Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/100

 84 ALANI. irithin the Imaus, near the *' UnknoTm Land ;" and here, too, we find mountuns of the same name (ra 'AAovi 5pT7, §§ 3, 11), £. of the Hyperhorei M. ; he is generally supposed to mean the N. part of the Ural chain, to which he erroneously gives a direction W. and £. Oar fullest information respecting the Alani is derived from Ammianus Marcellinus, who flourish- ed during the latter half of the fourth century (about d50 — 400). He first mentions them with tiie Boxolani, the lazyges, the Maeot^te, and the laxamatae, as dwelling on the shores of the Pains Maeotis (zxii. 8. ^ 30); and presently, where the Biphaei M. subside towards the Maeo- tis, he places the Arimphaei, and near thein the Massagetae, Alani, and Sargetae, with many other peoples little known (j(j^>»curi, quorum nee vocV. of the Euxine, about the river Tyras {Dniester'), he places " the European Alani and the Costobocae, and innumerable tribes of Scy- thians, which extend to lands beyond human know- lodge ;" a small portion of whom live by agriculture; the rest wander through vast solitudes and get their food like wild beasts ; their habitations and scanty furniture are placed on waggons made of the bark of trees ; and they migrate at pleasure, waggons and all. His more detailed account of the people is given when he comes to relate that greater westward movement of the Huns which, in the reign of Valens, precipitated the Goths upon the Roman empire, A. d. 376. After describing the Huns (xxzi. 2), he says that they advanced as far as " the Alani, the ancient Massa- getae," of whom he undertakes to give a better account than had as yet been published. From the Ister to the TanaTs dwell the Sauromatae; and on the Asiatic side of the Tanals the Alani inhabit the vast solitudes of Scythia; having their name from that of their mountains (ex moniium appeUatione cogno- nUnatij which some understand to mean that Alani comes from ala, a word signifying a mountain). By their conquests they extended their name, as well as their power, over the neighbouring nations; just as the Persian name was spread. He then describes these neighbouring nations; the Neuri, inland, near lofty mountains; the fiudini and Geloni; the Aga- thynd; the Melanchlaeni and Anthropophagi; from whom a tract of uninhabited land extended £.- wards to the Sinae. At another part the Alani bordered on the Amazons, towards the £. (the Amazons being placed by him on the TanaTs and the Caspian), whence they were scattered over many peoples throughout Asia, as far as the Ganges, Through these immense regions, but often fiir apart from one another, the vcarioug tribes of the AJani lived a nomade life : and it was only in process of time that they came to be called by the same name. He then describes their manners. They neither have houses nor till the land; they feed on flesh and milk, and dwell on waggons. When they come to a pasture they make a camp, by placing their wag- gons in a circle; and they move on again when the forage is exhausted. Their flocks and herds go with them, and their chief care is for their horses. They are never reduced to want, for the country through which they wander consists of grassy fields, with fruit-trees interspersed, and watered by many rivers. The weak, from age or sex, stay by the waggons and perform the lighter offices; while the young men are trained together from their first boyhood to the practice of horBemanship and a sound knowledge of ALANI. the art of war. They despse going on foot. In person they are nearly all tall and handsome; their hair is slightly yellow; they are terrible fin- the tempered sternness of their eyes. The lightness of their armour aids their natural swiftness ; a circum- stance mentioned also, as we have seen, by Arrian, and by Joeephns {B,J. vii. 7. §4), iiom whom we find that they nJsed the lasso in battle: Lucian, too, de- scribes them as like the Scythians in their arms and their speech, but with shorter hair (TVnxmf, 51, voL ii. p 557). In general, proceeds Anmiianus, they resemble the Huns, but are less savage in fcom and manners. Their plundering and hunting ex- cursions had brought them to the Maeotis and the Cimmerian Bosporus, and even into Armenia and Media; and it is to their life t» those parts that the description of Ammianus eridently refers. Danger and war was their delight; death in battle bliss; tha less of life through decay or chance stamped disgrace on a man's memoiy. Their greatest glory was to kill a foe in battle, and the scalps of thdr slain enemies were hung to their horses for trappings. They frequented neither temple nor shrine; but, fixing a naked sword in the ground, with barbaric rites, they worshipped, in this symbol, the god of war and of their country for the time being. They practised divination by bundles of rods, which they released with secret incantations, and (it would seem^ from the way the sticks fell they presaged the fu- ture. Slavery was unknown to them : all were of noble birth. £ven their judges were selected for their long-tried pre-eminence in war. Sevoal of these particulars are oonfinned by Jomandes (de Rebus GeticiSf 24). Claudian also mentions the Alani as dwelling on the Maeotis, and c^mnects them closely with the Massagetae (/» Bujm, i. 312): ^ Massagetes, caesamqne bibens Biaeotida Alanus.** Being vanquished by the Huns, who attacked them in the plains £. of ^e TanaVs, the great body of the Alani joined their conquerors in their invasion of the Gothic kingdom of Hermanric (a. d. 375), of which the chief part of the European Alani were already the subjects. In the war which soon brake out between the Goths and Romans in Maesia, so many of the Huns and Alani joined the Goths, thai they are distinctly mentioned among the invaders who were defeated by Theodosius, a. d. 379 — 382. Henceforth we find, in the W., the Alani constantly associated with the Goths and with the Vandals, so much BO that Procopius calls them a tribe of the Goths (TorBaAv iOvos: Vand. i. 3). But their movements are more closely connected with those of the Vandals, in conjunction with whom they are said to have settled in Paimonia; and, retiring thence through fear of the Goths, the two praples invaded Gaul in 406, and Spain in 409. (Procop. L c. ^ Jomandes, de Reb. Get, 31; Clinton, F, A «. a.; comp. Gibbon, c. 30, 31.) In 41 1 the Alani are found in Gaul, acting with the Burgundians, Alamanni, and Franks. (Clinton^ s, a.) As the Goths advanced into Spain, 414, tlie Alani and Vandals, with the Silingi, retreated beforo them into Lusitania and Baetica. (Clinton, s, a. 416.) In the ensuing campaigns, in which the Gothic king Wallia conquered Spain (418), the Alans lost their king Ataces, and were so reduced in numbers that they gave up their separate natloD- ality, and transferr^ their allegiance to Gnnderic, the king of the Vandals. (Clinton, s, a. 418.) Afler Gunderics death, in 428, the allied barbarians