Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/939

 SARMATIA. on one side, and tlie Quadi, &c., of the Regnnm Vannianum, on the other. In the general Pannonian and Dahnatian outbreak of A. d. 6, the Sarmatians of these parts took a share ( Velh Pat. ii. 1 1 0), as they, doubtlessly, did in the immediately previous war of the JIareomanni, under Slaroboduus ; the Marco- manni, Quadi, Jazyges, and western Daci, and Sarmatae being generally united, and, to all appear- ances, the members of a definite confederacy. The Regnum Vannianum gives us the continuation of the history of these populations (a. d. 19 — 50). It is broken up; T'annius (? the Bail) himself dis- placed, and Vangio and Sido, strongly in the interest of Rome, made kings of the parts between the Marus and Cusus (^Moravia) instead. To the Fa?mian confederacy (a Ban-aX') the Samiatae and Jazyges supply the cavalry, the occupants of the Banat itself the infantry (Tac. Annal. xii. 29). For A. D. 35, we find an interesting notice in Tacitus, which gives definitude to the Sarmatia Asiatica of Ptolemy. It is to the effect that, in a war with Parthia, Pharasmanes entered into an alliance with the Albanians of the coast of the Caspian and the Sarmatae Sceptuchi (? BaaiAeioi). (Tac. Ann. vi. 33.) A. D. 69. Two pregnant sentences tell us the state of the Sarmatian frontier at the accession of Galba: " Coortae in nos Sarmaturum ac Suevorum gentes ; nobilitatus cladibus niutuis Dacus " (/7w<. i. 2). The Suevi (who here mean the Quadi and Marcomaniii) and Sarmatae (foot and horse) are united. Dacia is paving the way to its final subjec- tion. The Jazyges seem to fall off from the alliance; inasmuch as they offer their services to Rome, which are refused. The colleague of Sido is now Italicus, equally faithful to Rome. QEist. iii. 5.) In the following year it is Sarmatae and Dad who act together, threatening the fortresses of Moesia and Pannonia (iv. 54). An invasion of Moesia by the Roxolani took place A. D. 69. This is a detail in the history of the Eastern branch. The conquest of Dacia now draws near. When this has taken place, the character of the Sarmatian area becomes peculiar. It consists of an independent strip of land between the Roman Province and Quado-Marcomannic kingdom (Banat); its political relations fluctuating. When Tacitus wrote the Ger- mania, the Gothini paid tribute to both the Quadi and Sarmatae; a fact which gives us a political dif- ference between the two, and also a line of separa- tion. Tiie text of Tacitus is ambiguous: " Partem tributorum Sarmatae, partem Quadi, ut alienigenis imponunt " (Germ. 43). Were the Sarmatae and Quadi, or the Quadi alone, of a different family from that of the Gothini? This is doubtful. The differ- ence Itself, however, is important. There were Sarmatians amongst the subjects as well as the allies of Decebalus; their share in the Dacian War (a. d. 106) being details of that event. They were left, however, in possession of a large portion of their country, i. e. the parts between the Vallum Ronianura and the frontier of the Suevi, Quadi, or occupants of Regnum Vannianum; the relations of this to the Roman and non-Roman areas in its neighbourhood being analogous to that of the Decumates Agri, between the Rhine and Upper Danube. In the Marcomannic War (under M. Antoninus) the Sarmatae are as prominent as any members of the confederacy : indeed it is probable that some of SARJIATIA. 919 the Marcomanni may have been Sarmatae, under another name. This is not only compatible with the undoubtedly German origin of the name Marco- manni (Marchmen), but is a probable interpretation of it. German as was the term, it might be, and very likely was, applied to a non-German population. There were two Marches : one held by Germans for Rome and against the Sarmatians, the other held by the Sarmatians for themselves. The former would be a 31arch, the other an Ukraine. In the eyes of the Germans, however, the men of the latter would just as much be Slarchmen as themselves. What the Germans in the Roman sei-vice called a neighbouring population the Romans would call it also. We shall soon hear of certain Borderers, Marchmen, or men of the Ukraine, under the name of Limigantes (a semi-barbarous form from Limes); but tlipy will not be, on the strength of their Latin names, Latins. The Solitudines Sarmatarum of the Roman maps was more or less of a Sarmatian JIarch. The Jazyges and Quadi are (as usual) important members of the confederacy. A. D. 270. Aurelian resigns the province of Dacia to the Barbarians; a fact which withdraws the scene of many a Sarmatian inroad from the field of observations, — the attacks of the Barbarians upon each other being unrecorded. Both before and after this event, however, Sarmatian inroads along the whole line of the Danube, were frequent, Sarmatians, too, as well as Daci (Getae) were com- prehended under the general name of Goth in the reigns of Deeius, Claudius, &c. Add to this that the name of Vandal is now becoming conspicuous, and that under the name of Vandal history we have a great deal that is Sarmatian. The most important effect of the cession of Dacia was to do away with the great block of Roman, Romanising, or Romanised territory which lay be- tween the Sarmatians of Pannonia and the Sarma- tians of Scythia. It brought the latter within the I'ange of the former, both being, then, the frontagers of Moesia. Add to this the fact of a great change in the nomenclature behig effected. The German portion of the Marcomanni (Thervings and Gru- tungs) has occupied parts of Dacia. The members of this section of the German name would only know the Sarmatae as Vandals. Again, the Hun power is developing itself; so that great material, as well as nominal, changes are in the process of develop- ment. Finally, when the point from which the Sar- matae come to be viewed has become Greek and Constantinopolitan, rather than Latin and Roman, the names Slaveni and Servi will take prominence. However, there is a great slaughter of the Sar- matians by Cams, on his way eastwards. Then there is the war, under Constantine, of the Sarmatae of the Border, — the Sarmatae Limigantes, — a Ser- vile War. [See Limigantes.] The authors who tell us of this are the witers of the Historia Au- fjusta and Ammianus; after whose time the name is either rarely mentioned, or, if mentioned, men- tioned on the authority of older writers. The history is specific to certain divisions of the Sar- matian population. This was, in its several divi- sions, hostile to Rome, and independent; still, there were Sarmatian conquests, and colonies efl'ected by the transplantation of Sarmatae. One lay so far east as Gaul. " Arvaque Sauromalum nuper mctata coloni " (Auson. Mosella) 3 N 4