The Frisii were an ancient tribe, living in the low-lying region between the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and the River Ems , sharing some cultural and linguistic elements with the neighbouring Celts . The newly formed marshlands were largely uninhabitated until the 6th or 5th centuries BC, when inland settlers started to colonize the area. As sea levels rose and flooding risks increased, the inhabitants learned to build their houses on village mounds or terps . The way of life and material culture of the Frisii hardly distinguished itself from the customs of the Chaucian tribes living farther east. The latter, however, were considered to be part of the Germanic tribal confederation.
93-504: During the 1st century BC, Romans took control of the Rhine delta but Frisii to the north of the river managed to maintain some level of independence. There was a lot of interaction, however, as Frisian and Chaucian mercenary bands enlisted in the Roman army and Roman traders established themselves north of the limes. There may have been Roman military outposts on Frisian territory. Some or all of
186-516: A "piece of clothing or covering". In Old-Norse paganism, the hamr was associated with death and shape-shifting. The Dutch words lichaam ("body", literally a "shape/likeness a "covering") and ham "afterbirth" are related to the same root. The tribal name might, therefore, refer to war garments. Less commonly accepted etymologies connect the Chamavi to hamo- , possibly an early Germanic loan of Latin hamus , meaning fishhook , making
279-470: A Danish king Chlochilaichus who was killed while invading Frankish territory in the early 6th century, suggesting that, in this instance, Beowulf might have a basis in historical facts. However, Gregory was writing little more than fifty years after the events and may have based his story on eyewitness accounts, yet he makes no mention of Frisia or the Frisians. The poems are not considered by scholars to give
372-799: A Roman military force coerced them, killing any who resisted. In AD 69 the Batavi and other tribes rose against Roman rule in the Revolt of the Batavi , becoming a general uprising by all the Germans in the region, including the Frisii. Things went well for the Germans at first. One of the early leaders, Brinno of the Canninefates tribe, quickly defeated a Roman force of two cohorts and took their camp. The capable Civilis ultimately succeeded to leadership of
465-442: A civilian. There are several early instances, however, of a commander celebrating a triumph during his two- or three-year term; it is possible that the triumph was held at the completion of his assignment and before he returned to the field with prorogued imperium . The literary sources of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus name a number of commanders in the early republic as proconsuls or propraetors. Modern historians believe
558-429: A consequence, references to them are disjointed and offer little useful information about them. When Drusus brought Roman forces through Frisii lands in 12 BC and "won them over", he placed a moderate tax on them. However, a later Roman governor raised the requirements and exacted payment, at first decimating the herds of the Frisii, then confiscating their land, and finally taking wives and children into bondage. By AD 28
651-649: A consul or praetor, respectively. This was an expedient development, starting in 327 BC and becoming regular by 241 BC, that was meant to allow consuls and praetors to continue their activities in the field without disruption. Prorogation created an official with no civilian authority or responsibility in Rome and allowed commanders to retain their position indefinitely, weakening the time-limited check that Romans had over their commanders. Prorogation, by allowing veteran commanders to stay rather than being rotated out for someone with little experience, also helped increase
744-645: A copyist's error as justification. The Frisiavones (or Frisiabones) are mentioned in Pliny the Elder 's Natural History (AD 79). They are listed as a people of the islands in and near the Rhine River, as are the Frisii. They also appear as a people of northern Gaul in the chapter on Gallia Belgica , their name given between those of the Sunici and Betasi (not to be confused with the Batavi ). Tangible evidence of
837-498: A governor was then required to give up his province within 30 days. A prorogued magistrate could not exercise his imperium within Rome. The nature of promagisterial imperium is also complicated by its relation to the celebrating of a triumph as awarded by the Senate. Before a commander could enter the city limits ( pomerium ) for his triumph, he had to lay aside arms formally and ritually, that is, he had to re-enter society as
930-606: A local production using a self-descriptive country name (i.e., 'FRISIA') would be unheard of in that era. Frisia appears in the Old English heroic poem Beowulf , which tells a story of events of the early 6th century, as well as in the Widsith and several other poems. In Beowulf , the Geatish king Hygelac is killed while raiding Frisia. It has been noted that Gregory of Tours ( c. 538 –594) mentioned
1023-413: A reliable account of historical events, as they largely rely on literary conventions, lore and tradition. As a reflection of these conventions and as a mirror of the society in which they emerged, they are, nevertheless, an important source. The Historia Brittonum by Nennius gives a list of 33 ancient cities of Britain, among them 'Cair Peris', its location unspecified. It also contains a reference to
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#17327654810431116-503: A series of promagisterial commands before ever holding a magistracy or even joining the senate . With the acquisition of provinces outside of Italy and the expansion of the quaestiones perpetuae (permanent courts), it became normal for the provincial governors to be promagistrates. By the late republic, practically all governors were dispatched pro consule , regardless of their last urban magistracy. The titles "proconsul" and "propraetor" are not used by Livy or literary sources of
1209-485: A single consular provincial assignment" with "proportionately larger military and financial resources". Pompey, for example, declined a province after his consulship in 70 BC until he was able to convince a friendly tribune to create an enormous command against the pirates in consequence of the lex Gabinia in 67 BC and, then, a similarly vast eastern command during the Third Mithridatic War
1302-664: Is also the source of storyline details that have no discernible provenance. It was written more than 500 years after the last unambiguous reference to the ancient Frisii (the Panegyrici Latini in c. 297 ), and at a time when medieval Frisia and the Frisians were playing a dominant role in North Sea trade. The idea that the Frisians might have settled in Scotland and Ireland has triggered several imaginative histories. Some 19th-century writers even suggested that
1395-547: Is given and includes the Frisians, as well as the Suebi, Goths, Basques, Danes, Jutes, Saxons, and Britons. The eulogies of this age were intended to praise the high status of the subject, and the sudden reappearance of a list of old tribal names fitted into poetic meters is given little historical value. The context is poetic license rather than historical accuracy. In the Ravenna Cosmography , composed about 700 on
1488-459: Is the modern name of a Frankish legal code known from the 9th century, which was official under Charlemagne . It is not clear whether it was really intended to refer to Chamavi. Promagistrate In ancient Rome , a promagistrate ( Latin : pro magistratu ) was a person who was granted the power via prorogation to act in place of an ordinary magistrate in the field. This was normally pro consule or pro praetore , that is, in place of
1581-623: Is translated as The Hamavi, who are Franks . In the 350s there were many conquests claimed by emperor Julian against Franks on the Rhine. In the winter of 357/358 he defeated plundering Salians and Chamavi on the Maas river, and left the Salians in Roman territory because of their permission to live there, but forced the Chamavi to leave. Unlike the Salii, these Chamavi were expelled from Roman lands, though they clearly lived close by, where their grain
1674-442: The ham- element is generally taken to refer to alluvial land near an estuary ; in this case those of the rivers IJssel and Rhine . In this interpretation the tribal name could be translated as "those who dwell on enclosed pieces of land near the river mouth". Another explanation refers to Proto-Germanic *hamiþja "corps, skin" (related to Old Norse hamr "shell, skin, shape" and Gothic hamon "shirt") that described
1767-532: The Panegyrici Latini (Manuscript VIII) as being forced to resettle within Roman territory as laeti (i.e., Roman-era serfs ) in c. 296 . This is the last reference to the ancient Frisii in the historical record. However, they appear once more, now in the archaeological record. The discovery of a type of pottery unique to 4th century Frisia known as Tritzum earthenware shows that an unknown number of them were resettled in Flanders and Kent under
1860-717: The Early Middle Ages . They first appear under that name in the 1st century AD Germania of Tacitus as a Germanic tribe that lived to the north of the Lower Rhine . Their name probably survives in the region today called Hamaland , which is in the Gelderland province of the Netherlands , between the IJssel and Ems rivers. The Germanic name of the Chamavi has been reconstructed as *Hamawiz , whereby
1953-462: The Fomorians actually may have been Frisians, based on the disputed etymology of Fomorians as 'the underseas ones'. These suggestions, however, have not been followed up by subsequent research and their conclusions are not supported by modern scholership. Chamavi The Chamavi , Chamãves or Chamaboe ( Χαμαβοί ) were a Germanic tribe of Roman imperial times whose name survived into
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#17327654810432046-490: The Migration Period , probably due to political instability and piracy, as well as climatic deterioration and frequent flooding caused by sea level rise . When changing environmental and political conditions made the region attractive again it was repopulated in the 5th century by Anglo-Saxon settlers from Northwestern Germany and Southwestern Denmark, who adopted the old name Frisii. These new ' Frisians ' lived in
2139-571: The Picts and Orkney and a place 'ultra mare Frenessicum'. The 'Cair' in 'Cair Peris' is reasonably taken to be Welsh 'Caer' (fort), while 'Peris' is a matter of speculation and conjecture, including the supposition that it is a reference to 'Frisians'. In the context of the Historia , the 'mare Frenessicum' coincides nicely with the Firth of Forth . While the Historia is often useful to scholars, it
2232-537: The Second Punic War , Rome started to assign private citizens both imperium (military authority) and assign them to provincia (here meaning military tasks). These privati cum imperio were unable to triumph, probably due to their lack of an official magistracy. The legal authority for this emerged directly from the sovereign powers of the Roman assemblies who were then able "to select any man[,] whether or not he had ever been elected to office[,] and make him
2325-425: The augurs detected flaws in his election; even so, the people passed laws to invest him with imperium and assigned him to take a consular army regardless. Some scholars and argue instead that Marcellus' just-completed praetorship meant he was just prorogued. The clearest instance is in the assignment of Publius Cornelius Scipio (later Africanus ) to Spain in 211 BC before he had held any magistracy. After
2418-421: The praetor urbanus was sometimes prorogued. Due to the lack of replacement magistrates, governors with established territorial provinces had their tenures increased. The addition of the wealthy Asian province in 133 BC as a bequest of Attalus III put further pressure on the system, again without increasing the number of praetorships: The senate evidently placed a premium on controlling competition for
2511-487: The "emergencies" had become a continual state of affairs, and a regular system of allotting commands developed. In this early period, prorogued assignments, like the dictatorship , originated as special military commands, they may at first have been limited in practice to about six months, or the length of the campaigning season. Commanders were often prorogued during the First Punic War (264–241 BC). During
2604-408: The "task" was most often a military command within a defined theatre of operations with unclear geographic boundaries. Prorogation did not create a new commander or even class of general. It merely allowed a magistrate to continue performing duties beyond the expiration of the magistracy. While Livy implies that prorogation extended a magistrate's imperium , this is contradicted in that imperium
2697-566: The Bructeri apparently lived near Cologne . Note that the Chamavi and the Ampsivarii are the two peoples that Tacitus had long before noted as having conquered the Bructeri from their north. This description would place the lands of the Chamavi still close to the old Bructeri lands. Gregory of Tours also mentions the Chamavi as having been among the Franks. The Lex Chamavorum Francorum
2790-660: The Ems. Tacitus reports in his Annals that in the time of Nero (apparently 58 AD), the Angrivarii , having been ejected from their homes further to the north, pleaded with Rome to allow them to live in a military buffer zone on the northern bank of the Rhine, saying that "these fields belonged to the Chamavi; then to the Tubantes ; after them to the Usipii ". These fields, being on the Rhine between IJssel and Lippe , were to
2883-535: The Franks and Frisians, together with the Langobards as guests and subjects of the legendary king Cormac mac Airt . In later literary traditions, such as Layamon's Brut , Frisians are also listed as subjects of King Arthur . Their country, however, was often conflated with Phrygia , the homeland of the Trojans . Based on older traditions might have been the 15th-century Eachtra Thaidg Mhic Céin , which tells
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2976-525: The Frisiavones ". Suggestions that the Frisiavones were actually the Frisii center on the similarity in names, combined with the Roman classification of 'Lesser Frisii' to the west of the Zuiderzee and 'Greater Frisii' to the east of it (which provides a reason as to why the Frisii might have been known by two different names). However, Pliny's placement of the Frisiavones in northern Gaul is not near
3069-518: The Frisiavones in northern Gaul, saying that it "is beyond doubt incorrect". The Panegyrici Latini in c. 297 is the last mention of the Frisii by that name. There is no mention of them by any other name for nearly three centuries, when the name re-emerges as 'Frisians'. These later references are all connected to the ascendancy of the Franks under the Merovingians , who referred to
3162-511: The Frisiavones were the same people as the Frisii. However, his reasoning parsed the accounts of Tacitus and Pliny selectively: he interpreted the 'Lesser Frisii' and 'Greater Frisii' of Tacitus to refer to the Roman-influenced Frisavones and the non-Roman-influenced Frisii; he considered Pliny's account that mentioned both the Frisiavones and the Frisii to be consistent with the model; and he rejected Pliny's account placing
3255-507: The Frisii had had enough. They hanged the Roman soldiers collecting the tax and forced the governor to flee to a Roman fort, which they then besieged. The propraetor of Germania Inferior , Lucius Apronius , raised the siege and attacked the Frisii, but was defeated at the Battle of Baduhenna Wood after suffering heavy losses. For whatever reason, the Romans did not seek revenge and the matter
3348-502: The Frisii is provided by a few Roman accounts, most of them military. Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) said their lands were forest-covered with tall trees growing up to the edge of the lakes. They lived by agriculture and raising cattle. In the late 1st century the Romans referred to the 'Greater Frisii' as living to the east of the Lake Flevo , and the 'Lesser Frisii' to the west of it, so-called for their proportional power, and with
3441-418: The Frisii may have merged with Frankish and Saxon migrants in late Roman times, but they would retain a separate identity in Roman eyes until at least 296, when Frisian, Frankish and Chamavian groups were forcibly resettled as laeti . Archaeological findings suggest that they may have been transported to Flanders and Southwestern England. The area where the original Frisii lived was largely deserted during
3534-526: The Frisii tells of Drusus ' 12 BC war against the Rhine Germans and the Chauci. The Romans did not attack them after devastating the lands of the Rhine Germans, but merely passed through their territory and along their coast in order to attack the Chauci. The account says that the Frisii were "won over", suggesting a Roman suzerainty was imposed, although the Romans never outright took over the lands of
3627-412: The Frisii, when he mentioned the (apparently Celtic) names of two kings of the 1st century Frisii and added that they were kings "as far as the Germans are under kings". Early Roman accounts of war and raiding do not mention the Frisii as participants, though the neighboring Canninefates (to the west and southwest, in the delta) and Chauci (to the east) are named in that regard. The earliest mention of
3720-582: The Frisii. Over the course of time the Frisii would provide Roman auxiliaries through treaty obligations, but the tribe would also appear in its own right in concert with other Germanic tribes, opposing the Romans. Accounts of wars therefore mention the Frisii on both sides of the conflict, though the actions of troops under treaty obligation must have been separate from the policies of indigenous groups. The Frisii were little more than occasional and incidental players in Roman accounts of history, which focus on Roman actions that were of interest to Roman readers. As
3813-494: The Germanic side and inflicted heavy casualties on the Romans, even besieging Roman strongholds such as Vetera. On the sea, a Roman flotilla was captured by a Germanic one. However, the war did not end well for the Germans. Led by Cerialis , the Romans ultimately forced a humiliating peace on the Batavi and stationed a legion on their territory. In the course of the war, both the Frisii and the Chauci had auxiliaries serving under
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3906-610: The Germanic tribes, For the Chauci and for the Frisii this meant Roman occupation, with the Romans specifying where they must live, with a fort built among them, and forcing a Roman-style senate, magistrates, and constitution upon them. The Frisii are next mentioned in 54, when they occupied empty, Roman-controlled land near the Rhine , settling into houses and sowing and plowing fields. The Romans attempted to persuade them to leave, and even invited two Frisii kings to Rome to meet Nero , who ordered them to leave. The Frisii refused, whereupon
3999-557: The Great also defeated Franks near the Rhine. The Panegyric which survives mentions the Bructeri, Chamavi, Cherusci, Lancionae, Alemanni and Tubantes. The new name " Franks " also started to be used to refer to Salians, Chamavi, and some other tribes, in this period. On the Peutinger map, which dates to as early as the 4th century, is a brief note written in the space north of the Rhine, generally interpreted as Hamavi qui et Pranci which
4092-568: The Rhine to punish the "Franks" for incursions into Gaul. He first devastated the territory of the Bricteri , near the bank of the Rhine, then the Chamavi, apparently their neighbours. Both tribes did not confront him. The Ampsivarii and the Chatti however were under military leadership of the Frankish princes Marcomer and Sunno and they appeared "on the ridges of distant hills". At this time
4185-466: The Romans. In an assault by Civilis at Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensis (at modern Cologne ), a cohort of Chauci and Frisii had been trapped and burned. The emperor Constantius Chlorus campaigned successfully against several Germanic peoples during the internecine civil wars that brought him to sole power over the Roman Empire . Among them were the Frisii and Chamavi , who were described in
4278-428: The absence of sufficient governors or to complete some specific task, an ex-quaestor could be sent as a governor with the title pro quaestor pro praetore . For example, Marcus Porcius Cato was dispatched to Cyprus pro quaestore pro praetore to handle the annexation of the island. The title procurator is not related to prorogation and is not a promagistracy. Procurators were originally agents of rich men, later of
4371-550: The aforementioned Roman coercion. If there were any Frisii left in Frisia, they fell victim to the whims of nature, civil strife and piracy. After several hundred years of favorable conditions, the natural environment in the low-lying coastal regions of northwestern Europe began to deteriorate c. 250 AD and gradually worsened over the next 200 years. Rising sea levels and storm surges combined to flood some areas. Many deserted village sites were silted over. The situation
4464-433: The ambition of its members by splitting both the proceeds and glory of single campaigns between multiple commanders. A propraetor was a form of promagistrate, as the name implies, acting in place of a praetor. Initially, praetors who were prorogued continued to act pro praetore after their terms, but through the second century, prorogued praetors started to be titled the more prestigious pro consule instead. After
4557-563: The area between the Lippe and Ems rivers, to the southeast of modern Hamaland , which is to the west of the Ems. Tacitus also reports that to the north of the Chamavi and Angrivarii lived "the Dulgubini and Chasuarii , and other tribes not equally famous". To their south then were the Tencteri , at that time between the Rhine and the Chatti . (The Bructeri however continue to appear in
4650-632: The author of the text then mentions that as a result, Chamavi and Frisii now plow his land and the price of food is lower. Some also apparently became soldiers, and about 300 the 11th cohort "chamadoroi" were noted in Peamou in Upper Egypt, corresponding to the 11th cohort Chamavi known from the Notitia Dignitatum . We know the Chamavi were among them because there was a settlement pagus (Ch)amavorum (French; Amous) . In 313, Constantine
4743-672: The basis of antique maps and itineraries , the Danes, Saxons en Frisians ("Frisones", "Frigones", "Frixones", or "Frixos") are mentioned together several times. The Frisians ("Fresin" or "Freisin") are (unlike the Saxons) also mentioned in 7th-century Irish lists of the 72 peoples of the world, contained in the Auraicept na n-Éces and in In Fursundud aile Ladeinn , as well as in the poem Cú-cen-máthair by Luccreth moccu Chiara . Here
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#17327654810434836-497: The beginning, there were two distinct forms of prorogation – per T. Corey Brennan 's Praetorship in the Roman republic – a prorogatio before the people to determine whether a provincial command should be extended and a propagatio from the senate in other cases. But by the 190s BC, the senate stopped submitting decisions on prorogation of permanent provinciae to the people for ratification and eventually all extensions of imperium were called prorogatio . After this point,
4929-559: The career of Marius offers the clearest evidence, praetors now needed to remain in Rome to preside over increased activity in the criminal courts; only after their term were praetors regularly assigned to a province as proconsul or propraetor. The scale of Roman military commitments in annexed territories during the late republic required regular prorogation, since the number of magistrates and ex-magistrates who were both able commanders and willing to accept provincial governorships did not increase proportionally. Emergency grants of imperium in
5022-399: The chances of victory. In the late Republic , politics, often motivated by the ambitions of individuals , decided whose commands were extended. Sometimes men who held no elected public office – that is, private citizens ( privati ) – were given imperium and prorogued, as justified by perceived military emergencies. In the late republic, this was most exemplified by Pompey , who held
5115-401: The coastal fringe stretching roughly from present-day Bruges to Bremen , including many of the smaller offshore islands . They incorporated the remainer of indigenous groups that lived in the area and successfully conquered what would become their new homelands. Medieval and later accounts of 'Frisians' refer to these 'new Frisians' rather than to the ancient Frisii. What little is known of
5208-412: The commander of any provincia they wished". These privati cum imperio had titles pro consule or pro praetore , in place of regular magistrates. The first instance may have been in 215 BC after the losses at Trebia , Trasimene , and Cannae when Marcus Claudius Marcellus was elected suffect consul in the place of Lucius Postumius Albinus , deceased. However, he was forced to resign when
5301-424: The consulship, and chose to neglect the rapidly accelerating erosion of a fundamental Republican constitutional principle — the annual magistracy — as well as to ignore the added inconvenience to commanders and possible danger to provincials... The members of the senate had lost serious interest in maintaining a working administrative scheme for Rome's growing empire. In one major administrative development for which
5394-536: The deaths of his father and uncle in Spain, no consul or praetor wanted to take up the province. The people invested Scipio with the command and the necessary imperium and auspicium militiae regardless. After Scipio's victory in 206 BC, two more privati cum imperio were dispatched to the peninsula, which continued under such command until the creation of two new praetors in 197 BC made it possible to send annual magistrates. Generally, prorogation became almost
5487-646: The existence of the Frisavones includes several inscriptions found in Britain, from Roman Manchester and from Melandra Castle near modern Glossop in Derbyshire . The Melandra Castle inscription reads "CHO. T. FRISIAVO C. VAL VITALIS", which may be expanded to become " Cohortis Primae Frisiauonum Centurio Valerius Vitalis ", which may be translated as " Valerius Vitalis, Centurion of the First Cohort of
5580-403: The extension of command was subject to "unsteady ad-hoc politics". And "unusual political influence" was required for prorogations of longer than one year. A Roman governor had the right, and was normally expected, to remain in his province until his successor arrived, even when he had not been prorogued. According to the lex Cornelia de maiestate , passed following Sulla 's dictatorship,
5673-552: The field during the Social War (91–87 BC) made the granting of extra-magisterial command routine. When Sulla assumed the dictatorship in late 82 BC, the territorial provinces alone numbered ten, with possibly six permanent courts to be presided over in the city. The rise of popularis political tactics from the time of Gaius Marius forward also coincided with the creation of "super provinciae ", "massive commands in which multiple permanent provinces were incorporated into
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#17327654810435766-490: The known location of the Frisii, which is acceptable if the Frisavones are a separate people, but not if they are a part of a greater Frisian tribe. Theodor Mommsen ( The Provinces of the Roman Empire from Caesar to Diocletian , 1885) believed that the Germanic tribes of the region consisted of two parts, one having come under Roman influence and the other having remained outside of Roman influence, and he concluded that
5859-507: The late republic to be titled pro praetore if they were themselves vested with imperium . Pompey, for example, received such legates during the campaign against the pirates in consequence of the lex Gabinia . During the imperial period, the legates of the emperor were titled pro praetore , consistent with late republican practice; the quaestors and legates of the public provinces were by this period similarly granted praetorian imperium and likewise titled pro praetore . A proquaestor
5952-631: The name of the Frisians is included in a metrical rhyme, wedged between the Franks and the Langobards . The alliterative verse , probably derived from an unknown Frankish source, is also used in Beowulf and Widsith as "Froncum and Frysum" or "mid Froncum … ond mid Frysum". It must have been the base for a popular medieval riddle, Old French "franc o frison", and its Dutch derivate "frank en vrij" ('frankish and free'). The 12th-century Book of Leinster , obviously citing an older tradition, lists
6045-419: The next one or two centuries. As soon as conditions improved, Frisia received an influx of new settlers, mostly from regions later characterized as Saxon , and these would eventually be referred to as ' Frisians ', though they were not necessarily descended from the ancient Frisii. It is these 'new Frisians' who are largely the ancestors of the medieval and modern Frisians . Their Old Frisian language, however,
6138-410: The next year. These super-provinces were traditional in the sense that they were meant to defeat some particular enemy, but the scale of the campaign and the concentration of power under a single commander was unprecedented. The fixed multi-year terms of those campaigns also were unheard of in the earlier Republic; their length detracted from the Senate's de facto powers to assign provinces and control
6231-448: The norm for the provinciae of Sicily, Sardinia, Hispania , and the naval fleets due to the lack of sufficient annual magistrates. The expansion of promagistracies shattering the connection between military command and magisterial office, allowing any aristocrat so empowered by law the power to exercise military authority without any official status within the city's normal civilian government. Another impact of this wartime expedience
6324-400: The number of magistrates who held imperium . In 307, Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus became the second magistrate to have his command prorogued. But in the years 296–95, several prorogations are recorded at once, including four promagistrates who were granted imperium while they were private citizens ( privati ). Territorial expansion and increasing militarization drove a recognition that
6417-412: The office of a tribune of the first cohort of the 'Frixagi', once stationed at Vindobala (at modern Rudchester) on Hadrian's Wall . Efforts have sometimes been made to connect this auxiliary unit with the Frisii by supposing that the original document must have said "Frisiavonum" and a later copyist mistakenly wrote "Frixagorum". Some works make the claim in passing, perhaps citing someone else's claim of
6510-474: The people who had resettled the lands of the ancient Frisii as 'Frisians'. The interpretation of these references to 'Frisians' as references to the ancient Frisii has occasionally been made. The Byzantine scholar Procopius , writing c. 565 in his Gothic Wars (Bk IV, Ch 20), said that "Brittia" in his time (a different word from his more usual "Bretannia") was occupied by three peoples: Angles, Frisians (Φρἰσσονες) and Britons. Procopius said that he
6603-592: The record and apparently moved south.) Ptolemy in his Geographia (2.10), written in the second century, mentions several tribal names which could refer to different reports of the Chamavi's position. But the text is notoriously difficult to unravel: In about 293 or 294 AD, according to the Latin Panegyrics VIII, Constantius Chlorus , had victories in the Scheldt delta, and his opponents are often thought to have been Chamavi and Frisii , because
6696-416: The republican era. Those Romans did not view a promagistracy as a formal office in the republic but rather as an administrative expedient. A provincia was originally a task (e.g., war with Carthage) assigned to someone, sometimes with geographic boundaries; when such territories were formally annexed, the fixed geographical entity became a "province" in modern terms, but in the early and middle Republic,
6789-415: The settlements of both stretching along the border of the Rhine to the ocean. In his Germania Tacitus would describe all the Germanic peoples of the region as having elected kings with limited powers and influential military leaders who led by example rather than by authority. The people lived in spread-out settlements. He specifically noted the weakness of Germanic political hierarchies in reference to
6882-475: The south of modern Hamaland, and to the west of the Bructeri. In this passage he does not explain where the Chamavi had moved to. In his Germania , Tacitus reported that the Chamavi and Ampsivarii had moved, apparently recently in his time (around 100 AD) into the lands of the Bructeri , the Bructeri having been expelled and utterly destroyed by an alliance of neighboring peoples... . The Bructeri lived in
6975-536: The story of slave raiders from the country of the Frisians ("cricha Fresen"), living on the edges of a landscape full of huge sheep and colourfull fowl. Coins with the obverse and reverse inscriptions 'AVDVLFVS FRISIA' and 'VICTVRIA AVDVLFO', as well as 'FRISIA' and 'AVDVLFVS' have been found at Escharen , a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant . The stylistic quality suggests that they are of Northern Frankish origin of that era rather than Frisian, besides which
7068-494: The term prorogatio became a misnomer, since no rogatio (consultation of the people) was involved. This likely emerged because the decision of whether to send commanders had been replaced to the question of who should be sent, and therefore became a routine staffing decision. The promagistrates take on a new importance with the annexation of Macedonia and the Roman province of Africa in 146 BC. The number of praetors
7161-492: The theatre or province was prorogued, one could also be prorogued by assigning a someone still possessing imperium to new provincia (as was the case with two imperatores during the Catilinarian conspiracy ). While modern scholars often suppose that prorogation was intended originally to ensure that an experienced commander with hands-on knowledge of the local situation could conclude a successful campaign, in practice
7254-420: The time of Sulla, all governors were prorogued pro consule . One of the few exceptions to this rule was a senatorial snub against Octavian in 43 BC when he was vested with imperium and prorogued pro praetore , putting him lower in status than all other promagistrates. If a governor died in office, it was normal for his quaestor to assume command pro praetore . It also became normal for legates during
7347-453: The tribesmen into "fishermen"; or, altetively, a Proto-Germanic *hamu- "lame, being hemmed". According to Velleius Paterculus , in 4 AD, Tiberius crossed the Rhine and attacked, in sequence, the Chamavi, Chattuari , and Bructeri implying that the Chamavi lived west of the other two named tribes. The Bructeri lived between the Ems and Lippe , so the Chamavi also probably lived west of
7440-449: The use of these titles is largely anachronistic and also self-contradictory, as Livy notes that that the first promagisterial appointment was in 327 BC. In the republic after 367 BC, only three types magistrates held imperium : dictators, consuls, and praetors. At first, the appointment of dictatores and magistri equitum filled the need for additional military commanders. The first recorded prorogation and promagistrate
7533-458: Was a person who took up the administrative duties normally adopted by a quaestor . This was normally done in the absence of a questor, usually by death or resignation. In such cases, a governor normally named a member of his staff: for example, Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella named Gaius Verres to serve pro quaestore in 80 BC. At other times, ex-quaestors were sent or kept as proquaestor to act as someone's quaestor. But more extraordinarily, in
7626-530: Was closed. The prestige of the Frisii among the neighboring Germanic tribes was raised considerably after these events. After their experiences with the predatory Roman governor and Lucius Apronius, the Frisii became disaffected towards Rome. In AD 47, a certain Gannascus of the Canninefates led the Frisii and the Chauci to rebel. They raided along the then-wealthy coast of Gallia Belgica . The Roman military commander, Corbulo , campaigned successfully against
7719-467: Was disappointingly unready for Roman use. In an apparent description of the same events, Zosimus does not mention the Chamavi, but a Saxon group known as the "Kouadoi", a Greek spelling of " Quadi ", which some authors believe might be a misunderstanding for the Chamavi. According to him, this tribe had pushed into Batavia, displacing the Salians. In 392 AD, according to a citation by Gregory of Tours , Sulpicius Alexander reported that Arbogast crossed
7812-615: Was more intricately related to Old English spoken by their relatives settling abroad, than to the Old Saxon language spoken by the people staying behind in Germany. Arguing against the replacement theory, recent excavations in the coastal dunes of Kennemerland show clear indication of a permanent habitation. One of the entries of the Notitia Dignitatum reads "Tribunus cohortis primae Frixagorum Vindobala", referring to
7905-503: Was not increased even though the two new territories were organized as praetorian provinces. For the first time since the 170s, it became impossible for sitting magistrates to govern all the permanent praetorian provinciae , which now numbered eight. This point marks the beginning of the era of the so-called " Roman governor ", a post for which there is no single word in the Republic. Promagistracies became fully institutionalised, and even
7998-460: Was not time-limited. Cicero, for example, possessed imperium even after his governorship of Cilicia expired. Because imperium did not expire, prorogation was simply an extension or reassignment of a commander's possession of a provincia , something feasible by senatorial decree. Previously, a provincia expired with a magistracy; prorogation severed the old tightly-linked connection between magistrate and provincia . While normally someone in
8091-520: Was probably aggravated by a shift to a cooler, wetter climate in the region as well as by the introduction of malaria and other epidemic diseases. In the 3rd and 4th centuries the population of Frisia steadily decreased, and by the 5th century it dropped dramatically. Archaeological surveys indicate that only small pockets of the original population stayed behind (e.g. in the Groningen coastal marshes). The coastal lands remained largely unpopulated for
8184-400: Was relating information from an informant, likely a member of a Frankish delegation to the court at Byzantium, and did not assert the information as fact. Other information that he related included the assertion that there were no horses in Britain, that Hadrian's Wall separated the temperate parts of the island from the uninhabitable parts, and that 'countless people' had attested that Britain
8277-472: Was rewarded with a triumph even though his consulship had expired. In the following decades, it became regular practice to prorogue consuls and prorogation of praetors started in 241 BC. During the Second and Third Samnite Wars (326–290 BC), prorogation became a regular administrative practice that allowed continuity of military command without violating the principle of annual magistracies, or increasing
8370-462: Was separating "magisterial precedence" from the magistracy itself, creating something akin to a military rank, evident in the jockeying of magistrates over the specific status of their prorogation: eg, desire to attain the more prestigious pro consule status. The close of the wartime crisis and the return of annual governors also dampened the length of prorogations, allowing the senate to regain more granular control over provincial assignments. At
8463-431: Was that of the consul Quintus Publilius Philo in 327 BC. The senate ordered Philo, whose consulship was about to expire, to continue to perform his military duties as he was on the verge of capturing Palaepolis (modern day Naples ) and completing his provincia (assigned task). It "probably seemed imprudent to send a new consul to take over a command that would be completed within days". Livy reports that legislation
8556-718: Was the home of dead souls. His information about Britain, while occasionally useful, is not considered authoritative. The Frisians are unlike the Saxons not mentioned in the 6th-century Frankish Table of Nations , nor in the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville . Venantius Fortunatus was a poet to the Frankish Merovingian court and wrote a eulogy to the Merovingian king Chilperic , who had died in 584. A list of peoples who were said to fear Chilperic's power
8649-474: Was then moved by the tribunes that "when [Quintus Publilius' term expired] he should continue to manage the campaign pro consule until he should bring the war with the Greeks to an end". This innovation permitted Philo to hold the military authority and responsibility of a magistrate while not actually being one. The Romans did not seem to be too bothered by the legal innovation which occurred, as Philo's success
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