The Franks (Latin: Franci or gens Francorum) are a confederation of Germanic tribes occupying land in the Lower and Middle Rhine in the 3rd century AD. Some Franks raid Roman territory, while other Frank tribes joined the Roman troops in what was called Gaul.
The Salian Franks form a kingdom on Roman-held soil between the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers. The kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after 357 AD.
The Franks in most of Gaul merged with the Gallo-Roman population and passed their name to modern France.
The appearance of the Franks
"Their eyes are faint and pale, with a glimmer of greyish blue. Their faces are shaven all round, and instead of beards they have thin moustaches which they run through with a comb. Close fitting garments confine the tall limbs of the men, they are drawn up high so as to expose the knees, and a broad belt supports their narrow middle." Apollinaris Sidonius, Letters
Eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures: Ubi nunc est illa ferocia? Ubi semper infida mobilitas? ("Where now is that famed ferocity of yours, that ever untrustworthy fickleness?"). Feroces was used often to describe the Franks.
Etymology
The name Franci are socio-political. To the Romans, Celts, and Suebi, the Franks must have seemed alike: they looked the same and spoke the same language, so that Franci became the name by which the people were known. Within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the original tribes.
Frank comes from the Germanic word for "javelin" (such as in Old English franca or Old Norse frakka). And for the romans frank comes from the Latin word francisca meaning ("throwing axe"). Words in other Germanic languages meaning "bold" or "fierce", (Middle Dutch vrac, Old English frǣc and Old Norwegian frakkr), may also be significant.
Mythological origins
Some franks claim that they came originally from Troy and quoted the works of Vergil and Hieronymous. The chronicle describes Priam as a Frankish king whose people migrated to Macedonia after the fall of Troy. In Macedonia, the Franks then divided. The European Franks reached Francia under King Francio, just as Romulus went to Rome. Another branch, under King Turchot, became the Turks. Fredegar stated that Theudemer, named king of the Franks by Gregory, was descended from Priam, Friga and Francio.
In another legend, it´s described how 12,000 Trojans, led by Priam and Antenor, sailed from Troy to the River Don in Russia and to Pannonia, which is on the Danube, settling near the Sea of Azov. There they founded a city called Sicambria. The Trojans joined the Roman army in accomplishing the task of driving their enemies into the marshes of Mæotis, for which they received the name of Franks (meaning "savage"). A decade later the Romans killed Priam and drove away Marcomer and Sunno, the sons of Priam and Antenor, and the other Franks.
Frankish mythology
Pre-Christian traditions
The migration era religion of the Franks likely share many of its characteristics with the other varieties of Germanic paganism, such as placing altars in forest glens, on hilltops, or besides lakes and rivers, and consecrating woods. Generally, Germanic gods are associated with local cult centres and their sacred character and power are associated with specific regions, outside of which they are neither worshipped nor feared. Other deities are known and feared and shared by cultures and tribes, although in different names and variations. Of the latter, the Franks have one omnipotent god Allfadir ("All Father" usually refer to Wuotan), thought to live in a sacred grove. Germanic peoples gather where they believe him to live, and sacrifice a human life to him.
Germanic groups along the North Sea the Franks share a special dedication to the worship of Yngvi.
the Frankish pantheon is especially devoted to fertility gods.
Rich pagan Franks are buried with movable wealth in graves surrounded by horse burials. In contrast to many other Germanic tribes, no Frankish kings claim to be descended from Wodan. Instead, the sacred tradition of a cart pulled by bulls is present. The bulls that pull the cart are taken as special animals, and according to Salian law the theft of those animals would impose a high sanction. In many graves are the head of a bull, craftily made out of gold. This is a symbol of a very old fertility ritual, that centres on the worship of the cow.
Rituals among the Germanic tribes of the North Sea area include a fertility goddess Nerthus riding a chariot drawn by cows. In fact Nerthus worship is connected to a lake where the service is accompanied with human sacrifices, is the origin of the Merovingian conception of Merovech, after whom their dynasty would be named. The Merovingian kings riding through the country on an oxcart is an imaginative reenactment the blessing journey of their divine ancestor.
Foundation myth
The Frankish mythology is comparable to that of the Aeneas and Romulus myths take in Roman mythology, but altered to suit Germanic tastes. Like many Germanic peoples, the Franks tell a founding myth story to explain their connection with peoples of classical history. In the case of the Franks, these peoples are the Sicambri and the Trojans. Following the fall of Troy, 12,000 Trojans led by chiefs Priam and Antenor moved to the Tanais (Don) river, settled in Pannonia near the Sea of Azov and founded a city called "Sicambria". In just two generations (Priam and his son Marcomer) from the fall of Troy they arrive in the late 4th century AD at the Rhine. An earlier variation of this story tells that an early king named Francio serves as namegiver for the Francs, just as Romulus has lent his name to Rome.
In Roman and Merovingian times it is customary to declare panegyrics. These poetical declarations are held for amusement or propaganda, to entertain guests and please rulers. Panegyrics play an important role in the transmission of culture. A common panegyrical device is anachronism, the use of archaic names for contemporary things. Romans are often called "Trojans" and Salian Franks are called "Sicambri".
Sacral kingship
Pagan Frankish rulers maintain their elevated positions by their "charisma" or Heil, their legitimacy and "right to rule" is based on their supposed divine descent as well as their financial and military successes.
History
Early history
In 328, Ripuarians Frankish raiders were captured by the 6th Legion stationed at Mainz. As a result of this incident, 700 Franks were killed and 300 were sold into slavery. Frankish incursions over the Rhine become so frequent that the Romans have began to settle the Franks on their borders in order to control them. In 292 Constantius defeated the Franks who had settled at the mouth of the Rhine. These were moved to the nearby region of Toxandria. Eumenius mentions Constantius as having "killed, expelled, captured and kidnapped" the Franks who had settled there and others who had crossed the Rhine, using the term nationes Franciae for the first time.
Emperor Julian promoted in 358 the Salians to the status of fœderati within the Empire. The 5th century Notitia Dignitatum lists their soldiers as Salii. Jordanes, in Getica mentions the Riparii as auxiliaries of Flavius Aetius during the Battle of Châlons in 451.
Claudius Ptolemy's two maps of Germany portray Germania Inferior on the left bank of the Rhine, which are populated by Germanics, including those who had occupied the region before the Romans, and Magna Germania on the other side of the river, which acted as the Roman frontier. Tensions between the Empire and the Franks exist because of this artificial division: the Franks saw no reason why they should be kept from settling on either side of the river and eventually they convince the Emperors to allow this to happen. The topography of the mouth of the Rhine are even more troubling: the Rhine divide far inland into a fan of outlets, in which there is a significant settlement area, the island of Batavia. The Romans diverted the Rhine into the Yssel through a canal, which emptied into an inland lagoon. After the construction of the canal, Batavia was left under Roman jurisdiction, although it was settled by Germanics.
Merovingian kingdom
Numerous small Frankish kingdoms existed during the 5th century around Cologne, Tournai, Le Mans, Cambrai, and elsewhere. The kingdom of Tournai eventually came to dominate its neighbours, probably because of its association with Aegidius, the magister militum of northern Gaul. A Frankish king, Childeric I, fought with Aegidius in 463: historians have assumed that Childeric and his son Clovis I were both commanders of the Roman military in the Province of Belgica Secunda and were subordinate to the magister militum.
Clovis later turned against the Roman commanders, defeated Syagrius in 486.
Military
Participation in the Roman army
Germanic peoples, including those tribes in the Rhine delta that later became the Franks, are known to have served in the Roman army since the days of Julius Caesar. After the Roman administration collapsed in Gaul in the 260s, the armies under the Germanic Batavian Postumus revolted and proclaimed him emperor and then restored order. From then on, Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, most notably Franks, were promoted from the ranks. A few decades later, the Menapian Carausius created a Batavian-British rump state on Roman soil that was supported by Frankish soldiers and raiders. Frankish soldiers such as Magnentius, Silvanus,and Arbitio held command positions in the Roman army during the mid 4th century. From the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus it is evident that both Frankish and Alamannic tribal armies were organised along Roman lines.
After the invasion of Chlodio, the Roman armies at the Rhine border became a Frankish "franchise" and Franks were known to levy Roman-like troops that were supported by a Roman-like armour and weapons industry. This lasted at least till the days of the scholar Procopius (c. AD 500 – c. AD 565), more than a century after the demise of the Western Roman Empire, who wrote describing the former Rhine army as still in operation with legions of the style of their forefathers during Roman times. The Franks under the Merovingians melded Germanic custom with Romanized organisation and several important tactical innovations. Before their conquest of Gaul, the Franks fought primarily as a tribe, unless they were part of a Roman military unit fighting in conjunction with other imperial units.
Military practices of the Franks
Writing of 539, Procopius says: At this time the Franks, hearing that both the Goths and Romans had suffered severely by the war ... forgetting for the moment their oaths and treaties ... (for this nation in matters of trust is the most treacherous in the world), they straightway gathered to the number of one hundred thousand under the leadership of Theudebert I and marched into Italy: they had a small body of cavalry about their leader, and these were the only ones armed with spears, while all the rest were foot soldiers having neither bows nor spears, but each man carried a sword and shield and one axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides, while the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at a signal in the first charge and thus to shatter the shields of the enemy and kill the men.
His contemporary, Agathias, says: The military equipment of this people [the Franks] is very simple ... They do not know the use of the coat of mail or greaves and the majority leave the head uncovered, only a few wear the helmet. They have their chests bare and backs naked to the loins, they cover their thighs with either leather or linen. They do not serve on horseback except in very rare cases. Fighting on foot is both habitual and a national custom and they are proficient in this. At the hip they wear a sword and on the left side their shield is attached. They have neither bows nor slings, no missile weapons except the double edged axe and the angon which they use most often. The angons are spears which are neither very short nor very long. They can be used, if necessary, for throwing like a javelin, and also in hand to hand combat.
Culture[edit]
Language and literature
Language
When the Franks first appeared as such in the 3rd century, they spoke the same language, Proto-Germanic.Late Proto-Germanic would have included a number of dialects, one of which must have been Frankish. By the 5th century, phonetic developments indicate that West Germanic - which included the Frankish dialect - was briefly distinct from East Germanic, but not from North Germanic.
Modern French began as the language of the province of Neustria in northern France, which was created by the Franks after the Roman administration departed from northern Gaul. The language originally had been a form of Gallo-Roman spoken chiefly by the Belgae, but as the Franks gradually settled there it evolved into Old French. The main theory concerning the generation of Old French is that the Franks imposed much of their vocabulary and other mainly phonetic features on Gallo-Roman. The language of the Franks assimilated to Gallo-Roman.
Literature
The Franks, being situated on and within the border of Roman Gaul and across the channel from Roman Britain, are the most educated, literate, and literarily prolific of all the Germanics tribes. The first Germanic cities were located in their territory. Many Franks are high officers in the Roman administration, for which positions a Roman literary education was a prerequisite. Frankish troops guarded the Roman frontier from Britain to the Middle East.
Old Frankish is very nearly an entirely verbal means of communication. For more formal communications of any kind, the Franks use the lingua franca Latin. During Rome's hegemony, to be educated was to know Latin — as an administrative language it was indispensable. Monarchs pride themselves in their ability to communicate via Latin, especially to emissaries and rulers of foreign nations. Latin serve in place of translation; with it all educated and administrative Europe spoke the same language.
Art
Jewellery (such as brooches), weapons (including swords with decorative hilts), and clothing (such as capes and sandals).
Religion
Paganism
Frankish paganism shared most of the characteristics of other varieties of Germanic paganism. The mythology of the Franks is a form of Germanic polytheism. It is highly ritualistic. Many daily activities centred around the multiple deities, chiefest of which may have been the Quinotaur, a water-god from whom the Merovingians will repute to have derived their ancestry. Most of their gods are linked with local cult centres and their sacred character and power are associated with specific regions, outside of which they are neither worshipped nor feared. Most of the gods are "worldly", possessing form and having connections with specific objects, in contrast to the God of Christianity.
The king's body is covered in a cloth decorated with numerous bees, for the traditional Frankish weapon, the angon (meaning "sting"), from its distinctive spearhead.
Christianity
Some Franks, like the 4th-century usurper Silvanus, converted early to Christianity.
Laws
As with other Germanic peoples, the laws of the Franks are memorised by "rachimburgs". Two basic legal subdivisions existed: Salian Franks were subject to Salic law and Ripuarian Franks to Ripuarian law. Gallo-Romans south of the River Loire and clergy remained subject to traditional Roman law.
The Salian Franks form a kingdom on Roman-held soil between the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers. The kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after 357 AD.
The Franks in most of Gaul merged with the Gallo-Roman population and passed their name to modern France.
The appearance of the Franks
"Their eyes are faint and pale, with a glimmer of greyish blue. Their faces are shaven all round, and instead of beards they have thin moustaches which they run through with a comb. Close fitting garments confine the tall limbs of the men, they are drawn up high so as to expose the knees, and a broad belt supports their narrow middle." Apollinaris Sidonius, Letters
Eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures: Ubi nunc est illa ferocia? Ubi semper infida mobilitas? ("Where now is that famed ferocity of yours, that ever untrustworthy fickleness?"). Feroces was used often to describe the Franks.
Etymology
The name Franci are socio-political. To the Romans, Celts, and Suebi, the Franks must have seemed alike: they looked the same and spoke the same language, so that Franci became the name by which the people were known. Within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the original tribes.
Frank comes from the Germanic word for "javelin" (such as in Old English franca or Old Norse frakka). And for the romans frank comes from the Latin word francisca meaning ("throwing axe"). Words in other Germanic languages meaning "bold" or "fierce", (Middle Dutch vrac, Old English frǣc and Old Norwegian frakkr), may also be significant.
Mythological origins
Some franks claim that they came originally from Troy and quoted the works of Vergil and Hieronymous. The chronicle describes Priam as a Frankish king whose people migrated to Macedonia after the fall of Troy. In Macedonia, the Franks then divided. The European Franks reached Francia under King Francio, just as Romulus went to Rome. Another branch, under King Turchot, became the Turks. Fredegar stated that Theudemer, named king of the Franks by Gregory, was descended from Priam, Friga and Francio.
In another legend, it´s described how 12,000 Trojans, led by Priam and Antenor, sailed from Troy to the River Don in Russia and to Pannonia, which is on the Danube, settling near the Sea of Azov. There they founded a city called Sicambria. The Trojans joined the Roman army in accomplishing the task of driving their enemies into the marshes of Mæotis, for which they received the name of Franks (meaning "savage"). A decade later the Romans killed Priam and drove away Marcomer and Sunno, the sons of Priam and Antenor, and the other Franks.
Frankish mythology
Pre-Christian traditions
The migration era religion of the Franks likely share many of its characteristics with the other varieties of Germanic paganism, such as placing altars in forest glens, on hilltops, or besides lakes and rivers, and consecrating woods. Generally, Germanic gods are associated with local cult centres and their sacred character and power are associated with specific regions, outside of which they are neither worshipped nor feared. Other deities are known and feared and shared by cultures and tribes, although in different names and variations. Of the latter, the Franks have one omnipotent god Allfadir ("All Father" usually refer to Wuotan), thought to live in a sacred grove. Germanic peoples gather where they believe him to live, and sacrifice a human life to him.
Germanic groups along the North Sea the Franks share a special dedication to the worship of Yngvi.
the Frankish pantheon is especially devoted to fertility gods.
Rich pagan Franks are buried with movable wealth in graves surrounded by horse burials. In contrast to many other Germanic tribes, no Frankish kings claim to be descended from Wodan. Instead, the sacred tradition of a cart pulled by bulls is present. The bulls that pull the cart are taken as special animals, and according to Salian law the theft of those animals would impose a high sanction. In many graves are the head of a bull, craftily made out of gold. This is a symbol of a very old fertility ritual, that centres on the worship of the cow.
Rituals among the Germanic tribes of the North Sea area include a fertility goddess Nerthus riding a chariot drawn by cows. In fact Nerthus worship is connected to a lake where the service is accompanied with human sacrifices, is the origin of the Merovingian conception of Merovech, after whom their dynasty would be named. The Merovingian kings riding through the country on an oxcart is an imaginative reenactment the blessing journey of their divine ancestor.
Foundation myth
The Frankish mythology is comparable to that of the Aeneas and Romulus myths take in Roman mythology, but altered to suit Germanic tastes. Like many Germanic peoples, the Franks tell a founding myth story to explain their connection with peoples of classical history. In the case of the Franks, these peoples are the Sicambri and the Trojans. Following the fall of Troy, 12,000 Trojans led by chiefs Priam and Antenor moved to the Tanais (Don) river, settled in Pannonia near the Sea of Azov and founded a city called "Sicambria". In just two generations (Priam and his son Marcomer) from the fall of Troy they arrive in the late 4th century AD at the Rhine. An earlier variation of this story tells that an early king named Francio serves as namegiver for the Francs, just as Romulus has lent his name to Rome.
In Roman and Merovingian times it is customary to declare panegyrics. These poetical declarations are held for amusement or propaganda, to entertain guests and please rulers. Panegyrics play an important role in the transmission of culture. A common panegyrical device is anachronism, the use of archaic names for contemporary things. Romans are often called "Trojans" and Salian Franks are called "Sicambri".
Sacral kingship
Pagan Frankish rulers maintain their elevated positions by their "charisma" or Heil, their legitimacy and "right to rule" is based on their supposed divine descent as well as their financial and military successes.
History
Early history
In 328, Ripuarians Frankish raiders were captured by the 6th Legion stationed at Mainz. As a result of this incident, 700 Franks were killed and 300 were sold into slavery. Frankish incursions over the Rhine become so frequent that the Romans have began to settle the Franks on their borders in order to control them. In 292 Constantius defeated the Franks who had settled at the mouth of the Rhine. These were moved to the nearby region of Toxandria. Eumenius mentions Constantius as having "killed, expelled, captured and kidnapped" the Franks who had settled there and others who had crossed the Rhine, using the term nationes Franciae for the first time.
Emperor Julian promoted in 358 the Salians to the status of fœderati within the Empire. The 5th century Notitia Dignitatum lists their soldiers as Salii. Jordanes, in Getica mentions the Riparii as auxiliaries of Flavius Aetius during the Battle of Châlons in 451.
Claudius Ptolemy's two maps of Germany portray Germania Inferior on the left bank of the Rhine, which are populated by Germanics, including those who had occupied the region before the Romans, and Magna Germania on the other side of the river, which acted as the Roman frontier. Tensions between the Empire and the Franks exist because of this artificial division: the Franks saw no reason why they should be kept from settling on either side of the river and eventually they convince the Emperors to allow this to happen. The topography of the mouth of the Rhine are even more troubling: the Rhine divide far inland into a fan of outlets, in which there is a significant settlement area, the island of Batavia. The Romans diverted the Rhine into the Yssel through a canal, which emptied into an inland lagoon. After the construction of the canal, Batavia was left under Roman jurisdiction, although it was settled by Germanics.
Merovingian kingdom
Numerous small Frankish kingdoms existed during the 5th century around Cologne, Tournai, Le Mans, Cambrai, and elsewhere. The kingdom of Tournai eventually came to dominate its neighbours, probably because of its association with Aegidius, the magister militum of northern Gaul. A Frankish king, Childeric I, fought with Aegidius in 463: historians have assumed that Childeric and his son Clovis I were both commanders of the Roman military in the Province of Belgica Secunda and were subordinate to the magister militum.
Clovis later turned against the Roman commanders, defeated Syagrius in 486.
Military
Participation in the Roman army
Germanic peoples, including those tribes in the Rhine delta that later became the Franks, are known to have served in the Roman army since the days of Julius Caesar. After the Roman administration collapsed in Gaul in the 260s, the armies under the Germanic Batavian Postumus revolted and proclaimed him emperor and then restored order. From then on, Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, most notably Franks, were promoted from the ranks. A few decades later, the Menapian Carausius created a Batavian-British rump state on Roman soil that was supported by Frankish soldiers and raiders. Frankish soldiers such as Magnentius, Silvanus,and Arbitio held command positions in the Roman army during the mid 4th century. From the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus it is evident that both Frankish and Alamannic tribal armies were organised along Roman lines.
After the invasion of Chlodio, the Roman armies at the Rhine border became a Frankish "franchise" and Franks were known to levy Roman-like troops that were supported by a Roman-like armour and weapons industry. This lasted at least till the days of the scholar Procopius (c. AD 500 – c. AD 565), more than a century after the demise of the Western Roman Empire, who wrote describing the former Rhine army as still in operation with legions of the style of their forefathers during Roman times. The Franks under the Merovingians melded Germanic custom with Romanized organisation and several important tactical innovations. Before their conquest of Gaul, the Franks fought primarily as a tribe, unless they were part of a Roman military unit fighting in conjunction with other imperial units.
Military practices of the Franks
Writing of 539, Procopius says: At this time the Franks, hearing that both the Goths and Romans had suffered severely by the war ... forgetting for the moment their oaths and treaties ... (for this nation in matters of trust is the most treacherous in the world), they straightway gathered to the number of one hundred thousand under the leadership of Theudebert I and marched into Italy: they had a small body of cavalry about their leader, and these were the only ones armed with spears, while all the rest were foot soldiers having neither bows nor spears, but each man carried a sword and shield and one axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides, while the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at a signal in the first charge and thus to shatter the shields of the enemy and kill the men.
His contemporary, Agathias, says: The military equipment of this people [the Franks] is very simple ... They do not know the use of the coat of mail or greaves and the majority leave the head uncovered, only a few wear the helmet. They have their chests bare and backs naked to the loins, they cover their thighs with either leather or linen. They do not serve on horseback except in very rare cases. Fighting on foot is both habitual and a national custom and they are proficient in this. At the hip they wear a sword and on the left side their shield is attached. They have neither bows nor slings, no missile weapons except the double edged axe and the angon which they use most often. The angons are spears which are neither very short nor very long. They can be used, if necessary, for throwing like a javelin, and also in hand to hand combat.
Culture[edit]
Language and literature
Language
When the Franks first appeared as such in the 3rd century, they spoke the same language, Proto-Germanic.Late Proto-Germanic would have included a number of dialects, one of which must have been Frankish. By the 5th century, phonetic developments indicate that West Germanic - which included the Frankish dialect - was briefly distinct from East Germanic, but not from North Germanic.
Modern French began as the language of the province of Neustria in northern France, which was created by the Franks after the Roman administration departed from northern Gaul. The language originally had been a form of Gallo-Roman spoken chiefly by the Belgae, but as the Franks gradually settled there it evolved into Old French. The main theory concerning the generation of Old French is that the Franks imposed much of their vocabulary and other mainly phonetic features on Gallo-Roman. The language of the Franks assimilated to Gallo-Roman.
Literature
The Franks, being situated on and within the border of Roman Gaul and across the channel from Roman Britain, are the most educated, literate, and literarily prolific of all the Germanics tribes. The first Germanic cities were located in their territory. Many Franks are high officers in the Roman administration, for which positions a Roman literary education was a prerequisite. Frankish troops guarded the Roman frontier from Britain to the Middle East.
Old Frankish is very nearly an entirely verbal means of communication. For more formal communications of any kind, the Franks use the lingua franca Latin. During Rome's hegemony, to be educated was to know Latin — as an administrative language it was indispensable. Monarchs pride themselves in their ability to communicate via Latin, especially to emissaries and rulers of foreign nations. Latin serve in place of translation; with it all educated and administrative Europe spoke the same language.
Art
Jewellery (such as brooches), weapons (including swords with decorative hilts), and clothing (such as capes and sandals).
Religion
Paganism
Frankish paganism shared most of the characteristics of other varieties of Germanic paganism. The mythology of the Franks is a form of Germanic polytheism. It is highly ritualistic. Many daily activities centred around the multiple deities, chiefest of which may have been the Quinotaur, a water-god from whom the Merovingians will repute to have derived their ancestry. Most of their gods are linked with local cult centres and their sacred character and power are associated with specific regions, outside of which they are neither worshipped nor feared. Most of the gods are "worldly", possessing form and having connections with specific objects, in contrast to the God of Christianity.
The king's body is covered in a cloth decorated with numerous bees, for the traditional Frankish weapon, the angon (meaning "sting"), from its distinctive spearhead.
Christianity
Some Franks, like the 4th-century usurper Silvanus, converted early to Christianity.
Laws
As with other Germanic peoples, the laws of the Franks are memorised by "rachimburgs". Two basic legal subdivisions existed: Salian Franks were subject to Salic law and Ripuarian Franks to Ripuarian law. Gallo-Romans south of the River Loire and clergy remained subject to traditional Roman law.