Frisiavones

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The Frisiavones (also Frisævones or, to distinguish more explicitly from the Frisians, Frisiabones) is a Germanic tribe usually considered as a southern subdivision of the Frisians that came into the scope of Roman domination but mentioned by Pliny the Elder as being another tribe next to the Frisii.

According to inscriptions found in Roman Britain (dated between 103-249 AD)^[1] the Frisiavones in the Roman Army are synonym to Frisians. The Byzantian historian Procopius († 562 AD) referred to Frisians as "Phrissones", a transcription of Frisiavones, being one amongst three tribes dwelling in Britain. ^[2] However, in Latin sources Frisians were referred to normally as Frisii. Book IV of Pliny's encyclopedic compilation Naturalis Historia mentions this tribe at two different occasions, not necessarily related one to the other, thus raising questions about the Frisians being the only people known as such and being exclusively related to the traditional inhabitants of modern Frisia. So far all knowledge on this issue is based on deduction.

In his Germania the Roman historian Tacitus mentions two different sections of Frisians, maioribus minoribusque frisii, (major and minor Frisians), both having settled downstream the Rhine.^[3] However, it is assumed the Frisian people only sought to dwell this most westernmost parts of the rivermouth after the Batavian revolt of Julius Civilis (70 AD), when this part of the delta was abandoned by the Canninefates. This seems to be in contradiction to the chronology of Naturalis Historia, that has been offered to emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus II only in 77 AD. thus rendering too few time for a new people to originate from Frisians by this migration alone.

Striking in Pliny's account is the similarity between the two tribenames Frisiavones and Frisii. This could be due to coincidence, to tribal relationship or to a similar etymology. Since the Frisians should be counted among the Ingvaeones, first mentioned by Pytheas (as "Guiones", 4th century BC), that dwelled the shores of the Nordsea, thus - according to Tacitus - being the alleged worshippers of god Ing; and since god "Fro" (Old Nordic "Freyr") is often taken as a synonym to Ingus, a similar "Fro"-cult could be considered for being the common origin to both tribenames.

A clou to the geographic location could be the order of reference by Pliny. Frisiavones are mentioned first at paragraph 101, in this order: Frisii, Chauci, Frisiavones, Sturii and Marsacii. In this list only the Frisii (normally read as "Frisians") and Chauci are sufficiently known form other sources. About the Marsacii there are some indications they dwelled in the south-west of the Netherlands, and they might have been close relatives to the Celtic Morini. The identification of the Sturii with the ancient Frisian town of Stavoren is a mere guess. Since the name Frisiavones appears several times as a synonym to Frisian, modern writers seem to have an intuitive preference to identify them with the Frisian section mentioned bij Tacitus that went south-west later on, thus showing - if anything - how the acceptance of both names (Frisii and Frisiavones) moved away from any straightforward interpretation of any such order of location provided by Pliny. Otherwise, read in order from west to east (opposite the order one might expect here from Pliny) would locate the Frisiavones and the Sturgii and Marsacii as well east from the Chauci. However, so far east would be across the river Elbe, where the geographical knowledge of Romans is known to be blurred. Tacitus could remember the Cimbri dwelling there, a tribe impossible to slip Roman memory after having been inflicted near defeat by them at 113 BC, but otherwise he seems to have considered the whole coastal area from Elbe to Sweden as interconnected and inhabited by tribes impossible to locate exactly. To mention those unknown tribes would be impossible to reconcile with the absence in that region of more important tribes known by Tacitus, like the Anglii.

However, normally Pliny consider geography and the people he mentions from east to west. Thus not the Frisii, but Frisiavones would equate the people that nowadays are well-known allover by the name Frisians. Indeed Frisiavones can be read several times in Romanse bronnen and inscriptions as a synonym to Frisians. Thus the question could even be recersed: Who were the Frisii? Like Tacitus, Pliny wouldn't have heard anything more but rumours about the people dwelling well behind the Roman frontiers and well behind tribes they waged war with. If, like nowadays, indeed any people with a name similar to Frisii already existed far back in ancient times dwelling in any strech of land across the Elbe, no more can be held against this but the general concept that though Frisian influence might at an time have reached much farther to the east, the central base of Frisian power has always been much more to the west.

A second reference by Pliny to Frisiavones, in paragraph 106, located the people in the middle of the (most of al) Celtic tribes in nowadays Belgium. Here Plinius take pains to explicitly mention the people west to east, thus placing Frisiavones probably somewhere nowadays Limburg in between the Sunuci and the Baetasi. This new location remains shrouded by mysteries and no certaincy exists whether this Frisiavones are indeed the same people or rather a seccion that migrated to the south.

In more serious modern writings straightforward reference to Frisiavones or other synonyms to distinguish from other Frisians tends to be avoided. More important is the growing awareness that the Frisian people made up an important share of a wider "Frisian" culture or melting pot^[4], in which various neighbouring and kindred tribes participated whose names history couldn't always deliver to our knowledge.

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^ Several inscriptions mention the "Cohors Primae Frisiavonum" - "First Cohort of the Frisiavones"; for an overview see also [1]
^ Procopius - Wars, book VIII[=De Bello Gothico, book IV],20:47
^ Publius Cornelius Tacitus - Germania [2], paragraph 34
^ Linguistic investigation on deflexion including ingvaeonic issues, organized by the Meertens Institute (KNAW) and the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (UvA) in a research-program called Variation in Inflection, or simply Variflex [3], explain the typical loss of inflectional distinctions with the language contact hypothesis