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Ptolemy's Europe

A.D.Udaltsov (Ethogenesis Questions, No 1, 1946, page 41-50)

TRIBES of EUROPEAN SARMATIA 2c. AD

Links

http://members.tripod.com/~Groznijat/sarm/udalcov.html

Preface

The following selection from the work of A.D.Udaltsov provides some useful analysis, and serves as an explanation to the map of the same author, who embarked on a task to locate the Slavic peoples in the Eastern Europe based on the information of the ancient geographers. The translated text maximally uses the name spelling of The New York Public Library, N.Y. 1932 edition, substituting the Russian spelling. Both spellings, like Tigri/Tagri, are shown where the difference in spelling may imply different interpretations.

A.D.Udaltsov text

A look at the Ptolemy map of Eastern Europe at once shows that there it is a lot of mess. (Or Udaltsov’s reconstructions might not always be correct – Translator’s Note).

Obviously the data, borrowed from the ancient authors (Herodotus etc.) for the most ancient tribes, is outdated, i.e. those for the Gelones, Hippopodes, Melanchlaeni, Agathyrsi, Bodini. (Or Udaltsov’s reconstructions might not always be correct. Here Udaltsov casually dismisses populations of the huge areas and of the whole countries, without any substantiation, just because, or in spite of, the two classical geographers giving the same evidence – Translator’s Note)

From the Baltic Sea òî the south. So, for example, Ptolemy (Bk. 3 Ch. 5 Para. 8) lists Veneds (at the Baltic coast), Gythones (i.e. Goths), Finns (probably erroneously, they lived to the north), Bulones (or Sulones of other manuscripts), Phrungundiones, i.e. Burgunds (it is obviously erroneous, they lived to the west) and Avars (at the sources of Vistula), and further south - Ombrones, Anartophracts, Burgiones, Arsiets, Sabocis, Piengits and Biessis (along the Carpathian mountains).

From the Baltic Sea to the Lower Danube further to the east (Bk. 3 Ch. 5 Para. 9) Ptolemy lists tribes in a strip from the north to south: Veneds, Galindae, Sudini, Stavani, Igylliones, Coestoboci, Tansmontani (to Peucini mountains - Babadag mountains in the mouth of Danube).

Repetitions: Rhoxolani repeat in Rheucanali, Gelones in Gevini, Carpiani in Xarpiani (Bk. 3, Ch. 10, Para. 7), Amadoci in Madoci (Bk. 5, Ch. 8, Para. 16)

In the Baltic area Ptolemy lists Veltae ( ), Ossi ( ), Careotae ( ) and Sali ( ). Veltae Ptolemy places at the coast of the Baltic Sea (coast of the Ocean, at the Venedian gulf), above them, evidently on the river Osse, the influent of the Laukne, running to Kurishgaf (south of Neman), Ossi (may be Oksions of Tacit’s “Germania”, Ch. 46), Careotae, possible Kurs or Kurons, north of Ossi, and Sali, the most northern, on the river Salitse nowadays separating Latvians and Estonians. Thus the Ptolemy's Baltic rivers we locate as follows: Visla ( - Vistula, Ptolemy determined correctly in degrees the location of its mouth), - Pregel. - Niemaya, - Vindava or West. Dvina. - West. Dvina or Àya (Gaya).

Ptolemy strongly exaggerated all distances east of the mouth of Visla. (Or Udaltsov’s reconstructions might not always be correct – Translator’s Note)

Ptolemy shows Careotae and Sali east of Carbones (Carvones, ), and below them Gelones, Hippopodes, Melanchlaeni and Agathyrsi, and also Aorsi and Pagyritae, Savari ( - in the territory of future 'Severyans' ) ( Suvars – Translator’s Note) and Borusci ( , in the middle flow of Dniepr, where in the 3 c. lived Borans or Borads).

Acibi (Acivi- ) - territory of the ancient Okov Forest in the upper West Dvina, Volga and Dniepr area (there were boat drags, connecting the sources of these rivers).

Nasci ( - may be from the river Nachi in the Okov Forest),

Vibiones ( - different interpretations: Viviones, Iviones - compare settlement Ivye, above Neman in the former Oshmyan District in Novogrudka).

Idrae ( - Compare the river Idritsu or Indritsu with the lake Indrie in the Vitebsk area) (is the Udaltsov’s spelling of the Greek word correct? – Translator’s Note).

Sturni ( ) (Bk. 3 Ch. 5 Para. 10) evidently connected with river Styr.

In the Bk. 3 Ch. 5 Para 10 two parallel rows of tribes are listed from north to south,

The line Veltae - Sturni, and

The line Carbones - Borusci (along the Dniepr).

Ptolemy placed on his map the other tribes listed in the Bk. 3 Ch. 5 Para. 10 by their position between the major tribes (or, rather, nations): the Veneds (along all the Venedian Bay), Basternae (above Dacia) and Peucini (in the Danube delta), Rhoxolani and Iazyges (along the whole coast of Meotida - Sea of Azov), Amaxobii (Trans-Don Sarmatians) and Alans-Scythians (in the Black Sea steppes, between Danube and Dniepr).

Between Alans and Amaxobii (along the Donets) are Cariones ( ) and Sargati ( ), at the bend of the river Tanais (Don) - Ophlones ( ) and Tanaitae ( ), below them Osili ( ) extending to Rhoxolani. Between Amaxobii and Rhoxolani Ptolemy locates Exobygitae ( ), and between Peucini and Basternae he locates Carpiani ( ), and between Basternae and Rhoxolani he locates Huns ( ) who are evidently the same as Hainids, the Huns of the, Bk. 5, Ch. 8, Para. 10 who live “between Basternae and Rhoxolani”, i.e. between Carpathian foothills and the Lower Dniepr.

Separately in the end of the Para. 10 Ptolemy names Amadoci ( ) and Navari( ), compare Ptolemy Madoci in Bk. 5, Ch. 8, Para. 13 (at Amadok Mountains, probably, the raised mountainous coast of the Dniepr), Ptolemy lists the same cities, Amadoca and Navaron, the Amadoca on the river Borysthenes (Dniepr) at Amadok Lake (may be, the Belozersk Lake across from Nikopol), and the Navaron in the upper flow of the river Karkinitis (ancient Hyparkis - Kalanchak), so both tribes appear near Rhoxolani on the left bank of the Lower Dniepr.

Ptolemy placed Toreccadae ( , Bk. 3 Ch. 5 Para. 11) and the identically named city of Torokka on the same river Karkinitas as the Navaron (Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para. 13), Ptolemy’s town Torokka coincides with the present settlement Torgaevka at the Torgai Gally (may be, the influent of the ancient Karkinitas). By Ptolemy, the Toreccadae live near the lake Byce, i.e. near Lake Sivash. To the west of them, along the “Achilles Cursus” (Tendrov Sandbank), Ptolemy places Tauro-Scythians (Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para. 11) (Türk. Tau – “mountain”, Tauroscythes = “Mountain Scythes”, likely a reflection of the historically accepted endoethnonym – Translator’s Note), and more to the west, near Dacia (below Basternae), are Tigri/ Tagri, and below them are Tyrangitae/Tyragitae.

Bk. 5, Ch. 8 (Para. 16 and 17).

Ptolemy shows two rows of tribes in the Asiatic Sarmatia (between Don and Volga).

In the north Ptolemy places Sarmats-Hyperboreans (Sarmats-Super-Notherners, fr. Gr. Hyper=Super, and Boreal=North – Translator’s Note), then below them the Royal Sarmatians, Madoci ( ) people, then Sarmatians-Horse-Eaters, and, further below, Zakas ( ) (i.e. Sakas- Scythians (-ta is the Greek plural suffix)), Suardens ( ) and Ases ( Κάώιδεζ) (Ptolemy’s (Bk. 5, Ch. 8, Para. 6) on the Tiligul river) (Türk. Tilk-gul, Fox Lake – Translator’s Note), then along the left coast of the Tanais are Perierbids and Yaksamats, and below Suardens – Hainids-Huns ( ). Then are listed the tribes near the Volga-Ra river and to the south, to the Caucasian mountains.

The description of Trans-Don tribes begins with Madoci and covering Zakas, Suardens, Ases and Huns.

Madoci are obviously identical with Amadoci of the Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para. 10, who live on the Lower Dniepr (across from Nikopol).

The Ptolemy’s Asiakes ( ) (Bk. 5, Ch. 8, Para. 6) is possible to accept as the Sais of the Olvian inscription in honor of Protogene (Gr. Primogenitor – Translator’s Note), and the Pliny’s Asiakes on the river Tiligul.

Bk. 6 Ch. 14

In the Scythia after the mountain Imaus (Udaltsov - Central Asia?), “are mountains called “Alanian”, and mountains called “Suobenoi”.

“This whole Scythia in the direction of the north, to the almost unknown land, is settled by the tribes which are called by a common name of Alans-Scythians, including Suobenoi, and Agathyrsi, and Suevs, then Aorses...”.

Suobenoi ( ) (Udaltsov – i.e. Suovens, or “Slovens”) (by reading Suobenoi ~ Suomi, i.e. Finns, as “Slovens”, Udaltsov places Slovens right in the middle of the Türkic peoples – Translator’s Note), and Agathyrsi (in Dacia), and Suevs (the German tribes, probably, Markomans and Quads in Czechia and Moravia) constitute a band of nations stretching from the east to the west, maybe, along the trading way from the Central Asia to the Middle Europe.

Ptolemy radically distinguishes between the largest tribes ( , Bk. 3 Ch. 5, Para. 7) of the Sarmatia, to which he relegates: Veneds, Basternae and Peucini, Iazyges and Rhoxolani, Alans-Scythians and Amaxobii (Sarmatians) and the “less significant tribes” ( , Bk. 3 Ch. 5, Para. 8), to which he relegates all the other tribes. Ptolemy includes into the first group the whole nations, consisting of separate tribes (which, undoubtedly, are the Veneds, Basternae, Alans-Scythians, and, probably, others), rather than separate “tribes”.

Venedian tribes

Cariones Sali Galindae Sudini

The tribes of the Baltic language group being ancestors of the ancient Prusses and of modern Lithuanians and Latvians have already separated from the closely related Venedian Slavs (the separation must be a suggestion, not a statement of the fact, since there is no linguistic or archeological data on the Slavs prior to their participation in the Atilla's army ca. 450 AD – Translator’s Note).

Ptolemy knows among them Cariones and Sali, the most northern tribes from this group, and also more southern Galindae (ancestors of Golyad people) and Sudini (Sudavits-Yatvyags).

Ptolemy knows among them Ossi (Tacit’s Oksions ?) (here Udaltsov classifies the Türkic Asses as the Baltic group – Translator’s Note) at Neman.

Finns

Ugrs (or Urogs)

(Here Udaltsov is way too brief for a group that occupied a huge area from Scandinavia to beyond Urals, and even now, after a 1000 years of the Slavic colonization, is a major group in the Eastern Europe, that includes 32 languages and more than 20 nations. Udaltsov's map, even though it tends to show the definitely non-Slavic groups as Slavic, still indicates more Finno-Ugrian peoples than are cited in this narrative – Translator’s Note)

Celtic

Bastarnae/Basternae Peucini Sudini/Sidoni Ombrones Igylliones Kotins/Hotins Anarts Britolags

Ptolemy Bastarnae (Basternae of other authors) and mixed with them Celts. From the Basternae tribes Ptolemy, except for Peucini who live at a mouth of Danube (on the Pevke island), knows Sidoni (in the upper course of Vaaga and Arva, on the southern slopes of the Western Beskids), Ombrones (their eastern neighbors), Igylliones (further east, in the upper course of Dniestr). Bastarnae settlements stretched as a rather narrow strip and further to southeast, along Dniestr, down to the upper course of Tiligul, where began the territory of Alans-Scythians.

Titus Livy (40, 57, 2 and on) wrote: Basternae (Bastarnae) were Illirians, strongly Celticized (compare the suffix-erni in their name with same Celtic suffix, for example in the name of the Gaullic tribe Arv-erns (Arv-erni)), in the close relationship with the other Celticized Illirians, Scordiscs, living near the Middle Danube, near the isthmuses of Sava and Drava.

The later authors (Tacit, Pliny), listed Basternae as Celtic, but with big hesitation and doubts.

South of the Basternae tribes’ belt, in the northwestern corner of Dacia, was the territory of tribes: Kotins, Anarts and Tevriscs (Tevriscs? = Tavrs?), probably, Celts (compare Tevriscs, Celticized Illirians of Norik). The same Celts, mixed with Illirians, were the Britolags neighbors of Peucini near the mouth of the Danube (their “town” Noviodunon has clearly Celtic name).

Alans-Scyths-Sarmats

Alans-Scyths-Sarmats, Burgiones, Iazyges, Royal Sarmats Iazyges-Meotians Troglodits Rhoxolani Rheucanali Gelones, Hippopodes, Melanchlaeni, Agathyrsi, Bodini

All the steppe south of the Eastern Europe was populated in the first centuries AD by the Alans-Scyths-Sarmats tribes. They also lived by the Middle Danube, where Iazyges came from the Pontic area to the steppes between the Danube and Tissa in the first half of the 1-st c. AD. Rostovtsev (The Sarmatae and the Partians, Cambridge Ancient History. 11, Ch. 3, page 92-93) believes that Iazyges were not Sarmatians, but Meotians (=Scythians), expelled by the Sarmatians. However, probably both Royal Sarmats and Iazyges-Meotians came to Tissa. Ptolemy lists in the north of their territory Vurgiones (Burgiones, Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para. 8), corresponding, obviously, to the Urgs (or Urogs) of other authors. A part of this group, especially connected with the ancient Scythians, is listed by Ptolemy (Bk. 3, Ch. 10, Para. 4) in Dobrudja under a name of Troglodytes (Gr. Trogle-“cave”, dyein-“enter” – Translator’s Note).

The bulk of the Scyths-Sarmats-Alans type tribes lived in the northern Pontic and Podolia steppes, adjoining in the northwest to the mass of the Venedic tribes.

Scyths-Sarmats-Alans culturally interacted with the Proto-Slavic tribes, perhaps, partly blending with them in the ethnic respect. (See below for the Udaltsov's discourse on who is attributed to the Slavic tribes. Here Udaltsov gives a rare statement that the Slavic tribes are a mix of the Türkic peoples with the Venedic/Lithuanian tribes – Translator’s Note).

Below Basternae, near Dacia, Ptolemy (Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para. 11) lists Tigri (Udaltsov – Tagri). We meet this tribal name in Pliny (VI, 22) in the form Tagors in the Don steppes, and below them are the Tiragets-Sarmatians (Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para. 11, compare Bk. 3 Ch. 10, Para. 17), probably, along the Lower Dniestr. Further east lived Huns (Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para. 10), mentioned in the other place under a name Hainids (Bk. 5, Ch. 8, Para. 17), and along Tiligul (ancient Aksiakes or Asiakes) lived Ases = Scythians - Sases. At last, more to the east, in the area of the Lower Dniepr, lived Zakates and Suardens (corresponding to the Scythians – Sardes of Pliny (I5, 83)). To the south, along the Achilles Cursus (Tendrov Sandbank) Ptolemy (Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para. 11) lists Tauroscythes.

Ptolemy united all these tribes are under the common name “Alans-Scyths”. Possessions of Alans-Scythians in the north extended to the border of the forest-steppe. Ptolemy listed the belts of tribes from the Baltic southward, for the line “Venedae-Galindae- Sudini- Stavani” (along the Western Bug) and for line “Veltae-Vibiones-Idrae-Sturni” (along the Styr river), and defines the southern border of both lines with the words “down to Alans”, who also lived in the basin of the Southern Bug. During the Antoninus Pius time (138-161) in the defense of Olvia the Roman army defeated the Alans living nearby. During the Marcus Aurelius time, the Alans took part in the Markomani war (167-180), together with a number of the eastern Danubian, Catpathian and Pontic tribes (Oz (Asses), Sarmatians, Biessi, Rhoxolani, Basternae, Coestoboci). They were those “European Alans”, who Ammianus Marcellinus (Bk. 22, Ch. 8, Para. 42, compare Para. 21) distinguished from the Alans of the Northern Caucasus.

To the east from the Alans-Scythians, i.e. between the Lower Dniepr and the Don, in the steppes beyond Don, Ptolemy lists Rhoxolani (Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para. 7, Para. 10). Ptolemy mentioned them once again under a name Rheucanali, borrowed from other source. However a number of the historical data tells that after Iazyges left the Pontic steppes, the Rhoxolani possessions began to border the Lower Danube and Roman Moesia. During the Nero time (69 AD.) they invaded Moesia (Paulicy Sylvan inscription (Corpus inscr. latinarum, XI5, 300, 8). Compare Ticitus “Historiae“, I, 79.), Rhoxolani pushed Romans on the Lower Danube in the 2-nd and in 3-rd c. Emperor Adrian pays them an annual tribute and allows their transit by the Roman roads through Dacia with Iazyges, who lived along Tissa. In the 2-nd c. AD Rhoxolani -nomads expanded their domination over local nomadic and settled tribes to the west, down to the Lower Danube and Carpathians.

Alans-Scythians, and Rhoxolani did not occupy a continuous territory (here Udaltsov means an “ethnically homogenous” continuous territory, since from the following sentence is clear that pastoralist nomads had a classic symbiotic relationship with the settled population. The symbiotic relationship is observed in any description of the nomadic states, starting from Herodotus – Translator’s Note). At least, on the coast of the Black Sea between the mouths of the Danube and Dniepr, Ptolemy lists Xarpiani (Bk. 3, Ch. 10, Para. 7), related to the Carpathian Carpiani, and to the east of the Lower Dniepr, a number of local tribes: Amadoci, Navari and Toreccadae have settlements of the “town” type (Bk. 3, Ch. 5,.Para. 10, 13 and 14). Ptolemy records also other “towns”, with obviously local settled population: Carcina, Pasyris, Ercabum, Tracana along the river Kalanchak-Karkinitis (Torocca and Navarum are located there also), and a number of “towns” in addition to Amadoca along the Dniepr-Borysthenes and Ingul, Ordessus at the mouth of the Tiligul, Olvia in the mouth of the Southern Bug, and, at last, a number of cities along the Dniestr-Tyras

Unfortunately, the condition of (Russian – Translator’s Note)archeology in this area is such that we know nothing about these “towns”.

In the Crimea at this time are listed Scythian tribes Satarks and so-called Tauroscyths. It was time of the power of the Tauroscyths in Crimea. Ptolemy's contemporary Arrian (Para. 30), in his review of the Black Sea, notes the desolation in his time of the many Crimean harbors, and their occupation by the Tauroscyths. It is possible that the Alanian ethnic groups have already penetrated by this time into the Crimea.

Ptolemy listed the other Alanian-Sarmatian tribes: Sargati and Cariones (Udalcov also attributes Cariones as Venedian, not a Sarmatian group – Translator’s Note)who lived in the basin of the Don, Royal Sarmatians and Horse-Eating Sarmatians, between the Upper Don and Volga far to the north (see map II), and the same Alans-Sarmatians lived also in the Northern Caucasus.

To the north of the Royal Sarmatians near Volga lived various Finnish tribes, unknown to Ptolemy. Notable is that Ptolemy almost correctly located the meridian of the inflow of Kama into Volga. These areas he settles by the Hyperboreans (Gr. Sarmats-Super-Notherners – Translator’s Note)and Hippopodes (Gr. Short-legged? – Translator’s Note), and also by the Herodotus' tribes of Bodini, Gelones and Melanchlaeni.

Slavs

Ptolemy data on Slavs. Ptolemy knåw Slavs under two names: in the north - Veneds ( ), in the south – Suobnoi ) (Udalcov is using spelling “Slovens” for “Suobnoi”  ~ Suomi, i.e. Finns – Translator’s Note).

The Proto-Veneds were the ancestors of both northern Venedic Slavs, and the tribes of the Baltic language group (ancient Prusses, modern Lithuanians and Latvians), while the Veneds were ethnically close with Lugian tribes in the West.

Southern Scolots Slovenes (here Udalcov piles up the assumption of the Scolots, those nomadic Royal Scythians, = Slovenes, on top of the assumption that Suobnoi ~ Suomi, i.e. Finns = Slovenes – Translator’s Note)stood at higher level of cultural development, had closer ethnic and cultural relations with their western and southern neighbors, the Danube Illirians and Thracians (Daco-Gets).

Of the northern Venedic Slavs Ptolemy knows only the most western - Veltae (Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para.10) and, perhaps, Bulones (or Sulones, Bk. 3, Ch. 5, Para. 8, at the Middle Visla), it is possible, that here belong also the Carbones or Carvones, Vyatiches (a derivative of the name Venets or Vents) (the fact that the Slav Princedoms’ colonists, who intercepted the tributes paid by Udmurts, and called Udmurts “votyaki”, testify that Carbones/Carvones/Vyatiches are Eastern Finns, if the above line of logics holds any water – Translator’s Note).

To the Scolot tribe group may be ascribed: Stavani and Aturns (in spite of the Celtic suffix – ern? – Translator’s Note)(south of Pripyat, probably, by the Western Bug and Styr rivers), Savari (the future “Severyans”) (Suvars are a major and well known Türkic component of the later Khan Kubrat Bolgaria state – Translator’s Note)and Borusci (in the 3 c. they are called Borans and Borads along the Dniepr - Borysthenes). Compare “Borichev ferry” near Kiev. Borusci, Borans, Borads are the future Polyans. Probably, the Bulones, who we presumably attributed to the first (Venedian) group, belong here.

To the same Scolot group belong the Carpathian tribes: Arsietae, Saboci, Coestoboci, Carpiani è Xarpiani, Piengitae and Biessi. All these tribes live along Carpathian mountains. Brown correctly placed Arsietae ( ) in that part of the northwestern slopes of forested Carpathian mountains, between Svisa and Lomnisa, the right inflows of the Upper Dniestr which preserved the name Arszyka. Saboci and Coestoboci link with the adjacent to the Arsietae Bukovina. The Carpiani, as Brown correctly believed, lived to the south east of Bukovina, along the Prut (near its inflow to Danube), whereas Xarpiani ( ) with the settlement Arpis ( ) at the estuary of the Sasik were the continuation of this Slovene strip down to the coast of the Black Sea . To the same Carpathian group of Slovene tribes should probably be attributed Piengitae and Biessi (south of the Bukovina, along Seret river).

Carpathian Scolot group belt was, like the Scolots Slovenes group, in the constant interaction with the neighboring Alans-Sarmatian tribes of the Black Sea steppe.

References

Brown. Research in the field of Gothic-Slavic relations, 1899, page 343-353.

Ammianus Marcellinus Bk. 22, Ch. 8, Para. 42

42. In medio autem spatio arcus, quod prolixae rotunditatis esse praediximus, quodque expedito viatori diebus conficitur quindecim, Europaei sunt Halani et Costobocae gentesque Scytharum innumerae, quae porriguntur ad usque terras sine cognito fine distentas, quarum pars exigua frugibus alitur, residuae omnes palantes per solitudines vastas nec stivam aliquando nec sementem expertas, sed squalentes et pruinosas ferarum taetro ritu vescuntur, eisque caritates et habitacula, vilesque suppellectiles plaustris inpositae sunt corticibus tectis, et cum placuerit, sine obstaculo migrant, eodem carpenta quo libuerit convolventes.

Footnotes

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