Roxolans

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Sarmatian armored riders flee from the Roman cavalry

The Roxolans (from Alanian ruxs alan = "bright alan", Latin Roxolani , Greek Ροξολάνοι , from Iranian Raochshna = "white, light", that is, the bright, radiant ) were a Sarmatian tribe who lived between the 6th century BC. Chr. And the 4th century. Chr. West of the southern Dongebiets in today for Ukraine belonging steppe land was located. This area was known as Sarmatia in ancient times . Because of their archers and cataphracts , they were feared opponents.

history

The Roxolan cavalry warriors often fought against, but also for, the Bosporan Empire in their old homeland . Their tribal area there bordered that of the Alans . Possibly under pressure from the Goths , Aorsen and Alans, the Roxolans had left their old homeland in several waves that stretched over decades and had moved west like the Jazyans . After their arrival in Central Europe, the Roxolans kept their traditional way of life, even though they valued Roman luxury goods. In 62 AD they attacked the Roman province of Moesia for the first time . In the years 67/68 and in February 69 their warriors crossed the frozen Danube again with 9,000 men and repeated their plundering in the Mösian border area. The Bastarnen and the Dacians supported them on these campaigns . The allies managed to destroy an entire Roman legion in such an attack .

The Roxolans were allied with the last Dacian king Decebalus (approx. 85-105 AD), whose territory bordered the eastern border of the Jazygian settlement area. This king had successfully resisted the Roman troops and wrested, among other things, civil and military technology transfer from his opponent. He was able to conclude the pact with the Roxolans, who were then living in what is now southern Moldavia and southern Ukraine, unnoticed by the Romans. At the height of his power, Decebalus successfully attacked the Jazygens, allies of Rome, and wrested their eastern territories from them, which led to ongoing tensions with his allies, the Roxolans, as they maintained a good relationship with the Jazygian tribal relatives. Through contractually guaranteed subsidy payments , Rome succeeded in winning the Roxolans over as an alliance partner. During the subsequent Roman conquest of Dacia and the end of the Decebalus, the Romans adhered to these agreements. When the Dacian Wars were over, however, Rome may have reduced its tribute payments to the Roxolans shortly after 106. With the collapse of the Dacian Empire, which was dangerous for the Romans, the alliance with the Roxolans was probably no longer so important to the victors. Against expressions of displeasure, Emperor Trajan (98–117) also relied on the policy of deterrence for which his troops, victorious in Dacia, stood. But at the beginning of 117 this policy was no longer convincing. Jazygen and Roxolanen attacked the Danube provinces. As a result, resistance rose again in Dacia.

In autumn 117, Emperor Hadrian (117-138) was personally on the Danube front, took over the leadership of the campaign from Lower Moesia and was able to victoriously settle the fighting in 118. It may also have been Hadrian who now pursued a peace policy under which the Roxolans left both Moldova and Great Wallachia in the province of Moesia inferior .

During the Marcomann Wars in the years 166 to 180 the Roxolans and Jazygen were again allies against Rome and after their defeat had to accept harsh terms of peace. Later Roxolanen penetrated into the Great Hungarian Plain and mixed with the Jazygen. The settlement of Roxolans in the Banat , promoted under Emperor Philip Arabs (244–249), was supposed to make this unpredictable, belligerent cavalry people more controllable for Rome. In the south of the tribal area Roman troops stood on the Danube and in the east the Limes Alutanus, established under the emperors Trajan (98–117) and Hadrian (117–138), moved north from the Danube.

In the third century , which was politically uncertain for Rome , the Roxolans and the Jazyans used the situation again in 259/260 to break through with their raids to the south-western edge of the Pannonia superior province . They wreaked havoc on the northeastern area of ​​present-day Slovenia . In order to weaken their fighting power, Roman politics strove from the 3rd century onwards to settle Roxolanen and the Jazygen in the whole Roman Empire. The Notitia Dignitatum names 18 centers of Sarmatian settlement in Gaul and Italy alone . In addition, Sarmatian cataphracts now fought in the Roman armies. Many Sarmatians thus obtained Roman citizenship .

The Goths advancing south separated the touching borders of the Roxolanen and Jazygen areas in the 3rd century. In the same century, the Roxolans disappeared from the springs. From the beginning of the 4th century, the Sarmatian argaragants also settle in the Banat.

literature

  • Sarmatians. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Vol. 26., Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-11-017734-X . Pp. 503-512.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Körner: Philippus Arabs. A soldier emperor in the tradition of the Antonine-Severan principate. (Studies on ancient literature and history 61) . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2002, ISBN 3-11-017205-4 . P. 150.
  2. ^ Paul Lambrechts, et al. (Ed.): Outline of the history of ancient marginal cultures. Oldenbourg-Verlag, Munich 1961. p. 141.
  3. ↑ a b c Sarmatians. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Vol. 26., Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-11-017734-X . P. 505.
  4. ↑ Claude Lepelley: Rome and the Empire 44 BC. Chr. – 260 AD. Vol. 2. The regions of the empire . Publishing house KG Saur. Munich, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-598-77449-4 . P. 268.
  5. ^ Karl Strobel : Emperor Traian. An epoch in world history. Pustet, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 3791721720 , p. 225.
  6. ↑ Chr. M. Danov: The Thracians in the Eastern Balkans. In: Rise and Fall of the Roman World. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1979. ISBN 3110068753 . P. 169.
  7. ↑ a b Jörg Fündling: Commentary on Hadriani's Vita of Historia Augusta (=  Antiquitas 4) Habelt, Bonn 2006, ISBN 978-3-7749-3390-3 , p. 455.
  8. ↑ Jörg Fündling: Commentary on Hadriani's Vita of Historia Augusta (=  Antiquitas 4) Habelt, Bonn 2006, ISBN 978-3-7749-3390-3 , p. 405.
  9. ↑ Nicolae Gudea , Thomas Lobüscher: Dacia. A Roman province between the Carpathian Mountains and the Black Sea. von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 380533415X , p. 93.
  10. ^ Paul Lambrechts et al. (Ed.): Outline of the history of ancient marginal cultures. Oldenbourg-Verlag, Munich 1961, p. 141.
  11. ↑ Sarmatians. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Vol. 26., Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-11-017734-X . P. 511.
  12. ^ Christian Körner: Philippus Arabs. A soldier emperor in the tradition of the Antonine-Severan principate. (Studies on ancient literature and history 61) . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2002, ISBN 3-11-017205-4 . P. 151.
  13. ^ Slavko Ciglenečki: Slovenia. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Volume 29. Walter de Gruyter. Berlin 2005. ISBN 3-11-018360-9 . P. 123.