Bagaudae
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Bagaudae (also spelled bacaudae) were groups of
peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...
insurgents in the western parts of the
later Later may refer to: * Future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the futur ...
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
, who arose during the
Crisis of the Third Century The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis, was a period in History of Rome, Roman history during which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressure of repeated Barbarian invasions ...
and persisted until the very end of the Western Empire, particularly in the less-Romanised areas of Gallia and
Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...
. They were affected by the depredations of the late Roman state, wealthy landowners, and clerics. The invasions, military anarchy, and disorders of the third century provided a chaotic and ongoing degradation of the regional power structure within a declining Empire. During the chaos, the ''bagaudae'' achieved some temporary and scattered successes under the leadership of members of the underclass as well as former members of local ruling elites.


Etymology

The name probably means 'fighters' in
Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...
. C. E. V. Nixon assesses the ''bagaudae'', from the official Imperial viewpoint, as "bands of brigands who roamed the countryside looting and pillaging". J. C. S. Léon interprets the most completely assembled documentation and identifies the ''bagaudae'' as impoverished local free peasants, reinforced by brigands, runaway slaves and deserters from the legions, who were trying to resist the ruthless labor exploitation of the late Roman proto-feudal colonus manorial and military systems, and all manner of punitive laws and levies in the marginal areas of the Empire.


Suppression

After the ''bagaudae'' came to the full attention of the central authorities around 284 AD, the re-establishment of the settled social order was swift and severe: the peasant insurgents were crushed in 286 AD by the co-Caesar
Maximian Maximian (; ), nicknamed Herculius, was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was ''Caesar (title), Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocleti ...
and his subordinate Carausius under the aegis of the Augustus
Diocletian Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...
. Their leaders are mentioned as Amandus and Aelianus, although E.M. Wightman, in her ''Gallia Belgica'' proposes that the two belonged to the local
Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization (cultural), Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire in Roman Gaul. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, Roman culture, language ...
landowning class who then became " tyrants" and most likely rebelled against the grinding taxation and garnishing of their lands, harvests, and manpower by the predatory agents of the late Roman state (see '' frumentarii'', '' publicani''). The '' Panegyric of Maximian'', dating to 289 AD and attributed to Claudius Mamertinus, relates that during the ''bagaudae'' uprisings of 284–285 AD in the districts around Lugdunum (Lyon), "simple farmers sought military garb; the plowman imitated the infantryman, the shepherd the cavalryman, the rustic harvester of his own crops the barbarian enemy". In fact they shared several similar characteristics with the Germanic Heruli people. Mamertinus also called them "two-shaped monsters" (''monstrorum biformium''), emphasising that while they were technically Imperial farmers and citizens, they were also marauding rogues who had become foes to the Empire.


Recurrences

The phenomenon recurred in the mid-fourth century in the reign of Constantius, in conjunction with an invasion of the
Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE ...
. Although Imperial control was re-established by the Frankish general Silvanus, his subsequent betrayal by court rivals forced him into rebellion and his work was undone. In around 360 AD the historian Aurelius Victor is the sole writer to note the attacks of ''bagaudae'' in the peripheries of the larger towns and walled cities. In the fifth century ''Bagaudae'' are noted initially in the Loire valley and
Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...
, circa 409–417 AD, fighting various armies sent against them by the last seriously effective Western Roman general, Flavius Aëtius. Aetius used federates such as the
Alans The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...
under their king Goar to try and suppress a Bacaudic revolt in
Armorica In ancient times, Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; ; ) was a region of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, and much of historical Normandy. Name The name ''Armorica'' is a Latinized form of the Gauli ...
. St Germanus got mercy for the Bagaudae but they later revolted again under a leader called Tibatto. They are also mentioned around the same time in the province of Macedonia, the only time they emerge in the Eastern Empire, which may be connected with economic hardships under Arcadius. By the middle of the fifth century they started to appear in Hispania too, and are mentioned in control of parts of central Gaul and the Ebro valley. In
Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...
, the king of the
Suevi file:1st century Germani.png, 300px, The approximate positions of some Germanic peoples reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 1st century. Suebian peoples in red, and other Irminones in purple. The Suebi (also spelled Suavi, Suevi or Suebians ...
, Rechiar (died 456 AD), took up as allies the local ''bagaudae'' in ravaging the remaining Roman '' municipia'', a unique alliance between Germanic ruler and rebel peasant. That the depredations of the ruling classes were mostly responsible for the uprising of the ''bagaudae'' was not lost on the fifth-century writer of historicised polemic Salvian; setting himself in the treatise ''De gubernatione Dei'' the task of proving God's constant guidance, he declares in book III that the misery of the Roman world is all due to the neglect of God's commandments and the terrible sins of every class of society. It is not merely that slaves and servants are thieves and runaways, wine-bibbers and gluttons – the rich are much worse (IV, 3); it is their harshness and greed that drive the poor to join the ''bagaudae'' and flee for shelter to the barbarian invaders (V, 5 and 6).


Reputation

The reputation of the ''bagaudae'' has varied with the uses made of them in historicised narratives of the Late Roman Empire and the Middle Ages. There has been some speculation that theirs was a
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
revolt, but the sparsity of information in the texts gives that little substance although there may well have been many Christians among them. In general, they seem to have been equal parts of brigands and insurgents. In the second half of the 19th century, interest in the ''bagaudae'' revived, resonating with contemporary social unrest. The French historian Jean Trithemié was famous for a nationalist view of the "Bagaudae" by arguing that they were an expression of national identity among the Gallic peasants, who sought to overthrow oppressive Roman rule and realize the eternal "French" values of liberty, equality and brotherhood.Jean Trithemié, ''Les Bagaudes et les origines de la nation française'' (Paris), 1873. E. A. Thompson in ''Past and Present'' (1952) portrayed this rural discontent within the context of Marxist class warfare.


See also

* Bagaudae Revolt * Jacquerie * List of peasant revolts *
Popular revolt in late medieval Europe Popular revolts in late medieval Europe were uprisings and rebellions by peasants in the countryside, or the Burgess (title), burgesses in towns, against nobleman, nobles, abbots and kings during the upheavals between 1300 and 1500, part of a larg ...
*
Plebeians In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not Patrician (ancient Rome), patricians, as determined by the Capite censi, census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Et ...


Citations


References

* Thompson, E. A. ''Romans and Barbarians: The Decline of the Western Empire''. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press) 1982. * Trithemié, Jean. ''Les Bagaudes et les origines de la nation française''. 2 vols. (Paris: Les séries historiques, Ecole anormale supérieure), 1873.


Further reading

* Léon, J. C. S. (1996). ''Les sources de l'histoire des Bagaudes''. Paris. * Léon, J. C. S. (1996). ''Los bagaudas: rebeldes, demonios, mártires. Revueltas campesinas en Galia e Hispania durante el Bajo Imperio''. University of Jaén. {{Authority control 280s establishments in the Roman Empire 450s disestablishments in the Roman Empire 3rd century in Roman Gaul 3rd-century rebellions 4th-century rebellions 5th-century rebellions Ancient peoples Ancient Roman outlaws Crisis of the Third Century Gaulish language Insurgent groups in Europe Organizations disestablished in the 5th century Organizations established in the 3rd century Peasant revolts Rebellions against the Roman Empire Spain in the Roman era Tetrarchy Armorica Underclass