Awhile back on one of the historical minded history channels, a friend told me about a show he saw on Roman Irregulars from Scandanavia. May have served in Britain. I am going on memory here and did not see the show myself. May have come from Denmark.<br>
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Anyone know of these troops and have additional information on their use, makeup, and strength. As well as operations they may have taken place in. From memory it seemed they were like an Ancient Special Operations Group... <p></p><i></i>
The only Scandinavians I know of that served in a Roman army were the Varangians, who served in the guard of the Byzantine emperors. The first ones may have been sent to the byzantine emperor by Vladimir, Prince of Kiev, sometime in the 9th century AD.<br>
A commander of the Varangian Guard in the 11th century AD (I think..) was Harald Sigurdsson, later to become King of Norway under the nickname of "Hardradaa". "Hard ruler". <p></p><i></i>
These were all was aware of but the show(I will have to pick my friends brain about it) alluded to Scandanavians serving in the west and I am almost positive they referenced britain. <p></p><i></i>
Thanks for the info, Duncun! I will read the links and see if this is what the show was alluding too. <p></p><i></i>
Wow! Thanks for the info...My buddy said he thinks the show was on the Discovery Channel on troops stationed at Hadrian's Wall. The troops came from modern day Germany,Latvia, and Lithuania. Could be some of the tribes you have listed on the map. I wish I had actually seen the show so I could give more details about what content the program contained and even perhaps specific names of tribes and such...<br>
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Did anyone see this show? Are there actual references on or about Hadrian's wall referencing such troops?<br>
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Seeing some of the tribal names I got to wondering about modern day words. Vandalism derived from the Vandals. I wonder and maybe this is common knowledge but were the Bastarni a bunch of "Bastards" or were the Chatti a very talkative people? <p></p><i></i>