05-08-2014, 02:34 AM
Magister Militum Flavius Aetius wrote:
Hi Evan, I scanned the map off Rome and the Nomads: The Pontic-Danubian Realm in Antiquity by Roger Batty. He covers a fair bit in the first part of his book into the physical geography of the region, from temperature to rainfall, soils etc, going back to ancient times or Middle Ages using sources & archaeology mostly, travel routes between the lower Carpathians and the Danube and hydrology analyses of the Danube and mentions a few sources. His research basically says that the except for a few spots and the Delta itself the Southern bank was generally higher, less susceptible to flooding and easier to defend but that the Romans always seemed to have manpower problems in Moesia which probably explains why they encouraged migration by certain groups of people through their history from the time of Nero onwards. These vast wetland areas, mostly on the northern bank but also some areas on the south bank, which going by the map ran west along the Danube would not have been pleasant places to try and live except for the toughest in late Autumn or Summer, except for the hardiest hunters, as there would have been plenty of game and fish & probably played a factor in the reasoning for migrations. (Why were groups throughout history so keen to migrate or invade from the northern bank if it was such a great & pleasant place to live,). Can't help you too much with Hungarian Plain but I think the current wetlands of Hungary cover only about 10 to 25% of the area that used to be covered by ancient and medieval wetlands on the Hungarian plain especially the land between Tisza and Danube rivers.
Just on the wetlands of the Hungarian plain, Hugh Elton mentions in his book 'Warfare in Roman Europe AD350-425 how in 357AD in a Roman military operation against Sarmatians in Hungary that the Romans sent light armed troops in skiffs & taking the course which offered the greatest secrecy, came up to the lurking places of the Sarmatians to flush them out with spears and bows, so obviously at this time there were plenty of wetland areas around Hungary for the Iazyges to hide in about 80 years before Attila's time.
Regards
Michael Kerr
Quote:What's that figure from?
Hi Evan, I scanned the map off Rome and the Nomads: The Pontic-Danubian Realm in Antiquity by Roger Batty. He covers a fair bit in the first part of his book into the physical geography of the region, from temperature to rainfall, soils etc, going back to ancient times or Middle Ages using sources & archaeology mostly, travel routes between the lower Carpathians and the Danube and hydrology analyses of the Danube and mentions a few sources. His research basically says that the except for a few spots and the Delta itself the Southern bank was generally higher, less susceptible to flooding and easier to defend but that the Romans always seemed to have manpower problems in Moesia which probably explains why they encouraged migration by certain groups of people through their history from the time of Nero onwards. These vast wetland areas, mostly on the northern bank but also some areas on the south bank, which going by the map ran west along the Danube would not have been pleasant places to try and live except for the toughest in late Autumn or Summer, except for the hardiest hunters, as there would have been plenty of game and fish & probably played a factor in the reasoning for migrations. (Why were groups throughout history so keen to migrate or invade from the northern bank if it was such a great & pleasant place to live,). Can't help you too much with Hungarian Plain but I think the current wetlands of Hungary cover only about 10 to 25% of the area that used to be covered by ancient and medieval wetlands on the Hungarian plain especially the land between Tisza and Danube rivers.
Just on the wetlands of the Hungarian plain, Hugh Elton mentions in his book 'Warfare in Roman Europe AD350-425 how in 357AD in a Roman military operation against Sarmatians in Hungary that the Romans sent light armed troops in skiffs & taking the course which offered the greatest secrecy, came up to the lurking places of the Sarmatians to flush them out with spears and bows, so obviously at this time there were plenty of wetland areas around Hungary for the Iazyges to hide in about 80 years before Attila's time.
Regards
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
