ÿþ<html> <head> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0"> <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <title>O. Pritsak, Slavs and Avars - 2</title> <style> <!-- p.MsoPlainText {margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Courier New"; margin-left:0pt; margin-right:0pt; margin-top:0pt} --> </style> </head> <body> <p class="MsoPlainText" align="left"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-weight:700"><font size="4">The Slavs and the Avars</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" align="left"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-weight:700"><font size="3">Omeljan Pritsak</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> &nbsp;</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoPlainText"><b> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">II.</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><b> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></b></p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="3"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-style: italic"> <a href="#2_1" style="text-decoration: none">__1_</a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="3"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-style: italic"> <a href="#2_3" style="text-decoration: none">__3_</a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="3"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-style: italic"> <a href="#2_4" style="text-decoration: none">__4_</a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="3"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-style: italic"> <a href="#2_5" style="text-decoration: none">__5_</a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="3"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-style: italic"> <a href="#2_6" style="text-decoration: none">__6_</a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="3"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-style: italic"> <a href="#2_7" style="text-decoration: none">__7_</a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="3"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-style: italic"> <a href="#2_8" style="text-decoration: none">__8_</a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="3"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-style: italic"> <a href="#2_9" style="text-decoration: none">__9_</a></span></font></p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoPlainText">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><b> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"><a name="2_1">1</a>.</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">The name «Slav» appears in the Byzantine cultural sphere shortly after 550 in works written in Greek, Syriac, and Latin by both professional and amateur historians.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">366</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">It refers to a new group of barbarian warriors roaming to the north of the Danube limes, approximately from Sirmium to the Danube delta, and frequently crossing into Byzantine territory.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Two professional historians dealing with contemporary matters, the secular author Procopius (d. ca. 572) who wrote in Greek, and Bishop John of Ephesus (d. 586) who wrote in Syriac [<a href="#34">34</a>], spoke of a new group of barbarians called </font> </span> <span lang="EL" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"> <font size="3">£º»±²·½-¿¹</font></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> or <i>&#39;sqlwyn-w</i> (<i>esqlawin-k</i>).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Both in Procopius&#39;s «History of the Wars» and «Anecdota», the </font> </span> <span lang="EL" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"> <font size="3">£º»±²·½¿¹</font></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> are first mentioned under the year 531, at the beginning of the rule of Emperor Justinian I (527-565) <a href="#35">[35]</a>. They appear along with two other groups of barbarians in two orders:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> &nbsp;</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">«History» : </font> </span> <span lang="EL" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">ŸV½½¿¹</font></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">, </font> </span> <span lang="EL" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> ½Ä±¹ </font></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> <a href="#36">[36]</a>, </font> </span> <span lang="EL" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"> <font size="3">£º»±²·½¿w </font></span> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"><a href="#37">[37]</a>,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">«History», «Anecdota» : </font> </span> <span lang="EL" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"> <font size="3">ŸV½½¿¹, £º»±²·½¿w, ½Ä±¹ <a href="#38">[3</a></font></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"><a href="#38">8]</a>.</font></span></p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoPlainText"> &nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">An amateur, or at least unsystematic historian, who wrote in Latin rather than in Greek, was Jordanes from Moesia, a pro-Roman Ostrogoth. In 551 he wrote two works, probably in Ravenna: a <i>gesta</i>-type of barbarian «national» story under the title «De origine actibusque Getarum» (commonly referred to as «Getica»), and an</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="34">34</a></b>) John&#39;s three-volume <i>Ecclesiastical History</i>, is said to have covered events from 44 to 584, but only the last volume, starting in 575, has survived. See Nina Viktorovna Pigulevskaja, <i>Sirijskie isto niki po istorii narodov SSSR</i>, Moscow-Leningrad 1941.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="35">35</a></b>) For the moment I am excepting an episode involving the Gothic Heruli in an area outside the Byzantine sphere, which scholars date to about 512, see vol. 3, p. 414 of the Loeb Classical Library edition of Procopius by H. B. Dewing (Cambridge, Mass. 1924 [reprint 1968]), but will return to it below in section IV.5.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="36">36</a></b>) One passage in the <i>History</i> says that the Antai first crossed the Ister (Danube) and arrived in the vicinity of Naissus (Nia) during the reign of Justinian I (518-527), ed. Dewing, vol. 5, p. 38.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="37">37</a></b>) <i>History</i>, ed. Dewing, vol. 4, p. 262; hereafter this edition will cited imply by volume and page-number.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="38">38</a></b>) <i>History</i>, vol. 3, p. 252; <i>Anecdota</i>, vol. 6, pp. 216, 268.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">367</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">outline of Roman history known as «Romana». He ended the latter work with a statement that his goal had been to relate Roman history proper and not to digress to discuss the activities of three latter-day groups of barbarians, whom he lists in the same order as Procopius did in his «History»: <i>Bulgares, Antes, Slaveni</i> <a href="#39">[39]</a>. This means that Jordanes was the first to identify the Bulgars correctly as Huns; it shows him as a reliable observer of contemporary events and relationships.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">The professional historians of the time mentioned the barbarians only in connection with events along the Danube limes. Jordanes, however, is praised by modern scholarship for providing detailed topographical data about otherwise unknown regions that confirm a tripartite division of the Slavs at that time. His information has been considered invaluable, and has been viewed as a solid basis for classifying the ethnic and linguistic groups of Slavs of the mid-sixth century in the following way:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">1) <i>Venethi</i> as Northern and Western Slavs;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">2) <i>Sclaveni</i> as Southern Slavs;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">3) <i>Antes</i> as Eastern Slavs.</font></span></p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">But let us consult the original text of the «Getica» <a href="#40">[40]</a>:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="4" width="70%" id="AutoNumber1"> <tr> <td width="50%"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">34. iuxta quorum sinistruin</font></span></td> <td width="50%"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">... near their left ridge [of the Alps,</font></span></td> </tr> </table> </center> </div> <p class="MsoPlainText"> &nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="39">39</a></b>) <i>Romana</i>, ed. Theodor Mommsen, <i>MGH AA</i>, vol. 5 : 1, Berlin 1882, p. 338.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="40">40</a></b>) These passages are to be found on pages 136 and 150 of the edition by Elena eslavovna Skr~inskaja, <i>Iordan. O proisxo~denii i dejanijax getov</i>, Moscow 1960. Note that Jordanes, in dealing with non-Romans, uses terms denoting three levels of organization, though he is not always consistent (see Skr~inskaja&#39;s commentary, p. 254, note 313, and p. 256, note 316): <i>populus</i>, <i>gens</i>, and <i> natio</i>. The highest unit I translate as «people», the intermediate is «tribe» or «kind», and the smallest group is then «band», although the term seems strange in view of other uses of <i>natio</i> by other writers and in other ages. Yet this translation is also justified for </font> </span> <span lang="EL" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">ѽ¿Â</font></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2"> in Procopius and some other Greek writers, as will become apparent in subsequent sections of this discussion.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">368</font><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="5" width="70%" id="AutoNumber2"> <tr> <td width="50%"> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">latus, qui in aquilone</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">vergit, ab ortu</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Vistulae fluminis</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">per immensa spatia</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Venetharum natio populosa consedit,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">quorum nomina licet nunc per</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">varias familias et loca mutentur,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">principaliter tamen</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Sclaveni et Antes nominantur.</font></span></p> </td> <td width="50%"> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">i.e. Carpathians] which inclines toward the</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">north, and beginning at the source of</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">the Vistula river, the populous</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">band (<i>natio</i>) of the Venethi are</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">settled throughout a great expanse of land.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Though their names are now dispersed</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">amid various clans (<i>familiae</i>) and places</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">they are, nonetheless, chiefly</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">called Sclaveni and Antes.</font></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="50%"> <p class="MsoPlainText"> &nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">35. Sclaveni a civitate</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Novietunense et laco qui appellatur</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Mursiano usque ad Danastrum et in</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">boream Viscla tenus commorantur:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">hi paludes silvasque</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">pro civitatibus habent.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Antes vero, qui sunt eorum</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">fortissimi, qua Ponticum mare</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">curvatur, a Danastro extenduntur</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">usque ad Danaprum, quae flumina</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">multis mansionibus ad invicem absunt.</font></span></p> </td> <td width="50%"> <p class="MsoPlainText"> &nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">The Sclaveni dwell from the city (<i>civitas</i>)</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">of Noviotunum and the lake called</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Mursianns to the Dniester and</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">northwards as far as the Vistula:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">they have swamps and forests</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">for cities (<i>civitas</i>).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">The Antes, who are the bravest of those</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">[bands dwelling] in the curve of the</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Sea of Pontus (Black Sea) extend from</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">the Dniester to the Dniepr, rivers</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">which are many days&#39; journey apart.</font></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="50%"> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">119. ... Nam hi, ut in initio</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">expositionis vel catalogo</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">gentium dicere coepimus, ab</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">una stirpe exorti,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">tria nunc nomina ediderunt, id</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">est Venethi, Antes, Sclaveni;</font></span></p> </td> <td width="50%"> <p class="MsoPlainText"> &nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Now these [bands] - as we started</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">to say at the beginning of our</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">account or catalogue of tribes  </font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">being off-shoots of one origin,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">now have three names, that</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">is, Venethi, Antes and Sclaveni.</font></span></p> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </div> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">369</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="5" width="70%" id="AutoNumber3"> <tr> <td width="50%"> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">qui quamvis nunc,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">ita facientibus,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">peccatis nostris ubique deseviunt,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">tamen tunc omnes Hermanarici</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">imperiis servierunt.</font></span></p> </td> <td width="50%"> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Though they now rage</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">far and wide [?in war]</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">because of our sins,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">yet at that time they were all obedient</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">to Hermanarich&#39;s commands.</font></span></p> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </div> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Unfortunately, this<i> locus classicus</i> for Slavic history and historical philology has never been subjected to critical analysis. Nineteenth-century scholars found the tripartite division of the Slavs into Southern, Eastern, and Western groups self-evident, natural, and probably therefore ancient. Jordanes was therefore read as confirming the obvious, and the quotation passed from book to book <a href="#41">[41]</a>. Slavists have been so pleased that a mid-sixth century author provided apparently unambiguous insider&#39;s information about the northern barbarians of his time that they failed to scrutinize the text with the rigor that good scholarly method requires.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; font-weight:700"><font size="3"> <a name="2_3">3</a>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">According to Jordanes&#39;s own words, section 119 is merely a recapitulation of the catalogue of tribes he had already presented in sections 34 and 35. Therefore there is no reason to regard it as a self-sufficient contemporary statement about three branches of the Slavic people. We need, rather, to look closely at the two earlier, introductory passages in Jordanes.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="41">41</a></b>) For a typical example, see the authoritative 1954 textbook <i>Przegld i charakterystyka jzyków sBowiaDskich</i>, by T. Lehr-Splawinski, W. Kubaszkiewicz, and F. Slawski, three of the most important Polish Slavists in our century, pp. 19-20.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">370</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><b> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"><a name="2_4">4</a>.</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">It is important to understand Jordanes&#39;s aims and the structure of the introductory part of his «Getica».</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Jordanes, let me repeat, was not a fully professional historian. His work is poorly organized. Not only can we see various seams where he has patched together information from different sources, but the basic exposition is full of insertions, disgressions and associations.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Jordanes, as he tells us in his introduction, used four types of sources, three of them not known from other surviving writings. His major source was the twelve-book «Historica Gothica» by the Roman senator Cassiodorus (490-585), which has survived only in Jordane&#39;s meager abridgement. Second was the lost Gothic history by the otherwise unknown Ablavius (<i>descriptor Gothorum gentis</i>, § 28), which Jordanes used for information about events of the second and third centuries, C.E., and third was Gothic popular tradition. His fourth source was works by Greek and Roman authors, both classical (pagan) and Christian; here we can check to see how he used them.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Jordanes&#39;s identifications of places and peoples are often innacurate. From the beginning, he equated his main heroes, the Germanic Goths, with the ancient Getae, a people said to be of Thracian origin, akin to the Daci. This association led him to posit as the second habitat of the Goths the area which was in fact the land of the Getae, namely Moesia, Thracia and Dacia. This confusion probably was fostered by the fact that the Ostrogoths, although at a much later time (433-471), had lived in Roman Pannonia as <i>foederati</i> of the empire.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Jordanes then mingled the Gothic popular traditions with classical sources about the Getae, and thus was able</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">371</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">to view the Gothic kings as companions to Getic philosophers who were known from Greek literature. With this approach, Jordanes envisioned a high cultural niveau for his ancestors. But in «restoring» the alleged Getic past of the Goths, Jordanes made several chronological blunders, especially in his catalogue of learned Getae. Thus he fused a Zeuta who was alive in 424 B.C.E. with another who died in 383 B.C.E. into a putative Zeuta he pictured as a contemporary of Dicineus (whom Strabo places in the first century B.C.E.) and presents the two as predecessors of Zalmoxis, a learned Getic slave of Pythagoras. But that famous Greek philosopher belonged to a much earlier period, about 530 B.C.E. <a href="#42">[42]</a>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">An assiduous reader, Jordanes picked up names from different sources without realizing just what they referred to. For instance, in his list of Greek colonies on the northern shores of the Black Sea, he equates Olbia, located on the Borysthenes River (i.e., the Dnieper), with a «Borysthenide» (§ 32), which simply did not exist <a href="#43">[43]</a>. The Dniester becomes two separate rivers, «Tyra, Danaster» (§ 30). The Olt, an important tributary of the Danube, is once called Aluta (§ 30) but reappers as <i>flu</i>[<i>men</i>] <i>Tausis</i> (§ 136) <a href="#44">[44]</a>. Jordanes&#39;s knowledge of the geography of the regions beyond the Mediterranean was not always accurate; his list of Greek colonies on the northern shores of the Black Sea included the Anatolian trading center of Trebizond (§ 32); he was probably misled by the existence of the Crimean mountain range with a similar</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="42">42</a></b>) Herodotus, <i>Historiae</i>, IV.95.1-3. According to classical authors, Zalmoxis was the god of the Getae, not merely a human.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="43">43</a></b>) See Henryk AowmiaDski, «Scytia», <i>SBownik staro~ytno[ci sBowiaDskich</i>, vol. 5, Warsaw 1975, p. 115. (This encyclopedia will henceforth be cited as <i>SSS</i>).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="44">44</a></b>) Friedrich Westberg, <i>Zur Wanderung der Langobarden (Zapiski Imp. Akademii Nauk</i>, 8 ser., vol. 6 : 5; St. Peterburg 1904), p. 11; C. Diculescu, <i>Die Gepiden</i>, Leipzig 1922, p. 73.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">372</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">name <a href="#45">[45]</a>. It is clear that Jordanes must have misinterpreted his written sources. For instance, the «Chorography» of Pomponius Mela (<i>fl</i>. 44 C.E.) contains the river name Hypanis (Boh, Southern Bug) and the tribal name Callipidi <a href="#46">[46]</a>; Jordanes records both as names of alleged Black Sea cities (§§ 32, 46).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Jordanes was inconsistent even in dealing with the names for the Danube. Although he was clearly aware that the names Ister and Danubius referred to one river (§§ 32, 75, 114), he still uses Ister in its original Thracian sense, i.e., to designate the Danube from the confluence of the Sava and Tisza to the Black Sea (§§ 30, 33). Not uncommonly Jordanes, compiling information from different sources, places names side by side and sometimes uses several variants of the same name interchangeably, e.g., <i>Vistula</i> and <i>Viscla</i>; <i>Mursianus lacus</i> and <i>Morsianus stagnus</i>; <i>Alani, Halani </i>and <i>Spali</i> <a href="#47">[47]</a>; <i> Sadagarii</i> and <i>Sadagis</i>; <i>Araxes</i> and <i>Abraxes</i>, and the like.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><b> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"><a name="2_5">5</a>.</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">A full critical analysis of the «Gethica» as a source would be out of place here, but it is important to look carefully at the first thirty-eight paragraphs in order to place the <i>locus classicus</i> concerning the Slavs in the context of the larger system, such as it is. Here is an outline, with some comments:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">1) Author&#39;s preface (§§ 1-3), which is irrelevant for the present analysis.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="45">45</a></b>) As suggested by H. AowmiaDski, <i>SSS</i>, 5 (1975), pp. 354-355.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="46">46</a></b>) Mela, <i> Chorogr</i>. II.7 is taken from Herodotus, IV. 17.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="47">47</a></b>) Concerning the identification <i>Alani = Spali</i>, see Francis Dvornik, <i>The making of Central and Eastern Europe</i>, London 1949, pp. 279-280, and H. AowmiaDski, «Spalowie», <i>SSS</i>, 5 (1975), pp. 354-355.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">373</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">2) Division of the earth into a tripartite continent (Asia, Europe, Africa) and an ocean with islands; here Jordanes acknowledges the authority of Paulus Orosius (ca. 380-420) as a source (§ 4).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">3) Information on islands, both generic (e.g., the «Cyclades» and «Sporades») and specific (e.g., Orcades, Thyle [probably Ireland], and Skandza [Scandinavia] (§§ 5-9). Main sources are Claudius Ptolemy (d. after 151), Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.E.), Titus Livy (59 B.C.E.-17 C.E.), Tacitus (55-120), and Dio Cassius (155-240) (§§ 10-15).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">4) Topography and geography of the island of Skandza. Following Ptolemy, Jordanes locates it opposite the Vistula river. He quotes Pomponius Mela and Ptolemy (§§ 16-19).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">5) Anthropological data on Skandza. The only source Jordanes quotes here is Ptolemy, <i>Geogr</i>. II.11.33-35. But while Ptolemy knew of only seven Scandinavian peoples, Jordanes presents fresh and correct information which must come from Ablavius or oral tradition or both: his list contains about thirty Old Scandinavian tribal groups (§§ 20-24a).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">6) Digression about the fate of the king of Heruli, Roduulf (d. 494), which was apparently taken from the «History» of Procopius or a common source (§ 24 bis) <a href="#48">[48]</a>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">7) Very important and highly original is Jordanes&#39;s historiosophical concept of <i> officina gentium</i> &#39;the factory of tribes&#39; and <i>vagina nationum</i> &#39;the vagina of bands&#39; (i.e. the starting point for the planned migration of no-</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> &nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="48">48</a></b>) See Procopius, <i>History</i>, vol. 3, pp. 404, 406.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">374</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">mads of the sea) and its identification with Skandinavia (Skandza). The story of the initial migration of the first Gothic king, Berig, to the Vistula Delta (<i>Gothiscandza</i>), is apparently taken from oral tradition (§§ 25-26).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">8) Next follows the migration of Filimer (the fifth successor of Berig) to the northern shores of the Black Sea, in Gothic called <i>Oium</i> (lit. «bei den Auen», i.e. «Mesopotamia»), that is, the curved shores between the Dniester and the Dnieper, and his victorious encounter with the [Alanic] Spali. Ablavius is named as an authoritative source, but epic songs were probably also used (§§ 26 <i>bis</i>-28). The author also polemicizes with Josephus Flavius (37-95) about the relations between the Goths, the Scythians, and the biblical figure of Magog (§ 29) <a href="#49">[49]</a>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">9) The topographical and geographical description of Scythia that follows (§§ 30-38) requires more detailed treatment. Here one must keep in mind that Jordanes&#39;s goal was to set down the history of the Goths; Scythia and its geography were of interest to him only because the Goths once lived there, after they had left the island of Skandza. It is important as a major stop during the long journey of the Goths. What Jordanes wanted to do first was to present the frontiers of Scythia as clearly as possible. Therefore, he delineated points of orientation first as viewed from the south (as did classical maps and both Christian and Arabic early medieval maps) and then from the northern perspective. From time to time he inserted associations, digressions, and glosses, but his data are always primarily concerned with Gothic affaires.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">We must also keep in mind the relative chronology of</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="49">49</a></b>) On these polemics see Pritsak, <i>The Origin of Rus&#39;</i>, vol. 1, p. 527.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">375</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">major events in Gothic history which Jordanes sets up (§ 38):</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><i> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">a)</font></span></i><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> Preparatory migration from Skandza to Gothiskandza;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><i> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">b)</font></span></i><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> The migration to the Ukrainian Mesopotamia (<i>Oium</i>);</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><i> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">c)</font></span></i><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> The shift to the commercially important region around the Azov Sea (<i>iuxta Paludum Meotidem</i>) which he called the «first habitat» of the Goths;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><i> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">d)</font></span></i><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> Moesia [I and II], Thracia, and Dacia as the «second habitat» of the Goths (grouping together the classical Getae and the early medieval Ostrogoths, 433-471);</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><i> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">e)</font></span></i><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> The «third habitat» of the Ostrogoths (the empire of Hermanarich, d. 375, and his successors until 433), placed again in the Ukrainian Mesopotamia between the Dniester and the Dnieper.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><b> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"><a name="2_6">6</a>.</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Jordanes did not follow Ptolemy, who had replaced Herodotus&#39;s concept of <i>Scythia</i> with the «modern» one of <i>Sarmacia</i>. He kept the name Scythia, but, like Strabo (63 B.C.E.-23 C.E.) <a href="#50">[50]</a> and Pliny the Younger (23-79) <a href="#51">[51]</a>, extended its western frontiers as far as Germania <a href="#52">[52]</a>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Jordanes&#39;s treatment of the frontier of Scythia is extremely important for resolving the issue we are concerned with. Therefore our analysis must be scrupulous. Let me repeat that Jordanes gave two sets of orientations, one from the southern perspective and the other from the northern perspective.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="50">50</a></b>) Ed. Müller-Dübner, VII.21.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="51">51</a></b>) See AowmiaDski, «<i>Scytia</i>», SSS, 5 (1975), p. 115.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="52">52</a></b>) See Julia ZabBocka, «Germania», <i>SSS</i> 2 : 1 (1964), p. 97.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">376</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">I. The western frontier of Scythia, i.e. the frontier between Scythia and Germania:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">A. In the south:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><i> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">a)</font></span></i><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> the «birthplace» of the Ister river (<i>ubi Ister oritur amnis</i>, § 30). Accepting the views of Pliny <a href="#53">[53]</a>, who regarded Illyricum as the place where the river Danubius ended and the river Ister began, Jordanes pinpointed the birthplace of the Ister at the confluence of the Danube with the Tisza (north) and the Sava (south). Three important Roman frontier cities were located there: Sirmium (Mitrovica), Singidunum (Belgrade), and Novae (Euscia) <a href="#54">[54]</a>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><i> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">b)</font></span></i><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> <i>Stagnus Morsianus</i> (§ 30), which Jordanes elsewhere calls <i>Lacus Mursianus</i> (§ 35), is surely the Neusiedler Lake in Austria <a href="#55">[55]</a>; Jordanes chose it because it was a clear marker of the northwestern end of the Roman province of Pannonia.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">B. In the north: the delta of the Vistula River (§ 30).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="53">53</a></b>) <i>Natural History</i>, III.79; cf. also III. 150. See also Skr~inskaja&#39;s commentary on p. 199.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="54">54</a></b>) On these cities see <i>Limes u Jugoslavii I. Zbornik radova sa simpozijuma o limesu 1960 god</i>, Belgrade 1961; Miroslava Mirkovi, <i>Rimski gradovi na Dunavu u Gornoj Meziji</i>, Belgrade 1968; Franjo Bariai, «Vizantijski Singidunum», <i>Zbornik radova</i>, knj. XLIV, Vizantoloaki institut, knj. 3, Belgrade 1955, 1-14; Bo~idar Ferjan i, <i>Sirmium u doba Vizantije</i>, Sremska Mitrovica 1969; <i> Sirmium. Archeologic investigations in Syrmian Pannonia</i>, 3 vols., Belgrade 1971-1973.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="55">55</a></b>) This identification was first proposed by Frantiaek Vitazoslav Sasinek (1830-1914), Czech medievalist, in <i>Sbornik musea slovenskej spole nosti</i>, Prague 1896, 15, and later, independently, by Friedrich Westberg (1864-1920), a historian from Riga, «Anten», in <i>Zur Wanderung der Langobarden</i> (cf. note 44 above), pp. 12-14. On the history of this discussion see E. . Skr~inskaja, «O sklavenax i antax, o Mursianskom ozere i gorode Novietune», <i>Vizantijskij Vremennik</i>, Moscow 1957, pp. 3-20, esp. 5-18.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">377</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">II. The eastern frontier. Scythia extended eastward to the land of the Seres (China) and its northernmost boundary was the Ocean (<i>Oceanus</i>, § 31).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">A. From the southern perspective, from east towest:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><i> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">a)</font></span></i><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> Persia, Albania, Hiberia (Iberia, Caucasian Georgia).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><i> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">b)</font></span></i><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"> Pontus (Black Sea) and Ister (Danube, § 32).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">B. From the northern perspective:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">a) Caspian Sea (<i>Mare Caspium</i>), which Jordanes, following Eratosthenes, describes as being shaped like a mushroom (§ 30) <a href="#56">[56]</a>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">b) The lands of the (historical) Hunni, the Albani, and the Seres (from west to east; § 30).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Jordanes&#39;s Scythia was divided by the Riphaean Mountains (a mythical range he took over from Eratosthenes, Ptolemy, and other ancient authorities) <a href="#57">[57]</a> into European and Asian parts; the frontier was the river Tanais (Don), emptying into the Maeotis (§ 32).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">In the European part of Scythia, where the Goths lived, there were the rivers Tiras, Danaster (both names for the Dniester), Vagosola (probably the Boh) <a href="#58">[58]</a>, and Danaper (the Dnieper) <a href="#59">[59]</a>, as well as the Taurus Moutains</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="56">56</a></b>) See Skr~inskaja&#39;s commentary on p. 201.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="57">57</a></b>) On the Riphaean mountains see Aleksajstder Krawczuk, <i>SSS</i>, vol. 2 : 1 (1964), pp. 146-147.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="58">58</a></b>) Jordanes uses Hypanis, the classical designation for the Boh, but in connection with a fictional Black Sea Greek colony: <i>Hypannis</i> (<i>oppidum</i> [§ 46]), mentioned along with another alleged Black Sea city, <i>Callipolida</i> [§ 32]. Both «cities» appear solely because Jordanes misunderstood a passage in the work of Pomponius Mela, (Chorogr. II.1.6 and II.7). See also Skr~inskaja&#39;s commentary, notes 145-146, pp. 226-227.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">(<b><a name="59">59</a></b>) Jordanes also preserved the post-Attilan Hunnic name for the Dnieper: Var ( = vär) (§ 174). On this name, see my article, quoted in fn. 30 above.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;<img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">378</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">(on the Crimea), which the author - this time - clearly differentiates from the Anatolian range of similar name (§ 30). Whereas the name Danaster for old Tiras was first introduced by Ammianus Marcellinus (ca. 330-393) <a href="#60">[60]</a>, Jordanes is to be credited with the first use of Danaper/Dnieper, the «local» name for the ancient Boristhenus (<i>quem accolae Danaprum vocant</i>, § 44). The name Vagosola is a <i>hapax</i> and remains enigmatic.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Maeotis, the Azov Sea - so important in Jordanes&#39;s vision of Gothic history - is mentioned several times, usually in connection with the Thanais (Don), Bosporus (Kerch Strait), Caucasian Mountains, and the Araxes River in Transcaucasia (§§ 30, 32, 44, etc).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">To stress the importance of Gothic Scythia, Jordanes inserted a list of Greek colonies of the polis type on the northern shores of the Black Sea. Some were real (Olbia, Cherson, Theodosia, Myrmician) and some íictional (Boristhenide, Callipolida, Careon); he also mistakenly included the famous Anatolian trade center of Trebizond here (§ 32).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><b> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3"><a name="2_7">7</a>.</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">10) Anthropological description of Scythia (§ § 33-37).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">This material is presented along the same lines as the geographical description and must be analyzed in reference to it.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">Jordanes again began with the western frontier from the southern perspective. The first people he named were naturally the Germanic Gepidae (§ 33) who from about 269 until after his own time (567) lived in Dacia (Panno-</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="3">&nbsp;</font></spa