[gothic-l] Eruli in the West

[andreas.schwarcz at UNIVIE.AC.AT]

On 11 Feb 2002, at 15:06, Bertil Haggman wrote:

> Dear Listmembers,
> 
> The Eruli as a Roman army unit were at one point related to 
> the Batavi.
> 
> In the section on the western part of the empire in the
> _Notitia_ we find the Eruli listed as one of the numeri in the auxilia
> palatina under the command of the magister peditum praesentalis. They
> said to be stationed in Italia. In the list the Eruli are placed
> between th eCelae and the Batavi.
> 
> That would lead us possbly to believe that the Eruli at one
> stage were connected to the North Sea. But this is hardly
> probable.
Dear Bertil,
what you think hardly probable has been   communis opinio about 
the Western Eruli for more than a century since Mommsen, 
strengthened by Ludwig Schmidt. According to Dietrich Hoffmann, 
Das spätrömische Bewegungsheer und die Notitia Dignitatum. 2 
vols., Köln 1969, here vol.1, 156 f., the Auxilia palatina of the Eruli 
and the Batavi were already formed under the Tetrarchy after 286. 
They were part of Julian's army in Gaul (Hoffmann I, 372 f.), fought 
at the battle of Argentorate 357, and in Britain in 360, and followed 
Julian into his Persian war in 363. In 364 these auxilia were divided 
into Seniores and Iuniores and  the Eruli Seniores returned to Gaul, 
where they fought 365 against the Alamanni and followed the 
general Theodosius (the emperor's father) 368/369 to Britain. In 
394/95 their presence in Italy is testified by funeral inscriptions at 
the cemetary of Concordia. They remained there as part of the 
central army (comitatenses) of the Magister peditum praesentalis, 
therefore they were stationed at first at Milan, after 401 at Ravenna. 
The Eruli Iuniores were part of the army of Valens, remained in the 
East and were annihilated at the battle of Adrianople in 378 
(Hoffmann I, 455 f.).  


 Rather it is a question of where the Batavi were
> stationed at the time of writing. One possible place would be
> Castra Bataba or modern Passau under Italian command.

See above.

> An interesting source is also Hydatius. In his _Chromicle_ he 
> relates in 455 AD one Eruli raid in northwestern Spain
> and 459 AD another. The first was 400 men and seven ships
> and the second was not specified. Hydatius also reported
> Vandals operating in the Spanish Atlantic area, and they were
> originating in Carthage. Could the Eruli of Hydatius maybe come
> from Italy?
> 
No, they could not. The Eruli vanquished by Maximian in 
2867287 were settled near the lower Rhine and they still were there 
in the fifth century, when Sidonius Apollinaris note an Erulian 
embassy at the court of the Visigothic king Euric. Those incursions 
mentioned by Hydatius probably originated with them.

Kind regards
                Andreas  
Ao.Univ.Prof.Dr.Andreas Schwarcz
Institut für österreichische Geschichtsforschung
Universität Wien
Dr.Karl Lueger-Ring 1
A-1010 Wien
Österreich
Tel.0043/1/42-77/272-16
Fax 0043/142-77/92-72


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