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Bastarnae
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The Bastarnae or Basternae were an ancient tribal group of probably mixed Celtic and Germanic origin which, between not later than 200 BC and until at least 300 AD, inhabited the region between the eastern Carpathian mountains and the Dnieper river (corresponding to the modern Republic of Moldova and western part of southern Ukraine). A branch of the Bastarnae, called the Peucini by Greco-Roman writers, occupied a part of the Danube river delta.
Although possibly Celtic-speaking in 179 BC, the Bastarnae probably were Germanic in language and culture during the 1st century AD, but appear to have become assimilated by their neighbouring Sarmatians by the 3rd century.
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The Bastarnae or Basternae were an ancient tribal group of probably mixed Celtic and Germanic origin which, between not later than 200 BC and until at least 300 AD, inhabited the region between the eastern Carpathian mountains and the Dnieper river (corresponding to the modern Republic of Moldova and western part of southern Ukraine). A branch of the Bastarnae, called the Peucini by Greco-Roman writers, occupied a part of the Danube river delta.
Although possibly Celtic-speaking in 179 BC, the Bastarnae probably were Germanic in language and culture during the 1st century AD, but appear to have become assimilated by their neighbouring Sarmatians by the 3rd century. Like the latter, they were probably semi-nomadic. It has not yet been possible to identify specific Bastarnae archaeological sites.
The Peucini branch of the Bastarnae first came into conflict with the Romans in the 1st century BC, when they resisted, ultimately unsuccessfully, Roman expansion into Moesia, the region on the southern bank of the Danube. Although probably on friendly terms with the Romans in the early 1st century, there is little evidence of the Peucini until ca. 180, when they are recorded as participating in an invasion of Roman territory in alliance with Sarmatian and Dacian elements. In the mid 3rd century, the Bastarnae were part of a Gothic-led grand coalition of lower Danube tribes which inflicted immense damage on the Balkan provinces of the Roman empire in a series of massive invasions. Large numbers of Bastarnae were resettled within the empire in the late 3rd century.
Name etymology
The origin of the tribal name is uncertain. One possible derivation is from the proto-Germanic word *bastjan (from proto-Indo-European root word *bhas) means "binding" or "tie". In this case, Bastarnae may have had the original meaning of an alliance or bund of tribes. The Roman term basterna, denoting a type of wagon or litter, may be derived from the name of this tribe, which was known, like many Germanic tribes, to travel with a wagon-train for their families.
Ethno-linguistic affiliation
Livy, the Roman historian, writing in ca. 10 AD, may imply that the Bastarnae were of Celtic origin. Relating events of ca. 180 BC, he describes them then as "similar in language and customs" to the Scordisci, a tribe of Illyria described as Celtic by Strabo (although he adds that they had mingled with Illyrians and Thracians). Livy also names their king, Cotto. This name is possibly of Celtic derivation (cf. Cottius, king of the Alpine Salassi tribe and friend of Augustus, after whom were named the Alpes Cottiae Roman province and the Cotini Celtic tribe of the northern Carpathians. Both prob. derived from cotto- = "old"). Some scholars suggest that the Bastarnae were originally a mixed Celto-Germanic group. If so, they may have originally comprised residual Celtic elements in central eastern Europe such as the Cotini, who formed a Celtic enclave in the Germanic-speaking zone and are described by Tacitus as iron-ore miners working as tributaries of the powerful Quadi Germanic people.
In any case, other Greco-Roman writers of the 1st century AD are unanimous that the Bastarnae were, in their own time, Germanic in language and culture. The Greek geographer Strabo, writing ca. 5-20 AD, says the Bastarnae are "of Germanic stock", although he includes the non-Germanic Roxolani, a Sarmatian tribe, among the sub-tribes of the Bastarnae (probably in error). The Roman geographer Pliny the Elder (ca. 77 AD), refers to "Bastarnae and other Germans". The Roman historian Tacitus (ca. 100 AD), states: "The Peucini, however, who are sometimes called Bastarnae, are like Germans in their language, way of life and types of dwelling and live in similar squalor and indolence...[However] mixed marriages are giving them to some extent the vile appearance of the Sarmatians."
In the 3rd century, however, the Greek historian Dio Cassius states that the "Bastarnae are properly classed as Scythians" and "members of the Scythian race". Likewise, the 6th century historian Zosimus, reporting events around 280 AD, refers to "the Bastarnae, a Scythian people". This seems to imply that the miscegenation mentioned by Tacitus had, by the 3rd century, resulted in the Bastarnae becoming assimilated by the Sarmatians, possibly adopting their tongue (which belonged to the Iranic group of Indo-European languages) and/or Sarmatian customs.
Territory
It is generally assumed by scholars that the Bastarnae's original home was around the Vistula river (central Poland) and that they migrated south-eastwards to the Black Sea region around 200 BC (as, 400 years later, did the Gothic ethnos).
Strabo describes the Bastarnae territory vaguely as "between the Ister (r. Danube) and the Borysthenes (r. Dnieper)". He identifies three sub-tribes of the Bastarnae: the Atmoni, Sidoni and Peucini. The latter derived their name from Peuce, a large island in the Danube delta which they had colonised. The 2nd- century geographer Ptolemy states that the Carpiani (Carpi) (believed to have occupied Moldavia, Rom.) separated the Peucini from the other Bastarnae "above Dacia". The consensus among modern scholars is that the Bastarnae were, in the 2nd century, divided into two main groups. The larger group inhabited the north-eastern slopes of the Carpathians and the area between the Prut and Dnieper rivers (Moldova Republic/W Ukraine), while a separate smaller group (the Peucini) dwelt in and North of the Danube delta region. Only the Peucini, therefore, were situated on the border of the Roman empire, that is, on the extreme northern border of the province of Moesia Inferior, which ran along the southernmost branch of the Danube delta.
Material culture
It is uncertain whether the Bastarnae were sedentary or nomadic (or semi-nomadic). Tacitus' statement that they were "German in their way of life and types of dwelling" implies a sedentary bias, but their close relations with the Sarmatians, who were nomadic, may indicate a more nomadic lifestyle, as does the wide geographical range of their attested inhabitation.
It has not to date been possible to identify individual archaeological sites as belonging to the Bastarnae, because no convincing typology of Bastarnae artefacts exists. It has been suggested that the Bastarnae are an especially good match, in location and in time, for the Zarubintsy culture, despite the fact that it was centred somewhat to the North of the main area of Bastarnae residence. This culture, which flourished in the upper Dnieper and Pripyat rivers between ca. 300 BC and 200 AD, was sedentary, based on agriculture and the rearing of livestock. Its cultural artefacts show strong influences from the western steppe (i.e. Sarmatian influence) and, in a later phase, from the Roman Danubian provinces. But the Zarubintsy culture has also been "claimed" for the Venedi tribe, who are regarded by many scholars as proto-Slavic. In reality, it is not possible, on the current state of knowledge, to ascribe the Zarubintsy culture to any individual ethno-linguistic group. It is likely that Zarubintsy represents a wide range of peoples in the Poland- W. Ukraine region (possibly including the Bastarnae).
Starting in about 200 AD, the Chernyakhov culture became established in the W. Ukraine/Moldova region inhabited by the Bastarnae. The culture is characterised by a high degree of sophistication in the production of metal and ceramic artefacts, as well as of uniformity over a vast area. Although this culture has conventionally been identified with the migration of the Gothic ethnos into the region from the Northwest, Todd argues that its most important origin is Scytho-Sarmatian. Although the Goths certainly contributed to it, so probably did other peoples of the region such as the Dacians, proto-Slavs, Carpi, and possibly the Bastarnae.
Conflict with Rome
Roman republican era (to 30 BC)
and Moesia showing prominent tribes]]
(Dobruja), showing the Greek coastal cities of Histria, Tomis, Callatis and Dionysopolis (Istria, Constanta, Mangalia and Balchik). The Danube fortress of Genucla (Isaccea), taken by assault by Licinus Crassus in 28 BC, was located a short way upstream from Aegyssos (Tulcea)]]
The Bastarnae first appear in the historical record in 179 BC, when they crossed the Danube in massive force (probably ca. 60,000 men, both cavalry and infantry, and accompanying women and children), invited by their ally, Hellenistic king Philip V of Macedon. Philip planned to use the Bastarnae to carry out a double mission. First, he would unleash them against the Dardani, a warlike Illyrian tribe on Macedonia's northern border whose incessant raiding was causing havoc. After they had crushed the Dardani, he planned settle their families in Dardania (S. Kosovo/Skopje region). In a second phase, Philip aimed to launch the Bastarnae on an invasion of Italy via the Adriatic coast. Although he knew that it was unlikely that the Bastarnae could emulate the success of Hannibal's invasion some 40 years earlier, Philip hoped that the Romans would be distracted long enough to allow him to regain the parts of Greece that he had lost as a result of his disastrous defeat in the Second Macedonian War (200-196 BC). But Philip died while the Bastarnae were still en route through Thrace. There they became embroiled in hostilities with the locals, who were unable to provide them with sufficient food as they marched through. Probably in the vicinity of Philippopolis (Plovdiv, Bulg.), the Bastarnae broke out of their marching column and pillaged the land far and wide. The terrified local Thracians took refuge with their families and animal herds on the slopes of Mount Donuca, the highest mountain in Thrace (Mt. Musala, Rila Mts., Bulg.). A large force of Bastarnae chased them up the mountain, but were driven back by a massive hailstorm and then ambushed by the Thracians. Their descent became a panic-stricken rout. Back at their wagon-laager in the plain, a large number of Bastarnae decided to return home, leaving 30,000 to press on to Macedonia. Philip's son and successor Perseus deployed them in winter quarters in a valley in Dardania. But their camp was attacked in the depths of winter by the Dardani. Although the Bastarnae easily beat off the attackers, chased them back to their chief town, and besieged them, they lost their camp and baggage to a second force of Dardani who had approached in their rear by mountain paths. They were obliged to withdraw from Dardania and to return home. Many perished as they crossed the frozen Danube on foot, only for the ice to give way. In any event, Macedonia's long-term fate was sealed. 30 years after these events, Macedonia was permanently annexed as a province by Rome (148 BC).
The Bastarnae first came into direct conflict with Rome as a result of expansion into the lower Danube region by the proconsuls (governors) of Macedonia in the period 75-72 BC. Gaius Scribonius Curio (proconsul 75-3 BC) campaigned successfully against the Dardani and the Moesi, becoming the first Roman general to reach the Danube river with his army. His successor, Marcus Licinius Lucullus (brother of the famous Lucius Lucullus), campaigned against the Thracian Bessi tribe and the Moesi, ravaging the whole of Moesia, the region between the Haemus (Balkan) mountain range and the Danube. In 72 BC, his troops occupied the Greek coastal cities of Scythia Minor (mod. Dobruja region, Romania/Bulgaria), which had sided with Rome's Hellenistic arch-enemy, king Mithridates VI of Pontus, in the Third Mithridatic War (73-63 BC). The presence of Roman forces in the Danube delta was seen as a major threat by all the neighbouring transdanubian peoples: the Peucini Bastarnae, the Sarmatians and, most importantly, by Burebista (ruled 82-44 BC), king of the Getae, a Dacian people that occupied both sides of the Danube, who had unified the Getae into a powerful empire, which was reportedly able to muster 200,000 warriors at its peak. Burebista united the Transdanubians in a coalition to resist Roman expansion. The coalition's main chance came in 62 BC, when the Greek cities rebelled against Roman rule. In 61 BC, the notoriously oppressive and militarily incompetent proconsul of Macedonia, Gaius Antonius "Hybrida" ("The Monster", uncle of the famous Mark Antony) led an army against the Greek cities. As his army approached Histria (Sinoe), Antonius left his infantry without cavalry cover as he detached his entire mounted force from the marching column. Dio implies that he did so out of cowardice, in order to avoid the imminent clash with the opposition, but it is more likely that he was pursuing an enemy force, possibly a decoy. A Bastarnae host, which had crossed the Danube to assist the Histrians, promptly attacked, surrounded and routed the Roman infantry, capturing several of their vexilla (military standards). This battle resulted in the collapse of the Roman position on the lower Danube: the Greek cities accepted Burebista's suzerainty, while the subjugated "allied" tribes of Moesia and Thrace repudiated their treaties with Rome.
As dictator-for-life in 44 BC, Julius Caesar planned a major campaign against Burebista and his allies which would doubtless have led to the annexation of Moesia. But he was assassinated before the plan could be implemented. However, the campaign was partially rendered unnecessary by the overthrow and death of Burebista in the same year, after which his Getan empire fragmented into 5 independent kingdoms. These were militarily far weaker, as Strabo assessed their collective military potential at just 40,000 armed men, and were often involved in internecine warfare. The Dacians did not again become a threat to Roman hegemony in the lower Danube until the rise of Decebal 130 years later (86 AD). Nevertheless, there was no further Roman advance in the region before the end of the Roman civil wars in 30 BC.
Augustan era (30 BC - 14 AD)
Once he had established himself as sole ruler of the Roman state in 30 BC, Julius Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted son Augustus inaugurated a strategy of advancing the empire's eastern European border to the line of the Danube from the Alps, the Dinaric Alps and Macedonia, primarily to increase strategic depth between the border and Italy. On the lower Danube, which was given priority over the upper Danube, this required the annexation of Moesia and Thrace; the latter, however, was spared annexation as it was in the hands of a friendly king. The Romans' target were thus the tribes which inhabited Moesia, namely (from West to East) the Triballi, Moesi and those Getae who dwelt South of the Danube. The Bastarnae were also a target because they had recently subjugated the Triballi, whose territory lay on the southern bank of the Danube between the tributary rivers Ubus (Vit) and Ciabrus (Tsibritsa), with their chief town at Oescus (Gigen, Bulg.). In addition, Augustus wanted to avenge the defeat of C. Antonius 32 years before and to recover the lost standards, which Roman intelligence had located as held at Genucla (Isaccea, nr. Tulcea, Rom.), in the Danube delta region, a fortress controlled by Zyraxes, the local Getan king. The man selected for the task was Marcus Licinius Crassus, grandson of Crassus the triumvir and an experienced general at 33 years of age, who was appointed proconsul of Macedonia in 29 BC.
The Bastarnae provided the casus belli by crossing the Haemus and attacking the Denteleti, who were Roman allies. Crassus marched to the Dentheleti's assistance, but the Bastarnae host withdrew over the Haemus at his approach. Crassus followed them closely into Moesia but they would not be drawn into battle, withdrawing beyond the Tsibritsa. Crassus now turned his attention to the Moesi, his prime target. After a successful campaign which resulted in the submission of a large part of the Moesi, Crassus again sought out the Bastarnae. Discovering their location from some envoys they had sent to him, he lured them into battle near the Tsibritsa by a stratagem. Hiding his main body of troops in a wood, he stationed as bait a smaller force in open ground before the wood. As expected, the Bastarnae attacked the bait in force, only to find themselves entangled in the full-scale pitched battle with the Romans that they had tried to avoid. The Bastarnae were utterly defeated, and Crassus personally killed their king, Deldo, in combat. Many thousands of fleeing Bastarnae perished, many asphyxiated in nearby woods by encircling fires set by the Romans, others drowned trying to cross the Danube. Nevertheless, a substantial force did escape over the river and dug themselves into a naturally strong position. Crassus had to enlist the assistance of Rholes, the Getan king who ruled on the opposite bank, to destroy them. The following year (28 BC), Crassus marched on Genucla. King Zyraxes travelled into Scythia with his treasure to seek aid from the Bastarnae and Sarmatians. But before he was able to bring reinforcements, Genucla fell to a Roman land and fluvial assault. The strategic result of Crassus' campaigns was the permanent annexation of Moesia by Rome (although Moesia was not detached from Macedonia to form a separate province until 6 AD).
Roman imperial era (14 - 180)
The Acta Divi Augusti, a self-congratulatory inscription commissioned by Augustus to list his achievements, states that he received an embassy from the Bastarnae seeking a treaty of friendship. These would most likely have been the Peucini, who bordered on the empire. Such a treaty was seemingly remarkably effective, as the Bastarnae virtually disappear from the Roman chronicles until ca. 175 AD, some 160 years after the inscription was carved. But it should be stressed that the fragmentary nature of the evidence does not permit the conclusion that the Bastarnae did not engage in hostilities against the Roman empire during that enormous time-span. That view is at least arguable until ca. 70 AD, a period when the main Roman military operations are reasonably well-covered by the works of Tacitus, which contain only a single passing mention of the Bastarnae. But beyond that date, Tacitus' account of the Flavian period (70-96) is lost, as is Ammianus Marcellinus's continuation of Tacitus' work until 353. (Even Dio's inferior account is lost, except a cursory and fragmentary summary). As a consequence, the available evidence for a period when the focus of Roman military operations shifted from the Rhine to the lower Danube is very thin. It would be surprising if the Bastarnae had no involvement, on either side or on both, in the Dacian Wars of Domitian (r. 81-96) and Trajan (r. 98-117), since these took place in their region. But there is no evidence that they were involved. In the late 2nd century, the Historia Augusta mentions that in the rule of Marcus Aurelius (161-80), an alliance of lower Danube tribes including the Bastarnae, the Roxolani and the Dacian Costoboci took advantage of the emperor's difficulties on the upper Danube (the Marcomannic Wars) to attack Roman territory.
3rd century
During the late 2nd century, the main ethnic change in the northern Black sea region was the immigration, from the Vistula valley in the North, of the Goths and other accompanying tribes such as the Taifali and Asdingi. This migration was part of a series of major population movements in the European barbaricum (the Roman term for regions outside their empire). The Goths appear to have established a loose political hegemony over the existing tribes in the region, or at least to have played a leading role in a series of major invasions of the empire launched by a grand coalition of lower Danubian tribes from ca. 238 onwards. The participation of the Bastarnae in some of these is uncertain, due to the chroniclers' tendency to lump all these tribes under the general term of "Sarmatians" or "Scythians" (especially as, by this time, the Bastarnae may have become indistinguishable in culture and language from neighbouring Sarmatian tribes). But it is likely that the Bastarnae were always involved. In 250-1, the Bastarnae may have been involved in the Gothic and Sarmatian invasions which culminated in the catastrophic Roman defeat at the Battle of Abrittus and the slaying of the emperor Decius (251). The Roman defeat at Abrittus was the start of the Third Century Crisis, a period of military and economic collapse which came close to destroying the empire. At this critical moment, the Roman army was crippled by the outbreak of a second smallpox pandemic, the plague of Cyprian (251-70). The effects are described by Zosimus as even worse than the earlier Antonine plague (166-80), which probably killed 15-30% of the empire's inhabitants.
Taking advantage of Roman military disarray, a vast number of barbarian peoples overran much of the empire. The Sarmato-Gothic alliance of the lower Danube carried out major invasions in 252, and in the periods 253-8 and 260-8. The Peucini Bastarnae are specifically mentioned in the 267/8 invasion, when the coalition built a fleet in the estuary of the river Tyras (Dnieper). The Peucini Bastarnae would have been critical to this venture since, as coastal and delta dwellers, they would have had seafaring experience that the nomadic Sarmatians and Goths lacked. The barbarians sailed along the Black Sea coast to Tomis in Moesia Inferior, which they tried to take by assault without success. They then attacked the provincial capital Marcianopolis (Devnya, Bulg.), also in vain. Sailing on through the Bosporus, the expedition laid siege to Thessalonica in northern Greece. Driven off by Roman forces, the coalition host moved overland into Thracia, where it was destroyed by emperor Claudius II (r. 268-70) in two successive battles, at Nessos and Naissus (269).
Claudius II was the first of sequence of military emperors who restored order in the empire in the late 3rd century. These emperors followed a policy of large-scale resettlement within the empire of defeated barbarian tribes, granting them land in return for an obligation of military service much heavier than the usual conscription quota. The policy had the triple benefit, from the Roman point of view, of weakening the hostile tribe, bringing abandoned land in the frontier provinces back into cultivation and providing a pool of first-rate recruits for the army. But it could also be popular with the barbarian prisoners, who were often delighted by the prospect of a land grant within the empire. In the 4th century, such communities were known as laeti. The emperor Probus (r. 276-82) is recorded as resettling 100,000 Bastarnae in Moesia, in addition to other peoples.
Citations
Ancient
Modern
- Barrington (2000) Atlas of the Greek and Roman World
- Faliyeyev, Alexander (2007): Dictionary of Continental Celtic Placenames (online)
- Goldsworthy, Adrian (2000): Roman Warfare
- Köbler, Gerhard (2000): Indo-Germanisches Wörterbuch (online)
- Todd, Malcolm (2004): The early Germans
- Wolfram, Herwig (1988): History of the Goths
See also
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