[gothic-l] The Borani

george knysh gknysh at YAHOO.COM
Sat Dec 22 14:23:49 UTC 2001


A query sent yesterday seems to have gotten lost in
 the shuffle. So here is the gist once more.== In the
 early years of the Gothic saga in the East, one of
 the
 groups most actively associated in the expeditions
 of
 the Goths was that of the "Borani". The time frame
 is
 basically that of the 250's and 260's. Does anyone
 have any views as to the identity of these "Borani"?
 I
 am currently looking at two possibilities but some
 help from linguists would be particularly
 appreciated.
 (1) Could "Borani" be a contraction of "Bosporani"?
 We
 know that the Goths and allies used ships of the
 Bosporan Kingdom to get themselves transported to
 the
 southern and eastern shores of the Black Sea. But
 there are historical problems with this "solution".
 (2) Could "Borani" be a different pronunciation and
 rendition of the term "Polani" "Palani", itself a
 variant of "Poli" "Pali" "Spali"(="s-Pali")? This
 would make a great deal of historical sense, but is
 it
 linguistically tenable? The Spali were the ruling
 Sarmatian group in the territory of "Scythia"
 successfully invaded by Gothic warbands. Jordanes
 mentions a Gothic song about the early war with the
 Spali. And we know that subsequently there were very
 close relations between Goths and Late Sarmatians
 (incl. Alani) at every level. Any notions on Borani=
 Spali?



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