Download 341

The Germanic: a selective chronology
? 3000 BC
dispersal of the Indo-European linguistic community
1500-1000 BC
establishment of the Germanic as a specific north-western branch of Indo-European
c. 750 BC
Archaeological evidence suggests that about 750 BC a relatively uniform Germanic people was
located in southern Scandinavia and along the North Sea and Baltic coasts from what is now The
Netherlands to the Vistula River
4th century BC
1st mention of the Germanic tribes by Pitheas, a Greek historian and geographer
1st century BC
Julius Caesar describes in Commentaries on the Gallic War (Commentarii de Bello Gallico) some
militant Germanic tribes
c. 1 AD
dialectal differentiation within Germanic increases → 1-500 AD Völkerwanderungen
1st century AD
Pliny the Elder, a prominent Roman scientist and writer, in Natural history (Naturalis Historia)
attempted a classification of the ancient Teutons
98 AD
one of the best early descriptions by the Roman historian Tacitus (AD 98) in his Germania (40 tribes)
1st – 3rd century
split of Eastern Germanic
c. 200 – 500 AD
Northwest Germanic is attested in the early runic inscriptions
300 – 600 AD
The fragmentation of Northwest Germanic
341
Wulfila, bishop of the Visigoths; translation of parts of the Bible (manuscript of late 5th century:
“Codex Argenteus”)
375
the Huns destroy the Gothic kingdom of Ermanaric
376
the Goths enter the Empire
400-600
brunt of Germanic invasions
406
Germanic invasion over the Rhine
409
Vandals in Spain
410 Alaric the Visigoth at Rome
1
413
the Visigoths in Aquitaine
418
the Visigoths found the kingdom of Toulouse
429
Vandals in Africa
434
Attila king of the Huns
436
destruction of the Burgundian kingdom of the Rhine
449
Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain
451
Battle of the Catalaunian fields (Gaul): Attila’s only defeat (by allied Roman and Visigothic forces)
452
Attila in Italy
453
death of Attila
454
end of the Hunnic empire
455
Genseric the Vandal sacks Rome
473
Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths
476
deposition of Romulus Augustulus, end of Western Roman Empire
481
Clovis king of the Franks (late 5th century → political unification of the continental Germanic peoples
under the Merovingians (AD 476-750) and the Carolingians (AD 750-887))
493
Theodoric († 526) takes Ravenna
c. 507-511
Lex Salica, the Frankish law-code
524
execution of Boëthius
530
Frankish protectorate over Thuringia
531
the disappearance of the traditional royal dynasty of the Visigoths
533-4
Byzantine re-conquest of North Africa
2
c. 536
Frankish protectorate over Alamannia
the beginning of the Byzantine reconquest of Italy
552
death of Teia, the last Ostrogothic king
554
the capital of the Visigothic kingdom of Spain established at Toledo
c. 555
Frankish protectorate over Bavaria
568
the Lombards enter Italy
587
Reccared the Visigoth converts to Christianity
597
beginning of Anglo-Saxon conversion
607
Agilulf the Lombard converts to Christianity
c. 625
Samo, King of the Slavs in Bohemia
636
death of Isidore of Seville
671
the Lombard abandon Arianism
672
1st known anointing (King Wamba the Visigoth)
c. 700
first written records in Old English
711
the Muslims enter Spain; end of the Visigothic kingdom
800-1050
The Viking Age (the varjagi of the Russian chronicles, the Dene of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, etc.)
North Germanic begins to break up into separate dialects
9th century
earliest records in Old Saxon (Heliand) and Old High German
12th century
Elder (Poetic) Edda: a collection of Old Norse heroic poetry
13th century
Younger (Prose) Edda: an ars poetica compiled by Snorri Sturluson († 1241)
3