Re: That old Ariovistus scenario.

The Sarmatians are an intriguing ethnicity. The Romans are known to hire, as mercenaries, nomadic skilful fighters from the east, sometime around 0 AD. These people then settled between Hungary and Poland, with military ties to the Roman Empire. The name pop ups in England, where the Romans used the Sarmatians to fight Gallic tribes. Before that, the Romans had been exploring northern coast of the black sea, where they stumbled upon nomadic people, fought against them, and, being impressed by their fighting skills, brought them to Europe. With time, the Sarmatians, who thanks to having been in alliance with the Romans, reinforced their new country in Eastern Europe, gained a good geopolitical knowledge; much better than that of surrounding them tribes, and created an independent mostly military nation. Meantime, the alliance with the empire had been broken. Now, there is no convincing evidence of the language spoken in this new kingdom, but someone was responsible for spreading Slavic languages across EE, and, for me, the Sarmatians are a good candidate, the more so that there is no other in view.