Chapter 13

unde usque in praesens ab incolis idem monticulus Zizenberg nominatur. apud hanc urbem Romani deleti sunt magna caede. nam Titus Annius praetor ad arcendas barbarorum excursiones cum exercitu in kal. Augusti eam circundedit, ipseque ad meridianam oppidi partem, quae sola patebat, castra sua cum legione Martia operosissime communivit. ad occidentum vero ultra fluvium, ubi Suevis aut barbaris aditus patebat, Avar Bogudis regis filius cum omni equitatu et auxilio macedonico consedit. igitur quinquagesimo nono die, quam eo ventum est, cum is dies deae Zize apud barbaros celeberrimus esset, ludum et lasciviam magis quam formidinem cives ostentarunt. tunc etiam immanis barbarorum multitudo, quae de partibus Sueviae illuc convenerat, de proximis silvis repente erumpens ex improviso castra irrupit et Avaris exercitum delevit. ipsum quoque Avar regio habitu indutum vivum comprehendentes crudeliter in modum pecoris mactaverunt. a quo in loco, ubi mactatus est, vicus usque hodie appellatus est Criechesaveron, in quo hi versus reperti sunt:

his nomen terris Borgudis dat regia proles

Graecus Avar, pecudis de Suevis more litatus.

oppidani vero non minori fortuna sed majori virtute praetorem in auxilium sociis prosperantem invadunt, quibus Romani haud segniter resistunt. in quo conflictu duo principes oppidanorum Habino et Caccus in primis pugnantes cadunt, et inclinata jam res esset oppidanorum, ni maturassent auxilium ferre Suevi in altera ripa victoria jam potiti. de nominibus autem illorum principum interfectorum exstant adhuc loca denominata, nam rustici de Habinone vocant monticulum Habinoberg, in quo hi versus reperti sunt:

praefectus Habino se victum atque sepultum

perpetuo montis nomine notificat.

a Cacco vero dicunt Gegginem denominari. denique coadunatis Suevis et oppidanis castra irrumpunt, et praetorem, qui paulo altiorem tumulum frustra ceperat, romani vi resistentem obtruncant, legionemque divinam, ut nec nuncius cladis superesset, funditus delent. de hac perdita legione adhuc perlaich, quasi perdita legio, nominatur, ubi postmodum hi versus sunt reperti:

indicat hic collis romanam nomine cladem,

martia quo legio tota simul periit.

solus Verres tribunus militum amne transmisso in proximus paludibus se occultans honestam mortem subterfugit, lacui Vernse hucusque nomen dedit. versus:

das nomen lacui Verres quo tu latuisti.

hic tamen non multo post Siciliae proconsul effectus turpem mortem promeruit. nam cum se magistratu abdicaret judicio civium damnatus est. propter hunc Verrem tradunt Augustenses hanc caedem fuisse eandem, quam sub Augusto factam quidam describunt, sed Varum illum nominant his verbis: ea tempestate Varus, romano more, superbe et avare erga subditos se gerens a Germanis deletus est.

Some later writers also mention the tradition. About 1373---91, an ecclesiastic, Küchlin, composed in rhyme a history of Augsburg (96) for the burgomaster Peter Egen the Young, who wished to have his house painted with illustrations from it. Cap. 2, fol. 99 says of the Swabians:

Sie bawten einen tempel gross darein

zu eren (in honour of) Zise der abgöttin,

die sie nach heidnischen sitten (after heathen ways)

anbetten zu denselben zeiten (adored in those days).

Die stat ward genennt (city got name) auch Zisaris

nach der abgöttin (after the goddess), das was der pris.

Der tempel als lang stund unversert (stood uninjured),

bis im von alter was der val bescert (its fall decreed),

und da er von alter abgieng (as from age it passed away),

der berg namen von im empfieng (the hill took name),

daruf gestanden was (whereon had stood) das werck,

und haist noch hüt (hight still to-day) der Zisenberck.

Conf. Keller's Fastn. sp., p. 1361. Sigism. Meisterlin, in his Augsburg chronicle (97) (which is in print from the 8^th chap. of bk 1), treats of this Cisa in chaps. 5-6 of bk 2. In the unprinted chap. 4 of bk 1, he unmistakably refers to Küchlin, and again at the end of chap. 7: 'das er auch melt (tells) von der göttin Cisa, die auch genent wird Cizais, das sy geert habend (they honoured her) die doch aus Asia warend; dawider seind die andern, die von Cysa schreibent, die sprechent, das sy die Vindelici habend nach schwebischen sitten angebettet. von der göttin wirst du hernach mer haben, ob got wil (buch 3. cap. 5. 6).' (see Suppl.)

Hopeless contradictions lie on the face of that fragment. Bogud, a Punic ship's-captain, who lived in the year 494 of Rome or 260 BC, (98) is here turned into a Macedonian king; and his son Avar is made contemporary with the Ciceronian Verres of 200 years after, or even of the still later Varus. Yet Bogudes and Varus do occur as contemporaries of Pompey in Dio Cassius 41, 42. What Titus Annius was meant by the 'praetor,' I cannot guess; there is a consul of that name A.U.C. 601 and 626, or BC 153, 128. Velleius Paterculus can never have written this sort of thing. (99)

But all the rubbish it contains does not destroy the value of the remarkable story to us. The comparatively pure Latinity is enough to show that it was not composed so late as the twelfth century; Lazius and Velser (100) are inclined to place it in the Carolingian period, and it looks like the work of a foreigner, to whom the Germans are heathens and barbarians. The glosses confirm the local connexion of the whole tradition with Augsburg and its neighbourhood; and not only the Latin verses, but the German forms werthaha (R. Wertach), cizûnberc, habino, habinonberc, look too old for the 12^th century. Habino (Hepino), Habinolf, is an authentic OHG. man's name: Cacus is unknown to me, Cacan, Cagan would seem more vernacular, and the derived local name Geginen leads up to it. Some of the names quoted are preserved to this day: the eminence in the middle of the city, next the senatehouse, is still called Perlach, on which the monastery and church of St. Peter were founded in 1064; so the verse 'subdidit hunc (collem) Romae praepes victoria Petro' was composed after that? The name perleih, which the legend derives from periens or perdita legio, suggests the OHG. eikileihi, aigilaihi (phalanx), Gl. ker. 124. Diut. 1, 223; and in other compounds we find leih in a variety of senses. (101) Zisenberg and Havenenberg are names no longer heard, while Pfersen (Veris-sê) MB. 33b, 108 an. 1343, and Kriegshaber are well known villages. Whatever may be the explanation of the older and correcter form Criechesaveron, it is very plain that the name of the place Criahhes (graeci) avarâ (imago, conf. pp. 86, 95, yet also avaro proles) first suggested 'Graecus Avar,' as well as Habinonberc the her 'Habino'. The Auersberg chronicler's statement, that the Latin verses were found carved in all those places, must be rejected.




ENDNOTES:

96. Cod. Monach. Lat. 61; likewise sent me by Schmeller. Back

97. Augsb. 1522 fol. Meisterlin wrote it in 1456, and died about 1484. Back

98. Niebuhr's Rom. Hist. 3, 677. Back

99. G. Jo. Vossius, De hist. Lat. 1, 24. Back

100. Marci Velseri rer. Augustanar. libri 8. 1594 fol. p. 45. Back

101. Henisch p. 293 explains 'berlach' at Augsburg 'ab ursis in publica cavea ibi altis.' a thing which was done in other towns, e.g. Bern. On the Perlach tower there was fixed a figure of St. Michael, which came into view every time the clock struck on Michaelmas-day; in earlier times a wooden temple of Isis (p. 294, ex lignis) is said to have stood on the spot; Fischart's geschichtkl. 30b: 'der amazonischen Augspurger japetisch fraw Eysen'. Back