[gothic-l] Re: Tracing the Eruli

[george knysh]

--- "Einar Gunnar Birgisson <einarbirg at yahoo.com>"
<einarbirg at yahoo.com> wrote:
 I
> have though
> problems with his [George's GK]evaluation about the
Heruli being
> tens of
> thousands (going to Thule).

****GK: Hi Einar! You've made a lot of good common
sense points in your response to Dirk. I just want to
briefly clarify the reason for my belief that the
Erulian group which migrated to Scandinavia was fairly
large. I've tried not to be arbitrary about this. When
Procopius says that the Illyrian Heruls survived two
comprehensive slaughters (one by the Lombards, the
other by the Romans), and were nevertheless able to
field 4,500 warriors, I have to conclude that a group
initially equal to them which did not experience the
second comprehensive slaughter (by the Romans) would
be more numerous. It all depends on the total for the
whole people one wishes to deduce from these 4,500
warriors. I think 20,000 in all would be a bare
minimum (wives, children, old folk)fore the Illyrians.
In that case the Scandinavian bound group,
correspondingly larger, would need to number about
40,000. Does this seem too large? How many Eruli would
there have been in the Danubian state prior to the
Lombard catastrophe? I would guesstimate about
200,000.====And another point. If the theory is
correct that the "Eruli" were originally a
concatenation of people of all origins, who maintained
a consciousness of their specific origin even as they
adopted the broader designation, then perhaps we might
think that the northward trek "sloughed off" various
contingents prior to reaching southern Sweden. This
might also help to explain the peaceful nature of the
trek. You had descendants of various groups, all going
"home", with the most significant one winding up next
to the Gauts. Just a thought.******

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