When were the Quadi Sarmaticized?

[Michael Kerr]

 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

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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.

Regards
Michael Kerr