Editing Quadi (section)

== After the fourth century ==
===Second letter of Saint Jerome===
[[File:Saint Jerome Writing-Caravaggio (1605-6).jpg|thumb|Saint Jerome Writing (c. 1605–1606). Oil on canvas, 112 x 157 cm (44 x 61.8 in). Galleria Borghese, Rome]]
The last contemporary mention of the Quadi as an identifiable people is in another letter by Saint Jerome from 409, but it places them far from home. He lists them first among the peoples who were occupying Gaul at that time: "Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemanni and—alas! for the commonweal!—even Pannonians".<ref>{{harvtxt|Kolník|2003|p=636}} citing Jerome's [[wikisource:Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume_VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter_123|letter 123]] to Ageruchia</ref> Scholars note that apart from the Saxons, Burgundians and Alemanni, who were already well-known near the Rhine, and the Alans who were newcomers from Ukraine who had already played an important role in the Roman military, the others appear to have been long-term neighbours from the Middle Danube area. The Vandals and Sarmatians listed next after the Quadi are generally understood to include the [[Hasdingi]] Vandals and Sarmatians who had been eastern neighbours of the Quadi for centuries.{{sfn|Wolfram|1997|p=160}} The Pannonians from within the empire were the Quadi's long-term neighbours to the south.{{sfn|Goffart|2006|pp=80-81}} The ''Cosmographia'' written by [[Julius Honorius]], and ''[[Liber Generationis]]'', indicate that the Heruli were already settled on the Danube near the Marcomanni and Quadi for some time.{{sfn|Liccardo|2024}} The [[Gepids]] had already settled somewhere near their future location in [[Dacia]] in the 3rd century, among the Quadi's eastern neighbours.{{sfn|Pohl|1998}} 

The chain of events which led to large numbers of Middle Danubian people to suddenly move west along the Danube, towards Gaul, are not well understood but several are frequently discussed.
*In 401, the poet [[Claudian]] described how [[Raetia]] was troubled by the local [[Vindelici]] there while Stilicho was preoccupied in Italy with the invasion of [[Alaric I|Alaric]], a Gothic military leader from inside the empire. According to Claudian, "the peoples (''gentes'') broken their treaties (''foedera'', implying a pact with non-Romans) and, encouraged by the news of Latium's trouble, had seized upon the glades of Vindelicia and the fields of [[Noricum]]". The text says that Stilicho's victories forces were "Vandal spoils" (''Vandalicis ... spoliis'') and so many scholars believe Vandals were involved. Furthermore, there are proposals that they included the same groups who later went to Hispania, including both Silingi and Hasdingi. This would mean that Vandals had already moved and gather near the Rhine.<ref>See for example {{harvtxt|Goffart|2006|pp=87-88}}, and {{harvtxt|Castritius|2006|pp=177,180}}, and {{harvtxt|Heather|2009|pp=173,182}} who are all citing Claudian's ''Gothic War'' ([https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0690%3Apoem%3D1 Latin], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Claudian/De_Bello_Gothico*.html#363A English]). (Some translators, including the Platnauer translation cited by Heather, assume that "Vandalicis" is intended to refer to the local Vindelici.)</ref>
*In 406, the year of the Rhine crossing of the Vandals and Alans, [[Radagaisus]], a Gothic leader from outside the empire, attacked Italy with a very large force from the Middle Danube itself. Modern scholars have proposed various connections between these events and the movement westwards of the Vandals and others.{{sfn|Goffart|2006|p=89}}

===Kingdom of the Suevi in Gallaecia===
[[File:Alan kingdom hispania.png|thumb|Hispania divided]]
{{Main|Kingdom of the Suebi}}
Many scholars believe that the Quadi listed by Jerome in 409, and perhaps most of those listed, must have previously entered Gaul in a large and coordinated [[crossing of the Rhine]] involving Vandals and Alans, which is traditionally dated to 31 December 406 AD. According to this proposal the Quadi changed their name to Suevi, never used the old name anymore, and then coordinated with the Vandals and Alans to conquer Hispania.<ref>For example, {{harvtxt|Wolfram|1997|pp=160-162}}, {{harvtxt|Goffart|2006|pp=82-83}}, {{harvtxt|Halsall|2007|pp=211}}, and {{harvtxt|Heather|2009|pp=173-174}}. For criticism of the assumption see {{harvtxt|Reynolds|1957}}.</ref>  Because of the incomplete records, scholars take different positions about the proposal that significant numbers of Quadi moved to Hispania, but Castritius, for example, believed that the ''majority'' of the Quadi became Suevi and finished up in Spain.{{sfn|Castritius|2005}} Not all scholars agree. Others propose that the Hispania Suevi were from other Suevian groups. For example, medieval historians such as [[Gregory of Tours]] understood them to be Alemanni. Reynolds proposed that the Spanish Suevi were from present-day northern Germany, and could have come by ship.{{sfn|Reynolds|1957|pp=27ff}} Some modern scholars propose that the Quadi among the Spanish Suevi lost their name because this was a mixed group which included Quadi along with other types of Suevi.{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|p=111}}

There is no record which specifically connects Quadi with the crossing of 406, but there are two near-contemporary records which imply that Suevi were involved. [[Hydatius]] says that in the autumn of 409 when the Alans, and the Hasdingi and [[Silingi]] Vandals,  entered Hispania they were together with Suevi. [[Orosius]] specified that they fought at the same crossing when the [[Franks]] attempted to defend Gaul against the Vandals. He even believed that the Suevi, Vandals, Alans and [[Burgundians]] were all part of a heretical movement driven by the Roman military leader [[Stilicho]], whose father was a Vandal officer in the Roman army, and who wanted to destabilize Gaul for his own benefit. (Such accusations against Stilicho are not accepted by modern scholars.) On this basis many scholars therefore suggest that the Quadi in Gaul must have changed their name to "Suevi".<ref>Key primary sources referred to by scholars include Orosius, [http://attalus.org/translate/orosius7B.html Book 7].</ref>

Arguing against the proposal that the Quadi changed name to Suevi and moved to Spain, Reynolds argued in 1957 that if the Suevi in Spain were Quadi, then it is inconceivable that they and others writing about them would give up and even forget this famous name after leaving Gaul. He also argued that Hydatius and Orosius are not reliable for the events involved.{{sfn|Reynolds|1957|p=21}} He noted for example that in disagreement with Hydatius, the ''[[Gallic Chronicle of 452]]'' registered the Suevi as arriving in Hispania already in 408, before the letter of Jerome, and before the Vandals and Alans.{{sfn|Reynolds|1957|p=25}} 

When the Vandals, Alans and Suevi arrived in Hispania, it was under the control of a rebel Roman general [[Gerontius (magister militum)|Gerontius]] who came to agreements with them as military allies in his struggle against Roman forces. The four groups proceeded to divide Hispania between themselves into four kingdoms, with the agreement of Gerontius. After the defeat of Gerontius, the Roman authorities rejected these agreements and the Visigoths began to work against the four kingdoms.{{sfn|Castritius|2005}}{{sfn|Reynolds|1957}} After many of the Vandals and Alans moved to Carthage, the Suevi were the last of them to hold an independent kingdom, which they succeeded to hold until 585, when the kingdom was absorbed by the Visigothic kingdom.

===The Kingdom of the "Danube Suevi"===
[[File:Pannonia03 en.png|thumb|4th-century Roman Pannonia]]
By the early 5th century the Middle Danube region had come under the domination of the Huns and their allies, and Roman power was ineffective in this region. In 427 the chronicle of [[Marcellinus Comes]] says that the provinces of Pannonia, "which had been held by the Huns for fifty years, were reclaimed by the Romans". However, in 433 [[Flavius Aëtius]] effectively ceded Pannonia to Attila.{{sfn|Castritius|2005|p=197}}

Although there is no direct contemporary evidence that the Quadi continued to exist as subjects of Attila under their old name, centuries later [[Paulus Diaconus]] listed them among the subject peoples who Attila could call upon. In addition to the better-known Goths and Gepids he listed "Marcomanni, Suebi, Quadi, and alongside them the Herules, Thuringi and Rugii". Taken at face value this implies that the Quadi might for example have been present at the [[Battle of the Catalaunian Plains]] in 451, fighting for Attila. However this is a much later source, and modern scholars especially doubt whether the Marcomanni or Quadi would still have been identified under those names in 451, because more contemporary sources never mention these names anymore in this period.<ref>{{harvtxt|Kolník|2003|p=636}} citing Paulus Diaconus, ''Historia Romana'', [https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pauldeacon/histrom14.shtml 14.2], "gentes Marcomanni, Sueui, Quadi, praeterea Eruli, Turcilingi siue Rugi"</ref>

After the death of Attila in 453 some of the smaller peoples who had lived within under his hegemony begin to appear in more records, but instead of the Marcomanni and Quadi, only Suevians appear. After the [[Battle of Nedao]] in 454, when the sons of Attila and their Ostrogothic allies were defeated, the victors were able to consolidate independent kingdoms north of the Middle Danube. The largest and longest lasting, the Gepids, was based in Dacia. To the west, north of the Danube where the Marcomanni and Quadi had been were the Rugii, Heruli, and Sciri. And on the south of that stretch of the Danube, in what used to be the northern part of Roman Pannonia Valeria, a Suevian kingdom also existed. As in the case of the Suevi in Hispania, many scholars believe that this group included Suevian peoples such as the Quadi who had previously gone by other names. [[Herwig Wolfram]] for example:{{sfn|Wolfram|1997|p=160}}
:The Marcomanni and the Quadi gave up their special names after crossing the Danube, in fact both the emigrants and the groups remaining in Pannonia became Suebi again. The Pannonian Suebi became subjects of the Huns. After the [[Battle of Nedao|battle at the Nadao]] they set up their kingdom, and when it fell, they came, successively under Herulian and Longobard rule, south of the Danube under Gothic rule, and eventually again under Longobard rule.

Writing in the 6th century, [[Jordanes]] reported a series of conflicts in the 460s between a Suevian king [[Hunimund]] and the Ostrogothic king [[Theodemir|Thiudimir]], whose people had settled within the Roman empire just to the south. In 467 or 468, Hunimund led a campaign into [[Dalmatia]]. After stealing Gothic cattle, the Suevi were attacked near [[Lake Balaton]] by Thiudimir, and Hunimund was captured. He was subsequently released from Gothic captivity after he submitted and adopted as Thiudimir's "son by arms" (''filius per arma'').{{sfn|Reimitz|2000}}{{sfn|Castritius|2005|p=198}} However, in 468 or early 469, Hunimund plotted with the Sciri and attacked the Ostrogothic king [[Valamir]]. Valamir lost his life, but the Sciri and Suevi lost the battle, and the Sciri were almost destroyed. A little later, in 469, at the [[Battle of Bolia]], Hunimund and Alaric, apparently both kings of the Suevi, called upon the Sarmatians, and the remnants of the Sciri, led by [[Edica]] and [[Hunwulf]], and also the Gepids and Rugians. However, Thiudimir and his Goths defeated these allies, confirming their position as dominant power in this region (from which they would later invade Italy under Theoderic the Great).{{sfn|Reimitz|2000}}{{sfn|Castritius|2005|p=199}} Still later during the cold winter of 469/470, Thiudimir attacked the Suevi unexpectedly by crossing the frozen Danube. The Suavi were now together in a confederation with the Alemanni, in an Alpine region with streams that flowed loudly into the Danube, [[Baiuvarii]] (early Bavarians) on the east, Franks on the west, Burgundians on the south, and Thuringians on the north. Thiudimir returned as victor to his own home in Pannonia.{{sfn|Reimitz|2000}}{{sfn|Castritius|2005|p=199}} 

It is considered likely that Hunimund and at least some of his people escaped this defeat and that he is also the person of that name who was mentioned in the biography of [[Severinus of Noricum|Saint Severinus]] of Noricum, by [[Eugippius]]. This Hunimund attacked Saint Severinus's community at [[Passau]] with "barbarians". Passau was also troubled by the Alemanni.{{sfn|Reimitz|2000}}{{sfn|Castritius|2005|p=199}} It is also likely that some of the Suevi continued to live under Gothic rule in this area. It may also be during this period that some Suevi settled south of the [[Drava]] river in a region more directly under Gothic control and known during this time as Suavia.{{sfn|Castritius|2005|p=199}}

===Allemanni, Lombards, and Bavarians and Slavs===
The alliance of Hunimund with the Allemanni has been interpreted as evidence of a new Alemannic-Suebi ethnogenesis in the second half of the 5th century, which could explain the documented use of the Suevi name to refer to the Alemanni after about 500.{{sfn|Reimitz|2000}}{{sfn|Castritius|2005|p=200}} 

Many of the Suevi who remained in the Pannonian region are believed to have taken up a Lombardic identity after the defeat of the Ostrogoths by the emperor [[Justinian]], and many may therefore have subsequently entered Italy with the Lombards.{{sfn|Castritius|2005|pp=201=202}} The region subsequently came under the control of the [[Pannonian Avars]], and it is probably during this period that [[Slavic languages]] eventually became dominant in the areas where the Quadi had lived.

The record which mentions the Suebi joining the Alemanni is also one of the first records mentioning the early [[Bavarians]], or [[Baiuvarii]], who were also living south of the Danube, to the east of the Alemanni, in what had been Roman territory. It is generally believed that their name is Germanic, and that it indicates an origin in the nearby regions to the east, which were once inhabited by the Boii. It is therefore considered very likely that the Baiuvarii included Marcomanni and Quadi.{{sfn|Hamann|1973}}