| Keywords |
|
| ID |
5098 |
| Text |
None |
| Quotation |
48. Anno 40. regni Chlothariae homo nomen Samo natione Francos de pago Senonago plures secum negutiantes adcivit, exercendum negucium in Sclavos coinomento Winedos perrexit. Sclavi iam contra Avaris coinomento Chunis et regem eorum gagano ceperant revellare. Winidi befulci Chunis fuerant iam ab antiquito, ut, cum Chuni in exercitu contra gentem qualibet adgrediebant, Chuni pro castra adunatum illorum stabant exercitum, Winidi vero pugnabant: si ad vincendum prevalebant, tunc Chuni predas capiendum adgrediebant; sin autem Winidi superabantur, Chunorum auxilio fulti virebus resumebant.
Ideo befulci vocabantur a Chunis, eo quod dublicem in congressione certamine vestila priliae facientes, ante Chunis precederint. Chuni aemandum annis singulis in Esclavos veniebant, uxores Sclavorum et filias eorum strato sumebant; tributa super alias oppressiones Sclavi Chunis solvebant. Filii Chunorum, quos in uxores Winodorum et filias generaverant, tandem non subferentes maliciam ferre et oppressione, Chunorum dominatione negantes, ut supra memine, ceperant revellare. Cum in exercito Winidi contra Chunus fuissent adgressi, Samo negucians, quo memoravi superius, cum ipsos in exercito perrexit; ibique / tanta ei fuit utiletas de Chunis facta, ut mirum fuisset, et nimia multitudo ex eis gladio Winidorum trucidata fuisset. Winidi cernentes utilitatem Samones, eum super se eligunt regem, ubi 30 et 5 annos regnavit feliciter. Plures prilia contra Chunis suo regimini Winidi iniaerunt; suo consilio et utilitate Winidi semper Chunus superant. Samo 12 uxores ex genere Winodorum habebat, de quibus 22 filius et quindecem filias habuit. |
| Translation |
48. In the 40th year of Chlothar's reign, a certain Samo, a Franc from the pagus of Soignies, gathered some men who had been doing business with him (for a long time) and moved to the Slavs, also known as Wenden to conduct trade (with them). The Slavs had already started (then) to rise up against the Avars, who are also called Huns, and their king Chagan. The Wends had served the Huns as befulci from time immemorial in such a way that when the Huns went to war against any people, they would set up their army in full battle order in front of their camp, but the Wends would fight: When victory was near to them, the Huns would advance to take prey; but when the Wends were overthrown, they gathered new strength under the protection of the Huns. They were called befulci by the Huns because they formed a second line of battle at the start of the battle and went before the Huns (into battle). Every year the Huns came to spend the winter with the Slavs and slept with the Slavs' wives and daughters; the Slavs endured other wickedness as well, and paid tributes to the Huns on top of that. But the sons that the Huns had fathered with the wives and daughters of the Wends were finally no longer able to endure this cruel oppression, they refused obedience to the Huns and thus, as mentioned above, had started a revolt.
But when the Wends attacked the Huns with army power, the merchant Samo, whom I mentioned above, went with them in the army; in this fight against the Huns his prudence and bravery proved so much that it bordered on the wonderful, and an immense number of Huns fell by the sword of the Wends. The Wends, who recognized the efficiency of Samo, chose him to their king, and he ruled them successfully for 35 years. Under his leadership the Wends opened many battles against the Huns, and always defeated them by his advice and efficiency. Samo had twelve Wendish wives with whom he fathered 22 sons and 15 daughters. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. IV, c. 48. MGH SS rer. Merov. p. 144-145 |
| Associated use case(s) |
|
| Comment |
Commentary A. Kusternig, Geschichtsschreiber des 7. und 8. Jahrhunderts, p. 208-208
for "Befulci": possible meanings include germ. "Beivolk" (Kollautz-Miyakawa 229), a translation of an avar word. Th. Mayer, Zu Fredegars Bericht
über die Slawen. MIÖG Erg.-Bd. 11 (1929) 114ff., deduces it from "byvolci = Büffelführer" (buffalo guide), Troßmannschaft, missunderstood by Fredegar as
bufulti = double support in battle. Unlikely is the derivatioin from bubulcus (italienisch
bifolco) = cattle drover or "bis volc" = "double war people".
Between 618 and 626 the Avars where in Thracia. |
