Narisker

The settlement area of ​​the Varisker was in the south of the Germania, east of the Regnitz , between the Fichtelgebirge and the Bavarian Forest

Gravestone from Brigetio, around 173 AD: Ae (lio) Septimo opt (ioni) leg (ionis) I / [Ad] i (utricis) desideratus est / [bello 3] aris qui vix (it) ; possible Translation: "To Aelius Septimus, sergeant of the Legio I Adiutrix, missing in the war against the (N?) Arists , who lived ...". CIL 3, 4310

The Narisker (also called Naristen , Narister , Narisken , Varisker or Varasker ) are a tribe attested by several Greek and Roman authors . In his Germania (c. 42), Tacitus calls them Naristi , in the Late Antique Historia Augusta they are called Varistae (or Varisti ). In research, both mentions are usually regarded as authentic and related to the Nariskers, but the interpretation of their ethnonym is controversial; for Tacitus they were considered Teutons .

It is not certain where their exact settlement area was. So they settled in the area around the Marcomanni , Quaden and Armalausi , northwest of the Gabreta Silva , today's Bohemian Forest , and are considered to be one of the ancient tribes known by name in the Bavarian Nordgau . According to the Tabula Peutingeriana , the Narisci were located in the Vils and Naab valleys, between today's Amberg , Weiden in the Upper Palatinate and Kallmünz . Together with the Marcomanni the varisci fought in the 2nd century against the Romans in the Marcomanni wars and attacked Castra Regina on.

Cassius Dio reports that 3,000 Nariskers defected to the Romans and received land from them (Dio 71:21). Then the Narisker (Varisker) disappear from the sources under this name. The thesis put forward in older research that some of them were settled in Burgundy in the 4th century cannot be proven.

The Variscan orogeny is named after the Variskers and the city of Hof was first mentioned in the 4th century on the Tabula Peutingeriana in what is now northeastern Bavaria as Curia Variscorum, dt. Hof der Varisker .

literature

• Ernst Schwarz : The Naristen question from a naming point of view . In: Zeitschrift für Bayerische Landesgeschichte (ZBLG) 32 (1969), pp. 397–476.
• Alois John : In the Narisker district. Descriptions from the Egerland . 1888.
• Beatrix Günnewig , Günter Neumann :  Naristen. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 20, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-017164-3 , pp. 550-554.