Sarmatian Cavalry

[Robert Vermaat]

The best original source on the Alans is Ammianus Marcellinus (Loeb Library, Harvard, publishers). But Ammianus does give a few wrong impressions. For instance, they were all blue-eyed blondes, and discounting individuals with Asiatic features. He claimed they always lived in wagons, no "houses," but he viewed them during migration, not realizing that once settled in an adopted territory they actually had towns, perhaps even "cities" in the sense of a trading center.

Ammianus is perhaps the source who tells, but he suffers (like most of his fellow-historians) from conceptions that were not based on personal observations. The Alans, like so many other steppe cultures, were most probably a federation of tribes with perhaps different enthic background and even a language differences. Such groups could join and leave such a federation (like the Taifali did for instance), causing problems for Roman historians who made a mess of the identification of such groups.

The later Alans were Christianized by Bishop Amantius around 380 in Pannonia, then incorporated enmass into the Roman cavalry. They were used by Gratian as his Household guard. A palatine unit-- the Comites Alani-- was used by Flavius Stilicho against Alaric, and the Alan commander Saul was Magister Equite for one day.

They did better than that! Ardabur or Ardaburius (Greek: Ἀρδαβούριος) served as magister militum in the East Roman army in the 420s, under Theodosius II, and he was consul in 427. His son Flavius Ardabur Aspar (c. 400 – 471) was a patrician and magister militum ("Master of soldiers"), and both played a major role in Roman politics. Aspar's son Ardabur was a consul too.

The largest settlement of Alans was around Orleans, and the federate king Eothar was employed to squash a rebellion in Brittany. Other Christian Alans settled in the Caucacus, and a group of 30,000 Alans were mercenaries for the Kubli Khan, all living near the Pacific coast across from Formosa. Their history is a long one, spanning three continents, and distinguished.

the Alans of Orleans were perhaps the ones best known to us, but certainly not the only ones. Large Alanic settlements are known in Italy and Gaul from the Notitia Dignitatum. Another large group joined the Vandals from Gaul to Africa, for instance. According to one theory, a score of Alan-names all across Gaul shows where they ended up.

I'm not saying they were better fighters than others, and I try to avoid the term "ethnicity." They were a cavalry culture fighting under general-kings, both Europoid and Asian in their physicality.:wink:

I'm not sure where you found that they could look Asian? But judging from their history, I would not rule out the possibility that Turkish or etnically asian groups had mixed with them. They certainly served the Romans as good fighters, although they were themselves bested by the Huns. :wink: