--- Piotr Gasiorowski <
gpiotr@...> wrote:
> "Hermanaricus nobilissimus Amalorum in regno
> successit, qui multas et bellicosissimas arctoi
> gentes perdomuit suisque parere legibus fecit. quem
> merito nonnulli Alexandro Magno conparavere maiores,
> habebat si quidem quos domuerat Golthescytha Thiudos
> Inaunxis Vasinabroncas Merens Mordens Imniscaris
> Rogas Tadzans Athaul Navego Bubegenas Coldas." (Get.
> XXIII).
>
******GK: Now that Piotr has convincingly, to my mind,
demonstrated that "golthe" is proper Gothic "golden"
and not some garbled version of "cold", the notion
that "golthescytha" applies to "thiudos" begins to
fade like the smile of the Cheshire cat. "Golden
Scythian" is not an historically appropriate
designation for the Ugro-Finnic populations of the
early mediaeval Russian interior. And Sergejus'
"golden shielded" would not be either. Both
expressions however might apply to Hermanaric himself,
as (epic) appellatives concocted by classicizing
circles of the early 6th century Ravenna court.
Hermanaric, this "nobilissimus Amalorum", this Gothic
"Alexander the Great", could very easily have been
celebrated as "the Golden Scythian" (alternatively
perhaps "the Golden shielded"). Classical writers
frequently called the Goths "Scythians" and their
country "Scythia", so there would be no problem in the
application of this term to a Gothic ruler.******
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