Monthly Archives: June 2017

The Venni, Vindices and Veneti of the Later Roman Empire

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One of the complaints about the connection of the Slavs as Veneti of Jordanes and the Veneti of Pliny, Tacitus, Ptolemy or Strabo (Vindelici) is that there is a wide gap in time between the appearance of the latter (1st-2nd century) and the time when the former are identified with the Slavs (6th century).

But is that so?  It seems that what is rather true is that the people who make such claims are not familiar with Roman literature and other works of the middle and late imperial period.  We have pointed out some of those sources before but let’s rehash and a few other ones.

Notitia Dignitatum
395-433 A.D.

The Notitia mentions the Vindices:

These may be Vindelici or Veneti but, of course, those may well be one and the same tribe.

Tabula Peutingeriana
late 4th – early 5th century

In addition to the Veneti in Gaul, the Tabula Peutingeriana mentions three Venetic tribes including the Venadis Sarmatae somewhere north but also the Venedi on the Danube.  The first location is apparently the one mentioned by Ptolemy, Tacitus and Pliny and where we find Slavs later on.  The second is where the Slavs make their first appearance under that name (in Procopius and in Jordanes who makes the connection between Slavs and Veneti).

 Epiphanus’ Treatise on the Twelve Stones
circa 394 A.D.

Most of the Greek original of this work is preserved in an early Latin translation which is reflected in the Collectio Avellana.  In there we find the following passage (CSEL vol. 2):

“In the entire northern region which the ancients used to call Scythia, there are Goths, Danes [?],  Venni* and also Arii up to the German and Amazon regions.”

Scythiam vero soliti sunt veteres appellare cunctam septentrionalem plagam, ubi sunt Gothi et Dauni, Venni quoque et Arii usque ad Germanorum Amazonarumque regionem.

* On the “Venni” see below.

Hippolitus’ Chronicle
pre 235 A.D.

This chronicle tells us that “When looking to the north, these are the nations of Japheth scattered from Media as far as the Western Ocean: Medes, Albanians, Garganians, Errians, Armenians, AMazones, Coli, Korzanians, Dennagenians, Capadocians, Paphlagonians, Mariandyni, Tabareni, Chalybes, Mosynoeci, Sarmatians, Sauromatae, Maeotians, Scythians, Crimeans, Thracians, Bastarnae, Illyrians, Macedonians, Greeks, Ligurians, Istrians, Venni*, Daunians, Iapygians, Calabrians, Osci, Latins who are Romans, Gauls who are Celts, Lygistini, Celtiberians, Iberians, Gauls, Aquitannians, Illyricians, Basantians, Curtanians, Lusitanians, Vaccaei, Conii, Britons who live on islands.”

* Οὐεννοί – The German historian Josef Markwart (or Josef Marquart) noted that the Venni are the Veneti.

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June 3, 2017

Bishop John’s Interesting Note

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For those familiar with the Slavic sun worship (Svarog? Jason?) and fire (Svarozic as Brueckner would have it?) as well as the tales of a holy horse at Arkona (compare also the horse coins of the VIndelici), the following piece of information may be interesting.  It comes from the Chronicle of Bishop John of Nikiu (Chapter 95) and talks about the Persian king Hurmuzd IV (Hormisdas) who reigned in Persia 578-590:

“The unhappy man was addicted to the worship of demons; moreover, he compelled Christians to worship fire and the sun.  And the horses also that pastured on grass were objects of his worship.”

Earlier in (Chapter 5)  John says the following under the title of “Concerning the beginning of the building of Babylon, and those who worship the image of the horse as a god, and the beginning of the chase and the eating of animal food.”

“And after [Cainan] the Indians composed (it), and there was a man from India, named Qantûrjûs [Gandubarius or Andubarius], an Ethiopian of the race of Ham, who was named Cush [author’s conflation].  He begat Afrûd, that is, Nimrod, the giant.  He it was that built the city of Babylon.  And the Persians served him and worshipped him as a god, and named him after the name of the stars of heaven and called him Orion, that is, Dabarah.*  And he was the first to hunt and eat the flesh of animals.”

Dabarah is an Ethiopic transcription of the Arabic word for Orion.

It is also worth point out that among the names that circulate in the Sassanid Empire at the time of Hurmuzd are such names as:

  • Bozorgmehr-e Bokhtagan (Middle Persian: Wuzurgmihr ī Bōkhtagān), also known as Burzmihr, Dadmihr and Dadburzmihr who was the Qārinwand. (The Karenas, Karan-Vands, Qarinvand dynasty or Karen-Pahlevi, claimed descent from Karen, a figure of folklore and son of the equally mythical “Kaveh the Blacksmith”)
  • Vistahm
  • Vinduyih (Middle Persian: Windôē)
  • Bahrām Chōbīn aka Mihrevandak

Note also the similarities in these names to those of the “Paratarajas” of Baluchistan.

Further note that “Vandak” apparently meant “servant”.  Mihrevandak means “servant of Mihr” or Mithra.  Whether a “Vand” means, therefore, the same as a “Serv” is an interesting question.  Though, apparently, such a “servant” would be of some divinity.

For added kicks, Mithra was a “yazata” which, as per the gods of Wikipedia, in turn, is “an Avestan language word  meaning ‘a being worthy of worship’, ‘an object of worship” or “a holy being’.” Incidtentally, yaz– means “to worship, to honor, to venerate. The word yasna means “worship, sacrifice, oblation, prayer”.

The translation is by R. H. Charles.  As he notes: “John of Nikiu was probably born about the time of the Mohammedan invasion of Egypt. He was the Coptic bishop of Nikiu and ‘rector’ of the bishops of Upper Egypt who took part in the election of the successor of John of Samnûd in 690 A.D. In 696 he was appointed administrator general of the Monasteries, but was later deposed from these offices on the ground that he had abused his powers.  His Chronicle, though even imperfectly preserved, is of immense value to historians of Egypt.”

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June 1, 2017