FRANCI. — The prehistory of the Franks before their entry into Gaul is unknown. One can only infer a previous settlement on the right bank of the lower Rhine: from there, King Clodio would have brought them across to the left bank, establishing the seat of his primitive government at Tournai.
The weakening of the Roman limes on the Rhine in the mid-3rd century AD had already given the Frankish tribes the opportunity to cross the river. Their new settlements were not obtained without struggle; Aurelian routed them in 274; shortly afterward, Probus also had his lieutenants wage wars against the Franks; later, Maximian defeated them and forced them to make peace; thus too Constantius Chlorus, Constantine, and Constans. But in 350 they were able to take advantage of the civil war between Constantius and Magnentius to secure more stable settlements in Gaul. Finally, Julian the Apostate restored Roman authority in Gaul and Germany by regaining control of Cologne and expelling Frankish groups from Roman territory. A series of treaties made the defeated tribes vassals of Rome. From then on, for about a century, one can speak of a Romano-Frankish civilization: the Franks made a notable contribution to Roman civil and especially military organization. They began to infiltrate the general commands of Gallic origin.
Abandoning the Rhine frontier under Theodosius, the Frankish tribes were able to settle on the other bank without further fear. The Romanized Frank Arbogast, having secured the imperial dignity for one of his men, Eugenius, made his people a federate of the Empire. Stilicho followed the same path, though without achieving any effective Frankish resistance against the advancing Vandals, Alans, and Suebi. Shortly after the beginning of the 5th century, the entire region of Trier and Cologne was under Frankish control, while the movement of the Salian Franks, led by their kings Clodio and Merovech—from whom the Merovingian dynasty would take its name—gained momentum. For a brief time, Aetius reestablished the limes; but while the Ripuarian Franks were repelled, the Salian Franks remained in their settlements as federates of Rome. After Aetius, one may say that all resistance in Gaul ceased; yet it remained the most Romanized country in the West and for centuries would maintain lively, frequent relations with Italy and the defense of Roman institutions.
From the beginning of the 5th century, autonomist ferment had also become evident in Gaul. The Christianized Franks, in the frequent crises of monarchical authority, had come to regard the bishops as the sole authority and the only bond in the unstable fabric represented by the cities. After Merovech, Childeric assumed a predominant position throughout Roman Gaul. Syagrius, son of Aegidius, sought to establish an independent lordship (Gregory of Tours calls him "King of the Romans"), but after Childeric’s death, Clovis defeated and had him killed.
Clovis appears as the great builder of the Frankish monarchy. He established his seat in Paris, subdued one kingdom after another, centralizing power, and upon marrying the Catholic Burgundian princess Clotilde, converted to Catholicism, thereby, with this act, heralding the advent of a France, the eldest daughter of the Roman Church. Not much more than a century later, after the Lombards succeeded the Goths in Italy, the Franks would appear on the scene of the ancient and new center of the world, to play a role of the first magnitude.
Faithful to Rome in both institutions and the unmistakable spirit of rapprochement with the civilization that animated it, the Merovingian monarchy was a clear imitation of the Roman Empire. The monarchical power was hereditary, the royal authority was based on a military and later a landed aristocracy, and the people were divided into the three classes of freemen, semi-freemen, and slaves: the *Lex Salica* is the fundamental document for understanding Frankish institutions. Among Romans and barbarians in the new Frankish monarchy—whereas in Italy the unsuccessful attempt of Theodoric would take place—a relationship of parity was established, which became the surest guarantee of civil progress.
Heirs in this to the ancient dignity of their predecessors, the Celts, the Franks earned the esteem and respect of the Romans: if literary tradition would liken them to the Greeks for their lack of fidelity to treaties, on the other hand, hospitality was sacred among them. Of purely Germanic tradition was the foundation of their criminal law, which rested on the *faida* and on the right of blood vengeance attributed to the individual; yet, unlike the Germans, they were lovers of agriculture, particularly the cultivation of cereals, vines, and gardening. The *Lex Salica* reveals a profound respect for private property, a strong and healthy conception of the family, within which a strict solidarity operated. Frankish art, as revealed by funerary furnishings, lacked original characteristics.