# Merogais > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Merogais > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Merogais.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merogais > Source revision: 1277695871 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Fourth-century Frankish king}} '''Merogais''' ({{langx|la|Merogaisus}}, {{langx|fr|Ragaise}}) was an early [Frankish king](/source/List_of_Frankish_kings), who, along with his co-ruler [Ascaric](/source/Ascaric), is the earliest Frankish ruler known. He was an enemy of the [Roman Empire](/source/Roman_Empire). Merogais is mentioned in the ''[Panegyrici latini](/source/Panegyrici_latini)'' (anonymous VI and VII) and by [Eutropius](/source/Eutropius_(historian)) and [Eumenius](/source/Eumenius). The very existence of Merogais depends on the manuscript reading of [Johann Kaspar Zeuss](/source/Johann_Kaspar_Zeuss). The sentence which names the two kings begins with ''Asacari'' or ''Assaccari'' in all manuscripts, but it ends with the corrupt forms ''cinere gaisique'', ''cumero geasique'', ''cymero craisique'', and ''cymero caisique''. Zeuss reads those sentences as ending respectively ''cum Neregaisique'', ''cum Merogeasique'', ''cum Merocraisique'', and ''cum Merocaisique'', each meaning as "and with Merogais". thumb|right|Trier amphitheatre in which Ascaric was executed In 306 he and Ascaric led a Frankish raid across the [Rhine](/source/Rhine) into southern [Gaul](/source/Gaul) while [Constantine the Great](/source/Constantine_the_Great) was campaigning against the [Picts](/source/Picts) in [Britannia](/source/Britannia). Apparently the two had made a previous agreement with Rome not to cross the border, since Constantine sought to punish them as traitors upon his return. The two chieftains were defeated, captured, and executed "for their past crimes", an act which "bound with fear the slippery loyalty of the whole race," according to one of the emperor's anonymous panegyrists. The execution took place in one of the chief cities of Gaul, probably [Trier](/source/Trier), and the two Franks and their followers were torn apart by animals in the [amphitheatre](/source/amphitheatre) before a large crowd. Their defeat was followed by the subjection of the [Bructeri](/source/Bructeri). ==References== *Howorth, Henry H. (1884). "The Ethnology of Germany: Part VI. The Varini, Varangians, and Franks, Section II". ''The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', '''13''':213–237. *[Landriot, Jean-François-Anne](/source/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois-Anne_Landriot), and Rochet, Benoît Joseph (1854). ''Traduction des discours d'Eumène: accompagnée du texte''. Autun: Michel Dejussieu et Louis Villedry. *Long, Jacqueline (1996). ''Claudian's ''[In Eutropium](/source/In_Eutropium)'': Or, How, When, and Why to Slander a Eunuch''. Chapel Hill: UNC Press. {{ISBN|0-8078-2263-9}}. Category:306 deaths Category:Frankish kings Category:Frankish warriors Category:4th-century Frankish people Category:4th-century monarchs in Europe Category:Year of birth unknown Category:European people whose existence is disputed --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Merogais](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merogais) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merogais?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.