Getae and Dacians? Are they the same? Or is this unknowable?

[Alanus]

... Naturally the Taefali are last right after the Syri ( : in the Notitia.. Occident and Britania. As for Gallia… What’s your point? Speculating for just another tribe of Alans? Perhaps the Syri was a phamton unit. What exactly is your timeline?

Well, aren't you clever. But not clever enough. :lol: Otherwise you wouldn't have to ask me for a timeline.

Here it is--
AD 100: The Roxolani begin moving through Iron Gate Pass and up onto the Hungarian Steppe. The Taifali follow behind the Roxolani and take Walachia as their pasturage.
AD 150: The Goths move down into S. Ukraine and Moldova, cleaving the Taifali from the major Alannic host in the Crimea and eastward.
AD 200: For trade and mutual peace, the Taifali enter an informal foedus with the Tyrfingi Goths.
AD 248-51: The Taifali are the major horse for Cniva (aka Cannabas). Emperor Decius is defeated and killed at Abritum.
AD 267: The confederation of Tyrfingi and Taifali and "other Germanic peoples" sweep south into Greece and pillage Corinth, Argos, and Athens.
AD 289-90: The Tyrfingi-Taifali drive out the Carpi between the river Prut and the Carpathians.
AD 291-92: The Tyrfingi-Taifali attack and defeat contingents of Gepids and Vandals.

I think you get the picture. So let's move to AD 360 when Eutropius mentions that Dacia was now controlled by the Tryfingi, Taifali, and Victohali. The tight association between the western Goths and Taifals continued until the Hunnic expansion of 376. Emperor Valens admits the Tyrfingi into the Eastern Empire but refuses the Taifali. They move upriver; and in 377 they join the Greutungi led by Farnobius. While raiding the Pannonias and Illyricum they meet the Roman forces of General Frigeridus (a Goth who suffered from gout.) The Romans closed ranks first, got the upper hand, and Farnobius was killed.

This was the situation that would create the Equites Taifali. The Greutungi and Taifals surrendered and Frigerid moved the entire population of Goths and Sarmatians to the Po Valley, precisely to the areas around Mutina, Reggium, and Parma, where they became "laiti" Roman cavalry. This area is now traversed by a modern Autostrada, yet local graves yield many artifacts designed in the "Black Sea style." Our authority for the original tidbit is Ammianus Marcellinus, a former Roman officer who personally knew Frigerid. There can be no questions, no debate, no rebuff to real history.

The unit was moved to Gaul, then split into Iuniores and Seniores, the newer ala sent to Britain. The settlement in northern Gaul was just below the Loire, the town still called Toufages. The last Taifalus of note was mentioned by Gregory of Tours as a famed holy man. As for the Equite Syri, you know as well as I do that they were an actual unit and listed alphbetically. I never said the Taifali were Alans, but called them Sarmatians even though they could have been from the Alanic culture.