Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

scythians in the longue durée
On two occasions, in ad 6 and ad 16, Iazyges had mounted raids across the Danube
into Roman territory but to no effect, a failure which persuaded them to move on
to the Great Hungarian Plain. By ad 62 the Roxolani had replaced the Iazyges on
the plain of Wallachia and in the winter of ad 69 they mounted a major raid on the
Roman province of Moesia, destroying a Roman legion before they were defeated
and driven back. Another raid in ad 85–6, this time in conjunction with the Dacians,
caused havoc in the province, during which time the Roman governor was killed.
In retaliation a Roman force was sent into Dacia but was virtually annihilated. Two
years later, in ad 89, another Roman army was sent into Dacia and was sufficiently
Roman Empire
Province boundary
Sarmatian & related peoples
Vistula
0 200 miles
0 200km
Morava
Dniester
A L A N I
Danube
I A Z Y G E S
Pannonia
Superior
Drava
Pannonia Inferoir
Mureş
Siretel
Prut
Sava
Dalmatia
Morav
a
Moesia
Superior
Dacia
Olt
Danube
Moesia Inferior
R O X O L A N I
Tomis
Black
N
Sea
12.4 Groups of Sarmatians—the Roxolani, Iazyges, and Alans—moved west into Europe in the first century
ad establishing themselves in close proximity to the frontiers of the Roman Empire.
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