soldiers; Salii seniores and Salii juniores are mentioned in the Notitia dignitatum, and Salii appear among the auxilia palatina.
At the end of the 4th century and at the beginning of the 5th, when the Roman legions withdrew from the banks of the Rhine, the Salians installed themselves in the district as an independent people. The place-names became entirely Germanic; the Latin language disappeared; and the Christian religion suffered a check, for the Franks were to a man pagans. The Salians were subdivided into a certain number of tribes, each tribe placing at its head a king, distinguished by his long hair and chosen from the most noble family (Historia Francorum, ii. 9).
The most ancient of these kings, reigning over the principal tribe, who is known to us is Chlodio.[1] According to Gregory of Tours Chlodio dwelt at a place called Dispargum, which it is impossible to identify. Towards 431 he crossed the great Roman road from Bavay to Cologne, which was protected by numerous forts and had long arrested the invasions of the barbarians. He then invaded the territory of Arras, but was severely defeated at Hesdin-le-Vieux by Aetius, the commander of the Roman army in Gaul. Chlodio, however, soon took his revenge. He explored the region of Cambrai, seized that town, and occupied all the country as far as the Somme. At this time Tournai became the capital of the Salian Franks.
After Chlodio a certain Meroveus (Merowech) was king of the Salian Franks. We do not know if he was the son of Chlodio; Gregory of Tours simply says that he belonged to Chlodio’s stock—“de hujus stirpe quidam Merovechum regem fuisse adserunt,”—and then only gives the fact at second hand. Perhaps the remarks of the Byzantine historian Priscus may refer to Meroveus. A king of the Franks having died, his two sons disputed the power. The elder journeyed into Pannonia to obtain support from Attila; the younger betook himself to the imperial court at Rome. “I have seen him,” writes Priscus; “he was still very young, and we all remarked his fair hair which fell upon his shoulders.” Aetius welcomed him warmly and sent him back a friend and foederatus. In any case, eventually, Franks fought (451) in the Roman ranks at the great battle of Mauriac (the Catalaunian Fields), which arrested the progress of Attila into Gaul; and in the Vita Lupi, which, though undoubtedly of later date, is a recension of an earlier document, the name of Meroveus appears among the combatants. Towards 457 Meroveus was succeeded by his son Childeric. At first Childeric was a faithful foederatus of the Romans, fighting for them against the Visigoths and the Saxons south of the Loire; but he soon sought to make himself independent and to extend his conquests. He died in 481 and was succeeded by his son Clovis, who conquered the whole of Gaul with the exception of the kingdom of Burgundy and Provence. Clovis made his authority recognized over the other Salian tribes (whose kings dwelt at Cambrai and other cities), and put an end to the domination of the Ripuarian Franks.
These Ripuarians must have comprised a certain number of Frankish tribes, such as the Ampsivarii and the Bructeri. They settled in the 5th century in compact masses on the left bank of the Rhine, but their progress was slow. It was not until the Christian writer Salvian (who was born about 400) had already reached a fairly advanced age that they were able to seize Cologne. The town, however, was recaptured and was not definitely in their possession until 463. The Ripuarians subsequently occupied all the country from Cologne to Trier. Aix-la-Chapelle, Bonn and Zülpich were their principal centres, and they even advanced southward as far as Metz, which appears to have resisted their attacks. The Roman civilization and the Latin language disappeared from the countries which they occupied; indeed it seems that the actual boundaries of the German and French languages nearly coincide with those of their dominion. In their southward progress the Ripuarians encountered the Alamanni, who, already masters of Alsace, were endeavouring to extend their conquests in all directions. There were numerous battles between the Ripuarians and the Alamanni; and the memory of one fought at Zülpich has come down to us. In this battle Sigebert, the king of the Ripuarians, was wounded in the knee and limped during the remainder of his life—hence his surname Claudus (the Lame). The Ripuarians long remained allies of Clovis, Sigebert’s son Chloderic fighting under the king of the Salian Franks at Vouillé in 507. Clovis, however, persuaded Chloderic to assassinate his father, and then posed as Sigebert’s avenger, with the result that Chloderic was himself assassinated and the Ripuarians raised Clovis on the shield and chose him as king. Thus the Salian Franks united under their rule all the Franks on the left bank of the Rhine. During the reigns of Clovis’s sons they again turned their eyes on Germany, and imposed their suzerainty upon the Franks on the right bank. This country, north of the Main and the first residence of the Franks, then received the name of Francia Orientalis, and became the origin of one of the duchies into which Germany was divided in the 10th century—the duchy of Franconia (Franken).
The Franks were redoubtable warriors, and were generally of great stature. Their fair or red hair was brought forward from the crown of the head towards the forehead, leaving the nape of the neck uncovered; they shaved the face except the upper lip. They wore fairly close breeches reaching to the knee and a tunic fastened by brooches. Round the waist over the tunic was worn a leathern girdle having a broad iron buckle damascened with silver. From the girdle hung the single-edged missile axe or francisca, the scramasax or short knife, a poniard and such articles of toilet as scissors, a comb (of wood or bone), &c. The Franks also used a weapon called the framea (an iron lance set firmly in a wooden shaft), and bows and arrows. They protected themselves in battle with a large wooden or wicker shield, the centre of which was ornamented with an iron boss (umbo). Frankish arms and armour have been found in the cemeteries which abound throughout northern France, the warriors being buried fully armed.
See J. Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer (Göttingen, 1828); K. Müllenhoff, Deutsche Altertumskunde (Berlin, 1883–1900); E. von Wietersheim, Geschichte der Völkerwanderung, 2nd ed., ed. by F. Dahn (Leipzig, 1880–1881); G. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte, vol. i. (4th ed. revised by Zeumer); R. Schröder, “Die Ausbreitung der salischen Franken,” in Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, vol. xix.; K. Lamprecht, Fränkische Wanderungen und Ansiedelungen (Aix-la-Chapelle, 1882); W. Schultz, Deutsche Geschichte von der Urzeit bis zu den Karolingern, vol. ii. (Stuttgart, 1896); Fustel de Coulanges, Histoire des institutions politiques de l’ancienne France—l’invasion germanique (Paris, 1891). Also the articles Salic Law and Germanic Laws, Early. (C. Pf.)
FRANZ, ROBERT (1815–1892), German composer, was born at Halle on the 28th of June 1815. One of the most gifted of German song writers, he suffered in early life, as many musicians have suffered, from the hostility of his parents to a musical career. He was twenty years old when, his father’s animosity conquered, he was allowed to live in Dessau to study organ-playing under Schneider. The two years of dry study under that famous teacher were advantageous chiefly in making him uncommonly intimate with the works of Bach and Handel, his knowledge of which he showed in his editions of the Matthäus Passion, Magnificat, ten cantatas, and of the Messiah and L’Allegro, though some of these editions have long been a subject of controversy among musicians. In 1843 he published his first book of songs, which ultimately was followed by some fifty more books, containing in all about 250 songs. At Halle, Franz filled various public offices, including those of organist to the city, conductor of the Sing-akademie and of the Symphony concerts, and he was also a royal music-director and master of the music at the university. The first book of songs was warmly praised by Schumann and Liszt, the latter of whom wrote a lengthy review of it in Schumann’s paper, Die neue Zeitschrift, which later was published separately. Deafness had begun to make itself apparent as early as 1841, and Franz suffered also from a nervous disorder, which in 1868 compelled him to resign his
- ↑ The chronicler Fredegarius and the author of the Liber historiae Francorum make Sunno and Marcomeres his predecessors, but in reality they were chiefs of other Frankish tribes. The author of the Liber also claims that Chlodio was the son of Pharamund, but this personage is quite legendary. In the Chronicon of Fredegarius it is already affirmed that the Franks are descended from the Trojans.
