Swabian people
The Suebi were a large group of Germanic peoples first mentioned by Julius Caesar in the context of Ariovistus's campaign in Gaul, c. 58 a. C. While Caesar treated them as a Germanic tribe, although the largest and most bellicose, later authors such as Tacitus, Pliny the Elder and Strabo specified that the Suevi "are not, like the Cathos or Tencteri, constituents of a single nation". They actually occupied more than half of Germany, and were divided into a number of different tribes under different names, although all were generally called 'Suevos'. At one time, classical ethnography had applied the name "Suevos" to so many Germanic tribes that it seemed as if in the first centuries this native name would replace the foreign name 'Germans'.
Classical authors observed that the Suevian tribes, in comparison with other Germanic tribes, were highly mobile, and not dependent on agriculture. Various Suevi groups moved from the Baltic Sea location, becoming a periodic threat to Rome. Towards the end of the Empire, the Alemanni, also known as Suevi, settled in the Agro Decumates and then crossed the Rhine and occupied Alsace. One group remained in the region still called Swabia today, an area in southwestern Germany whose current name derives from the Suebi. Others moved to Gallaecia (present-day Galicia, Asturias and León in Spain, and northern Portugal) and established a kingdom there that lasted 170 years until its subjugation by the Visigoths and later integration into the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo.
Etymologists trace the name to Proto-Germanic, *swēbaz, either based on the Proto-Germanic root *swē- meaning "oneself" town, or in the third person of the reflexive pronoun; or from an earlier Indo-European root *swe-. Etymological sources list the following ethnic names as also from the same root: Suiones, Semnones, Samnites, Sabelli, Sabinos, indicating the possibility of an earlier Indo-European ethnic name, 'our own people'. Alternatively, it may be taken from a Celtic word for 'wanderer'.
Their population at the beginning of the fifth century was between twenty and twenty-five thousand people (including between six and seven thousand warriors), when they crossed the Rhine; perhaps between thirty and forty thousand people when they established their kingdom in the current Galicia.
The migrations of the Suevi
In their migrations, the Suevi headed towards the south and west of Europe, staying for a while in the territory of present-day Germany. There is still a German region called Swabia (Schwaben, whose inhabitants in current Spanish are called Suabos) which is equivalent to a part of the old kingdom of Wurtemberg, in the current state Baden-Wurttemberg, and the southwestern area of Bavaria, with centers in Stuttgart, Ulm, Tübingen and Augsburg, among others. Likewise, in Galicia there are two parishes with Swabian names, in the regions of La Coruña and La Barcala, and four more small towns with that name.
Entry into the Roman Empire and settlement in Hispania
Led by their king Hermeric, in December 406 and in the company of other Germanic peoples they crossed the Rhine, which was frozen, at the height of Mainz, penetrating the Western Roman Empire. For two years they moved freely through the Gauls, dedicating themselves to looting and pillaging. In 409, together with the Vandals and Alans, they entered Hispania, crossing the Western Pyrenees. These towns devastated the north of the peninsula, until in 411 Suevi and Silingo Vandals settled in the province of Gallaecia, signing a pact (foedus) with the Emperor Honorius by which the territory became federated from Rome as regnum (kingdom) and the Suevi obtained Roman citizenship, becoming Romans (by the Edict of Caracalla), and establishing their political center in Bracara Augusta (present-day Braga, in Portugal).]. Due to their low number, the Suevi lived in groups.
The Swabian Kingdom
Suevo kings extend from Hermerico to Andeca, which in 585 was defeated by the Visigothic king Leovigildo. In his Historia Sueborum, Isidore of Seville records that the Regnum Sueborum lasted exactly 177 years and erroneously dates its beginning to 408 (since the Suevi did not penetrate the Iberian Peninsula until 409).
For this period, or at least for a large part of it, the main sources are the works of Isidore of Seville and those of two chroniclers who witnessed the events they recount: Hidacio, bishop of Chaves (Portugal) born in the surrounding area of the current Xinzo de Limia (Orense), and Paulo Orosio, a native of Braga.
First stage (up to 469)
The territorial area of the Suevi kingdom varied over time. At first, the bulk of the Swabian population is believed to have settled between the mouth of the Duero and the Vigo estuary. After the departure of the Visigoths from the Peninsula in 418, the Vandals confronted the Suevi, defeating them in the battle of the Nervasos mountains, and only the intervention of the Romans saved them from disaster. The Vandals later left the Peninsula to settle in Africa, leaving the Suevi as the only barbarian people in Hispania. Requila began a stage of expansion, managing to have the entire peninsula under its control except for Tarragona (held by the Roman Empire). He moved his capital from Braga to the Lusitanian capital, Mérida, and defeated in 446 Vitus, a Roman general who tried to stop Suebi expansion. In 453 Requiario, his successor, signs peace with the Romans, handing over Carthaginian, but in 456 he decides to go on the offensive by invading it. This provoked the intervention of the Visigoths, who defeated the Suevi in the battle of the Órbigo River (456, near present-day Astorga). The Visigoths pursued the fugitives to Braga, which they looted, and executed Requiario, whom they had captured, leaving Agiulfo as king, who committed innumerable outrages, causing a civil war that would bring a period of chaos in the kingdom. This prevented a further expansion of the Swabian kingdom, which from then on would be limited to the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.
.(...) from here it had beginning and originated to erase the green Dragon and red Lion (arms of the Suevous Kings who had in this Reynold their court), and to transfer to the golden field of the shield of their weapons, the Host, not inside a hidden Sacramental vessel (...)
In the following years there were fights between different pretenders to the throne, with an active participation of the Visigoths. Remismund managed to unify the kingdom, and during his reign the Suevi converted to Arianism.
Dark Period (469-558)
Between 469 and 558 there is a historical gap due to the scarcity of sources. Only the name of King Teodemundo and Bishop Abasi Guisande appear.
Final Stage (558-585)
In the mid-century VI king Charriarico, Karriarico or Carriarico (c. 550-559) introduced Catholicism, according to the testimony of Gregory of Tours, when invoking Saint Martin of Tours, thanks to whose intercession a son of the king would have been cured of a serious illness, after which some relics of the saint were brought to the Suevian kingdom. The substitution of Arianism for Catholicism could have brought about situations of tension of which, however, there is no news. Isidore cites Theodomir (559-570) as the first Catholic king.
Similarly, at the end of the 5th century and beginning of the sixth century, contingents of Celtic people coming from Great Britain and fleeing from the Anglo-Saxon invasions settled on the Lugo coast, approximately between the Eo river and the Ferrol estuary. This population was organized around its own diocese based in Britonia (a place that experts usually identify with the current parish of Santa María de Bretoña, located in the Lugo municipality of Pastoriza). Its relationship with the affairs of the kingdom is attested by the participation of its bishop Mailoc in the Councils of Braga in the years 561 and 572.
In the time of Charriarico another Martin seems to have preached in the Swabian kingdom, Saint Martin Dumiense or of Braga (c. 520-580), later Archbishop of Braga, who is said to have converted many Arian Swabians (perhaps Gregory of Tours confuses both saints) and who had a notable influence on Theodomir, at the beginning of whose reign (around 560), when Catholicism had already been consolidated, he established several monasteries in the kingdom, including that of Dumium near Braga, of which he was abbot until the bishops of the kingdom acclaimed him as bishop (metropolitan) of Braga in 567.
In 575 Leovigild, king of the Visigoths, penetrated the mountains of the current province of Ourense, which apparently should have been under the control of the king of the Suevi. Halfway between the currently Leonese territories —where the Visigoths had not yet established their power before 573 (and which must have become independent after 457)— and the lands of the Suevi, local lordships of uncertain connection had arisen, probably started after 457, as the Suevian kingdom weakened, and later consolidated until it achieved effective independence (the Suevian kingdom had not tried to fight the Visigoths, even in their weakest moments, with Atanagildo, when other apparently less powerful rivals dared to challenge them). And there is no record that at any time they tried to subdue the Asturian regions, which had previously belonged to them and then had to govern themselves, nor Cantabria, where instead the Basques penetrated. In this area of present-day Ourense, Leovigildo took a local lord ( loci senior ) named Aspidius prisoner, along with his wife and his children, and took over his domain. Aspidius apparently ruled over a people known as araucones or areregenses, which gave their name to the mountains in the area.
It is not known if it was as a consequence of this that a war with the Suevi began in 576 or, as seems more probable, the conquest of Aspidius' domain was already the first episode of it, after which Leovigild would continue his progression. The Suevian king Miro (570-583) requested peace, probably based on a recognition of Visigothic power in Aspidius' domains and perhaps other territories, Leovigildo acceding to it. He was able to influence the king's mood when he heard the news of the rebellion of the peasants of the Western Oróspeda (Sierra Morena). Peace was signed in 577 probably with a Suevo vassalage to the Visigothic kingdom.
A few years later, the Swabian king Miro marches with his army to Visigothic territory to, according to some authors, help the rebel Hermenegildo against his father Leovigildo. They were surrounded and Miro had to surrender and swear allegiance to the Visigothic king. According to other authors, Miro arrived with his troops, took part in the operations alongside his supreme lord Leovigildo and contributed to the capture of Seville. Juan de Biclaro assures that Miro was allowed to enter Seville, where he died shortly after (583), but Gregorio de Tours affirms that he withdrew to his domain in Gallaecia where he died this same year. For Isidoro of Seville, in his Historia de los suevos, and for Juan de Biclaro, Miro came to the aid of Leovigildo; it can be assumed that his army had to participate in the siege operations of Seville, from the beginning or once defeated. If Miro took part in the siege of Seville next to Leovigildo, he would enter the city in 583 and die shortly after, although the version of Gregory of Tours indicating that he retired to his domains (perhaps he was already ill) leaving perhaps a part of his army in Seville, dying as soon as he arrived, the same year 582. If, as Gregorio de Tours says, he helped Hermenegildo, he would be defeated, being able to enter Seville (by concession of the king) where he died in 582 or 583 (before or after the capture of the city by the king) or he could retire to his domains in 582 himself, dying in 582, or already in 583 after the conquest of Seville.
From 583 or 584, Eborico, son of King Miro, who had sworn allegiance to Leovigildo by means of a treaty before his death, reigned in the Suevian kingdom. Eborico signed a peace treaty with Leovigildo, according to Gregory of Tours, which must have happened in 583. Around the year 584 the Suevian king was dethroned by his brother-in-law Andeca (Odiacca) and locked up in a monastery. The new king married Eborico's wife, called Sisegutia, without it being known if Andeca separated or was widowed from his previous marriage (with Eborico's sister). But Leovigildo reacted and in 585, simultaneously with the war with Burgundy (led by his son Recaredo), invaded the Suevian kingdom, devastated it and captured Andeca, whom he had tonsured (become part of the clergy), which made him disqualified. to reign, and sent him to Pax Julia (Beja). In addition, the ships that made commercial crossings between the Swabian kingdom and Frankish territories belonging to Gontrán of Burgundy were destroyed. The Suevian royal treasury fell into the hands of the victor, and the territories of the Suevian kingdom became a Visigothic possession, becoming a new province. As the Suevi had converted to Catholicism during the reign of Teodomiro, Miro's father, Leovigildo restored Arianism, and it is known that Arian bishoprics were reestablished in the Suevi territories (probably twelve), since four bishops later converted to Catholicism in the III Council of Toledo in 589; the Arian bishops appointed by the Visigothic king coexisted with the Catholics.
As soon as the Visigothic king left the country, the Suevi rebelled and acclaimed a nobleman named Malarico as king. But the rebellion was put down by Visigothic forces without the need for Leovigildo's intervention.
Swabian cultural splendor
The sources of the time agree in recognizing a high cultural level in the Suevo-Galaic kingdom, surely reached in various fields, although they place more emphasis on the wisdom and literary skill of San Martín Dumiense
The literary production of Martín Dumiense extended to the canonical, liturgical and ascetic-moral fields. Almost all of his works have a specific recipient, which reveals the intense intellectual activity that, centered in Dume (and in Braga when Martín assumes the metropolitan dignity), radiates through Galicia in all directions, especially to the episcopal sees.
Hardly more is known about the artistic and cultural vitality of Galicia in the VI century and one suffers from a disorientation in what regarding the construction activity.
There is no question of the transmission up to the present day of a relatively large number of minor works, among which the tombstones stand out, coming from different necropolises (some as relevant as those of San Martiño de El Grove, and above all the one discovered in the basement of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela). Sarmiento already identified the so-called "laudas de stola" as typical of the Germanic period (between the 6th and 7th centuries) and today Schlunk also maintains Swabian authorship, highlighting the tombstone from Tui with the inscription HIC REQUIESCAT MODESTA as one of the very few samples of writing at that time. This same author lists pieces of goldwork (earrings, brooches) found in different parts of the kingdom that he qualifies as Byzantine, confirmation of a general trend maintained in the kingdom for the century VI, as well as cultural contacts with the Mediterranean.
The II Bracarense Council (convened by the Swabian King Miro in 572) includes provisions relating to the consecration of existing churches and the construction of other new churches. It follows that many were already in existence (either from the Late Roman Empire or from the conversion that took place in the 5th century) and that throughout the VI century an intense construction and reconstruction activity took place, driven by a church strengthened by the Swabian Catholic monarchy (then the Visigoths were Arians). Some churches are preserved, such as the future cathedral of Ourense, from 550, or the episcopal palace of Iria Flavia, from 572; that of San Martiño de Churío (Irixoa, Betanzos), and that of San Pedro de Rocas (Orense). Therefore, many of the churches classified as Visigoths in the territory of old Gallaecia may be Suevian rather than Visigothic.
The alleged Celtic motifs (subsequently transmitted throughout the Galician Romanesque) speak of an autochthonous workmanship, but the Eastern or Byzantine influence becomes more logical in the context of the 17th century VI, when the contacts of the Suevian kingdom point in that direction. Díaz y Díaz acknowledges that the contacts established by the Galicia of the VI century with the Orient allow us to explain certain details of Galician artistic works. For this reason, it should not be surprising that some author has classified the church of Montelios as Suevo-Byzantine, according to a typological criterion that can be extended to the others.
Bishoprics of the Suevian kingdom at the time of its annexation by the Visigoths
The metropolitan see was in the city of Bracara Augusta, having thirteen bishoprics as suffragans:
- British: this headquarters was first mentioned by the records of the Council of Braga, held in 561.
- Lucus Augusti.
- Laniobrense: the Basilica of San Martín de Mondoñedo belongs to the municipality of Foz (Lugo, Spain). It is considered to be the oldest cathedral in Spain, since in the 9th century it was the seat of two bishops, one moved from Dumio, in Portugal, and another moved from Bretoña, in Lugo.
- Iria Flavia: episcopal headquarters from the Lower Empire and with suevos and visigodos, until Alfonso II moved the obispado to Santiago de Compostela.
- Tudaewhose episcopal headquarters have been documented since the centuryV, although, according to tradition, founded by Saint Peter of Rates, disciple of St. By taking over Leovigildo from the Swedish kingdom, Bishop Neufila is persecuted and deposed by the king, who introduces to the headquarters the Argentinian bishop Gardingo.
- Auriensis: in 433, a bishop of Orense was consecrated in Lugo, although in 572 there is the first news when Bishop Witimiro participated in the Council of Braga.
- Asturica Augusta: The Diocese of Astorga dates back to 254. In the middle of the centuryV, the Holy Bishop Toribio, who fought against the priscilian heresy and restored the temples destroyed by the Visigoth Theodorico II, brought from Jerusalem a fragment of the Holy Cross, which is now venerated in the Monastery of Saint Toribio de Liébana.
- Dumiun: San Martín de Braga, also known as Martín de Dumio or Martín Dumiense, was a bishop, theologian and Spanish ecclesiastical writer of panonic origin, called the «Apostle of the Suevians».
- Portucale: Diocese of Braga, current Diocese of Porto.
- Lamecum, in the city of Lamego.
- Viseum, in the city of Viseo.
- Conimbriga: in 468, the Suevos assault the city and destroy part of the wall, being moved the headquarters to Aeminium, present Coímbra.
- Egitania (Civitas Igaeditanorum): transferred in 1199 to Guarda.
Contenido relacionado
Ethnology
Fortin Municipality
Infant