Secret History X

Pamela  Mon Cheri,

Regarding your inquiry about the Identity of Pharamond…modern researchers, as indeed the researchers of the late middle ages, continue to be puzzled by the identity of Pharamond, King of the Franks. We many never known with certainty the identity of this individual who may end up being just another unidentified allele in modern DNA testing. However, I hope that future findings may allow us to identify with certainty the genetic links of the Frankish people and if Pharamond proves to be a false insertion to legitimize the Frankish Dynasty I would hope that those future findings will allow us to put him in his proper place. Meantime, the researchers with whom I am associated have issued the following statement.

After researching carefully it is my belief that Pharamond did exist however his attachment to the Merovingian house as the supposed parent ancestor of the Merovingian kings is not correct. It is believed by me and some of the researchers with whom I work that the grafting of Pharamond onto the Frankish tree represents a legitimization of the Frankish kings in the face of a failing empire. The sources to identify Pharamond as a Frank are very sparse, circumstantial, and greatly mythologized. The main source is Marcellus Ammianus who wrote mainly about the Romano/Person conflict in Albania and its effect on the migrating populations of the 3rd century (Alans, Heathobard, Suevians, and various tribes of Franks). – Project DFA

The region of Varangia (Dacio/Geatland) near and around the Black sea seems to have been the origin, or at least the prolonged interim settlement, of the Frankish people prior to their migration to the north west (toward Germania). The migration happened in stages with the Frankish peoples being  subdivided into various sub-tribes or clans. Prior to the migration various of these groups came under subjugation of alternately the Roman or Persian empire as political events shifted. Ammianus Marcelinus recorded the events of this conflict as the unfolded in Germania at a time when Rome was in the process of regaining some of its former territories, that had been previously lost to the Persian Empire. Some of the participants in the events mentioned by Ammianus such as Pharamond, an earlier Merovek, Nannianus, Tonantius Ferreolus , and possibly even Clodius I represent an Eastern European faction vs a West European faction. These people familiar to western sources as early political leaders of the Franks can also be found mentioned in the histories of the local dynasties and satrapies of Persia as they transitioned to Roman rule.

While there is no good reference for a Frankish king named Pharamond, there are some reliable Byzantine references to a Paranzemund, who was a Roman Foederatus and deposed prince of Eastern Albania whose family relations, life and exploits mesh perfectly with the known details of Pharamond as a leader of a Frankish people during their migratory phase.  If, as I  believe, these individuals represent local Generals, deposed Satraps, and Regional Governors or Dux Romani who later became Rex Populi, then the large distance traveled would not have been an issue since it is historically proven that both the Persian and Roman Military machine had great mobility in the provences from east to west, north to south, during this era of the Empire.

According to the eastern references, Paranzemund was the son of Valinak Syak [Sunno the Frank], and was a deposed Tocharian Prince and uncle of young King Papes of Armenia [brother to Pape's mother Parandzem] who was stationed by Theodoric to guard the “Northern Islands” [Thule/Orcades]. As a young man in 360 CE, he was a veteran of the Olympic games in (Olibrium) where he won as a pugilist (boxer). Parandzem and Paranzemund were both members of the Parthian house of Mihra/Mervan.

I, and the other researchers at Project DFA,  recommend expanding the search for Pharamond and his family (antecedents and immediate posterity) to include records kept by the Persian Empire and Eastern Roman sources.

Votre Ami,

Almoustine

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