Why let the Romans write our history?

In ancient history we cannot write like a biography telling which king did what. We can only tell about events and happenings and maybe known or unknown actors on the agenda. We have to use deduction and by logic reasoning make our story as near the truth as possible.

If we want top learn anything of use for us we must analyse cause and effect in the same way as the early Greek biographer Plutharkos. He also analyses important concepts in society such as tyranny, oligarchy, plutocracy and so on … in our days we are usually pleased when we read/use the word "democracy" and then there is no more discussion. Seldom we ask what it is and if we really have it in our society.

I am just tired of hearing that we Scandinavians were barbarians and that the Romans taught us the law. With ancient terms I call them sons of the Lupus and I put on my Bear guise as they say. Romans were offering humans for the lions to eat when still alive. They came to small German villages with forces of a legion of 5000 trained warriors. They demolished our Irminsul and culture ... speak about barbarians there.

So it has been for two thousand years that the imperialist from south has told us to be slaves. Still the great chieftain Odoacar was the first "barbarian" on the Roman throne. I write the chronicle about the Eriles and still they are going strong, since no Romans or Danes can whip out the Eriles.

"Others give you names" and we have to be suspicious since those others maybe want to discriminate and be the imperialist that dominates us. I see the my ancestors with pure Scandinavian eyes and not like many others with Roman eyes … I cannot see we can call them true Scandinavians or English if they let the Romans describe us … then we are just dogs at the heels of the Master.

Since the Celtic Saxons and Anglo-Scandinavians moved to England and the Norman's were from Scandinavia I just wonder who are those English they today see as ancestors? Normally they speak about the named ancestors as foreigners and not as dear ancestors.

I see the following excerpts as self defence from the united Swebian League more than 30 tribes that included the Erils from South Scandinavia. The Roman Empire threatened what we nowadays call Northern Germany and Scandinavia

.

The Roman historian Velleus Patercullus was cavalry officer in Tiberius' army the summer of year 5 AD. The Roman war machine counting 18000 had destroyed villages and world pillars on its way between Rhine and Elbe. At that time the border was the later known limes along Rhine and Danube.

Tiberius wanted to win some laurels if he won a new land. Rome was still a republic and it was easier to be a Caesar if the pretender brought a new province to the throne ... Foreigners could be good Romans if they brought a million bugs with them.

But let Velleus tell us a little episode at the shore of Elbe that year:

Except one barbarian, an elderly tall man of a high grade, as far one could decide by the outfit. He stepped in a small boat made from a log of wood, as is custom among them. Alone he took the vessel to the middle of river. Then he asked if he without risk could go ashore on the side we hold with our arms. He wanted to see Caesar. He was allowed and he landed his vessel and looked for long without a word at Caesar. Then he said: "Our young men are certainly with no sense. When you are away, they honour your divine strength, but when you are here they are afraid of your weapons. Still, they will not seek your protection. With your divine permission Caesar, I have seen gods whom I only have heard about. A happier day I never wished or experienced in my whole life".

The old bear had sniffed on the wolf.

We do not need to take for good the evaluations Velleus made from the Roman side. Thoughts are free and the later history tells about less respectful Germans than Velleus believed they were.

We note that the Romans had a fleet in Elbe and perhaps it continued its discoveries in northern waters and sailed into the Mare Balticum. However, there were surely no victories. Otherwise, we would have heard about them. A find at Lauterhorn Gotland makes us speculate about that fleet. It is a detail of furniture usually found in a Roman ship's cabin. More specific it should have been a ship for an admiral and they date it to that time. Then rise the question was the Roman fleet there in 5 AD?

Who was the old man? Was it the Hoby Chieftain? … see more in the files about the Anglo-Scandinavian Golden Age

We are always told that the Celts and Germans were gruesome and that Romans were the victims with this famous battle as an example. I think we should se it from the German point of view. None wrote about the Celtic and German victims where the Romans "pacified and civilised" South Europe.

The Romans thought that the expedition to Elbe was successful and believed they had made peace in Saxony. However, they misjudged the servility of Germans as maybe in the case of the old tall man. The young Germans did not like the Roman rule and feared that it would grow harder between Rhine and Elbe and steps by step continue northwards.

Many young noble Germans had been in the Roman army and learned their tactics and manners. They only waited for an opportunity to get rid of the Romans in what we call Saxony. Surely they had mobilised neighbouring tribes and that includes Scandinavians from at least the southern part. The Eriles were related to the Thüringians and they surely wanted to protect their interests.

As we know that there must have been traders and nobility since Bronze Age and we may at once call them Erils. Their main area was surely Southern Scandinavia with the kernel at the Danish Isles, but with fellows and clients were they traded. It seems that the Ionian-Celtic model was to tie tribes and folklands two by two.

The Romans stationed six legions and totally about 36000 at Rhine and thought they had got the control to Elbe. Three legions were normally enough to be "the peacemakers" everywhere. However, the united Germans lured three legions out from the fortifications at Rhine. Perhaps it was old Celtic strategy, but anyhow they led the Romans to the worst terrain possible and got the normally skilled soldiers totally out of order. Those proud soldiers were used always to win and they panicked and become an easy game for the Germans.

We have always been told about Roman heroes and us being the barbarian beasts. However, strictly from our point of view this battle was fair although gruesome. It was aimed as a lesson for the Romans. The Celtic warfare is known to have used tactics of frightening in the direct war and thus aiming at future too. They wanted the enemy to fear them.

One of the outer signs was that the Celtic warriors were said to go to another world when fighting. For this purpose they were stripped to the waist and their hair was chalk white as they had it greased and mixed it with chalk. So prepared the cavalry rode in arrow formation towards the Roman phalanx shouting the wildest they could to frighten the soldiers. This light cavalry was the normal tactics of the Germans and not only in field. (This tactics on seas beat the Spanish heavy armada.)

Everywhere and at every time disgrace in the macho military lead easily to a dead penalty for the leading officers. So commander Varus did not come back from the woods. For the soldiers it was a shame to lose the Jupiter Eagles and the army had lost its face. This was a turning point for the expanding Roman Empire. After that we see only minor advancements from the limes.

Tacitus in Annales about the Teutoburger massacre 15 AD.

Some had survived this defeat by fighting or had escaped from captivity. They told that here had the commanders been killed, there they lost the Eagles, there Varus got his first wound, there he took his own life. They remembered the hill where the German commander Arminius spoke to his people. They saw in their mind the gallows made for the prisoners, the torture wholes dug for them. They told about the arrogant taunts of Arminius against the Eagles and standards ... so, the gathered Roman army buried the bones of three legions without knowing whether the bones were enemies or relatives.

In our age with TV we do not need much help to remember horrors of wars as we see them now and then from Yugoslavia, Iraq, Africa and so on.

The German hero Arminius was soon captured perhaps lured by his own relatives expecting advancement in Roman hierarchy. He and his wife Tusnelda were taken to Rome and the victory parade ... maybe in front of Ara Pacis the peace altar inaugurated 9 AD.

.

We may also ask about that tall seemingly peaceful man willing to negotiate with the Romans in 5 AD at Elbe. Was he the one who negotiated with the Romans when they wanted to bury their fallen army? The Romans would never have admitted that they needed to negotiate to get permission to a new mission to Teutoburgerwald.

However, the finds of a dated silver service in Hoby on Lolland Denmark may give a possible explanation. The Hoby man may have been the negotiator. He might have had not only the power to allow the Romans to the mission of burial, but also to make a treaty about trade with the Romans at limes.

As we know that trade with the Romans began we may speculate in the few facts and artefacts we have. We also know that there was a lively trade during Bronze Age an Iron Age before the Romans. The culture in northern Germany and Southern Scandinavia was much alike. The Romans were a treat to that culture

We may ask if that same man was the leader of the later known Erils (Roman Heruli) and seated at Hoby Lolland. Nowadays it is near the normal route Gedser - Travemünde.

Fortunately we may speculate in the finds from Hoby. The finds may have been given to the woman in charge as was custom among Celts ... see Beowulf too. Another fact is they had changed ritual from the usual cremation to burial. It looks, as they wanted to bury the time and the gifts.

The silver service was for two and in the bottom of one of the beachers reads a family name SILIUS. This family was known as one family of the influential and high nobility in Rome. One of its members happens to have been legatus, i.e. civil and military governor at Mainz. His burial stela is found and tells that he was there from 14 to 21 AD. He had got his job by Tiberius who become Caesar 14 AD and surely gave the new commander at Rhine instructions to arrange a treaty with the Germans. As the bodies were still unburied, it was like an open wound in the Roman society.

We have to know about the customs to really understand what may have been going on. The Romans had of course good manners too if only the counterpart knew his place. That means that the Romans made treaties and used customs used for thousands of years before. We only know them for sure from a later period. We know that the Romans gave gifts to their allies and what they were depending on was the issue of course.

In this case it seems like a gift for two drinking brothers. The Roman had to bring the wine with him if he really wanted to drink. A lot of the messages are in this. The other part is in the decorations on the beachers. At the bottom of the big plate we see "Diane in the bath with two female servants". Maybe the Erils saw her as Eostre or the naked Spring Maid. In this case a hint of something growing like friendship and trade.

The Romans borrowed much from the Greeks and in this way for instance it was spread farther to Denmark. On the beachers are motives from the Iliad and the battle at Troja. There is the fraction about Priamos asking for the body of Hector. Then Achilles is thinking:

.

That is the lot the gods gave the poor mortal,

always live suffering, and not feel the sorrow.

(He is thinking about his dead father)

Still he too was given the sorrows,

because never he saw an heir in his house,

except a son devoted to die early,

and never comfort his old father.

Because far from his foster soil

he is sitting here in Troja

as lamentation for you and yours.

.

The other beacher has fractions about Filoktetes "brotherhood and action" is his name. He was also called Pois, the giant of home, i.e. the fire. Heracles persuades his friend Filoktetes to lit the fire on his funeral pile. As proof of friendship he gives his bow and arrows to Filoktetes. When the Greeks sails towards Troja they will of course that the bow and Filoktetes are with them.

But when they spend the night on an island a snake bit Filoktetes. The wound smells dreadfully and they decide to leave the archer at Lemnos (the scenes are on the beacher). However when they have no success at Troja, they send Odysseús after the rejected. He persuades Filoktetes to forget the disgrace in being left behind. Then the son of Askepleios called the "Foothealer" heals the foot. Then the archer became a hero when he shoots Paris.

The scenes on the service say more than 10000 words. The legatus Silius did not need to fall on his knees in front of the Hoby man in charge. They could go directly to business. I do not know whether this is the true story. Anyhow it is likely that there has been some treaty and then the trade began with the Romans. The early finds of Roman products may tell us the main area at that time and that was mostly in Denmark and Skaane. Later import was spread over the entire South Scandinavia and surely they recruited legionnaires from the same area.

About Ionian wisdom

Caesar and earlier the Greeks gave the Celts name and "names". They did not really love Celts and their descriptions should have references. Suitable reference is the brutal Roman culture and the "Circus" with wild animals eating human beings". If we compare that with the Celts I prefer to belong to the Celtic League. Another thing is that it is well known that Celts wanted to frighten the Romans by showing them some brutality in the same way, as the Romans were brutal.

Here a few words of the sparsely sources about Ionian wisdom:

In West Anatolia the Ionian philosophers knew their intellectual brothers the Celtic bards well and thought we were wise. As a bard I have to continue and carry the wisdom. Like in every thing each generation have to conquer the knowledge of former generations.

We bards like all wise men are lazy and borrow easily thoughts from others, so that we get more spare time for funny things. The old fellow Prometheus used to say, "Be prepared!" ... maybe the Greeks were lazy and thought they could avoid the problems by fettering the messenger?

The Romans could not close that famous gateway on the Mars field. Augustus inaugurated Ara Pacis and offered Arminius on it ... or was it really an offer from the Cherusk side? It is obvious that the Roman philosophy lacked the capacity to make peace.

The ultimate question is of course about war or peace. Without peace there would be no good life and maybe the harvest would be spoiled. Ergo, we want peace. Then we have to prepare for it.

Next question is how to prepare. The Ionian answer is by "brotherhood". Tie your neighbours and enemies to be brothers/sisters and you are near peace. Friendship is not enough it could be broken, but brotherhood is stronger. That is the kernel in the Ionian federation and wisdom of society.

I remember my few fights when I was very green. Forced into them I intuitively understood that in war there are no rules. I became a war-machine and won all my fights. But it was a disgrace to ask for forgiving when I won. Sometimes I was hurt too. Lazy me thought it is easier to become friends right away without a fight.

I do not believe much in the fairy tales about ever fighting Celts. I am brought up among people with much of Celtic thinking I realise now. They taught me about the middle road, about brotherhood, to be equal, to have a rapid tongue and always be though. And many more things that are just about brother/sisterhood and to keep the treaty with others.

With girls we were always equal so I do not quite understand the modern struggle between the genders. Women were just the other part of two and sometimes they did men's work too. They have even found graves after women fighters at the Scandinavian "graveyard" at Rhine. In other cases the woman was just The Lady of House ... maybe that was a way to keep peace in the house?

Up to my mind and what other tell I am a gentle noble man … I do not think that my ancestors were worse … especially as we see in history aggression escalate in time. The old wisdom is RTA or that matters should be solved by mutual agreements. Aggression costs too much and still the treaty must be made after that. The lazy begins with making friendship.

August 1999