[gothic-l] Re: Sixth Gothic War

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

--- In gothic-l at y..., Bertil Häggman <mvk575b at t...> wrote:
> Sixth Gothic War 256-258 AD
> 
> Cities around the Black Sea are attacked by Gothic
> and Erulic fleets under Kniva (Pithyus, Trapezunt,
> six cities in Bithynia). These attacks are not directed
> toward winning territory but to weaken the Roman
> enemy. 


Bertil,

was the main reason for these attacks not to gain booty? If you 
state that the main aim of these attacks was to 'weaken the Roman 
enemy', that seems to imply some sort of general strategy to bring 
down the Empire by tactical attacks to weaken its defences. 

In the mid-third century, the Goths or any other Germanic people could 
not even have dreamed of such a goal. In fact, peripheral 'barbarians' 
usually acted like modern extortionists. They attacked the provinces 
of the Empire to gain plunder and in the hope that the Empire is going 
to pay them off in exchange for stability. Or, in the best case, the 
Empire allowed them to settle within its borders, thus bestowing great 
honours on the barbarian elites and relative economic stability and 
prosperity on the population (Goths and other Germanic groups have 
repeatedly sought this alternative). Destroying and or destabilising 
the Empire was, in my view, not on the mind of Black Sea Goths and 
Heruls in the  mid-third century.

cheers
Dirk  


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