[gothic-l] Re: Tracing the Eruli

[Dr. Dirk Faltin <dirk@smra.co.uk>]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Troels Brandt <trbrandt at p...>" 
<trbrandt at p...> wrote:
> Hi Einar and Dirk
> 
> I do not intend to join your discussion, but please read the 
> translated Procopius before you discuss – both of you: 



Hi Troels,

rest assure, I read the passage many times;-)




> 
> "For this reason the Eruli were no longer able to tarry in their 
> ancestral homes, but departing from there as quickly as possible 
they 
> kept moving forward, traversing the whole country which is beyound 
> the Ister River, together with their wives and children. But when 
> they reached a land where the Rogi dwelt of old, a people who had 
> joined the Gothic host and gone to Italy, they settled in that 
place. 
> But since they were pressed by famine, because they were in a 
barren 
> land, they removed from there not long afterward, and came to a 
place 
> close to the country of the Gepaedes. And at first the Gepeades 
> permitted them to dwell there and be neighbours to them, since they 
> came as suppliants. But afterwards for no good reason the Gepeades 
> began to practise unholy deed upon them. For they violated their 
> women and seized their cattle and other property, and abstained 
from 
> no wickedness whatever, and finally began an unjust attack upon 
them. 
> And the Eruli unable to bear all this any longer, crossed the Ister 
> River and decided to live as neighbours to the Romans in that 
region"
> 
> ...  Pages later in the Mierow translation ...
> 
> "When the Eruli, being defeated by the Lombards in the above-
> mentioned battle, migrated from their ancestral homes, some of 
them, 
> as has been told by me above, made their home in the country of 
> Illyricum, but the rest were averse to crossing the Ister River, 
but 
> settled at the very extremity of the world; at any rate, these men, 
> led by many of the royal blood, traversed all the nations of the 
> Sclaveni one after the other, and after next crossing a large tract 
> of barren country, they came to the Varni, as they are called"
> 
> 
> Remember that this was 40 years ago. The secretary of the general 
> described the contemporary wars in details – but was never exact 
with 
> events taking place long time before his own.
> 
> Procopius knew a lot of details about the Illyrian soldiers, but 
not 
> about the past migration to Scandinavia. You can probably regard 
the 
> Heruls escaping first from Moravia, then from Rugiland (that was 
> where they starved because there were no one to plunder) and then 
> from Dacia to be demoralized refugees when they knocked at the 
doors 
> of the Romans, but you are not able to conclude their number 
> hereunder where the northgoing Heruls left their kinsmen. Did this 
> group really first go west and then back and far south along the 
> Danube until they turned around once more and went on all the way 
to 
> Thule. Why did they not find a place on their way between the Slavs 
> and Varni if they were so weakened? 



We will likely never know, but there are hundreds of reasons one 
could come up with. Maybe the Varnians did not want them? Maybe they 
tried to settle there, but were expelled (unknowingly to Procopius)? 
Maybe, the Gautr had deliberately invited the Heruls as mercenaries 
to fight against the Svear? Maybe the Gautr had provided them with 
the resources for the journey? Maybe they stayed with their former 
allies the  Varni, and Procopius confused placenames, as he did so 
often north of the Danube? Again, we will never know, but whatever we 
make of it I cannot see how the report by Procopius can be read as a 
mass migration of tens of thousands of well organised Heruls. 






The description of their 
> departure is not strong enough to convince that Procopius really 
> knew. He was unclear and the "picture" he used was maybe just 
> symbolic in order to hide his own lacking knowledge. Therefore I 
> GUESS they separated already in Moravia trying first the Moravian 
> Gate against the Vistula, where they were surprised by so many 
> westgoing groups of Slavs that they preferred to follow the western 
> route through barren country instead – and guessing is what you are 
> doing too.



This really, is a guess as you say yourself and as such it lacks any 
foundation in the sources. I just hope you are not using this guess 
for further analysis. 


Dirk 
> 



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