02-26-2017, 03:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-27-2017, 12:59 AM by Michael Kerr.)
An interesting post, and the answer to your question at the end of your post is probably a bit of a mix between options 2 and 3. You may already be aware of it but the late Russian historian Benjamin Nadel wrote a paper on this supposed war in the 60s originally in Russian but later felt the issue needed re-examination so he rewrote the paper in English in 1977 which can be read online at address below. Dr. Nadel was one of the world's leading scholars in the history and languages of the Black Sea area in antiquity and Middle Ages. Whether this war was fought against Sarmatian armies or local forces which were probably led and ruled by men who were descended from Sarmatian royalty we don't know but I think the rulers would have thought of themselves as Greek and probably spoke Greek no matter what their origins although the army would have been Sarmatised in its armour and weapons.
Just on the wagon mounted artillery mentioned, Nadel made mention of the fact that the Chersonesian stories in De Administrando Imperio contain some details "which testify both to their local annalistic origin as well as to their composer's excellent acquaintance with the internal life in Chersonesus and with topics concerning the Bosporus kingdom in late antiquity. In the stories about the wars waged by the Chersonites against the Bosporus rulers the most powerful Chersonesian weapon is called cheirobolistrai or ballistrai and the word ballistrarioi is used for the soldiers armed with these arbalests (ballistae or crossbows). The Ňotitia dignitatum (Oriens VIII, 8= 43) lists balistarii seniores among the comitatenses legions under the military Magister per Orientem. For the IVth century the balistarii are mentioned more often in the East and especially in Thrace."
It is very significant that from two rediscovered Chersonesian inscriptions we hear about a military formation of ballistarii in this city in late antiquity. A dedication to the emperors Valens, Valentinianus and Gratianus from the years 370-375 contains a mention of the ... a norum se n(iorum) ballistariorum engaged probably in some building works for fortification under the guidance of Domitius Modestus, the Praetorian Prefect of the Orient (IPE, 12, 449).
The second inscription records on the rebuilding of the city walls in Chersonesus by Diogenes, Comes of Emperero Zeno, in 488 A.D. with financial (and munual ?) support of the garrison of the ballistrarioi.
From the Novella Iustiniani 85,2 (de armis) we can conclude that the ordines balistariorum were recruited from the local population for garrison service and received financial help from the imperial government, while the inscription of 488 AD), leaves open the question whether the Chersonesian balistarii represented a local militia or a regular legion subsidized from the city budget. Russian historian Michael Rostovtsev and Black Sea expert was inclined to see here a regular army unit rather than a local garrison.
The speech attributed to Constantine the Great in De Administrando Imperio points out annual grants in supplies for the manufacturing of the arbalests and payment in kind (annona) for the balistarii corps as well as the the local and hereditary character of this military formation. 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"
