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The year 406: Crossing the Frozen Rhine - or not?
#1
We may have discussed this before (I know we did) , but I can't find it in the database anymore.

Anyway, something I come across all too often is a description like this:
"On the last day of the year 406, barbarian masses crossed the frozen Rhine and sacked Gaul".
The thing is, there's no source which describes it like that...

Modern authors often quote the above line, although some keep an open mind.
Averil Cameron for instance says that the Vandals, Sueves, and Alans crossed the frozen Rhine at the end of 406 (The Later Roman Empire, p. 139, citing Zosimus); AHM Jones says that in the winter of 406-407 "at least four tribes simultaneously crossed the Rhine into Gaul," without referring to the ice on the river. So where do the date and the state of the river come from?

Maybe the first of the 'modern' authors is answerable; Gibbon says:
"...on the last day of the year, in a season when the waters of the Rhine were "most probably" frozen, [the Vandals and three other tribes] entered without opposition the defenceless provinces of Gaul." (The Decline and Fall (Modern Library ed., vol. II, p.117).

Gibbon cites Zosimus, Orosius, the Chronicles, plus a fragment of an account preserved in Gregory of Tours.

So this is what I tracked down from the sources (previously published on Arthurnet):

Hieronymus, Epistle 123.16:
But what am I doing? Whilst I talk about the cargo, the vessel itself founders. He that letteth is taken out of the way, and yet we do not realize that Antichrist is near. Yes, Antichrist is near whom the Lord Jesus Christ "shall consume with the spirit of his mouth." "Woe unto them," he cries, "that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days." Now these things are both the fruits of marriage.
I shall now say a few words of our present miseries. A few of us have hitherto survived them, but this is due not to anything we have done ourselves but to the mercy of the Lord. Savage tribes in countless numbers have overrun all parts of Gaul. The whole country between the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the Rhine and the Ocean, has been laid waste by hordes of Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemanni and--alas! for the commonweal!--even Pannonians. For "Assur also is joined with them." The once noble city of Moguntiacum has been captured and destroyed. In its church many thousands have been massacred. The people of Vangium after standing a long siege have been extirpated. The powerful city of Rheims, the Ambiani, the Altrebatae, the Belgians on the skirts of the world, Tournay, Spires, and Strasburg have fallen to Germany: while the provinces of Aquitaine and of the Nine Nations, of Lyons and of Narbonne are with the exception of a few cities one universal scene of desolation. And those which the sword spares without, famine ravages within. I cannot speak without tears of Toulouse which has been kept from failing hitherto by the merits of its reverend bishop Exuperius.
Even the Spains are on the brink of ruin and tremble daily as they recall the invasion of the Cymry; and, while others suffer misfortunes once in actual fact, they suffer them continually in anticipation.

Zosimus, Historia nova VI.3.1:
Some years before, Arcadius being in his sixth consulate, and Probus was his colleague, the Vandals, uniting with the Alani and the Suevi, crossed in these places, and plundered the countries beyond the Alps.

Salvian, De gubernatione Dei: 7,12:
We are judged by the ever-present judgment of God, and thus a most slothful race has been aroused to accomplish our destruction and shame. They go from place to place, from city to city, and destroy everything. First they poured out from their native land into Germany, which lay nearest them, a country called barbarous, but under Roman control. After its destruction, the country of the Belgae burst into flames, then the rich estates of the luxurious Aquitanians, and after these the whole body of the Gallic provinces. This ruin spread gradually, however, in order that while one part was being visited with destruction, another might be reformed by its example. But when has there been any amendment among us, or what part of the Roman world, whatever its affliction, is corrected by it? As we read: "They are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become useless." And in like manner the prophet cried out to the Lord, saying: "Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

One source has a scant note about the date being on the last day of the year:

Prosper Tiro, Epitoma chronicon 13a 1230:
Vandali et Halani traiecto Rheno ingressi II k. Ian.

So the date may indeed have been January 1st, however, none says anything about the crossing being over a frozen river!
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#2
I was thinking about this frozen Rhine problem just recently, although from a slightly different perspective, namely the proposed crossing of the Chatti in the winter of 89/90AD to support the rebellion of Antonius Saturninus at Mainz. We are told by Dio that the Chatti were unable to assist Saturninus when he was attacked by the loyalist legions of lower Germany, as the weather had turned warmer than usual and the ice on the river broke up. As the other - more famous - crossing of the Rhine in 406 is also supposed to have happened at or near Mainz, and to have involved the freezing of the river, I considered that there might be some connection.

Bearing in mind the complete lack of any mention of frozen rivers in the sources quoted above, might it be possible that somebody (Gibbon?), when considering a crossing of the Rhine by barbarians in the vicinity of Mainz, was reminded of the proposed Chattic invasion across the ice and merely conflated the two episodes? That the Rhine did freeze, and reasonably often, during this period is, I think, reasonably established - the Danube as well, if Ovid and others are to be believed. The ice-invasion of 406 could be no more than reasonable surmise. One thing that the Chatti story might show is that the tribes of 'barbarian' Germany may have found it very difficult to cross the upper Rhine without a bridge of ice to help them...

- Nathan
Nathan Ross
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#3
Yes, that may have been the case. Gibbon might have thought a crossing over a bridge unacceptable , as the Romans would've prohibited that, so a frozen river ('act of God'?) might have weakened the frontier enough for the Romans to be overwhelmed. In the eyes of Gibbon, of course, speculated by me.
Indeed, there had been crossing over frozen rivers during Romand times, Rhine as well as Danube.
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#4
One of the classical descriptions of the Rhine focuses on the fact that it can be frozen (Herodian 6.7.6-7); perhaps scholars have associated this text with the events in 406.
Quote:Of the northern rivers, the Rine and Danube are the largest. The first one passes the Germanic provinces, the second Pannonia. In the summer, they are navigable because they are wide and deep, but in the winter, they freeze and are accessible to cavalry, as if it were solid earth. What once had been a flowing stream, becomes so hard that it can carry hooves and feet; and when someone fetches water, he needs not a jar, but an axe. After having cut out what he needs, he picks up the water as if it were a piece of stone.
This is a paraphrasis; a more accurate Dutch translation is included in De randen van de aarde.
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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#5
Was directed here from http://rambambashi.wordpress.com/common-errors/ who mentions this dicussiong about the Rhine and thought you all might like to know that there is another reference to this phenomenon in the XII Panegyrici Latini, VI.6.4:

‘Why the huge multitude of Germans from every nation, which, enticed by the freezing of the Rhine, had dared to cross over on foot to an island….’

1994 Nixon and Rodgers Translation – talking about the year AD 304. p. 226 n. 26.
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#6
Just to add to the confusion there is an article in an old Britannia (around volume XXX I think) that makes an interesting case that the crossing wasn't in fact in 406 ...
Nik Gaukroger

"Never ask a man if he comes from Yorkshire. If he does, he will tell you.
If he does not, why humiliate him?" - Canon Sydney Smith

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#7
Quote:Just to add to the confusion there is an article in an old Britannia (around volume XXX I think) that makes an interesting case that the crossing wasn't in fact in 406 ...

I think you mean the one written by Kulikowski. If I get chance I'll dig out the reference.

As to the crossing, I've come to the conclusion that there is no primary evidence for the Rhine being frozen. Gibbon was the first to suggest a frozen crossing. This was probably based upon the ancient sources already mentioned which state that the Rhine froze quite often in winter. However, although it may be a reasonable assumption, it should not be quoted as fact.
Ian (Sonic) Hughes
"I have described nothing but what I saw myself, or learned from others" - Thucydides, Peloponnesian War
"I have just jazzed mine up a little" - Spike Milligan, World War II
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#8
Quote:Just to add to the confusion there is an article in an old Britannia (around volume XXX I think) that makes an interesting case that the crossing wasn't in fact in 406 ...
I wouldn't call Britannia 31 (2000) "old" !! Big Grin
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#9
Quote:I think you mean the one written by Kulikowski. If I get chance I'll dig out the reference.

Thats the one.
Nik Gaukroger

"Never ask a man if he comes from Yorkshire. If he does, he will tell you.
If he does not, why humiliate him?" - Canon Sydney Smith

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#10
Quote:I wouldn't call Britannia 31 (2000) "old" !! Big Grin

Its last millenium - so old :lol:
Nik Gaukroger

"Never ask a man if he comes from Yorkshire. If he does, he will tell you.
If he does not, why humiliate him?" - Canon Sydney Smith

mailto:[email protected]

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