Sicambri

The Sicambri (also: Sigambrer, Sygambrer, Latin: Sigambri, Sicambri, Greek Σύγαμβροι ) were a West Germanic tribe that originally came from the Lower Rhine or the area between the Rhine and the Lippe and the completely or only partially, under Tiberius in 7 v. AD was moved to the left bank territories to the Meuse in the field of Sunuker. Strabo counted the Sugambri together with the Cimbri to a Germanic tribal group, which was located between the Rhine river and the North Sea. The Sugambri to have had the first of the Germanic tribes kings.

History

The origin of the strain is not finally resolved. By 55 BC they are mentioned because they grant the Romans defeated Usipetern and Tenkterern recording and the Romans refuse extradition, citing the Rhine frontier. 53 BC they attacked the Roman military camp at Atuatuca, which was under the military leadership of Quintus Tullius Cicero.

In the year 16 BC, killed Sugambri Usipetes and Tencteri Romans in Germania east of the Rhine, then led by a plundering expedition to Gaul and defeated the Roman troops pursuing them of the governor Marcus Lollius, including the Fifth Legion ( clades Lolliana ). This defeat was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the imperial prestige of Augustus. The Germans withdrew from the dispute and received a ( bogus) peace.

The legionary camp Vetera controlled over the lip mouth the settlement areas of the right bank of the tribes of the Sicambri, Bructeri, Tencteri and Usipetes. It was precisely these peoples, on whose account were the incursions into Gaul. By Lippetal connect Veteras was given with the Westphalian Bay.

Sugambri under their king Maelo (or Melo ) and allied with them Tencteri and Usipetes broke out in 12 BC again in Gaul, as they were ruled by serious unrest due to the first Provincial Census. Drusus urged a troop contingent back the invaders and opened on the other side of the river immediately after August 1, 12 BC a punitive expedition. The invasion of Germania went from lower Rhine area, first in the land of Usipetes ( southeast of the present province of Gelderland), then against the settled between the Lippe and Ruhr Sugambri (which Strabo as the cause for the outbreak of war called ). However, the final subjugation of the Sugambri only succeeded Tiberius in the year 7 BC, the tribal parts in the left bank of the Rhine area in about relocated to the land of Sunuker. In the area of Xanten, they founded a settlement there, from the Colonia Ulpia Traiana which emerged. Deudorix, nephew of the former king Maelo was carried AD 17 in triumph of Germanicus in Rome as a prisoner. The name of the Sugambri received in the later tribal tradition of the Franks, as Clovis I was still raised at his baptism by the bishop of Reims as " brave Sugambri ".

Identification of Sugambri with other tribes

Meaning of the name

The name of the Sugambri survives in various spellings; so is talk among other things, " Sugambri ", " Sygambri ", " Sigambri ", " Sugambroi ", " Sugumbri ", " Sucambri " and " Sycambres ". This makes an exact etymology of the name, but usually the Sugambri and Gambrivier to a Germanic root " * Gambra " are ( " powerful, active, zeal " ) provided. But there are also different interpretations of the name from the Celtic, for example, from a root " * cam". "Su " is a common Celtic prefix meaning " good" or " strong". The connection of the tribal name of the Sugambri with the regions Sauerland, winner country or the river Sieg are purely speculative and etymologically inconclusive.

Known members of the Sicambri

Some Sugambri be named in the deeds of Augustus and Strabo: Maelo, king or prince of the Sicambri, under whose command they invaded by 12 BC in Gaul, his brother and his son Baitorix Deudorix.