12-15-2020, 05:51 AM
Sorry drifting off the OP a bit but just on the Historia Augusta. Did Tacitus win a victory over the Alans near the Maeotis swamp? The Historia Augusta says he defeated the Scythians and that can be a pretty generic term for any group living north of the Black Sea so it could be Alans but could also be Goths or Heruli. The book Sources of the Alans: A Critical Compilation makes no mention of Tacitus but does include an entry that the Historia Augusta mentioned an Alani horse captured with the booty of a defeated force by the army of Probus which although not much to look at or very large (like a lot of steppe horses) the prisoners told Probus that the Alani horse could travel 100 miles a day for about 8 days straight, Probus’s reply to this bravado was that the horse was better suited for a soldier who wishes to flee from a fight rather than one who fights.
This Historia Augusta story could at least indicate a skirmish with Alans (or some other people, the Historia does not make this clear) but seems suspiciously similar to the story of Hadrian’s horse Borysthenes which was a gift from the Roxolani King Asparangus. There is no mention of the region where this supposed skirmish/battle took place.
Regards
Michael Kerr
This Historia Augusta story could at least indicate a skirmish with Alans (or some other people, the Historia does not make this clear) but seems suspiciously similar to the story of Hadrian’s horse Borysthenes which was a gift from the Roxolani King Asparangus. There is no mention of the region where this supposed skirmish/battle took place.
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"
