18.3 Europe: a.d. 301 to 400  (Page 6/6)

The Gothic language was well established and writing began to appear in the system of runes, with 24 clumsy characters brought from the continent and changed by edging to adapt the characters to wood. (See also next chapter, please). After Constantinople became the Roman capital, Denmark found her trade in the south had been transferred eastward to the Baltic and via Russian rivers on to the south. Islands in the Baltic, such as Gotland and Bornholm, thus became trading stations en route and at the same time worth plundering. (Ref. 237 ) Additional Notes

Eastern europe

Baltic area

We have just mentioned the new importance of the Baltic islands in trade between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire. On the south shore of the Baltic, the Germanic tribes migrated and changed positions. For example, the Lombards were partially in eastern Germany and partially in Poland, but late in the century almost the entire area was at least governed by the Ostrogoths under their great leader, King Ermanarich, who extended his realm back from the Black Sea to the Baltic, largely at the expense of the Slavs, some of whom fled northward among the Finns and preserved their freedom. (Ref. 137 )

Russia

In the far north some Finns remained with a large contingent of Slavs crowding northward in the western portion. Visigoths (Tervingi) and Ostrogoths (Greutringi) lived on both sides of the Dniestr. The latter were ruled by King Ermanarich in an organized group while the Visigoths had a looser political situation and an alliance with Rome, after 332. Large numbers of these Goths had already been won over to Arian Christianity by the heretical missionary, Ulfilas. The Don River originally separated the Ostrogoths from the Iranian Alans to the east, but sometime in the early part of the century these Alans attacked the Ostrogoths, starting their collapse as a political entity. From the east the Huns had advanced into Russia north and west of the Caspian Sea, crossing the Don and overcoming many of the Alans and attacking the almost civilized Ostrogoths in the Ukraine. Along with many of the Alans, part of the Ostrogoths joined the Huns while others fled west and south to join their cousins, the Visigoths. The latter, under Athanaric, fought the Huns on the right bank of the Dniestr but could not hold and retreated west, ten thousand strong, encamping eventually just north of the Danube. The Huns now ruled a large area of south Russia and stood at the mouth of the Danube, about A.D. 370. A fragile Hunno-Alanic alliance lasted about 30 years. Judging from the names of some of the tribes overrun by the Huns at the northeastern shore of the Black Sea, other Turkish tribes must already have been in this area and some of these may also have joined the Hun hordes as they went west

In the Caucasus region Lazilia and Iberia were two kingdoms of the ancient Georgians which had been pretty well Christianized under Roman suzerainty but the more primitive Abasgians, also of Georgian stock, remained heathen and outside Roman jurisdiction. As detailed on pages 358 and 369 the Huns went through the Caucasus on raids to Persia and Mesopotamia and on their return they may have brought some two-humped, Bactrian camels with them to the Ukraine. (Ref. 8 , 137 , 127 )

Forward to Europe: A.D. 401 to 500