Hi George!
> (2) Why do you think the Costobocs were
"Thracian"
> rather than "Celtic"? Their name sounds very close to
>
that of one of the Galatian tribes.*******
Those Galatian tribes were "tolistobocii" /
"tolistobioi". I know there have been advocated several theories for Costobocii:
Dacian, Celtic, Sarmatian and a far stretched one - Proto Slavic. The Dacian
theory is based on archaeological evidence and on the onomastic of king
Pieporus' royal family (Pieporus, rex Coisstobocensis - CIL, VI, 1801).
We know the names of his royal family, that
all have a Thracian origin: Pieporus (king), Ziais (queen), Natoporus
(nephew), Drilgisa (niece), Tiatus (queen's father). Pieporus' family
has been exiled to Rome in order to force Pieporus respect peace and some other
obligations towards Roman Empire (the epitaph of queen Ziais is in Rome - CIL,
VI, 1801 / ILS 854 - Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, ed. H. Dessau). Costobocii
are known mostly because of their strong incursion in Scythia Minor, Thracia
and Macedonia reaching to North Greece as well (170 AD). Aelius Aristide
(Orationes, XII, 2) mourns the burning of Eleusis sanctuary by the Costobocii.
Prior to that they also participated in the Marcomanic wars. After the victories
in Balkan Peninsula, the Costobocii army is forced to withdraw because Asdingi
(German Vandal tribe) have been summoned against their home lands.
Costobocii are also present in alliances with Bastarnae, Sarmatians (174 AD
Marcus Aurelius battles in NE Dacia) and with Carpii.
Costobocii have been archaeologically related
to the apparition and developement of Lipica/Lipita culture 1st century BC
- early 3rd century AD (Verhnija Lipica - Ivano-Frankovsk region, Ukraine) that
stretches over North West Ukraine, Middle and North Moldavia, Transcarpatia,
Maramures (North Romania) and South Eastern Slovakia. The most known sites
of Liptia culture are those from Verhnija Lipica, Remezevciah, Maidan-Gologirski
(Lvov), Malaja Kopajna (Zakarpatia) and Zemplin (South-East Slovakia). Lipita
culture generally holds forms of Dacian character - typical Dacian ceramics and
funerary rites. In Dolineni (Dolinean, South-West of Hotin, I think it's in
Moldavia) there has been discovered a Dacian circular sanctuary, with wodden
columns similar with those of Transylvania (the most famous is that from
Sarmizegetusa). A rectangular religious building, discovered in Malaja Kopanja
("building nr. 7") has analogies in the Dacian cultic buildings found on
Romanian territory - Popesti / Giurgiu, Bucharest / Tei, Cetateni / Arges,
Sarmizegetusa etc. Obviously, the area of Liptia culture holds some traces
of Iazygii, Alanii, Roxolanii, Bastarnae and later Przeworsk culture as
well, but they are not numerous. The largest group of Sarmatian graves (14) has
been found in Ostrivec (Ivano-Frankovsk region, Ukraine). In the Eastern limit
of Lipica culture there have been also found ceramic fragments of Zerubinec
culture.
According to the longitudinal and latitudinal
coordinates given by Ptolemy, the archaeological site of Malaja Kopajna can be
identified with town Setidava and that from Zemplin with town Susudava (both
davae mentioned in Geographia). Please confirm me some of this information,
George, if I'm not wrong Ukraine is your field!
Here are a couple of mentions of Costobocii,
present under names of costoboci, coisstoboci, costobocae, costoboi,
costobocon, castaboci, castabocis, castabocas, castabocos, coisstobocensis
etc, the first 2 forms being the most used.
Ptolemy (Geographia, III, 5, 9; III,
8,3)
Pausanias (Historia, X, 34,
5)
Dion Cassius (Historia Romana, LXXI, 12,
1)
Scriptores Historiae Augustae (Vita Marci,
22, 1)
Ammianus Marcellinus (Rerum gestarum
libri, XXXI)
Suidas lexicon (lestai)
and various inscriptions: CIL, III, 14214, VI, 31
856, VIII 14667, 25679 + Bucharest Classical Studies StCl 6, 1964, 193.
I assume the etymology of Costobocii is
pretty simple for the active members of this list, I am no linguist, only a young student, but I will copy the comments of
Romanian linguist I.I. Russu: Costo-boci from *kuek'- to show, to
see + *bha- light, nobleness and suffix -k-. Please
confirm it!
_____
Question:
- What is the evidence of their potential
Sarmatian or Celtic origin (other than their Celtic name)?
- Who are the
cotobacchi (chottobacchi, cotobocii) mentioned
by Pliny The Elder in his Natural history? They are mentioned in
relation with the inferior basin of Don (Tanais) and I have read they are
considered to be Sarmatians? I know nothing else about this, perhaps someone
could give me some threads.
Thanks,
Horia Vlad