16.3 Europe: a.d. 101 to 200  (Page 3/3)

Emperor Marcus died at Vindobona (Vienna) in A.D. 180 after 8 winters of campaigns on the frozen banks of the Danube fighting against the Marcomanni and Quadi. They were finally destroyed as kingdoms in A.D. 165 about the time that the Lombards (also Longobards) began their first raids down into Roman territory and they never were quite conquered by the Romans.

Western europe

In Spain, although Romans built roads for their legionnaires, it was still far cheaper to carry wheat by ship from Syria to Andalusia than to carry it overland from south to north Spain. The south of this country was the most prosperous, growing wheat, grapes and olives. At the end of the century Spain was invaded by Moors from northern Africa.

Gaul (France) was ruled completely by the Romans but again at the end of the century there were rumblings of Germanic tribes pushing against the eastern barriers into Gaul. (Ref. 196 , 213 )

All of western Europe, including England and Wales, enjoyed an era of law and order and peace under Roman rule. The Hadrianic frontier was generally maintained in Britain by the legions, modified only by the conquest of southern Scotland in A.D. 142. The complete annexation of Scotland was attempted from time to time but always failed because the legions could not supply themselves in such a sparsely populated country. In addition the Picts had become a force to be reckoned with. In the last few years of their independence they had finally united under the stimulation of savage battles against the Scots and Norsemen. Emperor Hadrian, feeling that Caledonia was not worth the potential loss of men if it was to be conquered, built his great wall (A.D. 122) 70 miles from sea to sea, with a causeway of stone, forts, camps and signal towers, from the Solway firth to the northeast. Because of constant barbarian attacks on the wall, however, the Romans later advanced their frontier and built still another wall, Antoninus' (A.D. 140), between the Forth and the Clyde. This one was 39 miles long and had 20 forts. (Ref. 170 ) The Roman port of Dover, protected by two great lighthouses, helped keep immense trade going to from England. Vessels bringing jars of wine, oil and fish-paste came from Spain and Italy, while tableware was brought from Gaul. (Ref. 136 , 43 , 175 , 222 )

In Ireland the ruler of Connacht, Conn, formed a large kingdom about A.D. 150 but neither he nor his successors could manage to unify the entire country.

SCANDINAVIA

The Scandinavian tribes had considerable trade with the Roman world, chiefly through the Marcommanic kingdom in Bohemia and after the annihilation of the latter late in the century, the quality and quantity of goods imported into the north declined considerably. In A.D. 150 Ptolemy, the Egyptian scientist wrote about several far northern tribes, including the Goestoi (also Gautor and Geatas) and the Chaideinoi, who were probably the Norwegian Heidnir. (Ref. 34 )

Eastern europe

An older name for the Balts was Aistrians, taken from Aestiorum gentes, mentioned by Tacitus (A.D. 98). Sometime near this 2nd century these Balts separated into Lithuanians, Letts (Latvians), Old Prussians, Curonians, Semigallions and Selonians. The east Ger- man Goths who had been building up a population pressure along the Baltic for two or more centuries particularly about the mouth of the Vistula, about this time moved south to the Carpathians and the Black Sea, dominating all the people with whom they came in contact. Once inside Russia these people, then called "Ostrogoths" (East Goths), soon formed a kingdom of their own and rapidly began to spread still farther along the river systems. Along the Black Sea they abutted against the Iranian Roxolani (also Rhoxolani) branch of the Samartians, who were the successors to the Scythians in this area. (Ref. 61 , 8 , 136 )

The territory between the Black and Caspian Seas was occupied chiefly by the Irania Alans, closely related to the Samartians. Just south of these Alans the old Caucasian kingdom of Iberia remained as a Roman protectorate, although those ancient people were only nominally subservient to Rome. Otherwise, in more central Russia, the Slavic people continued to live and expand unobtrusively, while in the far north the Finns-Lapps continued their sparse existence. (Ref. 136 )

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