--- stevelong02 <
x99lynx@...> wrote:
My own idea in this direction is that maybe the name
Getae became
connected with Germanic language speakers north of the
Danube
sometime before the "coming of the Goths." Not
exclusively or at all
times. But just enough to make it comfortable for
writers well
before Jordanes to use the name interchangeably. I
think the key to
that connection had something to do with a group
called the Bastarnae.
*****GK: But would you have sources to back you up on
this? I don't remember that the Bastarnae were ever
confused with the Getae.******
(S.L.)My other sneaking suspicion is that Theodoric,
big fan of
Tacitus, wanted nothing geneaologically to do with the
Bastarnae or
Peucini, whom Tacitus insulted viciously for mixing
with Sarmatians.
And that may explain why the Bastarnae name mainly
disappears from
Jordanes (and presumably his source, Cassiodorus) and
possibly other
texts that would have impugned Theodoric's bloodline,
which needed to
be as "pure" as the Julians.
*****GK: Ironically, the Goths were themselves fairly
significantly mixed with Sarmatians (Alans) and other
groups. Jordanes even pointed out that they
intermarried with the Huns, and frequently borrowed
Hunnic names.*****
(S.L.)If Theodoric had the Bastarnae stricken from the
family tree because
they mixed-married, he had a gap to fill in time and
location. There
was no memory of any migration in the second century
AD from Poland.
*****GK: There seemed to be songs about defeating the
"Ulmerugi" and the Vandali, and then about the move to
"Oium" and the victory over the Spali. This confirms
the archaeological record of a late 2nd c. early 3rd
century spread of Wielbark from the lower Vistula to
Volynia and other sections of Ukraine.*****
(S.L.)And the Scandinavian origin thing starts to our
knowledge with
Jordanes. But the only living memory of the Goths
mentioned by
Jordanes were songs sung of being called "Pilleati"
and "Capillati" -
a clear connection to the Dacians.
*****GK: I believe he mentions extant songs about many
of their heroes, all with good Gothic names. I'm not
sure how to interpret the "capillati", but there is no
doubt that the "pilleati" are borrowed from Cassius
Dio's lost "Getica" (which had nothing to do with our
Goths at the time). I suspect that this is the source
whence Jordanes got his information about Burebista
and other major Getan historical figures.*****
(S.L.)
However, given the situation on the Danube described
by Strabo in the
century before Christ, it doesn't sound like anyone
was free of
"inter-mingling," especially with the Thracians
*****GK: I think this is certainly the case, and
continued long after Strabo.*****
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