Taifals
Encyclopedia
The Taifals, Taifali, Taifalae, Tayfals, or Theifali were a people settled by the late Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 in Poitou
Poitou
Poitou was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers.The region of Poitou was called Thifalia in the sixth century....

 in the fourth century. They served as dediticii
Dediticii
In the Roman Empire, the dediticii were one of the three classes of libertini. The dediticii existed as a class of persons who were neither slaves, nor cives, nor Latini, at least as late as the time of Ulpian...

and laeti
Laeti
Laeti, the plural form of laetus, was a term used in the late Roman Empire to denote communities of barbari permitted to, and granted land to, settle on imperial territory on condition that they provide recruits for the Roman military...

in the Roman and subsequently Merovingian militaries. They were a nomadic, bellicose people, fighting primarily as cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

.

Settlement in Oltenia

One of the earliest mentions of the Taifals puts them in the following of the Gothic
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

 king Cniva
Cniva
Cniva was the Gothic chieftain who invaded the Roman Empire in the third century CE. He successfully conquered the city of Philippopolis, now present day Bulgarian city Plovdiv, and killed the emperor Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus at the Battle of Abrittus as he was attempting to leave...

 when he campaigned in Dacia
Dacia
In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...

 and Moesia
Moesia
Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...

 in 250 and the years following. They were probably not Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...

 (though some sources consider them closely related to the Goths), but rather related to the Sarmatians
Sarmatians
The Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....

, with whom they emigrated from the Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

tic steppes.

In the late third century they settled on the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

 on both sides of the Carpathians, dividing the territory with the Goths, who maintained political authority over all of it. In Spring 291 they formed a special alliance with the Gothic Thervingi
Thervingi
The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains west of the Dnestr River in the 3rd and 4th Centuries CE. They had close contacts with the Greuthungi, another Gothic people from east of the Dnestr River, as well as the Late Roman Empire...

, forming a tribal confederation from this date until 376, and fought the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

 and Gepids: Tervingi, pars alia Gothorum, adiuncta manu Taifalorum, adversum Vandalos Gipedesque concurrunt. Along with the Victufali, the Taifals and Thervingi were the tribes mentioned as having possessed the former Roman province of Dacia by 350 "at the very latest". Archaeological evidence suggests that the Gepids were contesting Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

, the region around Szamos, with the Thervingi and Taifals. The Taifals were subsequently made foederati
Foederati
Foederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...

of the Romans, from whom they obtained the right to settle in Oltenia
Oltenia
Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river ....

. They were at that time independent of Gothia
Gothia
Gothia is a name given to various places where the Goths lived during their migrations:* Götaland, the traditional original homeland of the Goths.* Dacia was referred to as Gothia during the fourth century, when it was settled by Goths....

.

In 328 Constantine the Great conquered Oltenia and the Taifals, probably taking this opportunity to resettle a large number in Phrygia
Phrygia
In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges , changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the...

, in the diocese of Nicholas of Myra. In 332 he sent his son Constantine II
Constantine II (emperor)
Constantine II , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 340. Co-emperor alongside his brothers, his short reign saw the beginnings of conflict emerge between the sons of Constantine the Great, and his attempt to exert his perceived rights of primogeniture ended up causing his death in a failed invasion of...

 to attack the Thervingi, who were routed. According to Zosimus
Zosimus
Zosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...

 (ii.31.3), a 500-man Taifal cavalry regiment engaged the Romans in a "running fight", and there is no evidence that this campaign was a failure. Nonetheless, the Taifals largely fell into the hands of the Romans at this time.

Around 336 they revolted against Constantine and were put down by the generals Herpylion, Virius Nepotianus, and Ursus. By 358 the Taifals were independent foederati of Rome and Oltenia lay outside Roman control. They launched campaigns as allies of the Romans from their own Oltenic bases, against the Limigantes (358 and 359) and the Sarmatians (358). However, campaigns against the Thervingi by the emperor Valens
Valens
Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...

 in 367 and 368 were inhibited by the independence of Oltenia. It is possible, however, that the Taifals at this time were still fighting alongside the Goths. In 365 the emperor ordered the construction of defensive towers in Dacia Ripensis
Dacia Ripensis
Dacia Ripensis was the name of a Roman province first established by Aurelian circa 283 AD, south of the Danube River, after he withdrew from Dacia Traiana.-History:...

, but whether this was Oltenia is unclear. Archaeological evidence evidences no sedes Taifalorum (Taifal settlements) west of the Olt River
Olt River
The Olt River is a river in Romania. It is the longest river flowing exclusively through Romania. Its source is in the Hăşmaş Mountains of the eastern Carpathian Mountains, near the village Bălan. It flows through the Romanian counties Harghita, Covasna, Braşov, Sibiu, Vâlcea and Olt...

.

Crossing the Danube

With the Iazyges
Iazyges
The Iazyges were an ancient nomadic tribe. Known also as Jaxamatae, Ixibatai, Iazygite, Jászok, Ászi, they were a branch of the Sarmatian people who, c. 200 BC, swept westward from central Asia onto the steppes of what is now Ukraine...

 and the Carpi
Carpians
The Carpi or Carpiani were an ancient people that resided, between not later than ca. AD 140 and until at least AD 318, in the former Principality of Moldavia ....

, the Taifals were harassing the Roman province of Dacia in the mid fourth century. However, the arrival of a new threat—Huns—from Central Asia changed the political layout of Dacia: "the Huns threw themselves upon the Alans, the Alans upon the Goths, and the Goths upon the Taifali and Sarmatae." Athanaric
Athanaric
Athanaric was king of several branches of the Thervingian Goths for at least two decades in the fourth century. His name, Athanareiks, means "Year King" or "King for the Year" comes from the Gothic word Athni meaning "year" and the Gothic Reiks meaning "king."A probable rival of Fritigern, another...

 had refused to extend his defensive preparations to the Taifalian territory and the Huns forced the Taifals to abandon Oltenia and western Muntenia
Muntenia
Muntenia is a historical province of Romania, usually considered Wallachia-proper . It is situated between the Danube , the Carpathian Mountains and Moldavia , and the Olt River to the west...

 by 370. The Taifals allied with the Greuthungi
Greuthungi
The Greuthungs, Greuthungi, or Greutungi were a Gothic people of the Black Sea steppes in the third and fourth centuries. They had close contacts with the Thervingi, another Gothic people from west of the river Dnestr. They may be the same people as the later Ostrogoths.-Etymology:"Greuthungi" may...

 of Farnobius
Farnobius
Farnobius was a Gothic chief who died by the hand of Frigeridus's troops in 377 while trying to take over the town of Illyricium....

 against Rome; they crossed the Danube in 377, but were defeated
Battle of the Willows
The Battle of the Willows took place at a place called ad Salices , or according to Roman records, a road way-station called Ad Salices ; probably located within 15 kilometres of Marcianople , although its exact location is unknown...

 in late autumn that year. The Taifals were prominent among the survivors of Farnobius' coalition. After the Gothic victory at Adrianople
Battle of Adrianople
The Battle of Adrianople , sometimes known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis, was fought between a Roman army led by the Roman Emperor Valens and Gothic rebels led by Fritigern...

 (378) under Fritigern
Fritigern
Fritigern or Fritigernus was a Tervingian Gothic chieftain whose decisive victory at Adrinaople the Gothic War extracted favourable terms for the Goths when peace was made with Gratian in 382.-War against Athanaric:...

, the Thervingian king Athanaric began to assail the Taifals. Athanaric had not included the Taifals in his defensive construction efforts against the Huns earlier (376). The breaking of the alliance between Thervingia and Taifal may have had something to do with disagreements over tactics in light of the Huns and the crossing of the Danube, the Taifals being horsemen and the Thervingi infantry.

Sometime before their conversion to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...

 wrote:

It is said that this nation of the Taifali was so profligate, and so immersed in the foulest obscenities of life, that they indulged in all kinds of unnatural lusts, exhausting the vigour both of youth and manhood in the most polluted defilements of debauchery. But if any adult caught a boar or slew a bear single-handed, he was then exempted from all compulsion of submitting to such ignominious pollution.

The Taifals were probably never Arians
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...

. Their conversion to the Orthodox Catholic
Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the...

 faith probably occurred through Roman evangelism in the mid fifth century.

Coloni and laeti of the Empire

Subsequent to their defeat and falling out with Athanaric, the Taifals were officially resettled as coloni
Colonus (person)
A colonus was a type of Roman peasant farmer, a serf. This designation was carried into the Medieval period for much of Europe.Coloni worked on large Roman estates called "latifundia" and could never leave. Latifundia raised sheep and other types of cattle...

to farm lands in northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...

 (Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....

, Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....

, Reggio, Emilia
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....

) and Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...

 by the victorious general Frigeridus
Frigeridus
Frigeridus may refer to:*Frigeridus, Roman general, commander of the army of Pannonia Valeria under Gratian, fought in the Battle of the Willows .*Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, fifth century historian...

. Abandoned Oltenia was settled by the Huns c. 400. Some Taifals allied with the Huns as early as 378, and some were later still allied with them at the Battle of Châlons
Battle of Chalons
The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains , also called the Battle of Châlons sur Marne, took place in AD 451 between a coalition led by the Visigothic king Theodoric I and the Roman general Flavius Aëtius, against the Huns and their allies commanded by their leader Attila...

 (451). However, the victory of Adrianople
Battle of Adrianople
The Battle of Adrianople , sometimes known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis, was fought between a Roman army led by the Roman Emperor Valens and Gothic rebels led by Fritigern...

 in 378 meant that those Taifals who remained with the Visigoths fought against their cousins at Châlons. In 412, the Taifals entered Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...

 in the train of the Visigoths.

The Taifals were often teamed with the Sarmatians and the Citrati iuniores by the Romans and subsequently by Clovis I
Clovis I
Clovis Leuthwig was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs. He was also the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul . He was the son...

. According to the Notitia Dignitatum
Notitia Dignitatum
The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western empires, listing several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial...

of the early fifth century, there was a unit called the Equites Taifali established by Honorius
Honorius (emperor)
Honorius , was Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the eastern emperor Arcadius....

 under the comes Britanniarum
Comes Britanniarum
Comes Britanniarum was a military post in Roman Britain, with command of the mobile field army from the mid 4th century onwards.It is listed in the Notitia Dignitatum as being one of the three commands in Britain, along with the Dux Britanniarum and Comes litoris Saxonici...

in Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...

 between 395 and 398. Possibly this unit may have been sent to the island by Stilicho
Stilicho
Flavius Stilicho was a high-ranking general , Patrician and Consul of the Western Roman Empire, notably of Vandal birth. Despised by the Roman population for his Germanic ancestry and Arian beliefs, Stilicho was in 408 executed along with his wife and son...

 in 399, and they may have been the same unit as the Equites Honoriani seniores mentioned around the same time. Thus, the Equites Honoriani Taifali seniores served in Britain while the Equites Honoriani Taifali iuniores served in Gaul under the magister Equitum. They used the dragon-and-pearl device on their shields.

Presence in Merovingian Gaul

Also according to the Notitia, there was a praefectus Sarmatarum et Taifalorum gentilium, Pictavis in Galia, that is, a Sarmatian and Taifal prefect
Prefect
Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....

 in Poitiers
Poitiers
Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...

 in Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

. The region of Poitou was even called Thifalia or Theiphalia (Theofalgicus) in the sixth century. The Taifals were instrumental in defeating the Visigothic cavalry hand to hand at the Battle of Vouillé
Battle of Vouillé
The Battle of Vouillé or Vouglé was fought in the northern marches of Visigothic territory, at Vouillé, Vienne near Poitiers , in the spring of 507 between the Franks commanded by Clovis and the Visigoths of Alaric II, the conqueror of Spain.Clovis and Anastasius I of the Byzantine Empire agreed...

 in 507. Finally, the Notitia refers to a troop called the Comites Taifali who were formed by the emperor Theodosius the Great and served in the Eastern Empire.

Under the Merovingians, Theiphalia had its own dux
Dux
Dux is Latin for leader and later for Duke and its variant forms ....

(duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...

). It is possible that the Taifal laeti who had served the Romans also served as garrisons for the Franks, but this is not referred to in primary records. The laeti were formally integrated into the Merovingian military establishment under Childebert I
Childebert I
Childebert I was the Frankish king of Paris, a Merovingian dynast, one of the four sons of Clovis I who shared the kingdom of the Franks upon their father's death in 511...

. Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours
Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...

, the principal source for the Taifals in the sixth century, says that a certain Frankish dux named Austrapius "oppressed" the Taifals (probably in the vicinity of Tiffauges
Tiffauges
Tiffauges is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France.-History:Gilles de Rais had his castle there....

); they revolted and killed him. The last mention of the Taifals as a distinct gens dates from year 565, but their Oltenic remnants almost certainly took part in the Lombard
Lombards
The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

 migration and invasion of Italy in 568.

The most famous Taifal was Saint Senoch
Senoch
Saint Senoch was a Taifal abbot and saint. He was born in Tiffauges, in Poitou. He founded a monastery in 536, serving as abbot. They established themselves at a place now called Saint-Senoch, which was the site of some Roman ruins. St...

, who founded an abbey at the Roman ruins which are now called Saint-Senoch
Saint-Senoch
Saint-Senoch is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.-References:*...

. The Taifal influence extended into the ninth century and their fortresses, like Tiffauges and Lusignan
Lusignan
The Lusignan family originated in Poitou near Lusignan in western France in the early 10th century. By the end of the 11th century, they had risen to become the most prominent petty lords in the region from their castle at Lusignan...

, continued in use under the Carolingians. It has even been suggested that the Asiatic Taifals and Sarmatians influenced the Germanic arts
Migration Period art
Migration Period art denotes the artwork of the Germanic peoples during the Migration period . It includes the Migration art of the Germanic tribes on the continent, as well the start of the Insular art or Hiberno-Saxon art of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic fusion in the British Isles...

. They also left their mark in the municipal nomenclature of the region: asides from Tiffauges, mentioned above, Taphaleschat
Saint-Sulpice-les-Bois
Saint-Sulpice-les-Bois is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.-Geography:The Triouzoune has its source in the northwestern part of the commune; it flows southeast through the commune and forms part of its southeastern border.-History:...

http://maps.google.fr/maps?hl=fr&num=30&q=Taphaleschat+Saint-Sulpice-les-Bois&ie=UTF8&split=0&gl=fr&ei=zoiaSv3dH5qsjAeN34m7BQ&ll=46.739861,4.350586&spn=15.511101,27.817383&t=h&z=5&iwloc=A in Corrèze
Corrèze
Corrèze is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.-History:...

, Touffailles
Touffailles
Touffailles is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France.-References:*...

 and Touffaillou
Cazes-Mondenard
Cazes-Mondenard is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France.-References:*...

 in Aquitaine, and Chauffailles
Chauffailles
Chauffailles is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.-References:*...

 (formerly Taïfailia) in Burgundy owe their names to Taifal settlement. Perhaps the town of Tafalla
Tafalla
Tafalla is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain.-External links:**...

 in the Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

 owes its name to these people, but if so, it is unknown if the Taifals were established in Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....

 (probably to subdue the Basques) by the Romans before 412 or by the Visigoths after that. The town of Taivola in northern Italy was also a Taifal settlement.

External links

  • Riders of the Comitatus historical reenactment
    Historical reenactment
    Historical reenactment is an educational activity in which participants attempt torecreate some aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913, or as broad as an entire...

     and living history
    Living history
    Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to reenact a specific event in history, living history is...

    group portray members of the late Roman Equites Honoriani Taifali seniores in northern England
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