[gothic-l] Fifth Gothic War

[Bertil Häggman]

Fifth Gothic War 253-254 AD

The Goths under Kniva renew the war with Rome. Thessalonike
was under siege during the winter 253 and 254 AD by the Goths
but not captured. Macedonia is plunderd. The fear of the Goths and 
the Eruli is so great that the city wall of Athens is restored. But Kniva 
avoids a crucial battle and retreats beyond the Danube with rich booty. 
A Gothic- Erulic fleet plunders all coasts of the Black Sea. Due to their 
origin around the Baltivc Sea the Goths and Eruli quickly adapt to naval 
warfare.

The Gotlandic archaelogist Erik Nylén has proposed that the Goths
and Eruli brought along the Baltic Sea culture to the Black Sea. In an
important contribution in _Arkeologi pa Gotland_ Nylén among other
things stated that the Goths were not a unified people but rather represented a
culture - the Baltic Sea culture. Around 200 BC a climatological change took
place  in the Baltic Sea area. There was probably overpopulation
(the background: a rich Bronze clture) was needed migration. Routes
were already probed earlier by the Bastarnae. Different people elements
leave and Gotland is playing a role. The contacts to the original lands
is not broken off (large coin finds especially on Gotland and Oeland
testify to that an reemigration is common (see the example of the Eruli
provided in Procopius). The Middle Age Gutasaga much later provides 
indications that many Gotlanders ended up on Crimea.

Reminded here is also of the thesis of the Harvard Professor Omeljan
Pritsak that the Goths and Eruli can be regarded not only as the
predeccors but also models of the Vikings. The contacts between
Goths and the steppe peoples took many forms: military clashes,
joint campaigns, combined naval expeditions, maybe trade expeditions
to the East (possibly as far as India, a thesis refuted by many) and joint
settlemts in Italy and Spain in the future. There are numerous examples
of this interchange. As and example the first fully Gothic emperor,
Maximinus (235-238) had a Gothic father and an Alanic mother.
There is ample evidence that Gothic mercenaries in the Roman army
worshipped the Iranian war good Mithra. Many myths from the
steppe were probably reintroduced and can for instance be seen
in the Poetic Edda where Attila the Hun became the main hero of
Germanic epics. In Norse tradition the Don River and the Sea of
Azov play an important role as the arena for great happenings.
The Eruli were for instance settled around the Sea of Azov in the
Third Century AD and it is interesting to speculate in a connection 
due to the role of the Eruli of cultural bearers to Scandinavia.

One can argue that the Goths and the Eruli made more or less continuous warfare
from 253 to around 275 AD in the Black Sea are but I have chosen
to divide these activities in seperate wars.

Gothically

Bertil



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