04-10-2016, 04:09 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-10-2016, 05:11 PM by Michael Kerr.)
Batty has his critics with some of his conclusions, for example he thought that the early Roxolani were horse archers and it was due to their interraction with the Bastarnae that they adopted lance warfare and the use of the long cavalry sword without considering that this style of warfare originated in Central Asia with the Massagetae, Chorismians and Yuezhi, who probably invented the scabbard slide but I still think his book is an interesting read. He is a professor of economics and not a military historian but he seems to have a good understanding of pastoral economies and why pastoralism dominated in the regions covered in his book. So pastoral economies in the Pontic Danubian realm and their interraction with sedentary societies must have been his passion and who could blame him (how many people get passionate about economics). This was the main reason I got his book.
His book is broken up into three parts.
Part 1 titled Lands and Peoples covers the physical geography of the regions that the Roxolani and other peoples like Iazyges, Alans, Goths, Bastarnae and Huns as well as a few later ones inhabited including climate, soils, vegetation and drainage of the river systems especially the Danube with numerous maps, timelines and charts. He goes into a lot of detail describing how the Danube was a different river 2000 years to now due to irrigation and modern dams. The Southern bank was a lot higher than the northern bank in the lower river except for a few areas and these areas were where the Romans sited their forts. Naturally enough the northern bank was more susceptible to seasonal flooding and contained massive marshlands. He seems to concentrate more on the middle to lower Danube and the delta regions.
He then writes about the various zones of interraction and breaks them up into the various regions Macedonia, the Thracian plain, northern Bulgaria, the Carpathians, Walachia, Bessarabia, Moldovia and the Dobroudia and finally the Pontic Steppes and the Crimea.
Part 2 titled Wanderers Without Culture or Laws covers the prehistory and later history up to the Romans and he devotes separate chapters to Strabo and his description of the peoples and lands and another chapter on Ovid. It covers a lot of sources.
Part 3 titled Rome and the Nomads covers immigration and clashes with the Romans, the pastoral economy in the Roman period, their reputation as Raiders, rebels and thieves and urban development. One part I found interesting about the Roxolani was going by Tacitus the Legio III Gallica caught 9000 Roxolani in bad weather and destroyed them to a man while trying to cross the Danube with their loot. However they must still have had some strength because the following year they defeated and killed Gaius Fonteius Agrippa and had to be put down in a series of battles the following year by Rubrius Gallus. I remember Anthony Quayle played Gallus who was killed while building the ramp to the mountaintop fortress in the mini series Masada.
Another book which covers a bit about the later Sarmatians in Pannonia is Pannonia and Upper Moesia by Andras Mocsy although this book was written in 1974.
Hope this helps
His book is broken up into three parts.
Part 1 titled Lands and Peoples covers the physical geography of the regions that the Roxolani and other peoples like Iazyges, Alans, Goths, Bastarnae and Huns as well as a few later ones inhabited including climate, soils, vegetation and drainage of the river systems especially the Danube with numerous maps, timelines and charts. He goes into a lot of detail describing how the Danube was a different river 2000 years to now due to irrigation and modern dams. The Southern bank was a lot higher than the northern bank in the lower river except for a few areas and these areas were where the Romans sited their forts. Naturally enough the northern bank was more susceptible to seasonal flooding and contained massive marshlands. He seems to concentrate more on the middle to lower Danube and the delta regions.
He then writes about the various zones of interraction and breaks them up into the various regions Macedonia, the Thracian plain, northern Bulgaria, the Carpathians, Walachia, Bessarabia, Moldovia and the Dobroudia and finally the Pontic Steppes and the Crimea.
Part 2 titled Wanderers Without Culture or Laws covers the prehistory and later history up to the Romans and he devotes separate chapters to Strabo and his description of the peoples and lands and another chapter on Ovid. It covers a lot of sources.
Part 3 titled Rome and the Nomads covers immigration and clashes with the Romans, the pastoral economy in the Roman period, their reputation as Raiders, rebels and thieves and urban development. One part I found interesting about the Roxolani was going by Tacitus the Legio III Gallica caught 9000 Roxolani in bad weather and destroyed them to a man while trying to cross the Danube with their loot. However they must still have had some strength because the following year they defeated and killed Gaius Fonteius Agrippa and had to be put down in a series of battles the following year by Rubrius Gallus. I remember Anthony Quayle played Gallus who was killed while building the ramp to the mountaintop fortress in the mini series Masada.
Another book which covers a bit about the later Sarmatians in Pannonia is Pannonia and Upper Moesia by Andras Mocsy although this book was written in 1974.
Hope this helps
Regards
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
