Bagaudae (also spelled bacaudae) were groups of peasant insurgents in the

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Roman Empire who arose during the Crisis of the Third Century, and persisted until the very end of the Western Empire, particularly in the less-Romanised areas of Gallia and Hispania, where they were "exposed to the depredations of the late Roman state, and the great landowners and clerics who were its servants". 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 into which 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. 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 about AD 284, the re-establishment of the settled social order was swift and severe: the peasant insurgents were crushed in AD 286 by the Caesar

Maximian Maximian ( la, Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus; c. 250 – c. July 310), nicknamed ''Herculius'', was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was ''Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then ''Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his ...

and his subordinate

Carausius Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Carausius (died 293) was a military commander of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. He was a Menapian from Belgic Gaul, who usurped power in 286, during the Carausian Revolt, declaring himself emperor in Britain and no ...

under the aegis of the Augustus

Diocletian Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...

. Their leaders are mentioned as Amandus and

Aelianus Aelian or Aelianus may refer to: * Aelianus Tacticus, Greek military writer of the 2nd century, who lived in Rome * Casperius Aelianus, Praetorian Prefect, executed by Trajan * Claudius Aelianus, Roman writer, teacher and historian of the 3rd centu ...

, although E.M. Wightman, in her Gallia Belgica proposes that the two belonged to the local Gallo-Roman 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 A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of grc, ...

of Maximian'', dating to AD 289 and attributed to Claudius Mamertinus, relates that during the ''bagaudae'' uprisings of AD 284–285 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 tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Caracalla of 213, the Alemanni captured the in 260, and later expanded into pres ...

. 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 AD 360 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, circa AD 409–17, fighting various armies sent against them by the last seriously effective Western Roman general, Flavius Aëtius. Aetius used federates such as the Alans under their king Goar to try and suppress a Bacaudic revolt in Armorica. 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 are mentioned in control of parts of central Gaul and the Ebro valley. In Hispania, the king of the

Suevi The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own names ...

Rechiar Rechiar or Flavius Rechiarius (after 415 – December 456) was the third Suevic king of Gallaecia, from 448 until his death, and also the first one to be born in Gallaecia. He was one of the most innovative and belligerent of the Suevi monarch ...

(died AD 456), 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 Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

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. Communist

E. A. Thompson Edward Arthur Thompson (22 May 1914 – 1 January 1994) was an Irish-born British Marxist historian of classics and medieval studies. He was professor and director of the classics department at the University of Nottingham from 1948 to 197 ...

's assessment in ''Past and Present'' (1952) portrayed the phenomenon of these rural malcontents as so-called Marxist

class warfare Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...

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.