[gothic-l] Re: The Gothic and Eruli Proto-Vikings

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

Hi Bertil,

is the edict by a Roman Emperor which threatens any Roman with death
if he showed the barbarians how to built ships not instructive. It was
likely Honorius but I am not sure. In any case, it seems to indicate
that the Germanic tribes (the law was targeted at the Vandals and
Goths)in contact with the Romans did initially not know how to build
ships. If they had already been known as seafaring people the law
would have been obsolete.

Dirk



--- In gothic-l at egroups.com, bertil <mvk575b at t...> wrote:
> Frank,
>
> This is a good question. The Goths and the Eruli
> seemed initially to have used ships offered by
> the Bosporanians, who likely joined the
> fray. Later, if the huge number of raiding ships in
> the Roman sources really existed, there must
> have been quite some shipbuilding going on.
>
> The Ostrogoths had extensive fleets both in the
> Adriatic and the western Mediterranean. BTW, the
> Vandal fleets were also large. The problem
> is that these fleets have not been suffiently
> explored. In my forthcoming article I hope to
> solve some of those questions. My heart lifted
> when recently a ship wreck was found in the
> Black Sea, but it was too young to be an Eruli/
> Gothic war ship, and, if the reports are to be
> believed, it was a trading ship. Of course Slavic
> language sources in this field would be of interest.
>
> Would like to return to this, in my opinion,
> very interesting subject. If I don't, and you are
> interested, please remind me.
>
> Erulically
>
> Bertil
>
>
> > Just out of curiosity, what evidence is there of the Goths and
Heruli using
> > their own ships, rather than commandeering Black Sea fleets from
the areas
> > they were using as bases?  There were some extensive land
campaigns before
> > these, establishing the territories used in their seaborne
attacks.  From
> > the literary sources alone, I cannot tell if they were using
native
> > technology or simply ships built (and crewed?) by the indigenious
people . .
> > .
> >
> > Just something that's always puzzled me.  After all, the Goths
that appear
> > from the mid-fourth century on are definitely _not_ a seafaring
people, from
> > what I can tell, (c.f. Alaric's unrealized goal of North Africa).


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