Geten

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The Geten or Getai were an Indo-European equestrian people of early antiquity . Whether and how far they were related to Dacians and / or Thracians is disputed. Although they belong to the ancestors of the Romanians along with other peoples , not much can be found in the literature about them, as they have been assigned to different peoples under different names.

history

Thracian prehistoric times

There are no sources whatsoever about the origin of the Thracians, Dacians or Geten. Like the Teutons , they were a people without writing. It is not known whether they immigrated or always lived there. Since this is a settlement area that has been inhabited since prehistoric times, the origin of these tribes can only be determined genetically. Accordingly, they are likely to be of old European origin, i. H. from both northern and southern Europe. However, it is certain that they were not Celts .

This also corresponds to the tradition of the Greeks , who generally considered the Thracians to be a very old people. The veneration for Apollon and Dionysus is known , which possibly goes back to an old European pantheon .

The Thracians maintained peaceful relations with various tribes of the Germanic, Sarmatian , as well as the Pannoni , Illyrians and Epiroten . It is said that u. a. a tribe of the Far North - known only as Hyperborea - regularly sent offerings to shrines in the Epirus region and the Dacian sanctuary of Apollo. It is believed that this is a very old route between the Baltic Sea and the Thracians, which passed through the East Germanic tribes. A Baltic amber road beginning on the Oder also led to Thrace and was used intensively for centuries.

Thracian (Dacian) time

The Geten settled in the 5th century BC. BC (according to other sources as early as the 7th century) west of the Black Sea between the Ister (the lowest Danube) and the eastern Balkans - for example in the area between today's Moldavia and eastern Bulgaria , also on both sides of the lower Danube ( Dobrudscha and Bessarabia ).

The Geten people are first mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus . They were already familiar with the smelting and processing of iron into weapons, work tools and jewelry, but they left no writings. Almost all knowledge about them comes from ancient Greek and Roman sources.

Greek time

At that time, the Greeks set up various trading colonies around the Black Sea coast and founded city-states , e.g. B. 657 BC BC Istros (today Istria in Dobruja), Kallatis (today Mangalia on the Romanian-Bulgarian border), and 550 BC Chr. Tomis ( Constanța ). In the ensuing trade, the Geto-Dacian tribes exchanged Greek luxury articles, wine and oil for grain, honey and wax. At the time of Lysimachus , Dromichaites was king.

Dacian Empire

From approx. 200 BC Bastarnen and Skiren appear which, according to Strabo, were adjacent to the Dacians in the settlement area of ​​the Geten.

In the 1st century before and after Christ, the settlement areas of the Dacians and Geten were largely united in the Dacian Empire. The best-known personality of this first kingdom is King Burebista (around 70-44 BC), who united and conquered the Greek city-states on the Black Sea coast around 50 BC. BC and probably had Geten and Bastarnen in his wake.

In contrast to the Macedonians under Philip V , who gained hegemony over Greece in the 2nd century, a large armed force led by the Bastarnen Clondicus is mentioned. Augustus again boasts of having led legions of the “Scythian” Bastarnen and Sarmatians. In the Marcomann Wars against Germanic, Thracian and Sarmatian tribes, Marcus Aurelius took action against Bastarns and Peukins. The Greeks named the Bastarnen as Galatians, Geten or even Scythians. Later Roxolans were also mentioned in this area. From the written sources it cannot be inferred which of these tribal groups the Getes were, since apparently all came from the same settlement area. So one can probably assume an ethnogenesis.

Roman Empire and Great Migration

During and after Roman rule (106–270), the Getes and Dacians mixed with immigrants of various origins and, according to most ethnologists, formed the basis of today's Romanian people. The name Romania, which the Romans gave to the country according to their self-portrait, comes from this time in order to wipe out the Dacian-Thracian past and to assert their claim to the country. It is also known that Dacian, Thracian and Getic horsemen served in the most remote areas of the Roman Empire. Accordingly, they resettled retired soldiers and buffer peoples such as B. the Bastarnen in their Romania . Further shares, u. a. Goths , Huns , Slavs and Avars were added with the migration of peoples and the waves of migration of the 3rd to 8th centuries. The Magyars who immigrated to the west and Transylvania from 900 onwards , however, hardly assimilated.

Slavic time

Instead, the Getes were now called Tiwerzen and were considered Slavs in the centuries that followed. Between the 8th and 12th centuries they inhabited the areas between the Prut and Southern Bug rivers to the coast of the Black Sea. The capital of the Tiwerzen was called Peresetschen and was founded by the Pechenegs .

According to the chronicles, they took part in the Russo-Byzantine War in 907 and marched against Constantinople with the Kiev prince Oleg . This was repeated during the war of 941–944 under Prince Igor . Shortly afterwards they became part of the Kievan Rus . Under pressure from the Pechenegs and Polovzians, they moved north in the 12th century.

In the area between Dnestr and Prut, the remains of some Slavic settlements (e.g. in Alcedar and Echimăuţi), which are associated with the Tiwerzen, have been preserved.

Tiwerzen (Тиверцы) on the map of East Slavic tribes in the 7th to 8th centuries

Disappearance and afterlife of the Geten

The popular name of the Geten was used by the Dacians in the first centuries after Christianity and thus disappeared from history. The Dako-Thracian language is now considered to be extinct, but cultural elements have of course been preserved, supplemented by the traditions of the numerous immigrants. Ethnologically, the transition to the “ Wallachians ” is very likely. B. These are described in the Nibelungenlied as part of the entourage of the Hun king Etzel ( Attila ). Their leader, Lord Ramunc, is even named as the first of the 24 princes of the suite.

"XXII. Like Etzel with Kriemhilde brood IQ3
Before Etzelen dem künege / an ingesinde rides 1342
vrö and vil riche / Höfsch unt gemeit,
wol four and two princes, / tiur unde her.
daz si ir vrouwen saw, / there from narrower no more.
The duke Ramunc / üzer Wlächen lant, 1343
with siben hundred men / kom he for si gerant:
sam vgende vosele / so sach man si varn.
do the prince Gibeche / with a lot of herlichen sharn. "

The term “Wallachia” originally comes from the Germanic term “welsch” and was used by South Slavic and then partly Latin and Greek mediation in various areas to denote mainly Romanized or Romanic ethnic groups. Wallachia and Transylvania play a major role in the medieval fairytale world of the Germans, who portray it as an empire shrouded in legend.

The (Dako) Romanian language developed in the Geto-Dacian area, the later principalities of Wallachia , Moldova and Transylvania or Transylvania . The exact circumstances of the ethnogenesis of the Romanian people and their language are the subject of a research controversy over the Dako-Romance theory of continuity .

Mythological understanding

The getes are part of various sagas that are linked in a rather complicated way. In the years from approx. 200 to 400 they are called Goths . In the Gothic Chronicle of the Jordanes they are referred to as Amaler , Terwingen or Greutungen .

Under the leadership of the Quad Chieftain Vithimiris , they then fought against the Alans and Huns in the west , founding an offshoot there, known as the Danube or Neckar Suebi , which Jordanes calls "Suevia" and which in turn has an offshoot in Galicia , where 409 to 438 Ermenrich (Germanic Armerich , Latin Hermanarici, Spanish and Portuguese Hermerico ; * around 360, † 441) ruled, from where they translated them to Ireland and are regarded as Godelic-Gallic Milesians .

The other part of the Goths, the Ostrogoths , join Attila . After his death they form an "alliance of the discontented" from Gepids , Heruler , Skiren , Rugier and Ostrogoths. They defeat Attila's son Ellac under the Gepid King Ardarich . There, under their leader Edekon, a realm of the Skiren arises in the Pannonian Plain . Thus in the 5th and 6th centuries they are only known as the Ostrogoths.

You will become part of a huge complex of myths about the mythical Nibelungen , Attila and the Great Migration . Above all in the saga cycle of the Middle High German Dietrichepik of the 13th century and in the Thidrek saga , Ermanarich appears in the role of the adversary of Dietrich von Bern , which in the older Hildebrand song of the 9th century Odoacer , son of Edekon (Edika), hardly knows about his origin Information gives. It is known, however, that he led the Skiren and Ostrogoths and that his father Edekon and Ardarich defeated Attila's son Ellac.

According to legend about the Irish conquest , he is a brother of Hunimund Filius Hermanarich who served Attila.

In addition, the heroic songs Guðrúnarhvöt and Hamðismál of the older Edda also belong to the myth complex.

The saga can also be found in various versions in Snorri , in the Völsunga saga and in Saxo Grammaticus . In Germany, however, this saga never becomes literary. However, elements from it appear in the Quedlinburg annals (the names are Hemidus, Serila) and in Ekkehard von Aura (Hamidiecus, Sarelo). Ermanarich also appears in the old English heroic epic Beowulf , in Widsith and Deor .

It is possible that in the Middle High German Ermenrich legend, in addition to the Gothic king, traditions about the Suebian king Ermenrich of the same name, an important Germanic military leader of the great migration of the early 5th century, were incorporated.

The Gotin Ildikó , who is best known in German as Kriemhild, goes up in the Gudrunsaga or the Völsunga saga . There is also a Chuvash epic about the saga of the Nibelungs called Attil and Krimkilte .

In addition, they are part of the Getica by Jordanes, which equates the Visigothic Getenkönig Ermanarich der Greutungen and the Galician Quaden-King Ermenrich and attests him a fabulous age of 110 years. This can be explained by the fact that the heir of Ermanarich, the Quade Vithimiris, in turn had a son named Ermenrich, who became king of the Suebian Empire (409 to 438) in Galicia and who are regarded as the Goidelic Celts . His son Hunimund "Filius Hermanarici" (* around 395; † after 469 in "Suavia") alias Fridrec in the Thidrek saga sends his son Agilulf (* around 420; † around 482) alias Agnomain to Ireland, which only his son reaches, and thus becomes a mythical progenitor of the Irish Milesians.

Ardarich skilfully exploited the collapse of the Hunnic area and founded the Gepids empire between the Danube, Tisza, Alto and Carpathians, which lasted until the 6th century. From the 8th century this people is referred to as the Slavic people of the Tiwerzen in the Russian chronicles. In the meantime they go into the "Book of the Lands of Ireland" as Scythians , while they are called Gauls with their western establishment in Galicia . This corresponds to the mention that her family was once king in Rome (Odoacer).

The Tiwerzen also played an important role in the wars of the Kiever Rus and the Russian kings, so that the saga continues here. In addition, some researchers consider them to be Thracians, as they have so far hardly been recorded due to the chaotic names.

The Quedlinburg Annals were created around the turn of the previous millennium, but only survived in a single manuscript from the 16th century. They tell of a Gothic King Ermanarich who, after the death of his only son Friedericus, had his nephews Embrica and Fritila hung on the gallows . He also forced his nephew Theodericus (corresponds to Dietrich von Bern) at the instigation of his (other) nephew Odoacer to flee Verona and go into exile with King Attila.

Wincenty Kadłubek, bishop in Kraków (1208-1218) thought the Jatwingers were Geten. Aleksander Brückner drew attention to the possible fascination of the Krakow bishop with classical reading. Kadłubek declared their pagan beliefs to be common to all Geten (Ėst enim omnium Getharum communis dementia).

In the 16th century, the ballad Koninc Ermenrîkes Dôt was printed on a leaflet in the Low German-speaking area with greatly changed content.

Geographic reception

The popular name Geten has been preserved in Romania in the geographical names Getische Vorarpaten (Romanian Subcarpații Getici ) for the outer foreland of the Southern Carpathians and Getische Plateau (Romanian Podișul Getic ) for the transition area between the Carpathian Mountains and the Romanian Plain . The western and central part of the Romanian Plain is also known as the Getic Plain , Getic Senke (Romanian: Depresiunea Getică ) or Getic Basin .

See also

Remarks

  1. See Strab. III 128. VII 289. 294ff. 305f. Plin. nh IV 80f. 100
  2. Cf. Polybius , from which Livius draws, and in Plutarch a. O.
  3. See Appian.
  4. See Dio LI 23
  5. Cf. Maximilian Ihm : Bastarnae . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Col. 110-113.
  6. Aleksander Brückner, 1979, 34–35 in: Starožytna Litwa. Ludy i bogi / Szkice historyczne i mitologiczne.-Olsztyn: Pojezierze, 1979.-238 p.

literature