The Parthian Shot Newsletter of the British Horseback Archery Association
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The Parthian Shot Newsletter of the British Horseback Archery Association Issue 3, November 2010 Welcome to the Parthian Shot, occasional newsletter of the BHAA. This is the third issue ... and yes I know we didn’t manage to get four out in a year as promised. However, hopefully that has meant there has been no compromise on quality and once again thanks to all those who have submitted articles over the last 12 months. The focus for this issue are the Dark Ages - and notably the infamous Huns. Described in history books as “the scourge of God” they were the original bad-boys of horse archery ... or were they? Dark Age Horse Archers by Rick Lippiett During the Dark Ages Central Eurasia and Central Europe underwent a series of complicated, and seemingly endless migrations, invasions, conquests, reconquests and occupations. This was in contrast to Greater Persia which enjoyed some relative stability for 400 years under the Sassanid Empire (which had fairly seamlessly replaced the Parthian Empire). The situation was otherwise in the lands occupied by modern day Ukraine, Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and the Balkans. Hun Nomad Horse Archer - Horse and Hun Rider taking a break. Note slung bow & straight sword During the Dark Ages (roughly from 100AD - 600AD) an area of Central Europe became a prominent powerbase and would remain so much like the Mongol Tribes and Clans 1000 As they were later described, ‘The Scourge of for at least the next 500 years. The Romans years later. Amongst these Sarmatian tribes God’ would sweep out of the East in an unholy named that region Pannonia, and indeed for were also the Saccae (the former Greek name whirlwind of violence and destruction and some of the time it was considered a province for the Scythians), Roxolani, Iazyges, Siraces, completely overwhelm most of the nomadic of the Roman Empire. However there were a Aorsi and the Alani. peoples occupying Pannonia; ultimately either number of notable incursions by both nomad destroying or allying with these tribes to These were all related peoples and were of and Gothic tribes and consequent expulsions further their conquests - which reached ever- similar culture and ethnicity. These tribes of Roman powers - these numbered some of further Westwards and Southwards towards shared Central Europe with the ever-present the heaviest defeats of Roman armies in that Rome and Byzantium. Gothic Tribes (who would later divide into age. The region encompasses an area that is Visi-Goths in the West and Ostro-Goths now referred to as the Carpathian Basin and Although it would be the sacking of Rome by in the East) and a plethora of Slavic and this remained a fertile and desirable area for Gothic tribes that would bring about the final Celtic tribes that lingered in these central a succession of nomad migrations from the destruction of the Western Roman Empire, European lands loosely or occasionally held Central Steppes. the Huns would provide critical deathblows by the Roman Empire. Ultimately by the 4th between the infamous sackings (first by By the time the first millennium had passed its Century AD they were about to be over-run the Visigoths in 410AD and secondly by first centenary the Scythian migration West by a fierce, nomadic warrior tribe who shared the Vandals 455AD). Despite conquering or had been all but assimilated and dominated neither culture nor ethnicity - but had in all allying a number of Sarmatian tribes, in the by a similar (some may even say the same) probability at one time shared their former end, the Huns were repulsed by a mixture of über-tribe - often referred to as the Sarmatians. homelands of the Central Steppes. These were diplomacy, trickery, famine, disease and a few In reality this was a loose confederacy that the Huns. They were undoubtedly of East key defeats in battle by the Romans - the most often warred amongst themselves over Asian origin - and thus a different cultural notable being the Battle of the Catalaunian grazelands and livestock, not to mention and ethnic make-up than the more Indo-Iranic Plains (or Battle of Châlons). internecine struggles of overlordship - nomadic tribes occupying Pannonia. Where did the Huns come from? Traditionally historians have associated the Huns who appeared on the borders of Europe in the 4th century with the Xiongnu who migrated out of the Mongolian regions in the 1st century AD. However ,the evidence for this is apocryphal at best and there are no historical records that definitively answer where the Huns in Europe of the 4th century came from . All we can say safely, is that the name Huns, in late antiquity, described prestigious ruling groups of steppe warriors that migrated from Central Asia to Central Europe and beyond. The Parthian Shot Newsletter of the British Horseback Archery Association THE SARMATIANS The Sarmatians flourished from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD. The Greek name Sarmatai derives from the shortening of Sauromatai apparently by association with lizards (sauros). Suggestions for the reason the Sarmatians were associated with lizards include their reptile-like scale armour and their dragon standards. Herodotus describes the Sarmatians physical appearance as blond, stout and tanned - in short, pretty much the same as the Scythians before them. Indeed Herodotus believed the Sauromatians originated from an unfortunate marriage of a band of young Scythian men and a group of Amazons. According to Pliny (the Elder), Scythian rule once extended as Sarmatian Heavily Armoured Cavalry - these “universal horseman” utilised both bow & lance far as Germany. By the third century BC, the Sarmatian name appears to have supplanted the Equites Sagittarii Clibanarii - evidently Nearly 300,000 refugees resulted from this the Scythian in the plains of what is now heavily armored horse archers based on the conflict and subsequently the Emperor south Ukraine. Considering the overlap of heavy cavalry of contemporary Sassanid Constantine was attributed the honorific tribal names between the Scythians and the armies and possibly made up of the Sarmatian Sarmaticus Maximus. (This was the historical Sarmatians, no new displacements probably “knights”. episode that formed the basis for the 2004 took place. In all probability the people were King Arthur film directed by Antoine Fuqua) The Sarmatians remained dominant until the same Indo-Europeans they used to be, but the Gothic ascendancy in the Black Sea area now under yet another name. THE HUNS and then disappeared from historical record The Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral Tacitus also describes the Sarmatians’ following the Hunnish destruction of the people who, appearing from beyond the Volga, similarity to the Persians - the Sarmatians Gothic empire and subsequent invasion of migrated into Europe AD 370 and built up wore long, flowing robes and were Central Europe. From bases in Hungary, an enormous empire in Europe. The Huns accomplished horse warriors. In the late fourth the Huns ruled the entire former Sarmatian may have stimulated the Great Migration, century A.D Roman sources describe a severe territory. Their various constituents enjoyed a contributing factor in the collapse of the defeat which Sarmatian raiders inflicted upon some autonomy under Hunnish rule, fought Western Roman Empire. They formed a Roman forces in the province of Valeria in for the Huns against a combination of Roman unified empire under Attila the Hun, who died Pannonia in late 374 A.D. The Sarmatians and Germanic troops, and went their own in 453; however their empire broke up the almost destroyed two legions - the legions ways after the Battle of Châlons (except those next year. failed to coordinate, allowing the Sarmatians of the Alani settled near Orléans that fought to catch them unprepared, divide them, and with the Roman Alliance). Jordanes, a Goth writing in Italy in 551AD annihilate them one at a time. describes the Huns: Goths attacked Sarmatian tribes on the north Sarmatian horse warriors (including those of the Danube in what is today Romania. “A savage race ... they cut the cheeks of the of the Alani and Roxolani) differed from In their efforts to halt the Gothic expansion males with a sword, so that before they receive the earlier Parthian cavalry units in that the the Sarmatians armed their slaves. After a the nourishment of milk they must learn to heavily armoured cavalry had combined the massive Roman victory against the Goths by endure wounds. They are short in stature, quick roles of the lighter cavalry, or skirmishing Constantine II (son of Emperor Constatine in bodily movement, alert horsemen, broad horse archers. These horse soldiers would be the Great) the Goths were repulsed. However, shouldered, ready in the use of bow and arrow” adept both at using spears and horsebows (as the local enslaved population revolted against The Huns kept herds of cattle, horses, goats, well as the lasso). Some have claimed that this their Sarmatian masters, pushing them beyond and sheep. Their other sources of food “universal horseman” was to be the blueprint the Roman border. Constantine I, on whom the consisted of wild game and the roots of wild for the Western European knights of the Sarmatians had called for help, defeated the plants. For clothes they had round caps, Middle Ages. However, this doesn’t explain rebels and moved the Sarmatian population trousers or leggings made from goat skin, and the loss of the skills in both lasso and horse back under its auspices. However it came with either linen or rabbit fur tunics. In warfare archery a price and in the Roman provinces Sarmatian combatants were enlisted in the Roman they utilized the bow and javelin whose Nevertheless by the 5th century Notitia army, whilst the rest of the population was arrowheads and javelin tips were originally Dignitatum (one of the few surviving distributed throughout Thracia, Macedonia made from bone, but were quickly replaced documents of Roman government) mentions and Italy.