FRANKS. - The prehistory of the F. before their entry into Gaul is unknown. One can only infer an earlier settlement on the right bank of the lower Rhine; from there, King Clodion is said to have led them to the left bank, establishing the seat of his primitive government at Tournai.
The weakening of the Roman limes on the Rhine, in the middle of the 3rd century A.D., had already made it possible for the Frankish tribes to cross the river. Their new settlements were not obtained without a struggle; in 274, Aurelian put them to flight; shortly afterward, Probus likewise had his lieutenants wage war against the F.; Maximian, too, defeated them and forced them to make peace; and so did 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 unity in Gaul and Germany: having obtained the restitution of Cologne, he eliminated the groups of F. from Roman territory. A series of treaties made the defeated tribes vassals of Rome. From then on, and for about a century, one may speak of a Romano-Frankish civilization: the contribution of the F. to Roman civil and, above all, military organization was considerable. They began to infiltrate the general commands of Gallic origin.
When the Rhine frontier was abandoned under Theodosius, the Frankish tribes were able to settle on the other bank without further fear. They plundered and destroyed. The Romanized Frank Arbogast, having had his own man, Eugenius, assume the imperial dignity, made his people a federate of the Empire. Stilicho followed the same course, without, however, obtaining 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 in Frankish hands, while the movement of the Salians intensified; they were led by their king Cledion to Meroveus, from whom the Merovingian dynasty was to take its name. For a brief time, Aetius restored the limes; but, although the Ripuarian F. were driven back, the Salians remained in their settlements as federates of Rome. After Aetius, one may say that all resistance in Gaul ceased; nevertheless, it remained the most Romanized country of the West and would for centuries preserve active and frequent relations with Italy and the defense of Roman institutions.
From the beginning of the 5th century, separatist ferment had, moreover, become evident in Gaul. The F., having been Christianized, had begun, during the frequent crises of monarchical authority, to look upon the bishops as the sole authority and the sole bond within the unstable connective fabric represented by the cities. After Meroveus, Childeric assumed a preponderant position throughout Roman Gaul. Syagrius, son of Aegidius, aimed to establish an independent lordship (Gregory of Tours calls him King of the Romans); but, when Clovis succeeded Childeric, Syagrius was defeated and put to death.
Clovis appears as the great founder of the Frankish monarchy. He established his seat at Paris, successively subjected the kingdoms to his power, making it centralized, and, having married the Catholic Burgundian princess Clotilde, converted to Catholicism, marking by his act the advent of a France, eldest daughter of the Roman Church. Little more than a century would pass before, after the Lombards succeeded the Goths in Italy, the F. would appear on the stage of the ancient and modern center of the world, and then exercise there a role of the first importance.
Faithful to Rome in its institutions as well as in the unquestionable spirit of attachment to the civilization animated by it, the Merovingian monarchy was an evident imitation of the Roman Empire. With monarchical power hereditary, royal power founded upon a military and subsequently landed aristocracy, and the people divided into the three classes of free men, semi-free men, and slaves, the lex Salica is the fundamental document for knowledge of Frankish institutions. Between Romans and barbarians, in the new Frankish monarchy—whereas in Italy Theodoric’s unsuccessful attempt would be made—a relationship of equality was established, becoming the surest guarantee of civil progress.
Heirs in this respect to the ancient dignity of their Celtic predecessors, the F. won the unanimous esteem and respect of the Romans. Although literary tradition would make them akin to the Greeks because of their lack of fidelity to agreements, among them the guest was, on the other hand, sacred. The foundation of their criminal law was of purely Germanic tradition, consisting in the faide and in the praetium sanguinis, attributed to the person; yet, unlike the Germans, they were lovers of agriculture, particularly the cultivation of cereals and vines, and gardening. The respect for private property shines through profoundly in the lex Salica; the conception of the family, within which close solidarity operated, was strong and sound. Frankish art, as revealed by tomb furnishings, was devoid of original characteristics.
BIBLI: W. Junghans, Gesch. der fröhlichen Könige Childerich u. Chlodowsch, Gottings 1857; F. Dahn, Die Könige der Germanen: Die Franken, Lipsis 1861; C. Binding, Das burgundisch-romantische Königreich, 1st 1868; H. Sybel, Entstehung d. deutschen Königstums, Berlino 1884; G. Kurth, Histoire poétique des Mérovingiens, Parigi 1893; N. D. Fustel de Coulanges, Les origines de l'ancienne France. I: L'invasion germanique, Parigi 1911; J. Schmans, Geschichte u. Herkunft der alten Franken, Bambergs 1912; A. Dopsch, Wirtschaftliche u. soziale Grundlage der europ. Kulturentwicklung, Vienna 1918; L. Schmidt, Gesch. der deutsche Stimme bis zum Ausgauge der Völkerwanderung, Berlino 1918; N. Aberg, Die F. u. Westgoten in der Völkerwanderungszeit, Uppsala 1922. Pier Fausto Palumbo