Aventinus 21

Johannes Turmayr's 1520 History of Bavaria, Chapter 21 - translated and annotated by Ras Feqade, AD 2020.

* Previous Chapter: Aventinus 20
* Next Chapter: Aventinus 22
* (To Table of Contents)

## 21. Of King Mann's sons, how the city Trier and other cities were built in the Rhineland, of the Rhine Palatinate.

The old Germans gave King Mann three sons: **Treiber**, **Nerus**, and **Eingeb**, as in our language called in Dutch Triver, Neruis, and Ingeph.

[This chapter mainly describes Treiber and Nerus, as Eingeb or Ingevone is the eldest who succeeded to Mannus' throne.

In the *German Chronicle* written by Aventinus, he provides the following details on another son of King Mannus, named Herman:

"*Maeon Priscus died, who at that time held Asia Minor... and called it Maeonia by him. But when those on the Danube, the Phryges, Mysi, and Bithyni, had heard of this departure and death, they sailed from Europe into Asia with the captain Herman, a son of Mannus, and seizing Maeonia, there built a powerful empire, Bithynia on the sea, greater and lesser Phrygia, greater and lesser Mysia. But this happened in Asia and Europe in the 40th year of the rule of Semiramis, and in the 34th year of the second German king Mannus; according to the Jews, that was the 50th year of Abraham, but from the creation of the world 2000... After that, over 10 years, that is in the 60th year of Abraham, the grandfather Noah left this world, that was 350 years after the flood; 8 years before that the above mentioned Sabathius died."*

These are Moesian tribes associated with Meshech and his son Brigus, commanded by Herman, son of Mannus. On the passing of king Maeon the ancient, who is surely the same as Lud son of Shem, these tribes seized the territory of Bithynia, if not all Asia Minor. The 34th year of Mannus and 40th of Semiramis indicates this seizure of Bithynia took place in 2214 BC. Janus II passed away in 2203 BC, and Sebtah eight years before him, in 2211 BC, but this was still a little before Abram was born in Ur, which was mis-syncronized by Jerome.]

Treiber built the city of Trier, where he built a large palace, and many more in other cities on the Rhine and the Moselle, namely Metz and Mainz, Basel in Sunkau, Strasburg, Speier and Worms in the Vongau and Neumetz region, called now the Palatinate on the Rhine, in the common name Trier after him, up to the Rhine and Cologne.

Nerus or Neruis settled in the Netherlands, where now is the bishopric of Lüddig, and county of Hainaut, that was called after him Neruser or Neruiser country before the birth of Christ; they had made great resistance against Julius, the first Caesar, now it has belonged to our noble lords, the princes of Bavaria, for almost fifty years. These aforementioned peoples, the Trier and Neruiser, as Cornelius Tacitus indicated, long ago expressed a great deal about their coming, wanting to be the first Germans, as the common saying is still today (I also heard it openly in the church sermons), Trier was the first city in German lands, where it was the first to speak German.

Quite a few Latin authors write that Treiber is a son of the above mentioned Ninus, the third Babilonian king, or that Treiber is a son of Herus. The old books are written in such a way that they cannot now be read, even inexperienced and unreadable people soon err and loosely, have no right reason and understanding, can neither act on it nor from it; sometimes they take a name they know best, for the other one that is unknown. Accordingly, sometimes in the old books it is said that Treiber was a son of Manus, and Nerus, they could not read it, did not understand a bit, it was a strange name: they read for Mannus (unfamiliar) Ninus (familiar), and for Nerus Herus, an H for N...

[The regions west of the Rhine, where Treiber and Nerus led migrations, had earlier been consigned to Tuiscon from 2389 to 2248 BC (per Antoine Couillard), but had since been within the realm of Samothea, ruled after 2206 BC by Sarron. Two of the cities associated here with Treiber, namely Speier and Worms, were first known by names ending in -magus, Noviomagus and Borbetomagus respectively. Place names ending in -magus are thought to indicate the geographic extent of the realm of Sarron's predecessor Magus, and extend right up to the west bank of the Rhine; we may thus deduce that Speier and Worms, aside from Mainz (Mogontiacum) had already been established as frontier fortifications by Magus, before they were seized by the German prince Treiber in the reign of Sarron. Some time later Sarron (per Forcatulus) accepted the Seine as his new frontier with the Germans, indicating the expansion of Neruis into the regions between the Seine and Rhine.

The rest of this chapter goes on in a similar vein, sparse on any detailed data.]