At the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. AD The inevitable decline of the influence of the Sarmatian tribes began, which is associated mainly with the settlement of the Goths in the Black Sea steppes. They tried to solve the complex problem of the Goths with many hypotheses with to varying degrees credibility. It is most often accepted that the Goths arrived from Scandinavia, settling at the beginning new era on opposite banks Baltic Sea, in the territory of Pomerania. Then they undertook a resettlement to the southeast and several decades later, even before the end of the third century, they reached the Black Sea. From there they undertook predatory campaigns across the Danube, did not leave the population of the Black Sea Greek colonies alone, and also captured most of the Crimea, where, by the way, they managed to hold out the longest - right up to the end of the 16th century. in Crimea there were small remnants of the population using the Gothic language.
In the 4th century. persistent and bloody wars ready with ants. The Goths by that time were divided into the eastern Goths, or Ostrogoths, who lived specifically in the Crimea and north of the Black Sea, and the western Goths, or Visigoths, who moved from their original settlements along the Dnieper to the Apennines and Pyrenees. The Ostrogoths fought with the Antes; somewhere in the middle of the 4th century. their tribal union, which included not only the Goths, but also the Alans and Thracians, was a considerable force. The ruler of the Ostrogoths, King Ermanaric, subjugated the Antes in the middle Dnieper region and the Slavs. The lands of the latter are represented in different ways and with great uncertainty, but in general they are considered a complex of tribes located furthest southwest of the Dnieper, even to the banks of the Sava. There is also a diametrically opposite theory, according to which the Slavs, under the Gothic onslaught, moved to the north and settled near Lake Ilmen. According to this theory, the late Ilmen Slavs descended from them, and the name Slavs itself became a collective name for all Slavs (hence the Latin Sclavini and the Greek ???????o?).
Ermanarik achieved a lot with the sword, but he also died from the sword, and his own - he committed suicide after the defeat of his state by the Huns (375). The invasion of this complex of peoples in Europe filled a whole century. Negative and often catastrophic in its consequences, it introduced indescribable confusion, confusion and destruction of various tribes, and continuous internal wars, incl. namely the Ostrogoths with the Antes. Yielding to the west before the invasion of the Huns, the Ostrogoths brutally defeated the Antes living along the Southern Bug. The captive Ant king Boz (or Box) was crucified on the cross along with his sons and 70 representatives of the Ant nobility. This happened after 385. Later, the Huns finally conquered the Ostrogoths, and only when at the beginning of the second half of the 5th century the state of the Huns disappeared from the historical scene, the impressive, one might say, rapid, career of the Ostrogoths began, who founded their state in Italy in 493; but 60 years later not a trace of him remains.
The disappearance of the Huns from Europe also allowed the Antes to restore their strength; their external manifestation began trips deep into the Balkan Peninsula. In addition to military campaigns, the resettlement movement also developed; in different ways and at different times, gl.obr. between the 5th and 7th centuries. the ancestors of today's Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ended up there. From the half of the 6th century. a new danger looms over Eastern Europe. This danger was borne by the Turkic Avars from Central Asia. After a devastating transition through the Black Sea steppes, the Avars settled in the Pannonian Lowland; there arose the center of their tribal union, however, as far from complete integration as all the previous ones. Despite this, the Avar Khanate (or Kaganate) lasted for more than 250 years, and only Charlemagne at the beginning of the 9th century. wiped him off the face of the earth. Already in initial stage During their development, the Antes received crushing blows from the Avars. By the 7th century, their name disappeared from sources, giving way to a name with a new etymology: Ros or Rus. Further development East Slavic tribes included within the boundaries of this name have already approached state forms. Several decades after the fall Avar Khaganate An ancient Russian state arose on the lands of the Antes.
It is also characteristic that the process of formation of pre-state structures in Eastern Europe developed even when the Avars remained in force. However, they were occupied with constant predatory campaigns, mainly against the Byzantine provinces. Over time they became more and more difficult. The Franks opposed the Avars, and the conquered tribes rebelled. By the end of the 7th century, a Bulgarian state arose across the Danube in the Balkans. Thanks to this before eastern tribes The opportunity for free development opened up, and some non-Slavic tribes managed to take advantage of the situation. This was reflected in the formation of two more state organisms in the 7th century. - Khazars and Volga (Kama) Bulgarians.
In the middle of the 3rd century. Goths move to Crimea. "Goths" was the name given to the union of Germanic tribes. Among them were the tribes of the Ostrogoths (Ostrogoths), Visigoths (Visigoths), Heruli, Borans, Carps and others. The ancestral home of the Goths was located on the territory of the modern Scandinavian Peninsula. What reasons prompted the Goths to begin moving south is not known exactly. Suggestions are made about climate change in Scandinavia, about an increase in the population of the peninsula, whose meager soils could not feed the Goths who had become numerous. In any case, in the 1st century. n. e. the Goths moved to the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, and by the middle of the 3rd century. they occupied vast territories from the Lower Danube in the west to the Dnieper in the east.
The border between the possessions of the Goths and the Roman Empire ran along the Danube. In 250, a huge army of Goths crossed the river and attacked the provinces of the empire. This is how the series began bloody wars between the Germans and the Romans. The allies of the Goths in these wars were various tribes and tribal unions, for example, the Sarmatians. To save the important Balkan provinces, the Romans were forced to use all their reserves. In particular, the legionnaires who made up the garrisons of Chersonese and Charax were transferred to the aid of the Danube armies. Thus, the position of the empire on the Crimean peninsula was seriously weakened, which the Goths did not fail to take advantage of. The barbarians who participated in the events on the Danube soon appeared in Crimea. They brought with them trophies captured in battles with the Romans. One of the barbarians buried near the modern village. Dolinnoye, Bakhchisarai district, 119 Roman silver coins, a silver fibula and a glass vessel. For some reason, he never returned for his property, and only in 1971, when laying a new river bed. Kachi, the treasure was brought to the surface of the earth. The latest coins from the treasure are dated 251, i.e. the Goths appeared in Crimea this year or a little later.
The late Scythians failed to provide worthy resistance to the Goths. Their settlements were destroyed, and their inhabitants were killed or captured. Then the Goths attacked the Bosporus. Some Bosporan cities suffered serious damage from the barbarians. Didn't even help clever move King Reskuporidas IV (242/243 - 276/277), who took Pharsanza as a co-ruler, probably the leader of one of the Iranian tribes living nearby, who concluded an Antigothic alliance with the Bosporans.
The Goths did not come to the Bosporus in search of land for settlement. The barbarians well understood the strategic importance of these places: from here they could launch campaigns against rich cities and provinces located on the Black Sea coast. For such campaigns, the Bosporan fleet would have been very useful, because the Goths did not have their own. The Germans forced Rheskuporidas to provide them with ships and crews. Probably, the Bosporan king simply had no other choice - he could not defeat the Goths on his own, and he could not count on the help of Rome. So the Bosporus became the base from where during the third quarter of the 3rd century. The Germans carried out a series of raids on the Roman provinces.
The goal of the first campaign (255/256) was the rich city of Pitiunt in the Eastern Black Sea region. The siege of the fortress did not bring the expected results, and the Goths, having plundered the unfortified surrounding settlements, returned to the Bosporus. A year later they made a new campaign and captured Pitiunt and other nearby cities. In 264, the Goths on ships reached south coast Black Sea, from here they made a lightning-fast transition into the depths of the Asia Minor Peninsula, devastated the Roman provinces of Cappadocia and Bithynia and returned to the Bosporus with rich booty. In 268, the Goths living in Crimea took part in a campaign against the Roman provinces organized by a coalition of various Germanic tribes living in the Northern Black Sea region. west bank Ponta. As a result of this expedition, vast territories were devastated and dozens of cities were plundered. In 276, the Goths set out on a new campaign, this time again against the provinces of Asia Minor. However, now they were opposed by selected detachments of the Roman army. In the battle with them, the barbarians were defeated. The defeat of the Goths returning to the Bosporus was completed by King Teiran (275/76 - 278/79). He managed to restore Bosporan Kingdom within the same limits and establish friendly relations with the Roman Empire. At the same time, the Roman emperors inflicted several defeats on the Danube barbarians and thus eliminated the Gothic threat. Now the Romans had the opportunity to resume their military presence on the Crimean peninsula. At the end of the 3rd century. A Roman garrison reappears in Chersonesos. Defeated in the fight against the empire, the Goths settled in the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea.
By the beginning of the wars with Rome, the Goths were pagans. They worshiped various deities who personified the forces of nature. Supreme God Thor was the lord of thunder and lightning. In the 3rd century. Christianity quickly spread among the population of the Roman Empire. During trips to Asia Minor The Germans captured many prisoners, including Christians. From these prisoners new religion The Crimean Goths also adopted it. After some time, it became necessary to streamline the activities of the church in their domain. For this purpose, in 400, the Patriarch of Constantinople, the famous John Chrysostom, decided to create a separate church district - a diocese. Unila became the first bishop of the Goths.
Gradually, the Christian faith spread among the inhabitants of Bosporus and Chersonesos. Probably not last role Contacts with Christian Goths played a role in this process. The first Christian community arose in the Bosporus in the first quarter of the 4th century. When the first Ecumenical Council was convened in the Asia Minor city of Nicaea in 325 to resolve controversial theological issues, the representative of the Bosporan Christians, Bishop Cadmus, also took part in it. In the 5th century Christianity was already the official religion of the Bosporan kingdom: images of the cross were placed on the inscriptions of kings and senior government officials.
In Chersonesus, the first Christians faced significant difficulties. During the 4th century. most of the city's population remained pagans. It was mainly representatives of the city elite who converted to Christianity, hoping to receive various privileges from the Byzantine authorities who patronized Christians. In 381, the Bishop of Kherson, Epherius, participated in the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople. An attempt to baptize the inhabitants of the city by force was made under Emperor Theodosius I (379-395). This emperor sought to convert the entire population under his control to Christianity. Therefore, when Epherius’s successor, Capito, began to eradicate paganism in Chersonesus, the troops sent by the emperor to the city provided him with great help. According to legend, in order to prove the correctness of Christian doctrine, Capito entered a burning furnace and came out unharmed. The amazed pagans immediately decided to be baptized, although it is not entirely clear that in to a greater extent prompted them to this decision, because while Capito performed his miracle, Byzantine soldiers took the children of the Chersonesos hostage. Legends about the life and activities of the first Christians of Chersonesos were revised much later, in the 7th or 8th centuries, and formed the basis of the so-called “Lives of the Bishops of Cherson.” The memory of the “feat of Bishop Capiton” was preserved among the city residents. During excavations of Chersonesos, the remains of a 6th century temple were discovered, built over a lime kiln, which, as the Chersonesos believed, included Kapiton. Christianity finally established itself in the city at the end of the 5th-6th centuries, primarily thanks to the efforts of the Byzantine administration.
In the second half of the 4th century. The ruler of the Ostrogoths, Germanarich, united various tribes and founded a vast state, called the “power of Germanarich.” It included numerous tribes of barbarians who lived in the Northern Black Sea region, including the Germans who lived in the Crimea. The new association existed for a very short time, already in the mid-70s. IV century The Goths were defeated in the fight against the Huns who came from the east.
The Huns are a people who suddenly appeared from the depths of Asia, swept across Europe like a wave and left many legends about themselves. The most famous Hun leader was Attila, the great king of Atli Scandinavian sagas.
From Asia to different times a lot migrated various peoples, but it was the Huns who left such a bright mark on history, as if they had dissolved after mysterious death its greatest leader.
The issue of the culture and origin of the Huns was studied by such prominent scientists as I.P. Zasetskaya, B.V. Lunin, V.A. Korenyako, S.S. Minyaev, P.N. Savitsky, O. Menchen-Helfen, T. Hayashi , T.Barfield, N.N. Kradin, P.B. Konovalov, L.N. Gumilyov.
What do their studies say?
Origin from the depths of Siberia
IN Mongolian steppes lived the proto-Turkic people of the Huns, pressed on all sides by enemies. Power among the Huns was inherited according to the same principle as later among the Russian princes: from brother to brother, and only then to their sons. In the third century BC, Tuman became the chanyu (ruler). He dreamed of getting rid of his eldest son Mode in order to transfer the throne youngest son from his beloved concubine. To implement this plan, Tuman sent Mode as a hostage to the Sogdians and attacked them in the hope that they would kill his son and save him from further trouble. But Mode quickly assessed the situation, killed his guards, stole a horse and fled to his own. Under pressure public opinion Tuman allocated 10,000 warriors to his eldest son, whom Mode began to train in new scheme. To begin with, he introduced unusual arrows with a slot that whistled when flying. If the warriors heard the whistle of their prince's arrow, they were obliged to immediately shoot at the same target. And so Mode made a test: he shot at his magnificent argamak. He cut off the heads of those who lowered their bows. He then shot his young wife. Those who evaded were also executed. The next target was the argamak of his father Tuman, and every single one was shot. After which Mode killed Tuman himself, his concubine, half-brother, and himself became a chanyu.
Mode ruled the Huns for 40 years and elevated it above all the surrounding peoples.
Several generations later, the situation in the steppe changed. The Huns were defeated and fragmented. Some of them fled to the west and joined the Trans-Ural Ugrians. For two hundred years the two peoples lived side by side, and then a wave of their joint expansion followed. It was this mixed people that later became known as the “Huns.”
The Huns are possible relatives of the Germanic peoples
The Huns and Normans are two ethnic groups that used almost similar runic writing. We are talking about the very runes that, as he says Elder Edda, god Odin brought from Asia. Asian runes are several centuries older: they were found on the graves of Turkic heroes, for example, Kul-Tegin. Perhaps these ancient family ties were the reason why a number of Huns became allies in Europe Germanic peoples. King Atli is one of the favorite romantic characters in Scandinavian sagas, for example, “The Song of Hlöd”, where the king is shown to be somewhat henpecked. Indeed, Attila was very soft person, loving their children and numerous wives.
Religion from time immemorial
The religion of this nomadic people was Tengrism - the worship of the Eternal Blue Sky. Mount Khan Tengri in the Tien Shan was considered the habitat of the supreme deity; there were also many temples with idols cast from silver. As a protective symbol, the Huns wore amulets made of precious metals with images of dragons. Among the ruling elite of the Huns there was a supreme shaman who asked the deity for advice on taking important decisions. The elements were considered sacred: fire, water, earth.
There was also a cult of sacred trees; horses were sacrificed to them, their skins were removed and crucified between the branches, and the blood was spilled around.
Calling on the help of the god of war, the Huns used very ancient custom“tuom”: shooting a noble captive with “a thousand arrows.” It is logical to assume that the Huns performed the same ritual.
An army that cannot storm a fortress
The Huns subjugated such powerful powers that era, like the Ostrogothic Empire and the Alan Kaganate. Solve the riddle of success " barbarian people“Contemporaries also tried: the Roman centurion Ammianus Marcellinus, the Byzantine philosopher Eunapius, the Gothic chroniclers Jordan and Priscus of Panius. All of them were hostile to the Huns and tried to denigrate them before their descendants, colorfully describing their ugly appearance and barbaric customs. However, how could the barbarians cope with the strongest states of that era?
The authors explained the successes of the Huns by their specific military tactics: “The Alans, although equal to them in battle... were subjugated, weakened by frequent skirmishes.” This tactic was used by the Massagetae in the war against Alexander the Great: the guerrilla war of light cavalry against heavy infantry was indeed successful. However, the main military force of the Alans was not infantry, but powerful, well-trained heavy cavalry. They used proven Sarmatian close combat tactics. The Alans had fortresses that the Huns did not know how to take, and left them undefeated in their rear, although the infrastructure of the Kaganate was destroyed by them. Many Alans fled to the west and settled on the Loire.
How the Huns defeated the Crimean Goths: fording the sea
After the subjugation of the Alan Kaganate, the Huns, led by Balamber, came into direct conflict with the Ostrogoths of King Germanarich. The Goths occupied Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region. The Huns could not take the peninsula from the Don floodplain: they were not able to fight in the swampy area, which was also defended by the warlike people of the Heruls. The Huns did not have any means to transport the army by sea. Thus, the Goths felt safe on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula. This is what destroyed them.
The ancient Slavs, the Antes, were forcibly subjugated to the Goths and treated this situation without any enthusiasm. As soon as the Huns appeared on the political horizon, the Antes joined them. The Gothic chronicler Jordan calls the Antes “treacherous” and considers them the main reason for the fall of the Gothic state. Perhaps it was the Antes who provided the Huns with information that allowed the latter to capture Crimean peninsula ford from the side of the Kerch Strait.
According to Jordan, in 371, Hun horsemen while hunting Taman Peninsula They chased the deer and drove her to the very cape. The deer entered the sea and, carefully stepping and feeling the bottom, crossed to the land of the Crimea, thereby indicating a ford: along this path the Hunnic army passed to the rear of its opponents and captured the Crimean peninsula. King Germanarich, who was over 110 years old at the time, pierced himself with a sword in despair.
The Huns did not destroy or expel the Goths, but only subjugated them to their power. Vinitarius became Germanarich's successor. He has enough left powerful army and power structure. He tried to deprive the Huns of their most important ally and attacked the Antes, captured and crucified King Bozh with his sons and 70 elders. The Huns, in turn, attacked Vinitarius and killed him in a battle on the Erak (Dnieper) River. Some of the surviving Ostrogoths moved to the possessions of the Romans, the rest submitted to the Hun leader.
The Huns are a people with a high level of diplomatic culture
If we consider the Huns as semi-savage barbarians, as Jordanes and Ammianus Marcellinus did, it is impossible to understand the secret of their success. main reason- the talent of their leaders, as well as a level of diplomacy that was not inferior to leading European states.
The Huns knew very well the entire “kitchen” of relations between the surrounding peoples, knew how to obtain the necessary information and acted masterfully not only in battle, but also through negotiations. The empire of King Germanarich rested solely on submission to brute force. The leader of the Huns, Balamber, attracted to his side all the peoples offended and oppressed by the Goths, and there were many of them.
Other Hun leaders adhered to a similar scheme and did not seek to fight where there was a chance to reach an amicable agreement. Rugila in 430 established diplomatic contacts with the Roman Empire and even helped with troops to suppress the Bagaudian uprising in Gaul. Rome by this time was already in a state of collapse, but many of its citizens sided with the Huns, preferring their orderly power to the arbitrariness of their own officials.
In 447, Attila and his army reached the walls of Constantinople. He had no chance to take powerful fortifications, but he managed to conclude a humiliating peace with Emperor Theodosius with the payment of tribute and the transfer of part of the territory to the Huns.
The reason for the new trip to the west: look for a woman!
3 years later Byzantine emperor Marcian terminated the peace treaty with the Huns, but Attila found it more tempting to go to Gaul: part of the Alans, whom Attila wanted to defeat, went there; in addition, there was another reason.
Princess Justa Grata Honoria was the sister of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III, her husband could lay claim to imperial power. To avoid possible competition, Valentinian was going to marry his sister to the elderly and trustworthy senator Herculan, which she did not want at all. Honoria sent Attila her ring and an invitation to marry. And as a result, the Hunnic horde passed through the entire north of Italy, plundered the Po River valley, along the way defeated the kingdom of the Burgundians, and reached Orleans, but the Huns could not take it. Valentinian did not allow Attila's marriage to Honoria; the princess herself escaped torture, and perhaps execution, only thanks to her mother's intercession.
Orientalist Otto Menchen-Helfen believes that the reason for the departure of the Huns from Italy was the outbreak of a plague epidemic.
Death of the leader and collapse of the state
After leaving Italy, Attila decided to marry the beautiful Ildiko (Hilda), daughter of the King of Burgundy, but died on his wedding night from a nosebleed. Jordan says that the leader of the Huns died from intemperance and drunkenness. But in the works of German mythology “The Elder Edda” and others, King Atli was killed by his wife Gudrun, who avenged the death of her brothers.
The next year, 454, the Hunnic power ceased to exist. Attila's most prominent sons, Ellak and Dengizich, soon died in battle. But the Huns and their famous leader became part of the history and mythology of many peoples.
What European peoples borrowed from the Huns
In the Roman army, the military leader Fabius Aetius introduced Hunnic compound short bows with a reverse bend, well suited for shooting from horseback.
The ancestors of the Huns, the Huns, were the inventors of stirrups: it was from them that this part of the harness spread to other peoples.
The names of the Hun leaders came into fashion in Europe and became familiar: Balthazar, Donat, and of course Attila: this name is especially popular in Hungary.
In the III century before it is not in the ground. Northern. The Sarmatians came from the Black Sea region from the Volga-Ural steppes. Already in the 11th-1st centuries BC they completely occupied the steppes between. Don and. Dnieper, and sometimes their settlements reached Naviti. South. Buga and. Danube. The name "Sarmatians" comes from the Iranian word - "saoromant", which means "girt with a sword" According to the legend recorded. Herodotus, the Sarmatians came from the marriages of the Scythians with the Amazons - fearless female warriors. Sarmatian women knew how to ride horses worse than men, owned weapons and went on hikes with them. In military affairs, the Sarmatians differed from the Scythians in their even greater cruelty and inflexibility, and in their even greater cruelty and stealthiness.
. When they appear in mounted units, no other formation can resist them
. Tacitus
The main occupation of the Sarmatians was nomadic cattle breeding. They raised cattle, sheep, and horses. In addition, they hunted steppe animals and birds, fished, and practiced crafts
not formed at the end of I great union tribes, led by the Sarmatian tribe of Alans. The end of Alan domination in the southern Ukrainian lands was put in the 3rd century. Germanic tribes ready, and in the second half of the 4th century - gunguni.
Goths
In III during his reign. Severny. The Black Sea region was established by the Germanic tribes of the Goths, who formed here. The Gothic state is the Getics. The capital of the Gothic state was the so-called “Dnieper city,” which was located near one of the rapids. Dnieper (near the present village of Bashmachka, Zaporozhye region). Having gained a foothold in. Severny. Black Sea region, the Goths began their military expansion on. Balkans and Small. Asia of the most power and strength political unification the Goths reached in the middle of the 4th century under the reign of the king. Germanaricha (332-375). At the end of the reign. Hermanarikha began an unsuccessful war for the Goths with the Antiv tribes. After the death of the Gothic king, the military dispute with the Antes was continued by his heir. Vinitary. It was he who insidiously killed the Antes prince in 375. God with his sons and 70 elders. But the very next year the Goths were defeated by the nomadic tribes of the Huns, who supported the Antes in their fight against the Gothic state. After that crushing defeat Gethics as a state was in rapid decline. Most of population, I moved to the lands above the Danube, less - I remained in the territory. Crimean peninsula. Krimsky pіvostrov.
Huns
After defeating the Goths, the Huns soon captured vast territories from. Dona do. Danube. They destroyed Greek colonies V. The Black Sea region was conquered by the tribes of the Goths, Alans, and Slavs. To the board. Attila's (this is ep V century) state of the Huns controlled vast areas from. Reina do. Volga. And only after the defeat in. At the Catalaunian Battle (451), the Huns were finally stopped. The Catalaunian defeat undermined the power of the Huns' empire. After the death of the king in 453. Attila's empire fell apart, and the Huns gradually dispersed among the local peoples.
. They dress in linen shirts or skins and eat raw meat and roots.
. Ammianus. Marcilin
The Huns were replaced by new waves of Turkic nomadic tribes, which, crossing. Black Sea region, eager for. Danube, in rich European countries
Avars and Bulgarians
In the 6th century. Severny. Hordes of Avars appeared in the Black Sea region. They attacked the Antes and devastated their lands. The struggle turned out to be very exhausting, and the Anta tribal union fell apart (602)
Another threat to the Slavs at this time was the attacks of the Bulgars (Bulgars). Part of the Bulgars settled on. Kame and. Volga, creating a state entity here (Volga. Bulgaria), and the other, passing through the territory of modern Ukraine, settled in the eastern part. Balkan Peninsula, founding a strong state -. Danube. Bulgaria. It included the lands of the southern Slavs, whose culture exceeded the culture of the Etiians.
Khazars
The Khazars came from. Asia and founded big state- Khaganate, which reached its greatest power in the 8th century. The Khazars were warlike people, who conquered many tribes: Alans, Radimichi, Vyatichi, Polyans, from the northerners, the form of dependence of the conquered tribes was the payment of tribute. The capital. Khazar Khaganate It was m. Itil on. Lower. VolgeVolzi.
Pechenegs
late 9th century southern Russian steppes new nomads appeared - the Pechenegs, whose main occupation, in addition to cattle breeding, was predatory raids on neighboring tribes and countries during 915-1036. R. Rus' fought with them 16 times, not counting minor skirmishes in 972 Khan. Smoking at. The Dnieper rapids were defeated by a detachment. Svyatoslav and made a bowl for pittpittya from the prince’s skull.
In 1036, wife. Yaroslav. The wise one was defeated under the walls. Kyiv Pecheneg horde and threw it back into the endless steppes
Cumans
Coming out in the 9th century from modern territories. Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, the Polovtsians ousted the Pechenegs - first from. the Urals, and in the first half of the 11th century - and from. Black Sea region. The first blow of the Polovtsians. Rus' falls on the 60s of the 11th century. TO beginning of XIII the Cumans committed 46 big hikes on the. Rusa. Rus.
At different times. Rus' not only fought with the nomads, but also had peaceful relations with them and even traded. When, in the 60s of the 11th century, the Polovtsians began to push back the Pechenegs, some of them retreated. Danube. With permission Prince of Kyiv they occupied sparsely populated lands. Porosya and. South. Pereyaslav region. The Russians called these Turkic tribes, by the color of their hats, black hoods.
The chronicles have preserved information about one and a half dozen Russian-Polovtsian marriage unions. For example, they were married to Polovtsy women. Oleg. Svyatoslavich (grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, founder of the Olzhich dynasty). Izyasla Av. Davidovich. Vsevolod. Olgovich. Yuri. Vladimirovich (Dolgoruky), V. Vsevolod and. Svyatoslav. Olgovich Polovtsy had a mother, u. Igor and. Vsevolod. Svyatoslavich is both mother and grandmother (patronymic).
Nomadic peoples left a noticeable mark on the history of Ukraine. Over the centuries, they influenced the development of Ukrainian lands and the formation of the material and spiritual culture of the country's population. State formations of the Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, and Goths existed even before the 4th century AD.
The table provides information about the time of residence of nomadic peoples in the southern Russian steppes and about their state formations
This article will talk about the Goths, but not about representatives of the youth subculture widespread in our time, shocking respectable citizens with their appearance, but about those barbarians of antiquity, whose tribes, having passed from north to south across all of Europe, founded one of the most powerful states of the Middle Ages - Kingdom of Toledo. The Goths (tribe) disappeared in the darkness of centuries as completely and mysteriously as they appeared, leaving historians wide open space for research and discussion.
Europe of the first centuries AD
On historical scene this people appeared at a time when Europe was experiencing a kind of transition period. The previous ancient civilization was a thing of the past, and new states and nations were only in the process of formation. Huge masses of peoples constantly roamed across its vast expanses, driven by constantly changing living conditions.
What was the main reason for such active migration? According to scientists, two factors contributed to this. The first of them is the periodic overpopulation in previously inhabited and developed areas. And besides, they were forced to leave their homes by stronger and more aggressive neighbors who appeared from time to time, from whom they had to quickly move away, while attacking those who met along the way and could not give a proper rebuff.
Warlike Scandinavians in the vastness of Europe
So, according to him, the Goths are tribes of Scandinavian origin who moved across Europe in a southerly direction. In 258 they reached the Crimea, and some of them settled there, changing to sedentary life. According to some sources, about fifty thousand families then settled in the eastern part of the peninsula. A number of researchers note that until the end of the 18th century, the Gothic language continued to be spoken in those areas, which by that time had completely disappeared in other parts of the world.
However, this was only an isolated case, and among other European nomads, the Goths (tribe) still occupied one of the leading places. The history of the people of that period is filled with continuous clashes with the inhabitants of the territories through which their path ran. The above-mentioned chronicler Jordan assures that as a result of this they literally did not have to spend the night in the same place twice. From generation to generation they were born, grew up and died on the road.
Barbarians on the Frontiers of the Roman Empire
Traveling in this way, at the beginning of the 4th century they approached the borders of the Great Roman Empire. Strange as it may seem, the best army in the world at that time was sometimes powerless against unexpected attacks these savages wrapped in skins, crushing the clear formation of the legions, fighting contrary to all existing rules, and then disappearing without a trace in the depths of the forest thickets.
Their numbers also inspired fear. It was not scattered detachments that appeared on the border of the state, but thousands of people with carts, women, children and livestock. If in summer period Their progress was hampered by two natural barriers - the Danube and Rhine rivers, but in winter, when they were covered with ice, the path was open to the barbarians.
By this time, the empire, torn apart by a severe crisis caused by the corruption and disintegration of its ruling elite, was still resisting the Goths, but in general was no longer able to restrain their advance. In 268, having crossed the ice of the Danube, the Goths - Germanic tribes, replenished by some others who joined them small peoples, plunder the border province of Pannonia. This territory, which included parts of modern Hungary and Serbia, became the first battle trophy of the Goths in the Roman Empire.
At the same time, a second separation of families occurred, breaking with eternal wandering and giving preference to settled life. They settled in the provinces of Moesia and Dacia, now part of the borders of Bulgaria and Romania. In general, the Goths, a tribe whose history spanned more than two centuries by that time, became so strong that soon the Roman Emperor Valens considered it best to conclude a diplomatic non-aggression agreement with them.
The Huns are the scourge of God
In the second half of the 4th century, Europe suffered a terrible misfortune - countless hordes of Huns, led by the famous Attila, invaded its borders from the east. Even by the standards of that cruel and far from humanistic time, they amazed everyone with their unbridled ferocity and cruelty. The threat associated with their invasion affected both the Romans and the Goths equally. No wonder they were called nothing more than “the scourge of God.”
Simultaneously with the invasion of the Huns, the Goths - the ancient tribes that formerly made up united people, divided into two independent branches, which went down in history as the Visigoths (western) and Ostrogoths (eastern). The latter were completely defeated by the Huns in 375, and their king Ermanaric committed suicide out of grief and shame. Those who happened to survive were forced to fight on the side of their former enemies. With this, the history of the East German Gothic tribe was almost completed.
Alliance with the Romans
Having witnessed the death of their fellow tribesmen, and fearing to share their fate, the Visigoths turned to the Romans for help, which greatly pleased them. They were given the opportunity to freely settle in the border areas of the empire, provided that they defended its borders. For this, under the terms of the agreement, the authorities promised to supply them with food and everything necessary.
However, in reality everything was completely different. The extremely corrupt Latin officials took advantage of the opportunity to commit large-scale and brazen thefts. By appropriating the money allocated for the maintenance of the Gothic outposts, they kept their defenders and their families hungry, depriving them of the most necessary things. The Goths are a tribe accustomed to all sorts of hardships during their wanderings, but in this case, there was a humiliation of their dignity, and they could not come to terms with this.
Riot and capture of Rome
The officials did not take into account that by this time yesterday’s barbarians, having closely communicated with the Latins, had managed to master many concepts high civilization. Therefore, treating oneself as savages to whom one can sell dog meat under the guise of pork with impunity was considered an insult. In addition, the Goths are ancient tribes, from time immemorial accustomed to resolving all disputes with the sword. The result was a riot. The government sent regular troops to suppress it, but in August 378 they were completely defeated in the battle of Adrianople.
In general, the history of this people, whose very name conceals something epic and heroic, remains largely mysterious and completely unexplored. From the pages of ancient chronicles the names sound like a spell - Tulga, Wamba, Atanagild. But in this understatement lies that attractive force that attracts us again and again to peer into the mysterious depths of centuries.
In the middle of the 3rd century, the Goths moved to Crimea. "Goths" was the name given to the union of Germanic tribes. Among them were the tribes of the Ostrogoths (Ostrogoths), Visigoths (Visigoths), Heruli, Borans, Carps and others. The ancestral home of the Goths was located on the territory of the modern Scandinavian Peninsula. What reasons prompted the Goths to begin moving south is not known exactly. Suggestions are made about climate change in Scandinavia, about an increase in the population of the peninsula, whose meager soils could not feed the Goths who had become numerous. In any case, in the 1st century. n. e. the Goths moved to the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, and by the middle of the 3rd century. they occupied vast territories from the Lower Danube in the west to the Dnieper in the east.The border between the possessions of the Goths and the Roman Empire ran along the Danube. In 250, a huge army of Goths crossed the river and attacked the provinces of the empire. Thus began a series of bloody wars between the Germans and Romans. The allies of the Goths in these wars were various tribes and tribal unions, for example, the Sarmatians. To save the important Balkan provinces, the Romans were forced to use all their reserves. In particular, the legionnaires who made up the garrisons of Chersonese and Charax were transferred to the aid of the Danube armies.
Thus, the position of the empire on the Crimean peninsula was seriously weakened, which the Goths did not fail to take advantage of. The barbarians who participated in the events on the Danube soon appeared in Crimea. They brought with them trophies captured in battles with the Romans. One of the barbarians buried near the modern village. Dolinnoye, Bakhchisarai district, 119 Roman silver coins, a silver fibula and a glass vessel. For some reason, he never returned for his property, and only in 1971, when laying a new river bed. Kachi, the treasure was brought to the surface of the earth. The latest coins from the treasure are dated 251, i.e. the Goths appeared in Crimea this year or a little later.
The late Scythians failed to provide worthy resistance to the Goths. Their settlements were destroyed, and their inhabitants were killed or captured. Then the Goths attacked the Bosporus. Some Bosporan cities suffered serious damage from the barbarians. Even the clever move of King Reskuporidas IV (242/243 - 276/277), who took Farsanza as a co-ruler, probably the leader of one of the Iranian tribes living nearby, who concluded an Antigothic alliance with the Bosporans, did not help.
The Goths did not come to the Bosporus in search of land for settlement. The barbarians well understood the strategic importance of these places: from here they could launch campaigns against rich cities and provinces located on the Black Sea coast. For such campaigns, the Bosporan fleet would have been very useful, because the Goths did not have their own. The Germans forced Rheskuporidas to provide them with ships and crews. Probably, the Bosporan king simply had no other choice - he could not defeat the Goths on his own, and he could not count on the help of Rome. So the Bosporus became the base from where during the third quarter of the 3rd century. The Germans carried out a series of raids on the Roman provinces.
The goal of the first campaign (255/256) was the rich city of Pitiunt in the Eastern Black Sea region. The siege of the fortress did not bring the expected results, and the Goths, having plundered the unfortified surrounding settlements, returned to the Bosporus. A year later they made a new campaign and captured Pitiunt and other nearby cities. In 264, the Goths on ships reached the southern shore of the Black Sea, from here they made a lightning-fast transition into the interior of the Asia Minor Peninsula, devastated the Roman provinces of Cappadocia and Bithynia and returned to the Bosporus with rich booty. In 268, the Goths living in the Crimea took part in a campaign organized by a coalition of various Germanic tribes living in the Northern Black Sea region against the Roman provinces on the western bank of the Pontus. As a result of this expedition, vast territories were devastated and dozens of cities were plundered. In 276, the Goths set out on a new campaign, this time again against the provinces of Asia Minor. However, now they were opposed by selected detachments of the Roman army. In the battle with them, the barbarians were defeated. The defeat of the Goths returning to the Bosporus was completed by King Teiran (275/76 - 278/79). He managed to restore the Bosporan kingdom to its previous limits and establish friendly relations with the Roman Empire. At the same time, the Roman emperors inflicted several defeats on the Danube barbarians and thus eliminated the Gothic threat. Now the Romans had the opportunity to resume their military presence on the Crimean Peninsula. At the end of the 3rd century. A Roman garrison reappears in Chersonesos. The Goths, defeated in the fight against the empire, settled in the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea. By the beginning of the wars with Rome, the Goths were pagans. They worshiped various deities who personified the forces of nature. The supreme god was the lord of thunder and lightning, Thor. In the 3rd century. Christianity quickly spread among the population of the Roman Empire. During their campaigns in Asia Minor, the Germans captured many prisoners, including Christians. From these prisoners the Crimean Goths also adopted the new religion. After some time, it became necessary to streamline the activities of the church in their domain. For this purpose, in 400, the Patriarch of Constantinople, the famous John Chrysostom, decided to create a separate church district - a diocese. Unila became the first bishop of the Goths.
Gradually, the Christian faith spread among the inhabitants of Bosporus and Chersonesos. Probably, contacts with Christian Goths played an important role in this process. The first Christian community arose in the Bosporus in the first quarter of the 4th century. When the first Ecumenical Council was convened in the Asia Minor city of Nicaea in 325 to resolve controversial theological issues, the representative of the Bosporan Christians, Bishop Cadmus, also took part in it. In the 5th century Christianity was already the official religion of the Bosporan kingdom: images of the cross were placed on the inscriptions of kings and senior government officials.
In Chersonesus, the first Christians faced significant difficulties. During the 4th century. most of the city's population remained pagans. It was mainly representatives of the city elite who converted to Christianity, hoping to receive various privileges from the Byzantine authorities who patronized Christians. In 381, the Bishop of Kherson, Epherius, participated in the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople. An attempt to baptize the inhabitants of the city by force was made under Emperor Theodosius I (379-395). This emperor sought to convert the entire population under his control to Christianity. Therefore, when Epherius’s successor, Capito, began to eradicate paganism in Chersonesus, the troops sent by the emperor to the city provided him with great help. According to legend, in order to prove the correctness of Christian doctrine, Capito entered a burning furnace and came out unharmed. The amazed pagans immediately decided to be baptized, however, it is not entirely clear what prompted them to this decision to a greater extent, because while Kapito performed his miracle, Byzantine soldiers took the children of the Chersonesos hostage. Legends about the life and activities of the first Christians of Chersonesos were revised much later, in the 7th or 8th centuries, and formed the basis of the so-called “Lives of the Bishops of Cherson.” The memory of the “feat of Bishop Capiton” was preserved among the city residents. During excavations of Chersonesos, the remains of a 6th century temple were discovered, built over a lime kiln, which, as the Chersonesos believed, included Kapiton. Christianity finally established itself in the city at the end of the 5th-6th centuries, primarily thanks to the efforts of the Byzantine administration.
In the second half of the 4th century. The ruler of the Ostrogoths, Germanarich, united various tribes and founded a vast state, called the “power of Germanarich.” It included numerous tribes of barbarians who lived in the Northern Black Sea region, including the Germans who lived in the Crimea. The new association existed for a very short time, already in the mid-70s. IV century The Goths were defeated in the fight against the Huns who came from the east.
The Huns formed in the steppes located to the west and north of the borders of China.
In the 1st century n. e. The migration of the Huns to the west begins, and by the 70s. IV century they have reached their limits of Eastern Europe. The Huns belonged to Mongoloid race and spoke one of the languages Turkic group. The basis of the Huns' economy was nomadic cattle breeding, and military spoils played a significant role.
The appearance of the Huns in Europe marked the beginning of the era of the Great Migration, an era when huge masses of barbarians began en masse to invade the Roman (later Byzantine) Empire in search of places to settle. The Huns became the catalyst for this process. Their invasion of Europe caused a kind of “domino effect” - some barbarians begin to drive others away from their inhabited places. Here is what a contemporary wrote about this: “... And what huge battles and what ideas about battles we learned about! The Huns rebelled against the Alans, the Alans against the Goths, the Goths against the Taifals and Sarmatians. Even we [the Romans]... were made... exiles from our fatherland, and there is no end...”
The light cavalry of the Huns terrified their contemporaries. The Huns brought with them new types of weapons and equipment, new (or rather, well-forgotten old) combat tactics. Every adult man was a warrior, always ready for battle, so preparing for war did not take the Huns much time. The surprise of the attack allowed the Huns to take their enemies by surprise. They entered the battle in a wedge-shaped formation and, if it was not immediately possible to put the enemy to flight, they used a feigned retreat to lure the enemy into an ambush. Before the hand-to-hand combat began, the Huns showered the enemy with a hail of arrows from afar. They brought a new type of bow to Europe, glued together from several pieces of wood and reinforced with additional bone plates. This design of the bow made it possible to hit the target at very long distances and use large and heavy arrowheads that pierced any armor. In close combat they fought with throwing spears, swords and lassos, with which they entangled the enemy, deprived him of mobility, threw him off his horse or knocked him down.
Myself appearance Huns (pictured), their characteristic Mongoloid appearance amazed Europeans. It is no coincidence that the legend that the Huns were the descendants of witches expelled from one Gothic tribe and entered into contact with swamp spirits was popular. The way of life of the nomads, who did not even have a hut covered with reeds, and were always moving across the steppe following their large herds, caused bewilderment. Christian writers described with disgust the religion of the Huns - idolaters who, if they needed to get a prediction about the future, sacrificed animals and told fortunes by the entrails or the position of the veins on scraped bones. All these facts led to the fact that medieval literature there was a very peculiar idea of the Huns as fierce, ruthless, ignorant pagans who had no homeland, state power, ideas about honor and dishonor, and the word “Huns” itself became a common noun.
The Huns came to the northern Black Sea steppes in two ways. One group of them moved along the eastern and northern shore Sea of Azov. Along the way, they encountered Alans living on the banks of the Tanais (Don). Many Alans fell in the battle, and the rest were forced to conclude an agreement with the Huns and join them. The next victim of the Huns was the state of Germanaric. According to legend, the Gothic leader committed suicide, convinced that the battle with the Huns was lost. The Ostrogoth tribes submitted to the Huns, retaining their tribal leaders and internal self-government, but pledging to support the nomads in foreign policy in all respects and provide them allied army. The Visigoths fled west, crossed the Danube and settled in the territory of the Roman Empire.
While some Huns established their dominance in the northern Black Sea steppes, others began to conquer the Crimea. Having got over Kerch Strait(they say that the way was shown to them either by a bull pursued by a gadfly, or by a doe fleeing from hunters), they, without entering into battle, conquered the Bosporan kingdom. Probably, the forces of the Bosporan rulers were limited at that time, and therefore they preferred to recognize the supremacy of the Huns and pay them tribute. Population foothills of Crimea left their habitable places and fled to inaccessible mountainous areas. Perhaps some of the Crimean Alans joined the Huns. Most of the peninsula was depopulated and became a place of nomadism for the Hunnic tribe of the Altsiagir.
Chersonesos managed to avoid danger, and the Roman Empire provided considerable assistance to the city, allocating money to repair the city walls. During the 5th century. The Romans settled the Goths and Alans on the approaches to Chersonesus, who entered into an alliance with Rome and pledged to protect the city in exchange for land and periodic monetary assistance. The Romans and Byzantines called such barbarians “federates.” Probably, the emperors perfectly understood the strategic importance of Chersonesus and did not want to lose their last outpost in the Northern Black Sea region.
In the middle of the 5th century. the leader Attila united numerous tribes of the Huns and their allies and declared war on Rome. The Romans were defeated in several battles, but in 453 Attila suddenly died. Soon after this, his power collapsed, and many Huns chose to return to the Northern Black Sea region. The Utigur tribe moved to Crimea.
The Byzantine emperors did not give up hope of gradually restoring their influence on the Crimean peninsula. To achieve this goal we used various ways- from bribing Hun leaders and pitting different tribes against each other to promoting Christianity. From the point of view of the Byzantines, barbarians who adopted a new religion automatically became subjects of the empire. Therefore, missionaries who regularly went to the nomadic camps of the Huns enjoyed the patronage of the Byzantine authorities. One of these preachers convinced the leader of the Huns living in the Bosporus, named Gord, to convert to Christianity and become a vassal of Emperor Justinian I (527 - 565). By that time, the Bosporan kingdom no longer existed - it was probably eventually destroyed by the Huns.
Gord, who visited Constantinople, was given a great honor - the emperor himself became his godfather. Then Gord left for his homeland. Byzantine troops were stationed in the Bosporan cities (of course, in agreement with the Hun leader). The conclusion of the treaty with the empire displeased many influential Huns, especially the priests, who feared that the Christian ruler would not respect their authority. A conspiracy was drawn up, to which Gorda’s brother also joined. The reason for the performance was the attempt of the Hun leader to destroy pagan idols. Having killed Gord, the Huns attacked the Bosporan cities, destroyed them, and killed the Byzantine soldiers. Having learned about these events, Justinian sent parts of the regular army to the Bosporus. imperial army. The Huns were driven out, the Bosporus became part of Byzantium.
Under Justinian I, the position of Byzantium in Crimea strengthened enormously. The emperor understood perfectly well that the strife between the Huns themselves could protect northern borders Byzantium is almost better than the most reliable fortresses and elite troops. Therefore, he did not hesitate to bribe the Hun leaders and set one tribe against another. As a result, he managed to secure his possessions in Crimea from attacks by barbarians. In the 70s VI century In the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, a new association of nomads appears - the Eastern Turks, or Turkuts. The Hunnic tribes that survived the strife quickly mixed with the Turkuts.
Encyclopedia “Sights of Crimea”
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