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Topic: Wogastisburg, Battle of

Wogastisburg, Battle of

Years: 631 - 632

According to the contemporary Chronicle of Fredegar, the Battle of Wogastisburg (also called the siege of Wogastisburg) took place between Slavs (Sclav, cognomento Winidi) under King Samo and Franks under King Dagobert I in 631 or 632. The Frankish armies advanced into the area of the Slavic tribal union in three groups - Alamanni, Lombards, and Austrasian Franks. The first two were quite successful, but the main fighting force was defeated in a three-day siege near a place referred to as Wogastisburg.

The location of the siege has not been determined because the primary source, Fredegar's chronicle, gives no geographical specifications. Several places claim to be connected with the battle (usually based on linguistic parallels and some excavations), for example Rubín hill near Podbořany (Bohemia), Úhošť hill near Kadaň (Bohemia), Bratislava (Slovakia), Trenčín (Slovakia), Beckov (Slovakia), Váh river near Voga (Slovakia), Staffelberg near Bad Staffelstein (Upper Franconia), and Burk near Forchheim (Upper Franconia), Vienna, Augustianis.

In fact, there is no conclusive evidence for any of these locations and it is even possible that the term Wogastisburg referred only to a kind of temporary encampment rather than a permanent settlement, in which case establishing a definite location would be impossible.

"{Readers} take infinitely more pleasure in knowing the variety of incidents that are contained in them, without ever thinking of imitating them, believing the imitation not only difficult, but impossible: as if heaven, the sun, the elements, and men should have changed the order of their motions and power, from what they were anciently"

― Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (1517)