Fragmenta Quae Ad Historiam Francorum Pertinent

Fragments Selected from Other Excerpts of Fredegar, Which Pertain to the History of the Franks. I. — Among Excerpts from the Chronicle of Eusebius, with Jerome as Interpreter. At that time (Chapter 3) Priam abducted Helen. The ten-year Trojan War arose. The cause of the evil was that the prize of three women contending over beauty was one of them, Helen, with a shepherd judge promising. Memnon and the Amazons brought aid to Priam. From this came the origin of the Franks. They first had Priam as king; afterward it is written through the books of histories how they had King Friga, afterward they were divided into two parts: one part proceeded into Macedonia, they were called Macedonians according to the people by whom they were received, and the king of Macedonia, who was oppressed by neighboring peoples, was invited by them to provide them aid. Through whom afterward, when they had grown in great increase, from that race the Macedonians became the strongest fighters. Which in the end, in the days of King Philip and his son Alexander, fame confirms what their strength was like. For that other part which advanced from Phrygia, deceived by Ulysses through trickery, yet not captured, but rather cast out from there, wandered through many regions with their wives and children.

Having chosen a king for themselves (Chapter 4), by the name of Francio, from whom the Franks are named. Finally, because this Francio is said to have been very strong in war, and for a long time waging battle with very many peoples, laying waste to part of Asia, then directing himself into Europe, he settled between the Rhine and the Danube and the sea. And there, after Francio died (Chapter 5), since from so many battles which he had waged only a small hand of them remained, they set up leaders from among themselves. Yet always refusing the authority of another, they passed a long time afterwards with leaders, until the time of the consul Pompey; who, when fighting with them, as well as with the remaining nations of peoples who dwelt in Germany, subdued all under Roman authority. But immediately the Franks, forming a friendship with the Saxons, rebelling against Pompey, refused his power. Pompey died in Spain fighting against very many peoples. After this, no people up to the present day has been able to overcome the Franks, nor has anyone been able to subjugate them to their own authority. In like manner also the Macedonians, who were from the same generation, although worn down by grievous wars, nevertheless always strove to live free from foreign domination.

The third people from the same origin, the report confirms, were the Turks (Chapter 6). When the Franks, wandering through Asia, had crossed over in many battles, entering Europe, on the bank of the Danube river between the Ocean and Thrace, one part of them settled there. They had chosen a king for themselves, by the name of Turquoto, from whom the people of the Turks received their name. The Franks conducted the march of this journey with their wives and children; and there was no people who could resist them in battle. But they waged very many battles when they settled at the Rhine, while they were harassed by Turquoto, a small band of them being present. From the captivity of Troy up to the first Olympiad there are 406 years. II. — From the same Excerpts. Gallienus is established in the empire (From Chapter 40). The Germans came to Ravenna. The Alamanni devastated Aeolicum by a foreseeable invasion of a certain name, and a very great part of the Gauls, they crossed into Italy. The Greeks occupied Pannonia. The Germans obtained Spain, and also invaded Syria, having the Franks as their auxiliaries.

Valentinian (From chapter 45), etc. The Saxons were slain at Deuso in the region of the Franks, and he settled there. Those who survived at that time, nearly eighty thousand Burgundians (From chapter 46)—as many as had never before been named—descended to the Rhine, and where they pitched camp, they called it "Burgo," as it were, and from this they received the name Burgundians; and there they presumed nothing else except to receive their wages from the Germans as payment from the buyers. And when they had remained there for two years, invited by legates from the Romans or Gauls who dwelt in the province of Lugdunensis and in Gallia Comata, Gallia Domata, and Gallia Cisalpina, so that they might refuse public tribute, they were seen to have settled there with their wives and children. III. — Among Excerpts from the Chronicle of Idatius. Martianus (Canonical Chapter, Book III, Chapter 5), etc... The Hunnic people, breaking the peace, rush into Gaul. When the patrician Aëtius learned of their coming, he sent Saint Anianus, bishop of the Aurelianenses, on an embassy to Theodoric, king of the Goths, seeking aid against the Huns: if he should prevail in resisting, he would give the Goths half of Gaul. When aid had been promised by King Theodoric, assenting to this petition, Aëtius sent envoys to meet Attila, king of the Huns, seeking aid against the Goths, who were attempting to invade Gaul: if the Huns should prevail in defending against the Goths, they would receive half of Gaul from Aëtius.

King Aëtius, hastening with the Huns and sparing the cities of Germany and Gaul, took up position against the Goths on the River Loire, and engaged in battle not far from Orléans. Two hundred thousand Goths were slain. King Theodoric fell in this battle. One hundred fifty thousand Huns were slain. The city of Orléans was liberated by the prayers of the most blessed Anianus. The Huns, retreating, settled in the Mauriac plain near Troyes. Thorismund, the son of Theodoric, who succeeded him in the kingdom, having gathered the Gothic army and desiring to avenge his father, joined battle with Attila and the Huns at Mauriac. There for three days both phalanxes fought against each other, and an innumerable multitude of the people fell. Aëtius, being most vigorous in counsel, came to Attila by night and said to him: "I had hoped it would be desirable, through your valor, to be able to free this region from the treacherous Goths, but it cannot be done at all. Until now you have fought with the weakest warriors; this night Theodoric, the brother of Thorismund, has arrived with an immense multitude and the strongest Gothic fighters. You cannot withstand this, and I only wish you might even be able to escape." Then Attila gave Aëtius ten thousand solidi, so that through his cunning he might return to Pannonia.

That same night, Aëtius went to Thorismund and likewise told him a similar story: that he had until now been fighting against the base warriors of the Huns, but that a very great multitude and the strongest fighters from Pannonia had arrived that very night to Attila, and that they had heard that his brother, Bumm the Theuderic, had seized the ears of the Goths and wished to seize the kingdom, and that unless he hastened to return, he would be in danger of degradation. Aëtius also received from Thorismund ten thousand solidi, so that by his cunning the Goths, freed from the pursuit of the Huns, might return to their own homes. And they departed at once. Aëtius, however, with his own men, and also having Franks with him, directed his march behind the Huns, whom he pursued as far as Thuringia; and he ordered his men that each one, in the place where they were staying, should make ten fires scattered about, so that by the appearance of a great multitude they might deceive them. This battle ceased. By Aëtius's counsel, Gaul was freed from its adversaries. Later, when this agreement was reported to King Thorismund and the Goths, they demanded that Aëtius fulfill his promise, and when he refused, a golden orb adorned with gems, weighing five hundred pounds, was sent by Aëtius to Thorismund as compensation for the sake of peace, and these disputes subsided. This object is most devoutly venerated and held in the treasury of the Goths for ornamentation even to the present day.

In the year of Anthemius (from chapter 58 of the Canons, book III, chapter 8), in the middle of the city of Toulouse, blood erupted from the ground and flowed all day long, signifying that the dominion of the Goths was removed and the kingdom of the Franks was approaching. IV.—Among the same Excerpts from Idatius. On one occasion (chapter 60; Canons, book III, chapter 10), Clovis, king of the Franks, and Alaric, king of the Goths, who had his seat at Toulouse, after many battles which they had waged against each other, through the intervention of envoys, had begun to make peace on this agreement: that Alaric would touch the beard of Clovis, and by that paternal act they would maintain perpetual peace with each other; and to this meeting, neither Franks nor Goths armed at all would approach. They set a day for the designated place from each side; and there, an envoy of Clovis, named Paternus, approached Alaric, inquiring whether the Goths were keeping the meeting in the unarmed state they had promised, or whether, as was their usual custom, as was later proven, they were given to lies. While Paternus was speaking to King Alaric, announcing Clovis's greetings and diligently inquiring in what order they should meet, the Goths fraudulently carried axes instead of staffs in their hands. Paternus seized one of these, drawing it out, saying: "Your promises are lies, O king, in that you try with your Goths to deceive my lord and the Franks by fraud." Having accepted the meeting with Alaric, Paternus pledged on behalf of the Franks that the judgment of King Theodoric of Italy would be the final arbiter of this matter.

There the legate of King Alaric, and Paternus sent by Clovis, hastened into the presence of Theoderic. Paternus set forth in order the cause of Clovis and the Franks, which the legate of Alaric could not deny, but only asked that the judgment of Theoderic be concluded. Theoderic, reflecting within himself upon the outcome of this case, and not consigning to oblivion what was fitting for future times, retaining jealousy against these two kings, said to the legates: "Tomorrow, whatever I may be able to treat more attentively of this matter for the sake of peace and concord, as the order of justice demands, with the elders of the palace, I shall not be silent in sending to my brothers with complete affection and abundant love." And, pondering in the secret of his heart what he had long concealed, desiring that these two kings should always be at discord with each other, he determined such a judgment between them that the composition of this fault would be difficult for the Goths, whom Alaric ruled, to fulfill: that the legate of the Franks should come, sitting upon a horse, holding a spear upright in his hand before the courtyard of Alaric's palace, and for so long Alaric and the Goths should throw solidi upon him until they covered the legate, the horse, and the tip of the spear with the solidi. The legates immediately reported to Alaric what judgment Theoderic had determined for this matter; and since it was difficult for Alaric or the Goths to fulfill this, they wished to deceive Paternus, the legate of the Franks, by fraud, whom they had sent to the sun-room; during the night, what had been placed underneath collapsed, and with his arm broken, he barely escaped.

And he [Alaric] leads him into the stronghold on the next day, showing his treasures, and swearing that he had no more solidi than those he then displayed in the full strongholds. There Paternus, drawing one solidus from his fist, cast it into his lap, saying: "These solidi I pledge as earnest money on behalf of my lord King Clovis and the Franks." Returning to Clovis, he related everything in detail. Clovis took up arms against Alaric, and in the plain of Vouillé, ten miles from the city of Poitiers, he killed him, and put a great part of the Gothic army to the sword there, and took his kingdom from the Loire River and the Rhone, through the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees Mountains to the Ocean Sea, which to this day remains under the rightful dominion of the kingdom of the Franks. V. — Among the same Excerpts from Idatius. Chrocus, king of the Vandals, with the Suebi and Alans, having left their settlements and aiming for Gaul, using the counsel of his most wicked mother, when she had said to him: "If you wish to do something new and acquire a name, destroy everything that others have built, and kill utterly the people whom you overcome. For you can neither build a better edifice than your predecessors, nor accomplish a greater deed by which to exalt your name.

He crossed the Rhine at Mainz by a cleverly constructed bridge, first devastating that city itself and its people; then, ravaging all the cities of Germany, he arrived at Metz, where the city wall collapsed by divine will during the night, and the city was captured by the Vandals. The people of Trier, however, were saved in the arena of this city, which they had fortified. After this, Chrocus, with the Vandals, Suevi, and Alans, roamed throughout all the Gauls, destroying some by siege, and others by cleverly breaching and ravaging them; no city or fortress in the Gauls was spared by them. While they were besieging Arles, Chrocus was captured by a certain soldier named Marius and put in chains. Led to punishment through all the cities he had devastated, he ended his impious life with a fitting death; Trasemundus succeeded him in the kingdom. The Alamanni took up arms against the Vandals. Both sides agreed, and they sent two men to fight a single combat. But the one sent by the Vandals was defeated by the Alamann; and Trasemundus, defeated, along with the Vandals, according to the agreement, with the Vandals, Suevi, and Alans, bypassing the Gauls, sought Spain; there he killed many Christians for the Catholic faith. After a short time, having been taken across the sea to Mauretania, I believe by divine will, with a wild beast leading, he crossed with the Vandals by wading. It is said that the sea there is seven miles in width.

After the death of Trasemund in Mauretania, Honeric, more cruel in mind, succeeded to the kingdom of the Vandals, occupying Mauretania and inflicting great slaughter upon the Christians, at the instigation of Cyrola, the bishop of the heretics, by whose persecution a very great number of Christians were crowned with the palm of martyrdom. In those days, the bishops Eugenius, Longinus, and Vindemialis displayed wondrous miracles in the name of Christ, even raising the dead. Cyrola bribed a certain man with fifty gold pieces, so that he would pretend to be blind and cry out before King Honeric that he had received his sight through Cyrola's powers. This man, touched by Cyrola, was struck blind; afterward, through the prayer of Eugenius, he recovered his sight. At the instigation of Cyrola, driven by the sickness of envy, by Honeric's order Eugenius was beheaded; Longinus and Vindemialis, subjected to various punishments for the name of Christ, passed to eternal blessedness. Honeric, as his deserts demanded, tore himself with his own bites and ended his unworthy life by a just death. Childeric succeeded him in the kingdom. When he died, Childemeris took up the kingdom, against whom the patrician Belisarius fought most valiantly; in him the kingdom of the Vandals ended.

Belisarius was overcome by a certain Frank named Buccelenus in Italy; so glorious in the name of such great victories, he was conquered by Buccelenus and lost both his name and his life. Here end the Fragments of Fredegarius.