Suebi

The Suebi or Suevi were Elbe-Germanics whose origin was near the Baltic Sea.

Early history

2000 years ago the Baltic Sea was known to the Romans as the Mare Suebicum. Partially because of his unfamiliarity with the various Germanic peoples interacting with Rome at the time, the historian Tacitus referred to all Elbe-Germanics as Suebi. More recent scholarship has shown that view to be an oversimplification. The Suebi eventually migrated south and west to reside for a while in the Rhineland area of modern Germany, where their name survives in the historic region known as Swabia. The Suebi under Ariovistus were invited into Gallia by the Sequani but soon came to dominate them and were finally defeated by Julius Caesar in 58 BC.

Closely related to the Alamanni and often working in concert with them, the Suebi for the most part stayed on the right bank of the Rhine until December 31, 406, when much of the tribe joined the Vandals and Alans in breaching the Roman frontier at Mainz, thus launching an invasion of the province of Gaul.

Part of the Suebi, the northern Suebi were mentioned in 569 under Frankish king Sigebert I. in areas of today's Saxony-Anhalt. In connection to the Suebi, Saxons and Lombards, returning from the Italian Peninsula in 573, are also mentioned.

While the Vandals and Alans clashed with the Roman-allied Franks for supremacy in Gaul, the Suebi under their king Hermeric worked their way to the south, eventually crossing the Pyrenees and entering the Iberian Peninsula which was out of Imperial rule since the rebellion of Gerontius and Maximus on 409.

Passing through the Basque country, they settled in the Roman province of Gallaecia, in north-western Hispania (modern Galicia and northern Portugal), swore fealty to the Emperor Honorius and were accepted as foederati and permitted to settle, under their own autonomous governance. Contemporaneously with the self-governing province of Britannia, the kingdom of the Suebi in Gallaecia became the first of the sub-Roman kingdoms to be formed in the disintegrating territory of the Western Roman Empire. Suebi Gallaecia was the first kingdom separated from the Roman Empire to mint coins.

Suebi kingdom of Gallaecia

The Suebi kingdom in Gallaecia was established at 410 and lasted until 584 after a century of slow decline. Unlike the Ostrogoth kingdom of Italy or the Visigoth kingdom in Hispania, it never reached major political relevance. Braulio of Zaragoza depicted it as the extremity of the west in an illiterate country where naught is heard but the sound of gales. Therefore very little remains from. As the Suebi quickly adopted the local Hispano-Roman language, few traces left of their Germanic tongue. Some influence on the Galician language and Portuguese language remained, like "lawerka" for Portuguese "laverca" (archaic form of "cotovia" - lark).

German invaders settled mainly in the areas of Braga (Bracara Augusta), Porto (Portus Cale), Lugo (Lucus Augusta) and Astorga (Asturica Augusta). Bracara Augusta, the modern city of Braga and former capital of Roman Gallaecia, became the Capital of the Suebi.

In 438 Hermeric ratified the peace with the Hispano-Roman local population and, weary of fighting, abdicated in favour of his son Rechila.

The irruption of Visigoths in the Iberian Peninsula from 416 sent from Aquitania by the Emperor of the West to fight the Vandals and the Alans resulted into an ephemeral expansion of the Suebi Kingdom: at its heyday Suebic Gallaecia extended as far as Mérida or Seville.

In 448 Rechila died, leaving the crown to his son Rechiarius who had converted to Roman Catholicism circa 447. Catholicism became official to the pagan Suebi and mostly Priscillianist population base, just to convert to Arianism few years later, under the rule of Remismund and to revert back to Catholicism again by the middle of the next century.

In 456 Rechiarius died after being defeated by the Visigoth king Theodoric II, and the Sueve glory began to fade. The Sueve kingdom got cornered to the hostile northwest and political division arose across the river Minius (Minho or Miño) with two different kings ruling in both sides of the river. Despite the Visigoths pressure, the Suebi maintained their nominal independence on the northwest until 584, when the Visigoth king Leovigild, dethroned Andeca, last king of the Suebi, in 585.

Suebi Kings of Gallaecia

Hermeric (409-438)
Rechila (438-448)
Rechiar (448-456)
Aioulf (456-457), in the south alone
Framta (456-457), in the north alone
Maldras (457-459), in the south alone
Richimund (459-463), in the north alone
Frumar (459-463), in the south alone
Remismund (459-469), whole realm from 463
Obscurity (469-550), during this time one name alone is known: Theodemund, but perhaps also a Vermund, Rechila II, and Rechiar II
Carriaric (550-559)
Theodemar (559-570)
Miro (570-583)
Eboric (also called Euric) (583-584)
Andeca (584-585), deposed and put in a monastery by Leovigild
Malaric (585-586), opposed Leovigild and defeated

The Visigoths conquered the Suevi in 585.

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Early history

Suebi kingdom of Gallaecia

Suebi Kings of Gallaecia

See also