Suebic Kingdom of Galicia - Sources and Controversies

Sources and Controversies

Unlike some other barbarian peoples, such as the Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Huns, which played an important part in Rome's loss of the western provinces, the Sueves —establishing themselves in Gallaecia and northern Lusitania, which were remote and extra-Mediterranean areas— seldom supposed a threat to Rome and to Rome's interests; in fact, when we have more and more detailed knowledge of their history through a diversity of sources, is precisely when they became a challenge, as it was under the reign of Rechila. Anyhow, all along their history as an independent nation, they maintained an important diplomatic activity, most notably with Rome, the Vandals, the Visigoths, and, later, with the Franks. Again, they become an important player during the reign of Miro, in the last third of the 6th century, when they were in coalition with other Catholic powers —the Franks and the Eastern Romans— in support of Hermenegild, and against the Visigoth king Leovigild. Anyhow, because of their relative isolation and remoteness, sources about the Suevi people are limited, with the number translated into English even fewer.

The most important source for the history of the Suevi during the 5th century is the chronicle written by the native bishop Hydatius in 470, as a continuation of the Chronicle of Saint Jerome. Hydatius was born circa 400, in the city of the Limici, straddling the southern borders of modern day Galicia, on the valley of the Limia river. He witnessed the 409 settlement of the Suevi peoples in the Iberian Peninsula, and the slip away of Galicia from Roman province into an independent barbarian kingdom. Through much of his life he was forced to stay in isolated Roman communities, constantly threatened by the Suevi and Vandals, thought we also know that he travelled in several occasions out of Hispania, for learning or as ambassador, and that he maintained correspondence with other bishops. In 460 he was captured by the Suevic warlord Frumarius, accused of treason by other local men. After being held captive for three months, as the Suevi ravaged the region of Chaves, he was then released unharmed, against the will of the men who had revealed him. Hydatius' chronicle, whilst purporting to be universal, slowly turns into a local history. Following the barbarian settlements, he relates the conflict among the diverse nations; later, he also narrates the frequent conflict of the Sueves with the local, barely romanized, Galicians; the decline of the Roman powers in Hispania; the expansion of the Suevi into the south and the east; their defeat at the hands of Visigoths and other Roman foederati forces; and the posterior reconstitution of their kingdom under Remismund, together with their conversion into Arrianism. While he is considered a great historian, his portrays are usually obscure, without any real reason or direction given to the decisions or movement of the Suevi, by mentioning what the Suevi did, but rarely what they said, or what they pretended. So Hydatius's image of the Suevi is from the outside, as lawless marauders. This description of the Suevi has bled into secondary sources: E.A. Thomson, an expert who has written many pieces on the subject, stated, “they just lash out blindly from year to year at any place that they suspected would supply them with food, valuables or money.”

Another important source for the history of the Sueves during the initial settlement phase is the Seven Books of History Against the Pagans, by Orosius, another local historian. He depicted a very different picture of the initial settlement of Sueves and Vandals, less catastrophic than that narrated by Hydatius. In his narration, Sueves and Vandals, after a violent entrance in Hispanias, resume a pacific life of peasants and guardians, while many poor local united to them, fleeing from Roman taxes and impositions. But, at is has been pointed out, his narration is also biased by his agenda, as in his book he was trying to exculpate Christianity of the fall and decadence of Rome.

The conflict of Vandals and Sueves is also narrated by Gregory of Tours, who in the 6th century narrated the blockade, the death of Gunderic on untold circumstances, and the resolution of the conflict in a champions fight, being the defeated Vandals forced to left Galicia. A somewhat different history apparently was told among the Vandals, as Procopius wrote that in their traditions king Gunderic was captured and impaled by Germans in Spain.

For the mid-fifth century we have also the chapter 44 of Jordanes' Getica, which narrates the defeat of the Suevi king Rechiar at the hands of the Roman foederati troops commanded by the Visigoths. Is is a vivid, if brief, narration, where Rechiar, a defiant man, has a purpose, a mood, and emotions, as the rest of the protagonists.

The ending of the Chronicle of Hydatius, in 469, marks the beginning of a period of obscurity in the history of the Sueves, who don’t re-emerge into historical light until the mid-sixth century, when we have plenty of sources. Among these, the most notable are the works of the Pannonian Martin of Braga, sometimes called the apostle of the Sueves, as well as the accounts of Gregory of Tours. In the Miracles of Saint Martin, Gregory narrated, and attributed to a miracle of Saint Martin of Tours, the conversion of king Chararic into Catholicism, whilst in the History of the Franks he dedicated several chapters to the relations of Sueves, Visigoths and Franks, and to the end of the independence of the Suevi, annexed by the Visigoths in 585. On the other hand, Martin of Braga, a monk who arrived to Galicia circa 550, became a true transformative power: as founder of monasteries and as bishop and abbot of Dume he promoted the conversion of the Sueves, and later as archbishop of Braga and maximum religious authority of the kingdom he participated in the reformation of the Church and of the local administration. Several of his works have been preserved, among them a Formula for a Honest life dedicated to King Miro; a treaty against the superstitions of the country inhabitants; and several other minor treaties. He was also present in the Councils of Braga, being the deliberations of the second one led by him, as archbishop of the capital, Braga. The acts of these Councils, together with the Divisio Theodemiri, are the most precious sources on the inner political and religious life of the kingdom.

Of paramount importance it is also the chronicle wrote by John of Biclaro, a Visigoth, circa 590. While probably partial, his accounts are precious for the last 15 years of independence of the Sueves, as well as for the first years of the Sueves under Visigothic rule.

Finally, of great interest it is also a history written by Isidore of Seville. He used Hydatius’s accounts, together with the Chronicle of John of Biclaro, to form an abridged history of the Suevi in Hispania. The controversy around Isidorus’s historiography is centered in his omissions and addition, which many historians and scholars consider too numerous for them all to be simply mistakes. Throughout Isidore’s History of the Kings of the Goths, Vandals, and Sueves certain details from Hydatius are altered. Many scholars attribute these changes to the fact that Isidore may have had sources other than Hydatius at his request.

It has been said that the history and relevance of Suevic Galicia was long marginalised and obscured inside Spain, mainly by political reasons. It was left to a German scholar, Wilhem Reinhart, to write the first connected history of the Suebi in Galicia.