Scandanavian Romans...

[Anonymous]

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>
<br>
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>

[Anonymous]

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>

[Anonymous]

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>

[Anonymous]

Could the programme have been talking about the Heruls? There's a unit of Heruli mentioned in the Notitia and they are said to have come originally from Scandinavia, though that may not have been where the Romans recruited them.<br>
<br>
freepages.history.rootswe...horse2.htm talks about Heruls in Roman service<br>
<br>
www.geocities.com/troels_...eruls.html for another view of the Heruls<br>
<br>
www.hum.gu.se/arkiv/ONN/1.../0949.html reckons that gold bracteates found in Scandinavia were taken there by Scandinavians retiring from Roman military service<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

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>

[Anonymous]

Heruli and other Est Germanic tribes had an offspring in Scandinavia and the North Germanic (Scandinavian) people are said to be their closest relatives, while the West (North Sea, Weser-Rhine and Elbe) Germanic people build the South Germanic branch (see my pics)<br>
<br>
<img src="http://home.arcor.de/berzelmayr/germanics.gif" style="border:0;"/><br>
<br>
http://home.arcor.de/berzelmayr/map-ger.jpg <img src="http://home.arcor.de/berzelmayr/map-ger.jpg" style="border:0;"/><br>
<p>---------------<br>
<br>
<img src="http://home.nexgo.de/berzelmayr/hadrian.gif"/> Est vita misero longa, felici brevis.<br>
<br>
</p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

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>
<br>
Did anyone see this show? Are there actual references on or about Hadrian's wall referencing such troops?<br>
<br>
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>

[Anonymous]

Can't recall any units on Hadrian's Wall that might have been Scandinavians or Balts. Germans, yes - units like the numerus Hnaudifridi or the cuneus Frisiavonum. See for instance www.roman-britain.org/mil...gulars.htm or <p></p><i></i>