Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
When were the Quadi Sarmaticized?
#1
I posted this question over on the SoA forum and I just wondered what the views were here?

As the Iazyges are the prime candidates as the catalyst for change in the Quadi the above question takes the term 'Sarmarticized' to mean the adoption of heavy cavalry tactics using the lance and the charge as the primary battlefield tactic; the bow may have been carried but as a secondary weapon. Some armour (man and horse) would have been employed but not to the extent of the Roxolani. 

Whilst digging in some very sparse ground in an attempt to find out I found this, via googlebooks:

‘Our Forefathers’ 
A Manual of the Ethnography of the Gothic, German, Dutch, Anglo-Saxon, Frisian and Scandinavian Peoples
Vol 2, Gudmund Schutte

CUP

Schutte notes that the Quadi and Suebi names are synonymous and for centuries the names appear in connection to the Pannonian Sarmates.
The Iazygas annex the west Dacian plains c.44BC (Pliny) the Quadi/Suebi later appear in Moravia probably with the agreement of the Iazyges.
This is the earliest connection, however Schutte tells us we are ignorant of the circumstances that led them to an entente ‘lasting several centuries’. 
Various alliances but no mutual wars are recorded this early, however they share the tributes from the Cotini and Osi tribes (Tacitus) and we have Ammianus on the adoption of the scale armour and sword worship much later.

Back in AD20 the Quadi are ruled by Vannius who is a vassal of Rome (Tacitus), Schutte says ‘Vannius reigns successfully for 30 years, supported by his Sarmatian cavalry’ but in 51AD he is dethroned by his nephews and Claudius receives Vannius and his followers in Pannonia (Tacitus).

In 69AD Quadi and Iazyges serves side by side as mercenaries for Vespasian (Tacitus), in 92AD they turn put again together and Tacitus says ‘now they [Quadi] even tolerate foreign kings’ i.e. probably Iazyges.

We then arrive at the Marcomannic Wars where the Quadi and Sarmatians are listed together; after Marcus ejects them from Pannonia he brings forward a new king for the Quadi, one ‘Furtius’ (Dio), who’s name is Sarmatian (Schutte).

In 170 Quadi and Iazyges together threaten the capital of Dacia.
After the Quadi are beaten Marcus does not allow them to ally with the Iazyges (Dio), obviously together they are trouble.

Quadi and Sarmates invade Pannonia in 255; Aurelian repulses both of them in 270, Numerianus in 284, and by Constantius in 357 and 358. 
365-7 Valentinian builds forts on Quadic territory and the Quadic king is murdered when he objects; they both invade Pannonia (again) but are repulsed.

By 390 Ammianus has the Quadi subdued.
Then it’s 406 and all that….

So any Sarmaticized Quadi could possibly be from 255 or earlier, even 92AD, if ‘serving side by side’ [above] is interpreted as ‘as one tactically as well as in alliance’ and Tacitus' 'foreign kings' [above] does mean an Iazyges leader. 

In a few posts with Duncan Head it seemed to be that the later date (i.e. late 2nd C early 3rdC AD) was the most likely answer to the question (though the end of the Marcommani Wars was first postulated c180AD).
Commodus continues action against the Iazyges, the Buri and the 'free Dacians' c.181-2 that result in him taking the honorific Germanicus Maximus in mid 182. He is murdered in 192. Perhaps this is the period that the change takes place?

However there is a sizable gap between the death of Commodus and what we are told about joint Quadi/Iaztges actions; the Quadi and Sarmates invade Pannonia in 255, Aurelian repulses both of them in 270, Numerianus in 284, and by Constantius in 357 and 358; 365-7 Valentinian builds forts on Quadic territory and the Quadic king is murdered when he objects; they both invade Pannonia (again) but are repulsed.  


Be interested in any views.
 
Rodger Williams
Reply
#2
 Interesting question. In regard to the Quadi tribal confederation of Vannius it  was settled around the regions of Slovakia and Moravia and possibly controlled parts of the Amber Trail. It does seem that he recruited Iazyges for his cavalry but it is likely that at this stage he was dealing with forward elements of the Iazyges or as Ptolemy termed them the Jazyges Metanastae (resettling Jazyges) whose numbers and the territory they controlled was a lot smaller than the Quadi, as the majority were still east of the Carpathians at least according to Andrea Vaday in her paper Military System of the Sarmatians. The situation was probably a lot different by the late 60s AD as the Romans faced Roxolani raids in Moesia in 68 to 70 AD which would indicate that the main body of Iazyges had transferred to the Hungarian plain by then. She wrote that the Romans were negotiating with the Iazyges who faced eastward pressure from the Roxolani, encouraging them to migrate to the Hungarian plains so that they could act as a buffer to the rising power of the Dacians and stem some of the Dacian raids and by the time of Vannius the majority of the Iazyges and their kings were still further east. So I am not sure if Pliny is correct in saying that the Iazyges were established on the Hungarian plain in 44 BC and I think the Quadi confederation was established some time after the battle of the Teutoburg.


 Here is a rough timeline of wars fought involving the two nations against the Romans according to Andras Mocsy in his book Pannonia and Upper Moesia. The Iazyges became disillusioned with the Romans after the Dacian wars of Trajan.

 In 69AD while it is true that Quadi served the Romans as mercenaries it seems that Vespasian refused the Iazyges offer of cavalry and who could blame him for being suspicious of any Sarmatian aid after the damaging Roxolani raids in 68/69AD where the Roxolani destroyed two cohorts of auxiliary infantry in 68 AD.

 In 89-92 AD the Iazyges join the Suebi in their war against the Lugii who Rome supports bringing on the Suebi-Sarmatian war against Domitian. Although some dispute events it seems that the Iazyges probably destroyed Legio XXI Rapax in Pannonia so not sure on that one.

170AD combined forces kill M. Claudius Fronto, governor of the Three Dacias and former Eastern Parthian War hero somewhere in Dacia although no mention of how big his army was but he had considerable forces at his disposal. Marcus did manage to defeat Quadi and Marcomanni thus isolating the Iazyges before defeating them in 174 and due to a rebellion in the east made peace with the Iazyges in 175
.
177 AD the second phase of the Marcomannic wars start when Germans invade Pannonia although the Iazyges were probably not capable of supplying aid as they had made peace with Marcus and basically had their teeth pulled by having to hand over 8000 troops in 175.

 It is thought that around 258-260AD under pressure from the Goths, that large numbers of Roxolani who fled through the corridor that Marcus had given them permission to use when trading with the Iazyges many years before and it is probably at this point that the names Iazyges and Roxolani disappeared from use and they were all grouped as Sarmatians. Eutropius mentions that Pannonia was depopulated by the Sarmatians and Quadi.

Diocletian seems to have had trouble with Iazyges and defeated them interestingly enough in winter campaigns in 289-290, 292 AD and also 294 AD. He next fought the Sarmatians along with the Marcomanni in 299AD. He organised for forts to be built on Sarmatian territory in the 294 campaign opposite Aquincum and Bononia, Mocsy Moesia thinks that this was an acknowledgement that the Sarmatians were themselves under pressure from Goths and Gepids and the placement of the forts was to ensure the security of the Danube.

  357 when in conjunction with the Quadi the Sarmatians overran the provinces of Valeria, Pannonia Secunda and Moesia Prima forcing the emperor Constantius II to remain at Sirmium until he heard of the fall of Amida in 359. In 358 while at Sirmium he heard of a civil war amongst the Sarmatians between the warrior elite, the Argaragantes and their slaves? The Limigantes. Constantius sided with the Argaragantes and the Taifali and together they defeated the Limigantes who continued to make trouble for the Romans by retreating into the wetlands of the Danube.

 365 when the Quadi and the Sarmatians attacked Pannonia with a small group of Sarmatians granted reception in the Mosel valley.

 The next one after that was the dispute mentioned by Ammianus in 373-374 when the Quadi king was murdered by the Dux Valeriae, Maximinus who constructed some forts on Quadi land and invited the Quadi king Gabinius to negotiate, before murdering him.

Another attack on Pannonia by both peoples occurred in 394 when Gratian’s bride to be was almost captured.

 As to when the Quadi became Sarmaticized it was probably well before 255 as  they lived peacefully with the Sarmatians for a few hundred years. Trade and intermarriage probably took place for horses, livestock, grain, iron and salt as the Iazyges were never happy about the lack of natual resources on the plains. The Quadi probably developed lance cavalry tactics and Sarmatian costume and armour, at least for its upper classes while it seems the Iazyges probably took on some Quadi weaponry like shields and clothing because during the Marcomannic wars Marcus refused to allow the Quadi to hold markets as he feared that Iazyges would infiltrate and be unrecognisable from the Quadi although whether that means the Iazyges adopted German dress or the Quadi adopted Iazyges steppe clothing is hard to say. It would probably been hard to distinguish between both groups after a few hundred years of close proximity. It is interesting what you wrote about Furtius having an Ossetian/Sarmatian name (Fyrt) which probably suggests marriage ties between the leading families of the two peoples. Whether he was a full Sarmatian is doubtful as he was replaced by a pro-Sarmatian king Ariogaisos. Cool

Regards
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
Reply
#3
Thanks Michael, that's very comprehensive.
I have forgotten about the 'markets' clause in the 170-1 treaty.
It is tantalising this question; I had settled on a date around the late 190s for the change to have taken full effect (as the death of Commodus had eased the pressure of the foot on their respective necks) but I wonder if it may have been earlier?
Rodger Williams
Reply
#4
 It seems that around 179 the Iazyges wanted the Romans to carry the war to the Quadi as they did not want to be surrounded by enemies so they must have feared or lost confidence in their relationship with the Quadi or their leadership. A temporary tiff between neighbours perhaps. We never hear what happened to Furtius after he was reinstated as king of the Quadi after his rival, Ariogaesus was captured and exiled by the Romans to Egypt. Things were going so bad for the coalition of Quadi and Marcomanni that the Quadi tried to pack up lock, stock and barrel and migrate north to join their kinsmen the Semnones on the Elbe but the Romans blocked them. Maybe you are correct that with the death of Commodus and the instability of Rome for the next couple of years that the Quadi took the opportunity to refine their military skills and outlook. But I still think it developed over time. A lot of their combined raids would have co-incided with changes of emperors and were probably used to squeeze out a better deal for both parties from the Romans.

 But back to the Sarmatacizing of the Quadi, Ammianus wrote about 4th century Quadi and while disparaging of them compared to the Quadi of the Marcomannic wars he does give us some insights. (Book XVII:12)
Quote:The Sarmatians and the Quadi, who were in agreement because they were neighbours and had like customs and armour, had united and were raiding the Pannonias and Second Moesia in detached bands. These people, better fitted for brigandage than for open warfare, have very long spears and cuirasses made from smooth and polished pieces of horn, fastened like scales to linen shirts.
He then talks about their horses and how they ride geldings and he is talking about both Sarmatians and Quadi.

 He also wrote that when the Sarmatians had to face Constantius the Quadi came to aid their allies.
Quote:Furthermore the Quadi, who had often been their inseparable companions in raids, came at once to share the perils of the Sarmatians.
Another Ammianus comment mentions how the Quadi nobles when swearing allegiance to Constantius
Quote:Gave their children as hostages by way of pledge that they would fulfil the conditions imposed upon them. Then drawing their swords, which they venerate as gods, they swore that they would remain loyal.
This seemed to be a steppe custom followed by the Scythians as mentioned by Herodotus and all steppe people including Alans and Huns who all seemed to have some form of sword worship in their religious rites. They would not be the first people who originated as sedentary people to adopt steppe customs. The Bastarnae adopted a lot of Roxolani customs on contact  as did the Greutungi Goths with the Alans. Even later on the Finno-Ugrian Magyars who originally  lived in the forest zones north-east of the Urals for some reason, whether through war or climate, moved south onto the grasslands and adopted a nomadic way of life all the way to Hungary, not that the Quadi turned to a nomadic life but they would have seen the advantages of cavalry warfare and armour. In turn maybe some Iazyges, living on the fringe of the wetlands & grasslands turned to a more sedentary lifestyle closer to that of their Quadi neighbours. The Pazyryk people of the Altai adapted over a few generations from nomads to a form of sedentary/pastoralism while still remaining, going by the amount of horse gear & leatherwork in their barrows, avid horse breeders & slightly less seasonal herders & traders. Horses were considered so important in their lives that they took them with them to the afterlife. Smile
Regards
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Warrior of Quadi AD 374/5 MVinc 12 4,639 10-14-2011, 09:22 PM
Last Post: MVinc

Forum Jump: