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The end of the Geats 259
else. Tacitus speaks of the tribe as good sailors with
powerful fleets, a respect for wealth, and a universally
accepted king. 67 But other classical informants, Ptolemy
and Procopius, writing closer to our time, do not attribute
such importance to the Svear. Ptolemy, composing a
world map some half a century after Tacitus, lists seven
tribes as inhabiting the island Skandia, one of which is the
Goutai, another the Souionai, Geats and Swedes, certainly.
His placement of the tribe accords with later accounts,
see Figure 2. 68 Procopius's account is of particular
Chaideinoi
O()fJ
SKANDIAI
F I NNOI
SKANDIA
Fig. 2. Ptolemy's map of Scandinavia.
importance, since his informants were reputed to be
natives of the island.s" Writing c. 550, he tells us in his
.7 Tacitus, Germania (trans. by Maurice Hutton, 1914), 326-7. Much has
been made of Tacitus's term, civitates Suionium, with civitates equated with the
other peoples of Sweden. A more likely interpretation has been given by
Professor Musset : '... les civitates citees par Tacite chez les Suiones
correspondent sans doute aux cantons autonornes (hundari ...) qui se
federerent au nornbre de 4, 10, et 8 (Fjiidrundaland, a I'ouest; Tiundaland, au
centre; Attundaland, aI'est, sur la cote) en trois regions dont l'union, au moyen
age, formera l'Uppland' (Les Peuples Scandinaves au Moyen Age, 1961, 23).
This interpretation is supported by ]erker Rosen in his entry 'Rikssamling­
Sverige', in Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder XIV (1969), 268-71.
osSee G. Schutte, 'A Ptolemaic Riddle Solved', Classica et Medievalia 13
(1952), 236-84. After a study of name-forms, Schutte concluded that the
Goutai are the ON Gautar.
•• History of the Wars (ed, and trans. by H. B. Dewing, 1914-40), Vol. 6,
The Gothic war continued, 4.15-21.