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Abazians (Abazins; Abaza; Apswa; and 19th centuries the Russian SLAVS and TURKS competed for the region, and many Ashvy) ABAZIANS Abazians were relocated to Russia and Turkey. The Abazians are a Caucasic-speaking people, location: who live for the most part in the northwestern Many SLAVS settled in their homeland. The tra- ditional Abazian way of life, raising livestock North Caucasus in south- Caucasus region of southwestern Russia. The western Russia majority inhabit the foothills along the Big and (sheep, cattle, and horses, the latter for which Little Zelenchuk, Kuban, and Kuma Rivers in they were renowned) in the highlands and cul- time period: Second millennium B.C.E. the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic, but some tivating the lowlands (originally millet, then to present have settled in neighboring regions as well. maize), was disrupted. Their language is classified as part of the In the 20th century the Abazians came ancestry: North-West (Abkhazo-Adygheian) branch of under further pressure. During the civil war Caucasian that followed the Soviet rise to power, North Caucasic and closely related to the lan- language: Abazians fought for both the Red Guards and guage of the Abkhazians (Abkhaz; Absua), Abazin (Caucasic) most of whom live to the south in the Asian the White Guards. During the existence of the nation of Georgia. Abazin, as the language is Soviet Union (USSR), the Abazians faced fur- b known, is divided into two dialects correspon- ther deportations, collectivization, and the ding to two kinship communities, Tapanta and suppression of traditional customs and their Shkaraua. Islamic religion. Like the Abkhazians the Abazians are See also RUSSIANS: NATIONALITY. descended from proto-Abkhaz tribes, who, possibly as early as the second millennium B.C.E., inhabited lands near the Black Sea. By Abricantes (Abricanti; Abricantui) the ninth century C.E. they had separated into The Abricantes are classified as a Celtic tribe. the two distinct tribes, Tapanta and Shkaraua. They lived in Gaul around present-day In the 13th century the Tapanta moved south- Avranches in northwestern France and are dis- ward to the northern Caucasus, followed by cussed as CELTS or GAULS. The ROMANS referred the Shkaraua the next century, although some to them along with other tribes as Armoricans, of the Shkaraua were assimilated by that is, tribes living between the Seine and Abkhazians and other CAUCASIANS known as Loire on or near the Atlantic Ocean in the CIRCASSIANS. The Abazians reached their peak region of Armorica (roughly present-day of power in the 15th and 16th centuries but Brittany and eastern Normandy), occupied by were subject to the Kabardians, a subgroup of forces under Julius Caesar in 55 B.C.E. Legedia the Circassians in the 17th century. In the 18th on the site of Avranches became a capital of a

1 2 Abrincatui

civitas (self-governed region) in Roman Gaul; before the time of the Trojan War. Various Avranches takes its name from the tribal name. groups of Indo-European speakers first appeared in Greece perhaps as early as the location: fourth millennium B.C.E., long before this time. Southern Greece; Abrincatui See AMBIBARII. From at least 1600 B.C.E. peoples in southern Cycladic Islands; ; Greece were highly influenced by the MINOANS Asia Minor on . By the end of the Greek Dark Ages, Abrodrites See OBODRITES. time period: from the demise of Mycenaean civilization to 12th century to 146 B.C.E. about the eighth century B.C.E., a people living ancestry: Achaeans (Achaioi) in a region called in the northern Hellenic The name Achaeans appears in the epic poem spoke a dialect, called Arcado- Cypriot, that resembled language: the Iliad—presumably written by the poet more than any other in Greece. Achaean/Mycenaean of the ninth or eighth century B.C.E.— (Greek); then perhaps in reference to one group of the GREEKS who other Greek dialects, were said to have sacked , an event that ORIGINS such as Arcadian, may have occurred in 1184 B.C.E. or a century It is debated as to whether the Achaeans were Cypriot, and Attic earlier. Before archaeological discoveries of the the direct ancestors of the three main ethnic 20th century that dramatically realigned the divisions of the later Greeks, the AEOLIANS, b chronology of Greek prehistory, it was assumed ,and , or whether these repre- the Achaeans were the first Hellenic people, sent the product of new Indo-European migra- that is, the first of the ancient Greeks who tions into Greece. After the mysterious collapse spoke Greek. It is now known that Indo- of the Mycenaean civilization in the 13th centu- European speakers of an early form of Greek ry B.C.E. there is a long dark period in Greece, had been in Greece for well over 1,000 years during which writing was lost, cities vanished, before the Trojan War. This period saw the rise, and civilization stagnated or went into retreat. In flowering, and collapse of an entire civilization, the Iliad by Homer from the ninth or eighth cen- of which Homer and later Greeks of the classi- tury B.C.E., based on oral dating from cal period knew very little—that of the these earlier Greek Dark Ages, the Achaeans are MYCENAEANS—that lasted for almost 400 years said to be the principal Greeks who sacked Troy (1600–1200 B.C.E.). Thus is makes little sense (Homer also mentions Argives—people from to apply the name Achaean to people much Argos—and Danaans as taking part). By the beginning of the Archaic period in 750 B.C.E., however, only a small group of Greeks on the Achaeans time line Peloponnese called themselves Achaeans; they lived in a small area of the northern B.C.E. Peloponnese, bordered on one side by high 12th century Movement of warrior groups with non-Mycenaean culture mountains and on the other by the Gulf of (possibly people later called Achaeans) across and Greek Corinth. mainland in wake of collapse of Mycenaean civilization The origin of the Achaeans is clouded with uncertainty due to a lack of historical eighth century Greeks rise out of Dark Ages, begin to found city-states, redis- evidence from the Greek Dark Ages and the cover writing with Phoenician alphabet; Homeric poems mention Achaeans as principal Greeks. period before it and a relatively incomplete archaeological record (in part caused by the seventh century First Achaean League is founded in Achaea; Achaeans from unscientific, treasure-hunting style of 19th- Patras take part in a migration to ; poems of detail origin century excavators of Greek sites, particularly myth of Hellenes. those of the Mycenaeans). It has also been fourth century First Achaean League dissolves. somewhat controversial because of the associ- 336–335 unites Greece by conquest. ation of the Hellenes with the roots of Western culture. For this reason the ancestors 280 Second Achaean League is founded to oppose Macedonian conquerors. of the Hellenes were avidly sought by schol- 247 Achaean League in strife with ; Macedonians invited back to ars, on the assumption that the progenitors of help them; Macedonians regain control. so great a race as the Greeks, the first bearers 198 Achaean League sides with Rome against ; granted control of Western civilization, must be very special. of nearly all the Peloponnese. The early attempts to understand their origin 146 Romans conquer Achaea, making it a Roman province. resorted to interpreting the mythical story of the sons of Hellen, to whom Greece was Achaeans 3 parceled out as their inheritance, and who point in its history, but evidence for this before migrated with their people throughout historical times (when the CELTS invaded, for Greece, warring and allying among them- example)—when it happened and whence they selves, until they finally produced the ethnic might have come—is lacking at present. divisions found during the Archaic period. At that time these myths found their voice in the LANGUAGE Boeotian poet Hesiod, who probably lived in The Achaeans spoke perhaps the earliest form the eighth century B.C.E. of Greek, referred to as Achaean. It is thought These myths seemed to fit in well with to be related to Mycenaean. Later in their his- 19th-century linguistic analysis of the origins tory some among them probably spoke other of Greek as an Indo-European tongue. In this Greek dialects, depending on location, such as interpretation the Achaeans were a tall, fair- Arcado-Cypriot (Arcadian and Cypriot) and skinned people who migrated from central Attic. Europe and encountered a shorter dark- skinned Mediterranean people, related to the HISTORY Minoans of Crete. By a process of conquest, Around 1450 B.C.E. the col- these people came to inhabit Greece sometime lapsed, and the Mycenaean civilization that had between 1600 and 1500 B.C.E. emerged on Greece during the Minoan New What archaeological evidence there is, Palace period (from 1600 B.C.E.) took over the however, combined with the presence of a large Minoan trading network in the Aegean and number of non-Indo-European place-names eastern Mediterranean. This civilization was and roots in Greek, indicates that intermixing, located primarily on the Peloponnese and and not conquest, was the rule. Moreover, other called Mycenaean after the city of Mycenae, analyses place the appearance of Indo-European which was excavated in the 19th century, pro- speakers in Greece much earlier, as far back as viding the first glimpses of the riches of this the fourth millennium B.C.E., and paint the pic- second Aegean civilization. ture of a long, gradual process of migration and The records of a people of Asia Minor, the repeated mingling with local populations. Hittites, mention a group who settled the Furthermore, current thinking on ethnicity islands of the Aegean and parts of Asia Minor has moved away from simple linkages between during the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.E., and culture and genetic traits such as skin color and call them the Ahhiyawa. This word may be body type. Such genetic differences indeed have related to the word Achaean; the identity of the long existed between Europeans living in differ- Ahhiyawa is uncertain, however. They could ent regions of the continent; they are most pro- have been Mycenaean Greek traders. They nounced in regions around the periphery, such could have played some role in the 12th-cen- as Scandinavia and the Mediterranean region, tury fall of Troy, which was located in Asia where people were genetically isolated. But the Minor, and could have later been remembered study of prehistoric movements of genetic traits in Homer’s time as the Achaeans. However, is not sufficiently advanced to give more than a there is no evidence that the Mycenaeans par- very general idea of such movements, and cer- ticipated in the 12th-century destruction of tainly not fine-tuned enough to assign suites of Troy. This event occurred in the context of a traits such as height and skin color to bearers of tidal wave of destruction that swept the east- cultures known only archaeologically. ern Mediterranean around 1200 B.C.E., bring- The picture of the Achaeans as a tall, fair- ing down Mycenaean civilization; threatening skinned people who entered Greece from the the great powers of the time, the Egyptians and north may have more to do with the desires the Hittites, as well as states in Syria, Palestine, and beliefs of modern lovers of Greek civiliza- and Cyprus; and causing widespread popula- tion, especially in 19th-century Germany and tion movements, depopulation, and devasta- Great Britain—the desire to have some tion of some regions. Taken at face value the genealogical connection with the classical Iliad indicates that the Achaeans in the Trojan Greeks, however distant, and the racist belief War were among the agents of this destruction that the glories of Greek civilization could not (whether they were primary agents, or merely have been the product of dark-skinned south- the beneficiaries of events caused by other ern Europeans alone. It is of course entirely forces). Thus whatever the relationship the possible and even probable that blond-haired, Ahhiyawa/Achaeans had with Mycenaean civi- fair-skinned peoples entered Greece at some lization, they seem to have played a role in its 4 Achaeans

downfall, possibly as part of internecine rival- Achaea. Their dialect was also spoken on ries among Mycenaean power blocs that fur- Cyprus, where the majority of European-made nished the material for the Iliad and other swords and knives dating from immediately related poetic epics of later times. after the Mycenaean collapse have been found. There is much evidence of aggressive war- Here a brief phase of prosperity and cultural rior groups raiding far and wide in the flowering took place, in stark contrast to most Mediterranean region in this period. Egyptian of the larger region. A bronze statuette of a war- records of the time tell of armies of warriors rior with horned helmet was found at Enkomi whom the Egyptians called collectively SEA on Cyprus. This combination of Mycenaean- PEOPLES. Among these were a group called by derived language, cultural flowering, and the Egyptians the Shekelesh. A new kind of northern artifacts may point to an alliance pottery dating from this time found in south- between Mycenaean elites and northern war- ern Italy and Sicily may have been made by the rior bands. Groups of Mycenaean nobility, Shekelesh, whose name lived on in later times accompanied by Achaean warriors hired to as SICULI, Iron Age inhabitants of Sicily. protect them, could have fled central Greece to Another group called the Shardana by the Cyprus to the east and to Achaea, protected by Egyptians may have been from or lived on the mountains, to the west. In any case, whether island of . the term Achaean refers to a group of Egyptian depictions of the Sea Peoples Mycenaeans or to a tribe of northern warriors show them wearing distinctive horned helmets remains an open question. corresponding to those worn by bronze stat- uettes found throughout the Mediterranean Achaea dating to after the demise of Mycenaean civi- In the seventh century B.C.E. the Achaeans lization and in a clearly new style not derived founded at least 12 cities in Achaea, including from Mycenaean art. Non-Mycenaean pottery Patras, which were joined for mutual defense (“Barbarian” or “Coarse” Ware) and weapon into the First Achaean League. The Achaeans types from this time with affinities to material of Patras sent colonists to Sicily during the sev- from north of Greece have been found in enth century alongside other Greeks, but Greece and Troy, lending credence to the idea Achaea largely remained isolated from the rest that warrior groups from abroad had entered of the Greeks and the conflicts of that time. the region. The First Achaean League dissolved in the Because the numbers of these artifacts, fourth century B.C.E. after joining Greek oppo- however, are small, organized, wholesale inva- sition to the invasion by MACEDONIANS under sion is unlikely. What we seem to be seeing in Philip II. In 323 B.C.E. his son, Alexander the the evidence concerning the Sea Peoples is the Great, completed the conquest of Greece, put- waxing in strength and numbers of pirate ting an end to and ushering in groups from all over the Mediterranean, who what is known as the Hellenic period. had long been preying on the lucrative trade The Second Achaean League formed in routes of the Mycenaeans and others; at some 280 B.C.E. and, with additional cities, man- point the Sea Peoples may have been joined by aged to expel the Macedonians from Corinth warriors from the north. As did the VIKINGS of in 247 B.C.E. Strife with the people of the city- the first millennium C.E., who began as small- state of Sparta interrupted any hopes for the scale raiders and later caused great swathes of liberation of Greece, when the Achaeans destruction, the Sea Peoples, a diverse group of enlisted Macedonian aid against them and warrior bands, may have helped bring down then fell back under their control. In 198 Mycenaean civilization. B.C.E., during the war between Rome and The Ahhiyawa/Archaeans may have been Macedonia, the Achaean League went over to one group who were part of the Sea Peoples; the ROMANS and won control over almost all other groups may have been ancestral to the of the Peloponnese. The Romans themselves Dorians, Ionians, and Aeolians who constitut- warred with the Achaeans in 146 B.C.E., defeat- ed the main linguistic/ethnic groups of ed them, and created the Roman province of post–Dark Ages Greece. On the other hand, by Achaea. the end of the Dark Ages, a group speaking the dialect closest to Mycenaean Greek, Arcado- Cypriot, called themselves Achaeans. They CULTURE (see also GREEKS;MYCENAEANS) lived between the mountains of Arcadia and Because the identity of the Achaeans is not the Gulf of Corinth in a remote area known as known with certainty, it is impossible to define Aedui 5 their culture beyond that presented in conjunc- Belgium and southeastern Netherlands and are tion with theories of their history. Well-crafted also discussed as GAULS. They are sometimes ADRIANI swords and statuettes of warriors with horned grouped among the BELGAE, a subdivision of helmets perhaps are evidence of the Achaeans Gauls. Because they claimed partial descent location: as a warrior people something like the Vikings. from the Germanic CIMBRI and TEUTONES, who Northern Abruzzi in The study of the Achaeans and attempts to had been an earlier threat to Rome, the east-central Italy determine their relationships with the other Aduatuci were attacked by the ROMANS under time period: peoples of —the Minoans, Julius Caesar; their entire population was sold Possibly eighth to Mycenaeans, Aeolians, Ionians, and Dorians— into slavery in 57 B.C.E. second century B.C.E. draw on mythology, literature, linguistics, and ancestry: archaeology. Much of their story takes place in Italic prehistoric times, and it is next to impossible to Aducinates connect names recorded centuries later with The Aducinates are classified as a Celtic tribe. language: Italic peoples known only through scattered artifacts. They lived in Gaul near the lower Rhone in present-day southeastern France at least by the first century B.C.E. and are discussed as CELTS b Achrjani See POMAKS. or GAULS.

Adigh See CIRCASSIANS. Aedui (Haedui; Haeduers; Eduans) The Aedui are classified as a Celtic tribe. They Adriani lived in Gaul along the Rhône and Sâone Rivers around present-day Autun in east- The Adriani lived near the PALMIENSI and central France and are discussed as CELTS PRAETUTII in the present-day province of or GAULS. Because of their location along Teramo in the northern region of Abruzzi in the Rhône and their trade contacts with present-day east-central Italy, assumed to be Mediterranean peoples, they were one of the there at least from the eighth century B.C.E. more powerful and influential of the Gallic Along with those tribes, the Adriani are some- tribes. Some GERMANICS may have settled times grouped with the PICENES living to their among them. Their chief town of Bibracte north beyond the Tonto River, although it is at Mont Beuvray was the location of a school generally believed that the Adriani, Palmiensi, run by the Druids, where Celtic nobility and Praetutii spoke Italic dialects, placing them sent their young to be educated. Their allies among the ITALICS, and the Picenes either probably included the AMBARRI,AMBIVARITI, Illyrian or pre-Indo-European dialects. To the BRANNOVICES. south of the Adriani lived the VESTINI, classified After 120 B.C.E., an alliance with the Aedui as Italics. The Adriani had a trading settlement against the ALLOBROGES and the ARVERNI gave known as Matrinum on the Adriatic Sea at the the ROMANS control of the Rhône Valley. In 71 mouth of the Piomba River or the Vomano B.C.E., the Celtic-Germanic SEQUANI and the Germanic SUEBI, allied under the Suebian River. The region was pacified by the ROMANS Ariovistus, defeated the Aedui and probably in the third century B.C.E. during and after wars HELVETII allies. The Aedui supported Julius with the SAMNITES and Romanized in the sec- Caesar in the Gallic Wars of the 50s B.C.E. ond century B.C.E. Divitiacus, a ruler as well as a Druid, was a See also ILLYRIANS. friend to the Romans. They at first did not sup- AEDUI port Vercingetorix of the Arverni in his rebel- location: Aduatuci (Aduatici; Atuatuci; Audatici) lion of 52 B.C.E. Their aid at Gergovia, however, East-central France The Aduatuci are classified as a combined enabled the rebels to drive back the Romans time period: Celtic-Germanic tribe that is, as both CELTS and delay ultimate Roman victory. Some Second century B.C.E.to and GERMANICS. (In general, the distinction among them again rebelled in 20 C.E. along fifth century C.E. between Celtic and Germanic tribes in north- with the TREVERI. ancestry: ern Gaul and east of the Rhine in the first cen- Augustodunum on the site of Autun was a Celtic turies B.C.E. and C.E., based for the most part on civitas capital of the Aedui during the Roman ancient Roman writings, is difficult to make, occupation lasting until the fifth century C.E. language: Gaulish (Celtic) since Roman classifications are often arbitrary During the reign of Claudius I in 41–54 C.E., and cannot be confirmed by other evidence.) Aeduan aristocrats became the first Gauls to They lived in Gaul in present-day northeastern serve in the Roman Senate. b 6 Aeolians

Aeolians (Eolians; Aeolic Greeks) of Greece. The Arcadians persisted in sacrific- The Aeolians are one of the four main divisions ing a boy every year to Zeus; when the god AEOLIANS of ancestral GREEKS, or Hellenes; the others are went in mortal disguise to investigate, he was location: the ACHAEANS,IONIANS, and DORIANS. A form offered soup made from the boy’s intestines. Greece (or order) of architecture, known as Aeolic, Enraged, Zeus turned everyone at the grue- time period: was named after the Aeolians. some meal into a wolf then sent the all-engulf- Third millennium to ing floods. Deucalion and Pyrrha, who fourth century B.C.E. ORIGINS survived in a wooden chest, landed on the ancestry: The origins of the Aeolians are unclear. They are heights of Mount Parnassus. Their son, Hellen, Hellenic only known to history as speakers of one of the gave birth to Dorus (supposed progenitor of several dialects that rose to dominance during the Dorians), Xouthus (from whom were born language: Ion and Achaeus, the progenitors of the Ionians Aeolic (Greek) the Greek Dark Ages after the collapse of the MYCENAEANS in about 1200 B.C.E. Their ancestors and Achaeans), and Aeolus (father of the were among the groups of Indo-European speak- Aeolians). Mythological history holds that the b ers who began filtering into Greece, probably Aeolians were driven from parts of Thessaly by mostly in small groups, sometime after the the descendants of Dorus (the Dorians) while fourth millennium B.C.E. and for many centuries being ruled by Lapithes, the grandson of thereafter. There is no evidence to pinpoint Aeolus. The son of Lapithes, called Lesbos, exactly when during this long period their direct sailed from Thessaly to the island that there- ancestors entered Greece. Earlier theories of after took its name from him. waves of Indo-European invaders who displaced pre-Hellenic (or Aegean) populations called LANGUAGE by later Greeks have largely been Aeolic, the Greek spoken by the Aeolians on abandoned. mainland Greece, as well as parts of Asia By the end of the Dark Ages in the late ninth Minor and the Near East, is regarded as one of century B.C.E. Aeolians were living in Thessaly, a the oldest forms of Hellenic speech. (Many of broad plain in north-central Greece bordered by the words in are not of Indo- the mountains Pindus and Ossa and the Aegean European origin and must have been bor- Sea. Aeolic speakers were also dominant in rowed from the pre-Hellenic population.) , the territory of the later classical city- state of Thebes, which extended down to Attica HISTORY (the surrounding territory at ) and the Migrations to Asia Minor Gulf of Corinth. Between 1225 and 1175 B.C.E. the Bronze Age Origin Myth civilizations around the Mediterranean, includ- In his genealogy of the Greeks, or Hellenes, the ing that of the Mycenaeans, entered a period of Boeotian poet Hesiod, who probably lived in sharp decline, the cause of which is still uncer- the eighth century B.C.E., recorded that the tain; it may have been caused by a combination Aeolians took their name from Aeolus, who of natural disasters, civil strife, piracy, and famine ruled over Thessaly as his inheritance from his brought on by climate change, such as a period father, Hellen, the legendary ancestor of all of severe drought. Possibly to escape these con- Greeks. Hellen was the son of Deucalion and ditions, many Aeolians apparently began to Pyrrha, the only two mortals to survive a dev- migrate eastward over the Aegean Sea. Between astating flood, which was sent by Zeus to 1130 and 1000 B.C.E., the Aeolians made a great destroy humankind because of his disgust at migration across the Aegean, inhabiting the the cannibalism practiced in Arcadia, a region island of Lesbos and the northwest coast of Asia Minor, between the (the strait link- ing the Aegean with the Sea of Marmara and Aeolians time line Black Sea, and called in ancient times the Hellespont) in the north and the Hermus River B.C.E. in the south. Judging by later settlements, the 12th century Aeolians migrate to Lesbos and Asia Minor. Aeolians colonized other areas of the Mediterranean as well. 546 Aeolians and Persians agree to treaty. 494 After revolt Aeolians are defeated by Persians. 479 Aeolians join other Greeks against Persians. By the time written records were being made by Greeks, the cities of Asia Minor founded by Aeolians 7 the Aeolians (in the northwestern Anatolian Aeolians of Lesbos joined with the Greeks of Peninsula) were known collectively as Aeolis the mainland against the Persians. (or Aiolis). The Greek historian The alliance seems to indicate that a strong identified 12 cities forming the Aeolian cultural identity existed among the Hellenes, League, for defense and trade, in opposition to despite their differences. Indeed, over the next the Ionian League. These were Temnos, centuries, distinctions among the Aeolians, , Pitane, Neonteichos, Aegirusa, Ionians, and Dorians received less emphasis as Notium, Killa, Cyme, Gryneum, , various city-states became the determining Myrina, and ; many other cities were political entities. founded as well. They flourished in an area that was more fertile and wetter than to CULTURE (see also GREEKS) the south in Asia Minor and were concerned The architecture of the Aeolians owed much to mainly with farming. By the eighth century the Ionian architecture of Ionia in Asia Minor. B.C.E., because of increasing trade contacts Temples were constructed out of stone, usually throughout the region, the use of an alphabet limestone, painted white with marble dust. The borrowed and modified from the PHOENICIANS Aeolic order of columns resembles Ionic spread throughout the Hellenic peoples of columns, except for the capital, which has a Greece, both on the mainland and on Aegean palmette thrusting up between two volutes, or islands and in Asia Minor. Iron smelting, carved spirals. thought to have been developed in Greece Two of the earliest—seventh to sixth cen- when imports of copper and tin used to make tury B.C.E.—and most renowned Greek Lyric bronze dwindled with the demise of the poets (who composed shorter poems accompa- Mycenaean trade networks, also spread nied by the lyre and sung with a different meter throughout the Hellenic population, revolu- from that of the Homeric epics) were from tionizing farming as iron plows came into use. Lesbos: and Alcaeus. Both were strong- Originally the cities were governed by ly influenced by the earlier Homeric poetry, kings, as they had been on the mainland, but including the Iliad and the Odyssey, which in the seventh century B.C.E., many of the many believe originated in northern Greece, as kings were driven out and replaced by oli- oral poetry in the Aeolic dialect, though the garchies or . For a time Lesbos was the main language of Homer was passed down to most powerful settlement of the Aeolians and us as principally Ionic, with some Aeolic and exercised substantial control over the Asia Arcado-Cypriot features. It was strictly a liter- Minor settlements. In 570 B.C.E. the Aeolians ary dialect, used only in Homeric verse. of Lesbos founded the colony of Naucratis in Egypt. b Warfare In the Homeric poems the terms Hellene, During the mid-sixth century B.C.E. armies out Ionian, Dorian, and Aeolian, if they appear at of in western Asia Minor, under the lead- all, refer only to small groups from distinct ership of Croesus, the last king of the Lydian geographic areas. On mainland Greece the dif- empire, conquered the Greek cities of Asia ferences among the various groups of Greeks Minor. The Aeolians of Lesbos entered into a were not clearly to be found. For example, the treaty with Croesus, increasing Lydian seafar- Corinthians, living in a city with a name ing capabilities. The Persians (people of pres- derived from the pre-Hellenic inhabitants, were ent-day Iran) under Cyrus II conquered the mainly of Aeolian descent but spoke Doric. The Lydians, consolidating much of the Near East flood myth must have originated in an effort to under their rule. Cyrus set up a to rule explain the three different and clearly defined Lesbos. The Aeolians, who signed a treaty with Greek populations of Asia Minor: the Aeolians, the Persians in 546 B.C.E., revolted but were who lived in the north of the Anatolian subjugated entirely after their defeat at Lade in Peninsula; the Ionians, who inhabited the mid- 494 B.C.E. Aeolians accompanied the Persian dle; and the Dorians, who lived in in the emperor Xerxes I in his invasion of mainland south. Although the myth is generally close in Greece with 60 ships in 480 B.C.E. After the its broad outlines to the known movements of Persian army, a formidable force that modern different peoples throughout Greece and the scholars believe to have been composed of relationship of the Greeks, it vastly simplifies about 200,000 men and 1,000 ships, suffered a the much more complicated interactions that defeat at the Battle of in 479 B.C.E., the occurred. The Aeolians, Achaeans, and Ionians 8 Aequi

constitute one group of people, who diverged allied themselves with other Italics in Latium, slightly in language as they settled in different the Volsci; the Romans responded in kind, AEQUI parts of Greece and conquered and intermixed securing an alliance with the Hernici and location: with preexisting tribes. The Dorians were a . West-central Italy separate group, also Indo-European and from In 486 B.C.E. a period of continued war- time period: the north who moved into Greece, intermixing fare began between the Romans and the Aequi c. 600 to 304 B.C.E. with and—possibly—conquering or putting and Volsci. In 457 B.C.E. the Roman army was pressure on the remnants of earlier peoples, routed at the hands of the Aequi at Mt. ancestry: Italic who either remained or migrated. Algidus. Archaeology has given indirect evi- dence of the seriousness of the threat the language: Aequi posed to Rome, as there is a discernible Aequian (Italic) Aequi (Equi; Equians; Aequiculi) drop off of public building projects in the TALICS The Aequi are classified as I , probably a mid-fifth century B.C.E., a sign that the econo- b branch tribe of SABINES of the central my was suffering. According to perhaps Apennines in present-day Italy. The Aequi legendary accounts the Roman general came to inhabit hill country in northern parts Cincinnatus was called off his farm to lead the of the region of ancient Latium (part of modern Romans as dictator and rescue their army. Lazio) in present-day west-central Italy north Sixteen days later, his mission accomplished, of the HERNICI and VOLSCI. They were early ene- Cincinnatus is said to have resigned, return- mies of the ROMANS. ing to his plow (his action long serving as an example of ideal Roman behavior). In 431 ORIGINS B.C.E. the Romans under A. Postumius The Aequi migrated from the central Tubertus fought another engagement with the Apennines into northern Latium during the Aequi, at the pass at Mt. Algidus, and this sixth century B.C.E., as the power of the time they triumphed. ETRUSCANS began to wane. Although the power of the Aequi was bro- ken, they continued to resist Roman expan- LANGUAGE sion, but with little effect. In 304 B.C.E. Rome The Aequian language was one of the Sabellian successfully defeated the SAMNITES and their subgroup of the Oscan group of Italic lan- allies, ending the Second Samnite War and guages, related to Marrucinian, Marsian, gaining complete control of Latium. During Paelignian, Sabine, Vestinian, and Volscian. this war, in a campaign lasting 50 days, numerous strongholds of the Aequi were sys- HISTORY tematically taken one by one and their inhab- itants slaughtered en masse. The Aequi were In about 500 B.C.E. the Aequi in Latium granted limited Roman citizenship, and under moved to the south, threatening Roman set- Roman rule, their culture and language disap- tlements, including Praeneste (modern peared. Palestrina) and Tibur (modern Tivoli), which they may have razed. By 493 B.C.E. they had CULTURE (see also ITALICS) Little is known of pre-Roman Aequi culture, Aequi time line other than that they subsisted on herding and agriculture and were warlike. The colony B.C.E. established by the Romans at the Aequi town of Alba Fucens in 304 B.C.E. signaled the gradual c. sixth century Aequi migrate into northern Latium from central Apennines as power of Etruscans declines. intrusion of the language and culture into Aequi territory. c. 500 Aequi are pushed into and attack Roman territory. c. 493 Romans sign treaty with Latins and Hernici, in response to alliance of Aequi and Volsci. b 457 Aequi defeat Romans at Mt. Algidus. The Aequi were one of many peoples of the Italian Peninsula whose history is tied to that 431 Romans defeat Aequi at Mt. Algidus. of the Romans. Knowledge of them has been 304 At end of Second Samnite War Rome secures ultimate control over all filtered through the Roman point of view. of Latium; Aequi are incorporated with limited voting rights into Roman Republic. Aernici See HERNICI. Aestii 9

Aestii (Aestae; Aestyans; Aistii; Ostrogoths, sometime soon before his death, wrote a letter to the Aestii, thanking them for Aistians; Austii) AESTII The exact identity of the Aestii, a people men- the amber sent to the king. As late as 833–36, location: tioned in ancient texts, is not known. They the Aestii were mentioned in Vita Caroli Magni (Life of Charlemagne) by Einhard of North-central Europe were a farming people of the Baltic Sea region near Baltic Sea in north-central Europe, who traded in amber. the FRANKS. time period: First to ninth century C.E. ORIGINS CULTURE An early mention of the Aestii appears in the The Aestii are associated with the amber trade ancestry: writings of the Roman historian Tacitus, in with the ROMANS, starting in the first century Probably Baltic C.E., which led to the formation of the Roman about 98 C.E. The name may have originally language: been applied to one tribe, then later applied to “amber road” to the Baltic region (although Probably Baltic all the peoples of the region. Most scholars amber had been traded to the Mediterranean consider the Aestii to have been the ancient from the Baltic region for millennia). The Romans traded items of bronze, primarily b BALTS: That is, Baltic-speaking peoples who are known to have lived along the coast in coins and brooches, fashionable during that ancient times and to be ancestors of peoples age, in exchange for amber (glaesum in living near the Baltic Sea who had engaged in ancient texts). gathering and trading amber since at least the Tacitus claims that the culture of the Bronze Age. Thus later Baltic peoples, such as Aestii was similar to that of the Germanic SUEBI, although their language resembled the BORUSSIANS (Old Prussians), LETTS, and “British”—Celtic rather than Germanic. They LITHUANIANS, known to have developed the amber trade from the fourth to ninth cen- worshipped the Mother of the Gods and wore turies, are likely to have been their descen- images of boars as an emblem of their cult. It dants. Alternately, the original Aestii could is hard to know how to assess the accuracy of Tacitus’s descriptions of tribes of this remote- have been CELTS,FINNO-UGRIANS,GERMANICS, ness from Rome. Most Celtic peoples wor- or SARMATIANS. The name Aestii perhaps derived from the shipped a variously named Mother Goddess, Aestia River; or it may mean “east,” as used by and boars were an important motif in Celtic Scandinavian peoples across the Baltic Sea. The art, lending credence to Tacitus’s account. On the other hand, boars were important to name of the ESTHS, a Finnic people, is probably related etymologically to Aestii, although they Germanics as well. The identification of their are not considered direct descendants of the language as British could well have originated Aestii. Estonians started referring to them- in the account of a trader who, whether selves as Eestlased in the 19th century. Before Germanic or Roman, recognized the signifi- that time they simply referred to themselves as cant difference of the Aestii’s language from “the country people”—or Maarahvas (see the more predominant Germanic languages in central Europe and concluded that it must be ESTONIANS: NATIONALITY). like the language of another non-Germanic LANGUAGE northern people, that is, the BRITONS. Further confusing the matter is the fact that Tacitus Because of their supposed geographical loca- said that the Aestii word for amber was gle- tion the Aestii are thought to have been Baltic sum, which is Germanic. This may mean only speakers, but they may have been Celtic, that Aestian amber producers used the Finnic, Germanic, Sarmatian, or Slavic. Germanic word to facilitate communication HISTORY According to the Danish historian Saxo Aestii time line Grammaticus (writing in the 13th century), Ermanaric of the OSTROGOTHS organized a C.E. successful military raid against the Aestii in c. 98 Tacitus writes about Aestii. the mid-fourth century C.E. Other Roman and Gothic historians, such as Cassiodorus and mid-fourth century Ermanaric of Ostrogoths campaigns against Aestii. Jordanes of the sixth century, also mentioned 523–24 Cassiodoris writes a letter to Aestii, thanking them for gift of amber the Aestii, the latter describing them as to King Theodoric of the Ostrogoths. peaceful. In about 523–26, Cassiodorus, in 833–36 Einhard of the Franks writes about Aestii. the name of King Theodoric of the 10 Agessinates

with the Germanic and then later Roman Suebian peoples located in central Germany in traders among them. earlier centuries, such as the HERMUNDURI, NARISTI, and SEMNONES. Or they may have been a core group who invaded Suebia territory from b elsewhere. Other tribes joined them later, such The Aestii are an example of a people who evi- as the IUTHUNGI in the fourth century C.E. Their dently played a significant role in ancient confederacy may, like that of other Germanic European history, but about whom little is confederacies such as the GOTHS, have been a known. Their trade in amber and the econom- multiethnic, multicultural one. Their name was ic impact it had on other peoples make them an derived from alamans, meaning “all the people.” intriguing subject of research. LANGUAGE FURTHER READING The Alamannic dialect is related to Swabian Edgar V. Saks. Aestii: An Analysis of an Ancient European Civilization (Heidelberg, Germany: (Suebian). Some inhabitants of the Black Voitleja, 1960). Forest region of present-day southern Germany Arnold S. Spekke. The Ancient Amber Routes and the as well as the independent principality of Geographical Discovery of the Eastern Baltic Liechtenstein still speak Alamannic. (Golden, Colo.: Ares, 1976). HISTORY Agessinates (Agesinates; Cambolectri Early Incursions onto Roman Territory Agessinates) Those tribes grouped as Alamanni ranged The Agessinates are classified as a Celtic tribe. widely from their homeland in southwestern They lived in Gaul around present-day Germany. The Alamanni are the first large Angoulême in present-day western France at Germanic tribal confederacy mentioned in his- least by the first century B.C.E. and are dis- torical sources: Coming to the notice of the cussed as CELTS or GAULS. Another group to the ROMANS, they were driven out of Upper west, the CAMBOLECTRI (or Cambolectri Germany by an army under Emperor Caracalla Atlantici), were probably related ancestrally. in 213 C.E. Caracalla’s victory did not deter the Alamanni for long, and they broke through the Roman limes (fortifications) in the mid-third Aigosages century, pushing westward across the Rhine as The Aigosages are classified as a Celtic tribe, far as present-day Trier (Trèves) on the banks from eastern Europe; they are discussed as of the Prüm River in western Germany and set- CELTS or GALATOI. They were recruited as mer- tling south of the Danube near Lake Constance cenaries by Hellenistic rulers to go to Bithynia on the present-day border of Germany, Austria, in Asia Minor in 218 B.C.E. but were wiped out and Switzerland. With the GOTHS they are con- by their employers after rebelling. sidered the first Germanics to occupy what had been Roman-held territory. Their incursions Alamanni (Alamani; Alemanni; were one of the reasons the Romans gave up ALAMANNI Alemans; Allemanni; Allemans) defending the Rhine-Danube frontier in 260. location: The Alamanni were a tribal confederacy of The Alamanni did not proceed deeper into Southwestern Germany; GERMANICS that emerged east of the Rhine and Roman territory until later that decade, when northern Switzerland; south of the Main River in present-day south- they began carrying out raids in northern Italy. western Austria; north- western Germany in the third century C.E. in ter- In 268 a Roman force under Claudius II defeat- eastern France; ritory formerly inhabited by the SUEBI and ed them in the Battle of Lake Benacus (Lake Liechtenstein spread to neighboring regions, including Alsace Garda) near Milan. time period: west of the Rhine in present-day northeastern In 275 the Alamanni were among Germanic Third to eighth France and later southward into the northern forces, also including Goths and VANDALS,who century C.E. Alps. Territory in France and Germany on both overran part of the Roman province of Dacia in the steppe region of the Lower Danube basin ancestry: sides of the Rhine became known as Alamannia; Germanic part of it was later referred to as Swabia derived west of the Black Sea, defeating a force of from the tribal name Suebi. SARMATIANS. By about 300 groups of settlers were language: occupying territory between the Black Forest Alamannic (Germanic) ORIGINS and the Upper Danube. From there they began The exact makeup of the Alamanni is not attacking the Upper Rhine valley and eastern b known. They may have consisted of a core of Gaul.