1 JASON VANDERMEULEN UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO The Frisian Tribe: from Caesar to C4arlemagne, At the beginning of the common era a race of were as separate a people as the Romans people known as the Germans dwelt beyond the themselves. Rhine frontier of the Roman Empire. Among these peoples was a civilization that differed One such people, the Frisians, is our concern here. markedly from that of their Latin neighbours. About 50 B.C. the territory of the Frisii began Their organization was tribal; their leaders were west of the pre-Frankish tribes of the Chamavi chosen for their valour and their might, their and Angrivarii near the mouth of the Rhine.7 distinction, and for their presence in the van of Indeed, to this day there exists a people who battle. 1 The chief, in turn, was surrounded by his identify themselves as Frisians in roughly the companions, who provided him with dignity and same region, the northern Netherlands. Unlike power both in times of peace and in war.2 This many of the Germanic tribes during the late allegiance was symbiotic; in return for loyalty Roman empire - the Franks, the Angles and the unto the death, the chief provided his faithful Saxons, for example - the Frisian people have retainers with the means to live, often taken from continued to inhabit the same marshy terrain of the booty of war.3 The Germans were not a the Lowlands bordering on the North Sea. From centrally based civilization, even within their there their influence on many of the European respective tribes. The Roman historian Tacitus events of the early Middle Ages was not tells us that "the peoples of Germania never live insignificant. As the inhabitors of an intermediate in cities, and will not even have their houses set destination for tribal migration from the Baltic close together. They live apart, dotted here and Peninsula to Britain, the Frisians must have there ... "4 The small Germanic villages were interacted with many Anglo-Saxons passing loosely knit, with ample space around each through or around their territory. Some, according building, and the tribes were scattered in many of to Procopius, even joined in the migration.8 As these small settlements throughout the forested renowned coastal traders, the Frisians also and marshy land of Northem Europe. established· colonies throughout Europe in the early Middle Ages and thus provided the medium This organization contrasted with the highly for inter-cultural contact and exchange. Finally, as organized and centralized civilization of Rome, one of the last tribes of Europe to convert from where the chain of command supported the paganism to Christianity, they were the focus of supreme power of one man over the empire, the much of the lifework of the missionary Saints princeps or emperor.5 There is no evidence that Willibrord and Boniface in the fifth and sixth the German tribes were conscious of any ethnic centuries, and fought one of the most powerful unity and any intertribal organization, chiefly for Christian kingdoms of that time, the Franks. This the purpose ofrepelling or attacking the Romans,6 surviving people had a significant impact on the was infrequent and brief. To the individual history of Europe. I propose to trace their history peoples of Germania, the neighbouring tribes from the time of Augustus Caesar until their 2 The Canadian Joumal ofNetherlandic Studies widespread conversion to Christianity and the severity made an impression on the Germans. The conquest ofthe Franks in the eighth century. Frisians quickly surrendered hostages and were resettled on lands designated by the governor, * who also imposed on them a senate, governing Roman officials and new laws. It appeared that The Frisian territory extended along the coast of Roman control was well on its way to becoming the North Sea from the mouth of the Old Rhine to firmly established in Western Germany under this the River Ems, at which point the territory of the effective new governor, but the opportunity was neighbouring Chauci is said to have begun.9 From lost when emperor Claudius ordered a surprised I ~ the time of the Roman general Nero Claudius Corbulo to withdraw, his garrisons to the west of Drusus' conquest of Frisia in 12 B.C.lO until the the Rhine, 16 ending;Roman control over the affairs Batavian revolt of A.D. 70,11 Roman records of the Frisians within their own territory. provide us with a glimpse of the Frisian people and of their encounters with the Roman Empire. Inactivity of the Roman military in Western Germany followed Corbulo's withdrawal, Drusus sailed from the North Sea into the vast prompting a rumor amongst the Germans that lakes of the Frisian territory. There he "won over hostilities had been forbidden to the commanders the Frisians"12 in such a way that initially caused of the empire. In A.D. 58 two Frisian leaders, no irrevocable enmity; the Frisians not only Verritus and Malorix, took advantage ofthe quiet joined his expedition against their neighbours to frontier and led their people to the Rhine, where the East, the Chauci, but also freed Drusus' they settled on vacant land. They were soon warships after they became grounded on the discovered by Roman officials and quickly shores of the ocean. The Frisians maintained informed that the land was in fact reserved for peace with the Romans for 40 years under a Roman useY Avitus, the governor of Lower relatively lenient taxation of cattle hides assessed Germany at that time, issued orders that the by Drusus. However, in A.D. 29 the Frisians Frisians were to return either to their original land revolted against the severity of an official named or to new land granted by the emperor. Verritus Olennius, under whom the taxation had been and Malorix, however, went to Rome to appeal reassessed. The Frisians lost their cattle, lands and these orders, where they were entertained at the finally their wives and children to slaveryl3 as a Theatre of Pompeii. Tacitus gives an amusing result of the greater demands placed on them. account ofthis visit and ofthe bold leaders' pride. Their protests were ignored, and so they rebelled. After forcefully expelling all Roman officials and They saw, seated among the senators, troops, they successfully held out against .the men in foreign clothes. On inquiry they retaliatory forces that governor Lucius Apronius learnt that these were delegates who sent to suppress the uprising. The Romans soon received this compliment because their gave up hopes of retaliation. The Roman loss nations were conspicuous for courage, became a source of embarrassment to Emperor and friendship for Rome. Crying that no Tiberiusl4 and the Frisians gained independence race on earth was braver and more loyal and fame among the German peoples. than the Germans, they moved down and sat among the senators. The spectators The Frisians enjoyed independence from the liked this fine, impulsive, old-fashioned Roman Empire until A.D. 47, when Corbulo pride of race: and Nero made them both became the newly appointed governor of Lower Roman citizens. All the same, he ordered Germany. IS Corbulo sailed his force up the Rhine the Frisians to evacuate the land. IS and soundly conquered a maraudiing band of Chauci, who took advantage of the interregnum Auxiliary cavalry were used to enforce these between Corbulo and his predecessor to plunder orders, killing or capturing those who resisted. the Gallic coast with small ships. Corbulo's Thus, one of the last significantly detailed Roman The Frisian Tribe: from Caesar to Charlemagne 3 references to the Frisians ends with a forced composed of layers of a sod and clay mixture retreat from the Rhine, presumably back to alternating with a compost of vegetable matter whence they came. The Frisians are later and dung.26 Groups of homes would then be mentioned briefly by Tacitus as participants in the constructed upon these mounds amidst grazing successful Batavian Revolt of A.D. 69-70, in land and, of course, within the general vicinity of which they constituted one ofthree army divisions a body of water. Even today the terpen remain the that victoriously fought the Romans on the banks basis for many modem urban sites of the of the Rhine. After this defeat, the Romans seem Netherlands.27 Over 500 traces of such mounds to have settled on the Rhine as a definitive have been found in the northern Dutch provinces frontier and accordingly we see the final of Friesland, Grol}ingen and Drenthe, the origins disappearance of the Lowlands from Roman of which range ~m 300 B.C. to the sixth century territorial interest. 19 A.D. In addition, smaller mounds known as wieren are found nearby; these, it has been The Lowlands had been flooded since the melting theorized, probably served as refuges for of the last great ice-age until c. 5000 B.C., at livestock. which time the northwestern coastline of Europe began to develop largely as a result of two natural One particular terp, that at Ezinge in the north­ phenomena. The· first was the process of west of Groningen, was excavated early in this sedimentation, in which rQws of dunes began to century. It offers an individual instance of the form as masses of sand were washed ashore. ways that the terpen culture showed both These sandy mounds subsequently partitioned development and resilience through the centuries, floodlands from the sea and, isolated, this land until the beginning of the migration period. into gradually became marshy peat bogs and, Frisia c. A.D. 450.28 This settlement's history is eventually, dry land.20 The second, opposite divided by a series of phases, each marked by an phenomenon was the tendency for the coastland to increased elevation of the terp.