , and appears as a component in placenames around Germany. Julius Pokorny derives
1080-407: The perpetrators of the massacre of three Roman legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest , the year 9. The wars began in the last years of the reign of Augustus , first emperor of Rome. Augustus died an old but respected man in the year 14 and was celebrated with much pomp and splendor. He left a document to be read to the senate posthumously, expressly forbidding extension of the empire beyond
1116-422: The powerful king of the Franks and later emperor. After a bloody and highly attritious thirty-year campaign between 772–804 the Old Saxons led by Widukind were eventually subdued by Charlemagne and ultimately forced to convert to Christianity. The bonds of kindred and clan were particularly strong among the Saxons, and in spite of many divisions the Saxons were an unusually homogeneous nation living as late as
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1152-515: The south, where they rose into hills and the low mountainous country of the Harz and Hesse . This low divide was all that separated the country of the Saxons from their ancient enemies and ultimate conquerors, the Franks . The lack of clear physical definition along this border, from time immemorial, had been the cause of incessant tribal conflict between them. Saxons as inhabitants of present-day Northern Germany are mentioned in 555, when Theudebald ,
1188-615: The triumphal march of Germanicus in 17 AD: "Germanicus Caesar, celebrated his triumph over the Cherusci, Chatti, and Angrivarii, and the other tribes which extend as far as the Elbe." Arminius Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 201364587 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:38:26 GMT Old Saxony Old Saxony
1224-537: Was imposed on any man who married above his rank; the marriage of a man below his station was severely condemned; bastardy was not tolerated; intermarriage between Saxons and other Germans was frowned upon; and strangers were hated. So tenaciously did the Saxons cling to their ancient customary law that clear traces of these social survivals persisted in Saxony down through the Middle Ages." Saxons had been raiding
1260-579: Was the homeland of the Saxons during the Early Middle Ages . It corresponds roughly to the modern German states of Lower Saxony , eastern part of modern North Rhine-Westphalia state ( Westphalia ), Nordalbingia ( Holstein , southern part of Schleswig-Holstein ) and western Saxony-Anhalt ( Eastphalia ), which all lie in northwestern Germany. It had four provinces: Nordalbingia , Eastphalia , Westphalia and Angria (or Angaria), these provinces, in turn, were divided into smaller territories,
1296-518: Was torn limb from limb. Afterwards the two bodies were cast into the Rhine. This is understood to have happened on 3 October 695 at a place called Aplerbeck , near Dortmund , where a chapel still stands. The two Ewalds are now celebrated in Westphalia as saints. The Saxons' reluctance to accept the new Christian religion and propensity to mount destructive raids on their neighbours would eventually bring them into direct conflict with Charlemagne ,
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