From: gknysh
Message: 67719
Date: 2011-06-10
> Completely out of the blue an Aestian delegate visited the proconsul****GK: Cf.
> of the eastern Roman Emperor, conqueror of Italy, and handed over a
> set of amber as a present to him.10 The Gothic King was uncertain of
> the purpose of the present. He had only heard about the existence of
> the 'barbarians' from the accounts of Cornelius (Tacitus) written down
> hundreds of years earlier. From the quill of Cassiodorus, the
> scholarly Roman chancellor, came the answer: "The arrival of your
> delegates informed us of your wish to enter into acquaintance with us. etc. /cut for economy GK/
> 10 The Aestii took all the trouble to establish contact with their
> distant relatives (who had forgotten about their kins), either (?)
> because they carried a Germanic consciousness even in the sixth
> century, or they were actually Germanic � since after the Goths had
> advanced to the south-east the Germanic tribe of the Gepids stayed at
> the Vistula estuary for a long time (Lakatos 1973,47).