The Vangiones appear first in history as an ancient Germanic tribe of unknown provenance. They threw in their lot with Ariovistus in his bid of 58 BC to invade Gaul through the Doubs river valley and lost to Julius Caesar in a battle probably near Belfort. After some Celts evacuated the region in fear of the Suebi, the Vangiones, who had made a Roman peace, were allowed to settle among the Mediomatrici in northern Alsace. (Metz however is now in Lorraine). They gradually assumed control of the Celtic city of Burbetomagus, later Worms.
The emperor Augustus cultivated them as allies, intending to invade Germany through the region between the Rhine and the Danube. He had Drusus place two forts among the Vangiones, castrum Moguntiacum (13 BC, later Mainz) and one of unknown name (14 BC) at Worms.[1] From there troops of the Vangiones were inducted into the Roman army. When he changed his mind after the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, the Vangiones were used for garrison duty on the far-flung northern frontier of the province of Britannia, Hadrian's Wall.
The Vangiones of Germania Superior held their position as a bulwark of civilized might as long as Germania Superior existed. Under the Roman Republic they were not among the Belgae, an alliance of Celticised Germanic tribes in northeastern France. In the early empire this name was extended by the Romans to all the Celticised Germans in northern France (the forerunners of the Franks), among whom were now the Vangiones.
In the late empire what was left of Germania Superior was divided into "First Germany" and "Second Germany", the first comprising the Vangiones, Worms and Mainz. The identity disappeared nearly altogether when the region was overrun by the Alemanni and became Alisatia.[2] The Vangiones then merged into the Alemanni. Only names local to Worms remembered the presence of the Vangiones, such as the Bishop of the Vangiones. The fate of the Vangionic troops in Britain is uncertain. Some may have remained as a Scottish tribe (see under Moguns), but that hypothesis is more speculative than not.
- ^ The city under the Romans was named Vangiones (see under Ammianus Marcellinus in this article), which follows one Roman convention of naming a city after the tribe residing there. Grässe refers to Augusta Vangionum as an alternative name of the city, which would be short for colonia Augusta Vangionum. Grässe was reporting on the Latin names of cities in early printed books. The name is not anciently attested, or whether Worms too was a military colony. Dozens of colonies are attested, however, so it is possible that the name is genuinely ancient but was not mentioned by surviving ancient literature.
- ^ The meaning of "the other bank" has of course changed over the centuries. Originally the Alamanni placed settlers in the entire north/south stretch of the left bank. Today the southern portion has been broken out as Lorraine (a Frankish development) and Mainz is considered part of the Rhineland and not Alsace.