Bructeri


The Bructeri were a Germanic people, who lived in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, just outside what was then the Roman Empire. The Romans originally reported them living east of the lower Rhine river, in a large area centred around present day Münster stretching from both sides of the upper River Ems in the north, to both sides of the River Lippe in the south. At its greatest extent, their territory apparently stretched between the vicinities of the Rhine in the west and the Teutoburg Forest and Weser river in the east.
During the aggressive Roman campaigns of Augustus and his dynasty east of the Rhine into Germania Magna, the Bructeri were among the most dangerous enemies of Rome along with the Cherusci and Chatti. Compared to many neighbouring tribes they had a relatively large population and homeland, and could put significant armies into the field. Unlike many other tribes in their region they also continued to be an important power even during the centuries after the Romans consolidated their control of the region.
By the end of the first century AD the Bructeri were forced to move south of the Lippe, probably absorbing the remnants of the previous inhabitants, the Sicambri and Marsi. The Ruhr was now their southern boundary separating them from the Tencteri. By the beginning of the fourth century AD they were living still further south, facing Roman Cologne, probably having absorbed their long-time neighbours the Tencteri. In this period the Bructeri were categorized by at least some Roman authors using the new term, "Franks". In the eighth century, tribes known as the Boructuare and Borthari are mentioned as living in Germany, and there may have been some connection between these and the much earlier Bructeri.

Name

In the first century forms such as Latin Bructeri and Greek Βρoύκτερoι dominate, but much later names which seem to evolved from those tend to begin with Bo-, Borhter, Borahtra, and Boructuarii. The original name is formed in a way which is notably similar to the neighbouring Tencteri. Concerning the name's first component there have been several proposals to connect the name to Germanic languages, as listed by Neumann:
  • One proposal is that the name's first component is related to the verb "to break" and would have meant "defection, resistance, rebellion", perhaps indicating that they were "the rebels" - either as a character trait, or because of some historical event involving the tribe.
  • Another proposals is that it is related to Middle High German brogen, ultimately derived from an Indo-European root bheregh- meaning "high", or "elevated". This would make it related to Germanic words referring to fortifications, but Neumann considers this explanation unlikely because of the exact form of the Bructeri name.
  • Thirdly, the name may arise from the Germanic root bruk-, meaning "useful, beneficial".
  • A fourth proposal listed by Neumann is that the word derives from a proposed Indo-European root bhr̥g- meaning "brushwood", or "thicket".

    First century

The Bructeri were one of the larger Germanic peoples who, like the coastal Frisii and Chauci, were divided by the geographer Strabo, writing in about 20 AD, into major and minor divisions. He described the Lippe river running through the territory of the lesser Bructeri, about 600 stadia from the Rhine - implying that the Bructeri did not border on the Rhine themselves. Ptolemy's much later geography, written in the second century AD, clearly used older sources such as Strabo, and also divided the Bructeri into lesser and greater sections. Ptolemy, however, placed the Lesser Bructeri on the Rhine just inland of the coastal Frisii who lived just beyond the Rhine mouths, and the greater Bructeri between the Ems and the Weser, to the south of a part of the Chauci.
In surviving Roman works, the first mention of the Bructeri was in the autumn of 12 BC, when Drusus the Elder fought the Bructeri's boats on the Ems River with his fleet. Petrokovits argues that this implies that the Bructeri must have lived north of Rheine on the Ems at this time, in order for the river to be big enough for a naval battle.
In 4 AD, Velleius Paterculus described how Tiberius crossed the Rhine that year in what is now the Netherlands and attacked, according to the badly transcribed text, “cam ui faciat Tuari Bructeri”. According to modern interpretations, this is intended to list first either the Chamavi or Cananefates, then the Chattuari who must have been next, and then the Bructeri. From there they went still further to attack the Cherusci. These peoples are therefore believed to have been neighbours of each other, running from west to east.
Based upon reports of the aftermath, in 9 AD the Bructeri must have been part of the alliance under the leadership of Arminius that defeated the Roman general Varus and annihilated his three legions at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. In 11 AD, Tiberius probably marched from present-day Neuss on the Rhine, to defeat the southern Bructeri living near the Lippe. Germanicus took a similar route in 14 AD, to attack the Marsi at a holy site called Tamfana. The Bructeri, Tubantes, and Usipetes, who presumably all lived close by, attempted to ambush the Romans during their return from this slaughter, but it did not work.
In 15 AD, during Germanicus’ summer campaign, the Romans clashed with the Bructeri twice. Aulus Caecina Severus led 40 cohorts through the territory of the northern Bructeri to the Ems, showing that the Bructeri at this time had settlements west of that river. The Bructeri resisted but were defeated by one of the generals serving under Germanicus, Lucius Stertinius. Among the booty captured by Stertinius was the eagle standard of Legio XIX that had been lost at Teutoburg Forest. The Romans then turned to the rest of the Bructeri country. According to Tacitus, the "troops were then marched to the furthest frontier of the Bructeri, and all the country between the rivers Amisia and Luppia was ravaged, not far from the forest of Teutoburgium, where the remains of Varus and his legions were said to lie unburied". Bructeri prisoners were paraded alongside other Germanic captives in Germanicus’ triumph in 17 AD.
The Bructeri continued to be an important power although Rome now had a powerful grip on the region. In 58 AD, they were moving to support the Amsivarii, who had been ejected from their lands by the Chauci, when the Romans opposed any such settlements of this tribe near the Rhine. The Bructeri withdrew when they realized the determination of the Roman governor.
In 69-70 AD the Bructeri participated in the Batavian rebellion, together with the Batavians, Tencteri and Frisii, against the Romans. Throughout the conflict the Bructeri prophetess Veleda played an important role as a spiritual leader of the rising. Tacitus reported that she was long regarded by many as a divinity. She foretold the success of the Germani against the Roman legions during this revolt. A Roman Munius Lupercus was sent to offer her gifts but was murdered on the road. The inhabitants of Cologne, the Ubii, asked for her as an arbiter; "they were not, however, allowed to approach or address Veleda herself". Tacitus reported that "to inspire them with more respect they were prevented from seeing her. She dwelt in a lofty tower, and one of her relatives, chosen for the purpose, conveyed, like the messenger of a divinity, the questions and answers".
In 70 AD during this revolt, Tacitus mentions that the Bructeri participated in two battles. During a battle near Trier on the Moselle they were on the left, together with the Tencteri. In the battle at Castra Vetera near present day Xanten, across from where the Lippe enters the Rhine, a column of Bructeri were stationed on a dam which the rebels made into the river, in order to create marshy conditions. They swam from there into the main fight, creating confusion, but the legions were later able to hold their line, while a cavalry unit found a way to attack the rebel's rear. The Bructeri were probably also involved in the capture of the Roman flagship on the Rhine, which was rowed up the Lippe to be presented as a gift to Veleda.
Some years after the revolt, Rutilius Gallicus, Roman governor of Germania Inferior in about 76–78 AD, invaded the territory of the Bructeri, captured Veleda and took her to Italy.
Probably in 97 AD, Vestricius Spurinna, Roman governor of Germania Inferior at that time, restored a deposed Bructeri king to power, with military support, threatening war if the Bructeri would attempt to reverse this. Pliny the Younger mentioned in a letter that in his time "a triumphal statue was decreed by the Senate to Vestricius Spurinna", at the notion of the emperor, because he "had brought the King of the Bructeri into his Realm by force of War; and even subdu'd that rugged Nation, by the Sight and Terror of it, the most honourable kind of Victory".
At about the same time, not long before 98 AD, the Bructeri were invaded by their neighbours the Chamavi and Angrivarii. Tacitus reported that more than 60,000 of the Bructeri fell, and the country was totally annihilated, "offering delight to Roman eyes", writing: "May the tribes, I pray, ever retain if not love for us , at least hatred for each other; for while , fortune can give no greater boon than discord among our foes."
Modern historians generally believe that Tacitus exaggerated. The Bructeri continued to be an important people in the region, but they appear to have lost their large territories north of the Lippe, and moved into new areas south of it. It might have been in this period, if not earlier, that they moved into areas previously belonging to the Sicambri, who had been expelled earlier by the Romans, including areas near the bank of the Rhine. The Marsi, who also lived in this area, no longer appear in records and their population probably merged into the Bructeri. Tacitus reports that the Tencteri were their neighbours to the south in his time, around 100 AD.