UPSALA - 1687
CAROLUS LUNDIUS
ZAMOLXIS – FIRST LEGISLATOR OF
THE GETAE
translation from Latin
and a few notes by MARIA CRISAN
translation to English
by Honorius Crisan
2001 - 2002
U pon a long dissertation within the Academy of Sciences, it is resolved to be made public this historical truth by Carolus Lundius, the author. On the same occasion, further data regarding the antiquities of the Sveons, the Goths/Getae, as well as other nations, such things never having been tackled before by others, is now brought to light, briefly, by the same author.
TO HIS SERENE HIGHNESS, MOST
POWERFUL PRINCE AND
MASTER CAROLUS XI,
KING OF THE SVEONS, GOTHS AND VANDALS,
GREAT PRINCE OF FINLAND, DUKE OF SCANDINAVIA, ESTONIA, LIVONIA, KARELIA, Bremen, Verden, Stetin, Pomerania, Cassubia and Vandalia, Prince of Rugia, Ingria, ruler of Vismaria and of the County of Rhenania Palatinate as well, Duke of the Bavarian Mountains, Jullich and Clivie, August The Most Faithful And Happy, my Most Best King and Master.
Most enlightened and all-powerful KING, most gentle MASTER!
May dear this humble, little book - and yet deserving the attention of an elevated spirit - be submitted to the bright eye of Your Royal Majesty; well, yes, since through it anyone would be able to recall things the little book speaks of and which Your Royal Majesty has, heart and soul, devoted to, as early as the years of Your youth - everything plentifully bears witness of it: I mean the German JUSTICE and EQUITY; to those two noble missions and attributes a rare finesse KINDNESS adds, which is cautiously handled by Your Royal Majesty, so the human wisdom perfection reflects in IT, so that, should such features be performed on a theatre stage, it would resound to such an extent with the shouts and applause of the mob, that it would spread all over and as far as the end of the world. And it is quite at all a miracle, as wherever such a show would be performed, wiping the tears and misery of that poor aggrieved people, and those wrongfully ill-fated/ wrongfully sentenced to jail terms /, would find their freedom and take shelter, in a complete absence of their concerns in the bosom of Your Royal Majesty; and why not other citizens, too, from other social layers, would find their rescue by having recourse to that Holy Anchor; by slowly steering their ship they shall eventually discover the very coveted port and the most peaceful place to drop anchor. So, that way the human condition and whatever other things recover, providing for everything that is linked together, keeping with much care both the general and particular things, even the state budget He fortunately constantly keeping, it is very usual He being saluted, acclaimed with one voice, fully deserving, that You - ah, You August, are KING and FATHER OF OUR HOMELAND (Pater Patrie). Whereas this Giant Man, no doubt by right, is surrounded in praises, everywhere and in the battlefield too He is loaded with praises both by the defeated and the winners, be they old or in their primes, so the praises I am bringing Him are at all insignificant over the highest esteem I should show Him. Then, why shouldn’t we say it openly: Your Majesty is nearby the Divinity, no doubt by right, since, as we can see, even on this small occasion - this book printing - He has involved. You really are the embodiment of the Great God who is believed cannot be deviated by any imperfections of the common people, or maybe insignificantly at all, since He gets by Himself higher and higher by any means possible. Look, Your Royal Highness, Your forehead clear at this all-modest homage, the books, not at all bulky, they lay down before You, with many bows, at the shrine of Your Majesty. For this little book I am grateful first of all to Your Royal Majesty and then to those devoted to me, who have supported its publishing, headed by Your Highness: may You in the future too be equally inclined to the requests, hopes and trust of those resorting to the generosity of Your Highness like to an all-mighty God of our dear Homeland, and of the whole Globe and may we have You well and happy as long as possible from now on, to the comfort of those needing Your Majesty! Most festive be that day and hold on with our descendants too, a day in which the heavens sent us that most brilliant star, a star most blessed, bringing with it on earth the goodness of a happy destiny - from skies they should send it again to deliver us from all evils. Why not, I would like the Muses would command my lips break silence and make a poem accompanied on the lyre, through the voice of which, in immaculate wishes, it would meet with the approval of others and at the same time I would be rewarded with applause and raised higher.
CAROLUS, You, King of the North, glory of the Earth, adornment of the world, most great conqueror,
Whom arts are singing, the virtues raising Him to the stars:
Justice, isn’t it the first praise? Isn’t the knotty staff
Hercules’ works, which all nations honour, with one voice:
Among the first nations, that of the Svions was by You, with armed hand, defeated
And how ever other peoples clambered on the walls.
And that way this Kingdom has been in no time turned into ruin.
For that was not our job?
To violently slam its body and joints.
Tell me you Muses, who did enlarge his country, its boundaries, through laws,
Tell me, who was the first to choke the terrible fires of the cruel Mars?
He was who choked them; He alone rebuilt it all in a moment.
This way glorious CAROLUS has raised above all, as He gave many people back their eternal life.
Through His grand Soul, This way also His CONCORD reign, imposing was,
The PIETY blossoms, the JUSTICE - mother of equality;
And may the old CURIA plentifully shine in
Senate’s garment. The citizens assembly to honour King Carolus in all respects,
He, who, having struck out the old criminal laws, new penalties set up, more just than others;
He, thinking by right that laws cannot remain the same for ever,
More fair laws He laid. According to Him, CAROLUS, the LAW is the holiest thing in the world.
HE, CAROLUS, all righteous and glorious, outstrips Apollo.
Long live Augustus, through Him alone all that’s good in our country is saved and prospers; may its powers soar, may it be safe from evil, as only this way it could aspire to summits;
His Queen - mother, who’s she - indeed Hedwig, born from noble blood, in a northern family.
Illustrious in the world, apart at all. Long live!
She, who embodies the GREAT LOVE for the people!
May she have only joys now and for ever!
Long live and blossom UDALRICA, the Queen-wife
And the greatest mistress in the world,
Virtue and honour model of heaven’s spirits!
May also the royal offspring blossom, worthiest of the Kingdom!
CAROLUS, first of all, whose sceptre so peaceful will stay
After He great wars carried, and shields in heavens would be left.
Remaining on the family destined, descendants; among them His grandsons count,
With similar destinies, of the same magnificence.
May He always enjoy only GOOD things,
May it be flinched by neither the things’ limits nor the centuries!
These all, my gracious Muse they wish you,
Singing your virtues on notes popped from their hearts.
Do accept, kind KING, accept, You, GLORY OF THE KINGS,
Accept these words born in my burning soul;
And, wherever I am, my words are singing You
On notes arranged with care, You raising, singing You, as better as can do,
Crawling on earth like a thin thread
And falling down to Your feet, the feet of YOUR SACRED MAJESTY
With a highly devoted faith
And too obedient as long as I’ll be living
MY WELCOME TO THE READER
T wenty-two years elapsed since, by a public vote, I was admitted the first in the Academy, to study the law sciences. As for my very spirit, my endeavour and thinking placed at the service of those sciences, I leave them to the judgement of those then admitting me among the students, and giving me thereafter frequent opportunities to hear their lectures.
During all this time I have committed to the paper, with great care, - not somehow neglectful, like others do - not corrupt, like others use to-, a great deal of those I’ve noted with my own hand during the University lectures. The only impediment encountered, should I confess and state it sincerely, it was that of making a selection of the many elements heard at the lectures; it was difficult for me to make a decision, the more that, during all that time, the number of manuscripts in question has grown, and in some cases, due to some ignorant transcribers, certain facts have been wrongly changed, not rarely unjustified omissions and additions being operated. Finally, our task was to carefully plan how should we move among that many winding paths, recognise our errors and, in consequence thereof, eliminate them. This is why I do not shrink from saying it, during those study years as a young magistrate, all that memorable dates have been well forged, more faithfully. Yet I do not doubt, there are certain people to consider what I have done less than correct, due to the fact that speaking about the beginning of laws with the Getae, I am referring in the first place to SAMOLSE (as this being the proper spelling of his name); they strongly believing that our erudite people would have inspired from the Greek letters, but the Getic letters, already invented and used then, the Greeks did not take from us, according to our ancient history and our wise men skilled in old writers’ literature, by such kind of persons, they wouldn’t be deemed as such; we would not give a dime for such persons, and the judgement of the posterity would condemn them - and they deserve to be condemned unanimously; this, because about SAMOLSE’s style (thus, the Getic writing pre-existed the Greek one) we have in evidence the authority of certain ancient historians writing down everything in every clearness. On that very occasion I would dare to prove that putting side by side the ancient laws of the fatherland and the Attic ones, we may find out a clear superiority over those of Athens, since at the beginning of the law, the lawgiver’s finger had to be put on with great care, and did so before those gathered for such purpose (so, it was some kind of a parliament - T.’s N.) So it was clear for everybody that any legalisations of deeds could not take place unless both parties were attending. Besides, we have in evidence a number of literary monuments having a completely overwhelming convincing force, attesting the Greek having taken from the Goth (Geta), in every particular, the essential element of the Athenian legislation, since words and fact as well are presented to and laid before us everywhere in detail, yet also on the whole and, if I keep silence, everything else speaks. But I have already passed beyond the stage of those small songs I have encircled myself in times of leisure, of a minimum importance; besides, save for the things that formerly, being actuated by the importance of the moment, it appeared to have investigated long time a separate volume. Besides, Great Grotius asserts, quite justified, the Persian language itself having its origins in the Getic vocabula; of such I did not doubt at all in asserting it otherwise than something very important, adding at the same time Arabic and Turkish, which however in our days, as I can see, use Latin letters, as determined in the printing shop, with the letters I have prescribed. May Heaven let come a time when all those and other like them will be published more accurately, even with same letters and fonts, in which they have been expressed in ancient times. Until then, affable reader, accept open minded those, as they are; should I obtain your acceptance, it would be for me an occasion for joy and satisfaction. As for the wrong ones, that would be for them a thesaurus, in order for the sad ones to always have occasion to amuse themselves, and those unworthy would hardly deserve a thing. To the latter I only have to say: the cedar and marble manners of Vossius (Gerhardus Josephus, German scientist, 1577-1640), (p. 112), have guided me, through the following most respectable words: “… therefore, in order for the prophecies (divine predictions) to be transmitted with the sense they have been received before, should comply with certain requirements. As for the other data in Latin, I deem it has been sufficiently discussed, as all words to be found in the quoted passage read. What could really be wished inside that treatise would be the reasons about which, for the sake of the Posterity I have avoided to speak of.
CHAPTER I
Summary
§1. ZamolxiV, SAMOLSES in our scrolls. To him are related the beginnings of the paternal laws and the defence of that truth. Who is he and where comes from? He belongs to the Getae, who are the same with Goths and Scythians. §2. The ones being called Getae are also called SVEONES. §3. Some deny they are called Svions from Svidur: their argument can easily be overthrown. §4. Before ODIN, there is no reference of that word in the writings of the old ones. §5. Sueons’ power extended once all over. §6. Whether the country is called Svia from Svidia, a region apart from Goths’ land. Why Svidia? §7. Why the inhabitants are not called rather Gautae than Svions from Odin: SVIFDAGR was born to Odin The Svif. §8 It is quite ridiculous believing that the name of SUEONIA could be related to the place and forest (VEDEN?), idem from ZWEI REICHE (two empires / a double empire). §9. SVIPIOD has a different meaning, while the name of Svions, who are also called Ingueones or Ingevones (in both cases they are spelt correctly); it is the same name with Ingi, Ingve and Ingemundr. §10. Those who have been called Scythians, thereafter called Sueons (Sueones). Where does the name of Scythians come from? For they come from the Elysium Fields, hence their name. §11. Who are the Hyperboreans? So do the foreign writers call them. Where comes the name of Wgugih (Oghiughie). The earliest authors mean by t hat word the trajectory of terrestrial days.§12. Once in our homeland, heredity was considered by the number of bows and arrows. What is the meaning of ARS and ARSDOBOLKAR in the earliest legislation rules. §13. The number twelve, of arrows, was deemed by the ancient peoples to be ordained by the gods; the number of nine days also had the same interpretation. §14. The Gothic SKUTA matches the Latin verb sagittare (“to take very well aim with an arrow”).
§1. The waxed tablets together with the other manuscripts, where
they talk about the origin of paternal (national) laws, they are referring to
SAMOLSE. It is not known quite exactly about him whether he was a
real man and when he was born. However, most authors assert, with
greatest levity, that he was born somewhere in the Thracian Land. About
that time, the Getae were living there, “Qreikwn andreiotatoi kai
dikaiotatoi ” (Hdt., IV, XCIII, to the end), that is “the most brave and
pious of the Thracians”, in Herodotus’ words. Among the praiseworthy
virtues, no doubt by right, that of undefeated is added, with which
Procopius (IV, Hist. Goth., 419) has adorned the Goths.
The ones who in Thrace were called Getae, later in Procopius’ (a Greek historian that died in 562 AD) time were called Goths and in older times they were called Scythians. Such authors we owe a due trust, since they are among the best ones; beside them, through his ancient dignity and authority, brilliant Messenius imposed, too (Foreword to a versified edition of the laws, signed Ragvaldus) who, in a few words, has shown with so much clarity and perspicacity that the first laws of the Svions and Goths (Getae) have been made up by Samolse. In order for such conclusion to necessarily be most correct, he clothed it with the word infallible. Subsidiary, if needed anymore, opinions have thereafter recorded, of certain brilliant scholars like BOXHORNIUS (Hist., VII, in the year 101), LOCCENIUS (Antiquit. Sveog., lib. I, chap.1), SCHERINGHAM (De orig. Angl., chap.IX, X. XI), HACHENBERGIUS (De orig. Sved., §XII, ff.), IACOB GISLON (in foreword and Chron. p.m.5 to the end) and in however other passages where the same opinion on the Getae, Goths and Scythians based on different proofs also in the mind of doctrine disciplines writers, such writers being among the most enlightened: that truth is perfectly confirmed by uncounted evidence. It is worthy retaining that unique truth, namely the Getae and the Goths were one and the same people and they were also called with the name of Scythians (Joh. Magn. Hist., S. 4, lib. I, chap.IV, f.f. Schol. Antiq. In Adam N. LXXXVII and authors next chapter)
§2. Therefore, they are called GETAE, GOTHONES, GOTHINI, GETAR, GETTAR, JETTAR, JOTTAR, GAUTAR2, GOTAR3, like with the natives, attrâ from GA, GE, which is the same thing with GAU, GO, JO, GIO, GOJA, i.e. TERRA from the verb GIETA, meaning to give birth, develop, spread open-handed (others have a quite different opinion, namely their names would come from GAUT or ATTYS, the son, loved by Cybele, of the Sangarius river). SVIONES, SVEVI, SVIDAND, SVAND, SVEAR, SVIANAR would come from Attys, more recently; who is also called ODIN, SVIDUR, SVIUR, SVIFR, FTOLSVIDUR, SVIDUDUR, SVIDRIR, SVIDI, from SVIDIA, meaning to devastate through fires. The following add, too: SIGFADUR, SIGTHYR, SIGMUNDUR, SIGTHER, SIGTHROOR, SIGI; and also GAUT, GAUTE, GAUTUR and WALGAUTUR, an assembly of administrative (business) names, which were en vogue at that time, designating both courage and wiseness and a charming finesse in every victorious people; a destruction of enemies’ fields, fires, sieges, has been also called havoc, ruin. Why not also Thràsàr (meaning more vulnerable to cruelty of cutting and burning, not rarely attacked to be publicly exposed). That is yet also name and cult object of the ancestor Attys through most useless games (caprices) and witchcraft; after that superstitions have invaded him, as we learn from the Eddic monuments (it is about two collections of mythological and legendary poems of ancient Scandinavian peoples, T.’s N.) at the location and with the inhabitants SVITHI-OD, SVI-THOD, it is transmitted to us that a new and perpetual name has been given from itself, that just mentioned.
§3. They are not even experts in old literary works that would deny such designation of ODIN. At first, for grammar reasons, his name should have been spelt that way, as coming from SVIDRIR, SVIDRISTHIOD and not SVITHIOD; those are some kind of sophisms, like some enigma that nobody can clear up. Yet the mass of scholars is too big for their boots, looking for vain glory, like our own ignoramuses, out of vanity, consider them admirable. Since not so much SVIDRIS, but at the same time under other flexional titles of names, Odin can be recognised, as already set forth above. In the case of such words in disorder it is always more clear if not expressed but in the case of a multitude of expressions relating to such word. Thus it is reasonable from GAUT or GAUTUR - GAUTLAND, from SIGI or SIGTYR - SIGTUNA, from SEMMINGUR - SEMMIING - HUNDRA, from RAUMUR, RAUMELF, RAUMARIKE, from INGI - INGLINGAR, from SKIOLDUR - SKIOLDUNGAR, and so we may find, of that type, with the thousands, where the second case, not clearly, but precisely, towards they incline, is to be preferred. See also moreover other historical documents - Thorstiens viikings soanr saugu (chap.I), where just the following words can be read: pad eru Kallader Alfheimar, er Alfur Konungar ried fyri. Afheimo from the king name of Alfo. What does it mean? That the assailant, in his opinion, would need rather to prove an alibi; for a similar reason, the word SVITHIOD popularly reads SVEON and moreover, and the whole matter, in itself, in such a manner it is said, that it can be carried through with a sword only.
§4. Then, that ODIN word seems to be much older than his coming into the world. Here it is, on what rely those claiming such a thing: sure thing is that that name has never been mentioned before Odin would appear, neither by foreign writers, nor by the native ones. They endeavour to impose the contrary with ability and through trifles, as resulting from the Eddic writings. that such is the state of things, As so it is in the foreword of the Eddic writings, where, in both books written with great care, they call DROTZET of the High Praetorian Tribunal, the heroine of the all-heavenly and companion, master, GREAT GABRIEL of Gardie, whom the Academy in Uppsala has since long: “… thadan for Othin i Svithiod, thar var sa Kongur er Gylsi het: oc er han fretti til Asia manna er Aesir voru Kalladir, for han i moti theim, oc baud seim i fit riki en fatimi fylgdi ferd theirra. Hwar sem their dvol thust i londum, ja thar par ar oc trutho men artheir voru theßradandr thui ar rikis menn sa tha olika flestum mannum othrum at segurd oc vitj. Thar thotti Othin sagrit vellir, oc Landzkostir godur, oc Kaus fier thar Vorgarstadt sem nu heitir Sigtun.” Odin left there for Sveonia, the king of which was Gylso. At him arrived the fame of the Asians’ names, which one called AESIR who, upon his throne mounting, invited them all: they complied with the invitation without delay. Wherever your eyes may have looked, you only could see but thriving crops, as everywhere peace was flourishing, among the local people of good faith, there were accepted with them those things that were well thought-out, while for others, the science and the excellence of the form were more alluring. Odin, where he saw the crop thriving and the soil being fertile, chose a location for the stronghold, which the local people call now Sigtuna, thadan, says the author, for Othin et Svithiod. From there, Odin came to Sueonia, as it is called today. With such name does it show off, but, except that, it was called before Svithiod as it is confirmed by the Eddic writings, as printed by the most deliberated Ressenius, in question being an edition resulted from a collating of a few more copies: Efftr thad for han nordut that sein nu heiter. Words that are completely the same, the Danish interpret assures us; it also tallies with the Latin version of the Icelander Olaus Magnus of 1629. Therefore, it is in question the same place that is called now Svithiod, that is Svecia. Of the same opinion also is Stephanus The Icelander Olaus when in 1646, he proves, the adorned interpretation of Haunia. However, about that and many other words, I deem as useless appealing to more precepts than it has been done before - it’s simple enough.
§5. Stress is being laid on the same issue: it is, undoubtedly, astonishing why resorting to other regions, the names of which did not come from the same name, on the contrary, their names read with those names with which they have remained since long. As it is quite easy for such an objection to be rejected. If in that passage of the Eddic writings so it was understood to be reproduced, where, in clear words, it is proved as more suitable that the reign of Sueonia should begin with Odin and where, after so many errors a reliable place can be finally set and, to the fęted person’s fame, it can still be invested with monumental names, which can be legally transmitted to the descendants. To conclude, by the name of Svithiod it was meant all that was in sight in the north; the other reigns were called at other times tractus (“vast country”), it meaning a reunion of lands of a very vast empire - at the level of the universe. In fact, it was replaced by the old ones with Manheim, Gudheim, Alsheim, Jotnaheim or Risaland / Vanheim, oc oll thau titi thar til halda (every reign that had to be haunted by the majesty of Sueonic Empire, as clearly asserted by Snorrus, accord. to Snorrus, in the version of Johannes Martinus, Slangerup p.1). The book, published in 1594, gives us the following information: “Norden for palude Maeoti ot swarte hass/ kalde de paa gammel Norske Svithiode. Det nafn haswe de paa alle diße kalde land som ligge mod norden/ oc erre somme af diße land öde fot fraast oc snee” (as author mistranslated the Gothic text in Latin, I dare to translate it, conveying in fact the essence: “Svithiod land being located north of Azov Sea, just in its most northern point, it has a very severe climate, the region being exhausted by frosty weather and snow”, T.’s N.) Let’s add to that source also Iordanes, the chapters (De Getarum sive Gothorum origin et rebus gestis, IV and V) in which we can find very clearly and well substantiated, from where and how arrived there for the first time the Goths (the Getae), that they have settled in Scythia, next to Black Sea and he describes already a number of settlements of theirs; from the notes of other writers, cited by Nicolaus Ragvaldus, in his speech (Herod., lib. IV), never praised enough. And it is in question not only the native writers, but to such also add some of other nations, in the words of whose we should trust with the power of truth comprised in them, having the strictness of purely scientific works: these are Herodotus (chap.IV), Xenophon (chap.11, Memoriale), Plato (Timaeus and Kritias) and many others nearer, among which one rises above all. This is Cl. Olaus Rudbeck (Atlant., chap.VII, §VIII).
Let’s go back however to Lucan, chap.II of De bello civili, from which we learn that our ancestors have roamed Europe, Egypt and Etruria and “have reached with their boats also Scythia Minor, at Lacus Maeotis, a black swamp full of all kinds of peoples.”
§6. So, in vain some endeavour to convince us that Svialand, the Sveonia region apart from Gothia, derives from Svidia, which means “to ravage”, “to burn.” Also, to destroy through iron and fire villages and forests, as in spite of the fact that the field, attacked inside, was, according to the custom, seeded and harrowed, everything was turned into graves, nothing having been sifted from the crop. The first to come to these lands called Sviar, which cannot yet be proved by any written document, worthy of being noticed.
§7. Although the name came into common use, yet the people wander why not GAUTA would rather be called the inhabitants, instead of SVIONES from Odin, as many centuries before the emergence of Odin, such name was given to those populations, like I set forth above and this historical truth can be easily proved through different peoples’ and nations’ history. Why then tarrying about this one? If however would anyone doubt the legend of the nomenclature, then one argument would suffice: why did not that ethnic group usurp that name before Odin. Lang fedgatal yet does not doubt that ethnic group having borrowed its name from Odin’ son, called Svifdage.
§8. From all these considerations is clearly resulting that somebody is nevertheless asserting that Sueonia can be inferred from Veden’ lake and forest (“se lacu et veden sylva”) – words mentioned above – an opinion which one could rather wonder about than reject. No less valid an opinion would be, that it would come from zwei Reiche (two reigns/empires), ideas about which Messenius claimed (Spe. Suec. et Goth, chap.VIII) they “render callous their errors by right and in fact.”
§9. From all stated above, it clearly results how much the concept of svithiod, I mean Sueons’ power or empire had to “suffer.” To thwart such a saying‚ a man (now passed away to join the happy ones) not a profane in homeland and ancient history, comes with an argument supporting the Sueons, Goths (Getae) and Odin; upon returning to the concept of Scandia everything getting mixed: undoubtedly Svealand is something different from Svearik or Sviavelldi, as moreover, other literary monuments of our ancestors, there are also homeland laws, under which it is asserted, in clear words, the following development: “Swerikis Rzjke a aff Hedhna Warld samankomit/af Swealand oc Götha”, chap.1 main Konungz Valter, e.e. (“The Kingdom of Sveonia, according to the last memory of the profane religion, has coagulated from the Sveonic and Gothic regions”). Same are the things in the case of the proper name of Svithiod instead of Svealand that clearly differs from GOTHALAND. accord. to the 1egend of Vilkina (p. d. 76): “Vilkini kunungr eignadist med rikinu, oc hernadi thad land er kallad var Vilkinaland en thad heitir nu Svithiod oc Gautland, oc alt Sviavelldi, Skaney, Sialand, Jutland, Vinland, oc oll thau riki er par til halda.” (“King Vilkinus, by the force of weapons, appropriated the Kingdom of Vilkinaland, which is today made out of Sveonia, Gothia, Scania, Selandia, Jutia, Vinlandia (Vandalsa) and all regions bounding that empire”). Thus, to spade a pikestaff, Svithiod differs from Gautland and Sviavelldi. And let’s us rely on the same history: af heiti ens, fyrsta haufdingia tekr hans riki‚ nafn, oc su thiod er han stiornar (from the name of its first prince the kingdom took its name, and not from the people the prince reigned over. It is entirely worthy being trusted, according to what is said above. So, from Ingve, or Inge comes the word Sueones and Ingveones. Ingveones, according to Plinius (lib. IV, C. XIII), and even Tacitus (De mor. Germ., chap.12); yet they do not call by something obscure or hidden, but even by something more open and clear, I mean they are those citizens who have been under the domination and authority of the Ingons. Ingi or Ingve, Inge or Ingemunder designate one and the same thing, as we can read in most documents dedicated to such name.
§10. But they also called Scythians, which thereafter called Sueoni, accord. to an old manuscript titled Chronicon. As Iaphet dre komne Skyter oc Geter, som langt epter Kalladis Gother / oc nu Swenske. (“Scythians and Getae were born to Iaphet who later, after the Goths, called also Sveons.”) But in no hand written laws collection that order is wrongly written. Even Isidorus (the beginning of that Chronicle and the next chapter) begins his chronicle as follows: the reign of the Goths (undoubtedly it reads Getae’s - T.’s N.) is the oldest, as it was born from the reign of the Scythians. Scythians truly are brilliant archers, they raising a lot above other nations, as that kind of weapons was specifically proper to them - just for that reason Herodotus (IV, 27) called them ARIMASPOI, “the ones who pointed at very well with the arrow” (although the legend says the Arimasps had one eye only, T.’s N.); they were mounted archers (ippotoxotai, Thuc. 11, 139); Laurentius Valla gave the same interpretation that later was also recognised by Henricus Stephanus. Moreover, Herodotus (I, 73) called that skill of wielding the bow and arrows tenhn twn toxwn, i.e. “the art of pointing at with arrows”, and Xenophon (On Socrates' acts and words, I, III, the Latin translator being Cardinal Nicenus), where it is said that, unlikely other nations, the Scythians and Thracians are naturally gifted with that net superiority in wielding a bow and arrows. Yet, unlikely the Spartans, who wield a sword and shield, the Scythians and Thracians do not dare to also conversely handle them, Spartans refuse to fight the first using their weapons - bow and arrows.
Lucan (Lib. III) also calls the Gelons sagittiferi volucres, i.e. “from the hands of which the arrows fly like birds”, and the Gelons are a Scythian nation. As Lucan (chap.II) claims, the Masagets are Scythian too, like the Gelons occurring about the Maeotis Lake, i.e. the Azov Sea, driving Scythian wagons or riding horses that flew like birds, like arrows. Through the art of wielding the bow and arrows our ancestors have stood out from other peoples, as our national history confirms it to us. Since they knew how to send an arrow with a perfect precision, they went to war or fights, their bodies bare, to show the enemy how expert are they in pointing at by piercing with their arrows exactly the targeted point. For their skill in wielding the bow and arrows e.g. Magn. Sigurdar. Sigurdar., Magnusa Barfots and the legend of Olof Trygfars (Flot. Lb., III, chap.8) and many other passages. So, the Scythians were among the first of our ancestors. The handling of the bow and arrows with the Scythians was learned since the early childhood; Florus (Lib. III, chap.VIII) recounts that a child would refuse the food given by his mother until she did not show him, through her self example, how is she hit by arrows. All their hopes were those arrows, as Tacitus (De mor. Germ., to the end) recounts. They roamed with their herds, herds of horses, goats and sheep through forests and untilted deserts, hence they were called Nomads, Shepherds, by Homer, Strabo and, among others, also by Silius (I, III).
They did not have any houses, living in wagons, roaming over the plains, and wandering as they did, they always had around the penates. Strabo locates them to the north, where the north wind blows, and Diodorus Siculus (Bibl. Hist., chap. p.m. 209) recounts that they were living on an island called Basilea out of which, in bad weather, came out a kind of very bright amber, which could not be found in any other part of the world: this was also called electrum. Urania, daughter of the skies, upon her father’s death, accepted to reign over Basilea and afterwards gave birth to dia docouV thV basileiaV, the devisees of the reign, Hyperions (Diod. Sic., Bibl. Hist., chap.III, chap.7, 9, 10, 13 and 14). Solinus adds that from the islands inhabited by the Germans, Scandinavia is the biggest and nothing in that island is more valuable than the glassware that offers both the crystal, yet also the amber, which the Germans call with a native word GLAESUM (STICLA). Plinius calls it glassware (XXVII, 1, 2). And just in our Sveonia, in the region of Helsingia, there was such a valley called ELYSIA [(the valley of glass = Glysisdal, Elysisdal, LIUSDAL), according to Ovid, Champs-Elysees according to Virgil, Glysis hed, Elysis hed, i.e. LIUSHED] (See also Tacitus, De mor. Germ., XLV; Tibull., I, 3, In Messal.) According to illustrious D. Gustavus Rosenhanus, who in 1658 chaired that province, he talked me about the places where the merchandise was exported from, like coming from the Elyzeens and Naharvals,who formerly would have inhabited those lands; Tacitus (De mor. Germ., XLIII) recounts about the Manimos [Manheimos] Elyzieni and Naharvali. Quoting Plutarch who, in his turn quotes Homer, asserts that in the Champs-Elysees is the end of the Earth, since there the shadow becomes visible putting an end to the Globe; there, where the light is prevented, and the descending sun just doubles the growing shadows, Radamantes’ kingdom, i.e. the Inferno begins.
Why from the Gothic lysa, and this, in its turn, from lius, liusis or lysis? Its origin is unclear, since in the summer those fields, as their name tells, are always seen to be bright; hence poets invented the wording “at the happy places of the righteous people”, “in the happy islands”, “where neither the winds blow nor the clouds drop their rain” and “the sky is always clear and laughs with a generously spread light” (Lucret., De rerum natura, chap.III, about the beginning) or in Horatius, Epoda XVI:
“The Planetary Ocean leaves us, we are surrounded by fields
we arrive at the happiest fields, at rich islands:
look, the field unploughed for so many years is being given back to us –
Ceres gives it us now flourishing and loaded with grape clusters.
the olive trees pull out their buds and every tree is adorned with buds;
the resin springs out of the high mountain oaks
and trickles through the bark down to earth.
There come from itself directly in the chapel’s censer …”
(See also the comments of Acronius Porphyrionus of Rotterdam, as well as of the others concerning the ode in question). Other versions concerning the origin of that region’s name may also be heard; among them, the Plato’s (Gorgias, p.m. 370 ff.) Virgil, for instance, sets against Champs-Elysees, Lacus Stygias (where Plouton, the “god” of the Inferno rules, T.’s N.), nigra Tartara, a place reserved after death those wrongdoers, unfaithful, where people shiver with cold (See also Hesiod, Theogonia, see 682, 721, 736 and Plato, Phaedron, p. 517 ff.) Both Stygii lacus, and Seneca’s Stygiae shadow, come from the Gothic STYG. The verb is styggias formidare (“to be afraid of the styg”); many other words have hence formed in our language. In Greek there is the verb sugew, having the same meaning, although yet the interpreters doubt its Greek origin (I deem it would rather refer to certain old Romanian words: 1. Strigă = “grey coloured owl with orange eyes, also meaning lady vampire, witch”, as well as 2. Strigoi, T.’s N.) (see also Virgil, Aeneis, p. 237 and 251). For good reason even the question is put, just where it has been called by the ancient people GLESARIA after: no doubt it comes from the verb GLA, meaning “to shine”, “to glow”, and hence GLEA, GLIA, GLOA, GLIOSA and LYSA = “to lighten” (It is not excluded it might be linked to the old Romanian GLIE, “ploughed land” and GAIA / GEIA / GE, “mother land” and of course the Greek must have taken it from us and not conversely, as it is too the case of wallach - from German, meaning “castrated horse”, as it is the case too of the West Falls (Westfalen) and the East (Ostfalen) and the Egyptian and Indian fellah, all those nations whose names are related to the land cultivation, agriculture, having their origin in the traditional word Valach, the oldest the Romanian ethnic group attested until now, accord. to Homer, Iliad, II, 739, T.’s N.) Since it is not like the case of the Latin Aquilo,-onis (“north wind”), Boreas in Greek, which asserts Aulus Gellius with serenity (II, 22) must have been formed from boatus, meaning “bellow” (’apo thV bohV), while some erudite men, who devoted themselves long ago to the letters and antiques, cannot approve of such an etymological explanation, believable among babies only.
§11. That is too the case of the toponym BASILIA mentioned by
Pytheas of Marseille (a famous navigator and geographer of the 4th
century BC, T.’s N.) as the seat of the royal Scythians: basileio V
meaning quite “kingly”, “royal” (Plin. XXXVII, II). I call as a witness
just Herodotus (IV, 56) in a passage where Gerrhos clearly recounts on
the county of nomad Scythians and that of royal Scythians
(“tón te tvn Nomadwn cwrion kai ton tvn basilhiwn Skuqewn”). Lacus
Maeotis (Azov Sea, T.’s N.) too is inhabited by the Royal Scythians and
the Sauromatians (“Maihtin, SkuqaV te touV
basilhiouV kai SauromataV”). This is how far the Sveons’ Empire
stretched once, as I already said here above (that is also perfectly valid for
the Geto-Dacians, who have lived for centuries, if not even millenniums,
mixed with Germanic peoples, both in the Scandinavian Peninsula, and in
the southern Russia, T.’s N.) Those Scythians who lived in Asia, it is due
to call them Nomads (SkuqaV touV NomadaV, Hdt. I, 73). On the same
island – BASILIA – the old ones called it BALTHIA from BALDUR or
Apollo or from the bows and belts (baltheis) which the Scythians used, a
respect in which it is worth mentioning Herodotus (IV, 11, 19 and 50, VI.
74), where he some times speaks about the bow, and other times about
Hercules The Baltic (centurion) and not only about Scytha as Hercules’
son, after whom the Kings Scythian have been called (Plin., 1.chap., Hdt.,
IV, 8, IX, 10). Apollo himself is called by Virgil The Bow Carrier (Verg.,
Aen. III). And in the 5th book of the same Aeneid says it explicitly: "Be
it now allowed us to explain how it came from the belt to the word Baltic
(belte) Sea, as it appears in ancient words. The Scythians called Royal,
were also called Hyperborean4, and their seat was in the Hyperborean
island, Yswer Norden, in Greek ‘uper, poetic super in Latin, Yser with
the Goths and Sveons, letters p and s are used alternately, either instead of
the other. „Same way could also be explained SCAN, nowadays SKAN /
SKANE, Scania being called in ancient times Scandia. As Scandia,
Scanau, Scanorum sive Scandorum island (Scans’ or Scanzs’ Islans), a
name under which we have yet another region located beyond the other
regions, getting in touch with the Aquilone (the north wind). That is why
Lucan mentions them as dwelling in a region located under the Polar
Circle or Hyperborean Ursa (De bell. Civil., V, p. m. 121), and Cicero,
quoting from Aratus’ poetry, he says: “consequently come the Northern”
(De nat. deorum, II, p.m. 47); Seneca calls the North Pole, by the
synechdoche Ursas: the icy wagon of the Hyperborean Ursa (Med. Act.,
II, cor. V, see 315).
In ancient times, our ancestors called it Scandia, it being confirmed, among other writings, by the chronicles inclusively. So, in laws fragments, among the oldest are also those prescribed the Sveons and the Goths in 1375, where Sveonia is called YSWERSTOG/OSTWANSTOG and NORDANSTOGH (Diod. Sic., Bibl. Hist., p.m. 91 ...) From the tradition of the old ones, as Diodorus shows it, so it has been found to be graphically represented. The inhabitants of that island have been called by the ancient peoples Hyperboreans; all the more it is trustworthy, as such judgement is placed in the beginning of the book. The Hyperboreans have been called after the adverb ‘uper, “over”, “beyond” and BoreaV , “North wind”, therefore the ones who live beyond the whipping north wind (Plin., VI. 1 3), and in his scholar, Adamus (p.m. 149, 111, 83): “the Danes, the Sveons and the Normans, as well as the other Scythian peoples have been called by the Romans, Hyperboreans; those Marcian loaded with praises of all kinds.” The Greek writers (among which Diodorus Siculus, Lib. III, p.m. 132) and Plutarch, De facie in orbe Lunae, p. m. 941), called them western, Atlantic, and Hyperborean populations; Tacitus (De Mor. Germ., CXLV) recounts: “beyond the Svions there is but a tranquil sea, almost still, surrounding and enclosing the Globe.” Among all the other Scythians, the Hyperboreans were some very special people, as RUDBECKIUS emphasises it.
§12. In our laws, both older and more recent, there are not only the arrows mentioned, but also always the bow and the arrows are mentioned together. In inheritance matters, where a succession was to be decided, the one of the sons was deemed more fortunate and hence more powerful at wars, which inherits twelve bows: that one was to be called, in fact, a Scythian. And, as the codices prove, in accord with all the other regulations, he had the title of agent through heredity – ARFDABOLKER, ARF meaning both “arrow”, and “bow.” Since an estate was regarded depending on the number of bows and arrows, a custom transmitted also to our Getae ancestors descending from the Scythians, the true Scythians were only deemed to be those possessing three times twelve bows (“thre tölptir SKUTHA stràng ok bogha”), and by the word ARF it is meant both “arrow”, and “bow.” That way of judging was also reflected in the heredity title - the more the number of bows and arrows a son inherited, the more appreciated he was in the battlefield; here he is, instituted in the context of a hunting: “If someone, in his own forest, therefore, in his own hunting ground, upon having cornered a beast, feels exhausted and wants to have some rest, so discontinuing the hunting, sends on the beasts trail a bow or an arrow; and if that beast is subsequently killed by others, those due is the skin, and that who was the first to shoot an arrow is due the rest of the beast; and should a dispute arise, then they would resort to an arbitration by good faith men (I suspect it isn’t meant a proceedings in court, yet instead a hunters’ association assigned to settle such differences T.’s N.), thus everything is to be settled with an elegance that characterises us” (I wonder if that is neither the ontological-gnoseological root of an old Romanian say “To sell the skin of a bear in the woods”?, T.’s N.)
§13. I have said that, in our laws, by the word ARF it is meant not only an “arrow”, yet also a “bow”, which is called too ARMBORST. The wording ARMBORST ATARS BRESTER has the meaning “the arrow is shot with a bow.”
In our laws, both old and recent, it is only mentioned as weapons the bow and arrows, hence their name of Scythians. According to information supplied by Kongbr (chap.XXIX of Codex Magni Erici and c. XXIV of the general law (Civil Code) of King Christoph), the warriors wore twelve arrows each, to match the number of gods, accord. to Virg. (Georg., I, p. 41): “That is why over the endless earth reigns the sun gilded by those twelve stars of the world.”; in Homer (Iliad. I, p. 2, see 3) we find the digit 9 to be used: “for nine long days the arrows of Zeus flew in the army.”
§14. From the foregoing quoted passages, as well as from other sources, it could be seen that Skyta meant, in our laws, “to shoot by a bow and arrow”; it results more clear from VOSSIUS, SCIOPIUS, CELLARIUS and BORRICHIUS (De variis linguae Latinae aetatibus: Defensione Vossii adversus Sciopium).
CHAPTER II
Summary
§1. It can be precisely proved with nine solid arguments the terrible weapons of the Goths/ Getae would have wandered all over the earth, set out of Scandinavia. §2. About that truth none of the ancient writers ever doubt; that thesis is supported too by several colonies spread all over the world. §3. According to Jordanes’ confession, if it will be approved of by everyone, it would be an extra argumentation. §4. According to Procopius, it isn’t in question as much the Goths, as especially the Langobards and Vandals. §5. That fits, his name, very popular, being Langobard by origin, Paulus The Langobard Warnefridi. To that it is also to be added the authority of a DEXIPPUS, ABLAVIUS, EUNAPIUS, AMMIANUS, DIO, ZOSIMUS, ZONARA and of many others. §6. The old history of the Fatherland comes to an agreement with the ancient annals; it is just the same with the oldest Greek writers. §7. Those come to join the Spanish, too. §8 As for the Italics, a debate would prove useless. Why should it take place, so long as the Scythians are the founders of Italy, too? That truth is confirmed by a series of very old words, since countless of them are of Scyhtian origin, as we can tell it very well. §9 The Gauls or Francs themselves have come from our Scandia and why not the Trojans, too. What else it would be meant by TROY if not LAZIUS (Lazio, -orum, accord. to Plin.,VI.12, is a nation in Colchis; accord. to V. Pârvan, Getica, 281, 363, 777, as well as the opuscule Dacians in TROY; see also M. Crisan, Die Lage der antiken Städte Troja und Theben aus Böotien in der Bronzezeit, T.’s N.) §10. The land of Amazonia, KUENLAND in Scandinavia. In SMALANDIA’s VERENDIA even these days the honour remained as a permanence of ancient valour and body strength. §11. The Britons originate from the Saxons, Angles and Getae. §12 Yet either the Scots don’t know they are descending from the same stock. There arose firstly the nobility of the whole Europe from, a truth confirmed by Carolus Quintus. §13. Even the Germans were born in Scandinavia. §14. The Helvets likewise. §15. Not less the DANS and neighbouring peoples. §16. And what is believed about the Moscow inhabitants, who draw on the source of old Gothic language (read Getic, T.’s N.) §17. The Cyprian words tally perfectly with our ancient lexical rules. §18. At the time the first settlement of the Goths (read Getae, T.’s N.) was set up and where the place of those who have migrated is determined. How many likewise causes have generated migrations. The first expedition of the Gods, when did it come to live. §19. A majority of the writers agreed it was that of the Goths (read Getae, T.’s N.) and they set out of Scandia; there are too few those denying such opinion over those asserting it. Their reasoning spells as follows: From Kranzius to Valdenselsium is everyone that thinks accurately. §20. Yet America, as it is called today, our ancestors have given nothing at all? There are no opposite opinions, on part of anyone: therefore, more likely the answer is affirmative.
§1. I deem it was enough reasoned to say it clearly that the Goths and Getae are one and the same (that is the first author I came upon that made the points in that dilemma, which M. Eliade himself could not crack, T.’s N.), the most undefeated by their virtue and exploits and known under other names as well; both the titles and cities and peoples are common to them; they have subdued many other peoples by siege, bringing them under their ruling. Why? Like from the sown earth comes out the green grass, the knotty stem wheat rise lithe from the surface of the earth, its ears jutted out like from a womb, I wonder if not likewise have come out too of our Scandinavia, at different times of the history, a huge host of settlers, who have spread, from that womb, all over the world, as we may see? Such fact has been affirmed accordingly, long ago, by Jordanes, naming the same Scandinavia “a plant”, “a womb of the nations.” Those were indeed the Getae or Goths who often have roamed, both before and after Christ time, the world all over and conquered it; in support of the thesis that they have left Gothia come several proofs. And first of all, that historical truth is asserted by: I. The monuments of ancient poets, which ours call SCALLDI; their descriptions rely on such proofs, which, by their nature, are immutable. They are inferred just from the skies, the sun, the sea, lakes, springs, rivers, trees, mountains and others; hence the truth itself can be clearly discerned. II. A full consistency of the national history with that in the books and annals. Like Olaus Petri (the author of a Chronicon) overlooked to specify it, I myself don’t know which way they have been uprooted by others and taken by force to other places those Goths. Given the circumstances, of a very high uncertainty, in fact for unknowing the truth, they have been included in the preamble of the Chronicle in a ridiculous and stupid background. III. The general consensus of foreign writers, which we hardly can make out. Why? For almost no place does exist, neither so long nor hidden, which the Goths’ virtue terror had not filled, at that times. IV. The laws of the Ostrogoths in Italy, the laws of the Visigoths in Spain; beside others, even many of the Langobards, Burgunds, Francs, Alemans and other nations , (V.Aug. Buchn. Saxon. Soll., p.m.43 the ancient laws of different peoples and stocks), of certain and obvious origin, as their name show, perceived as such with the eyes and mind. It adds here also a confirmation by King Carolus IX regarding R. Christophorus’ Common Law; and not only the Stiernhielmus’ foreword to the West-Gothic laws, which, had not been so edited at the beginning, but in an intrinsic bundle of ancient laws by Lindenbrogius. And it must not be overlooked what, in his speech, that Ill. The Scythian Johannes, dealing eruditely with just those Gothic laws, asserted with elegance the oldness and military virtue of the Sueons and the Goths. And what a unparalleled talent to write by hand that most beautiful opuscule, this is why in very few copies and by so few it can be ever used: just for that reason I never doubted a moment it has been transcribed with greatest care. Which, in a seamless succession of words, shall read: What more do you expect? Olaus Magnus recounts he would see with his eyes in Italy, in Peruse (a city in Etruria, located between the lake Trasimene and the river Tibru - T.’s N.) a book of Gothic/Getic laws, written in Gothic characters and, despite the oldness of that literary, legal monument, as of course many years elapsed from the time when the Goths lived in Italy, was carefully preserved and kept by the Perusians. That book is a volume containing the laws of the Goths, gathering an assembly of laws, which the Suets and the Goths make use of these days, too, so the same laws have been discovered, which are effective now, too. Such a consistency of the contents of the laws led us towards a very certain argument, namely the Goths, when leaving for Italy, took with them the law codices, too. The more ample authority of that Olaus has been outlined by the illustrious man Joannes Metellus Sequanus, the most brilliant historian of the Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, who both me, and the most noble man Johannes Rosenhan of the Torp settlement, made public in the dwelling of the Ruler of Neuland, Carolus Uthenhov, and always asserted to have browsed through that book, even before the 50s, together with brothers Joannes and Olaus Magnus. Why? For that most brilliant Prince, Master Fridericus, Duke of Braunschweig and Luneburg, has shown that most brilliant and powerful Prince, Master Carolus and designated as a King of Sweden and my most merciful Master, with a noble attendance of the most noble people, not how he has shown before, but the same book, with who he had been in Rome in Peruse and who he has seen with a special admiration. As far there was III. Scythian. But several monuments have been seen – signs of an ancient virtue of our ancestors, the Goths, over Italy and many other kingdoms on the occasion of their wanderings, with great significance and in good order drawn up in their travel diaries, as it is the case too of that brought to light by chance, by the noble young man Johannes Gabriel Sparvenfelt: it is happily and with cleverness annotated; thus, thanks to the destiny governing everything, they could finally be recovered. V. The ancient paternal Laws of all the Goths and, partially, regarding the West-Gothic expeditions, both that military, in Greece, and in other places, in a word, there are clearly mentioned the migration regions. VI. The customs, letters, language, sacred things and other concerning any relations with the exterior. All these have been clearly stated at their places. Sure thing, Grotius (Proleg. Hist. Goth. Melancht. in the Busbeq Chronicle. Ep. IV. Scal. lib. III) stresses the idea that by the Sea of Azov, even in our days, there are alive the customs, the language and names of the Goths (i.e. the Getae’s, T.’s N.) He adds several names in the Persian language five of Scythian places, places over which Persia had ruled for a long time (so, because they were inhabited/reigned by the Persians, they got Persian names, as the case with us with the translation into Slavonic of many toponyms purely Geto-Dacian, at the time of Slavic peoples invasions, leading to wrong solutions on part of those linguists not knowing the history of the country, or, pure and simple, even if they do know it, they mystify it, T.’s N.), only now, for the first time transmitted. Then, about the current use of some Gothic words in Chersonesus Taurica (our days Crimea) and in Tartaria Praecopensis, most illustrious men, like Melancht., Busbeq., Scal., Vulcan., Boxhorn., Rachel. Even our Verelius (Chron., p.m. 338, Vulcan in ad. dit. Not. in Jordanes, Boxhorn. Hist. Univ. ad. Rachel De jure Publ. Imp. Germ. CXIII), has shown on the text margin and in the notes to the additions operated by Vulcanius, that more than a few of those words are absolutely Getic. For the same reason, the other can also be referred to the same origin, seen on the same writings. Right this is a reason for being worried, as expressed in the recently appeared book by the illustrious man Wolff and already gone Verelius, which we leave to be brought to a good end. VII. The natural migration of the peoples towards south are the words belonging to Cromerus (I, I, CXV, by R. Pollon). “It is much more common”, he says, “that the north peoples would migrate towards south. It is the case of the Cimbres, Goths, Vandals and Langobards.” As I said above, what did separated the Goths from the other peoples, it was the health and body robustness; the respectable writers assert the same thing: since they have white skin, fair locks of hair and are one head taller than others. By such qualities blonde Ceres would give birth to a grand offspring, like Lucan sang (Lib. IV, De bello Civili, p. 104); beside others, that one was Procopius (Lib. I, Hist. Vandal.), who added: “The Gothic nations have been manifolds once, but also today. The noblest of all are the Goths/Getae, Vandals, Visigoths and Gepidae who have also been called ancient Sauromatians and Melanchleens. There are some who called those ones Getae.” (It is very clear that, right as everywhere in his book, as he did in fact stated it, the Goths is the same as the Getae, T.’s N.) But those, i.e. the Getae, do not differ at all from the Goths, but by their names (see also Maria Crisan, Ubicuitatea Geto-Dacilor – annexed to Arta poetică la G. Coşbuc and Limba strămoşilor noştri şi primul poet Romano-geto-dac, Publius Ovid Naso in which the author speaks about the vowel alternation e/o; so the Goths are nothing else than tribes of warlike Getae, as they were inclusively at the mouth of the river Dnieper–Borysthene, as Dion Chrysostom attests it in Getica, Getae not yet settled, T.’s N.): all having white skin, reddish fair locks of hair, very tall and with handsome faces. They have common laws and neither the cult of gods tells them apart. This is what Coelius says through the mouth of Horace (chap.II, chap.XXI, in Horat. Epod. XVI): “And neither the savage Germans could be tamed by the invasion of the blue-eyed Teutons and Cimmerians (it deals with the invasion of the Teutons and Cimmerians held by Marius in 102 and 101 BC at Aix and Verceil, T.’s N.) They are leading their life beneath the North Pole, as Vitruvius (a Roman architect of the 1st century BC, author of a valuable architecture treatise, T.’s N.) leaves it to us‚ they are very burly, have a white skin, straight and reddish hair, blue sky coloured eyes and have much blood; as a result of a humoural abundance, they are very frost resistant. While the people living in southern regions are much shorter, dark-haired, curly-haired, dark-eyed, sick-footed and feeble-blooded.” Bonfin. (l.c.): “I don’t know what a special and proper thing would affect to such a degree the human being in relation to the place of birth - that only by the exterior appearance, by the body constitution, one can forthwith tell apart a German from a Gaul, a Gaul from a Hispano and, to be more specific, an Insubre (The Insubres were a people of Cisalpine Gaul that lived in the present Milanese region having its capital at Milan, T.’s N.) from a Ligurian, a Ligurian from an Etruscan, a Roman from a Venetian, a Venetian from a Florentine.” The same way as Procopius speaks about the Goths, also Alphonsus Carthagian and the Emperor Constantine The Porphirogenet recount (Anat. Reg. Hisp., chap.IX, Const. Porph. ref. Hachenb. Orig. Germ. n. XVIII to the end), and the same does Lucan (De bello civ., lib. 11).
“The Scythian Masaget does not halt at the Hister, he roves through towards the far north, to the fair-haired and white-bodied Suevs6.”
Mutually agreed with them, Lucretius expresses himself, too (De R. Nat., lib. VI):
“What a distinction, frankly speaking, between the skies of Britain itself
and that of Egypt, where the blue vault bows,
Or between the sky of Pont and that of the city of Gades,
and that of the country where live the bronzed-faced Negros.
So, there are four all-distinct realms,
Since each of them has its wind and share of the skies.”
(Titus Lucretius Carus, Poem of Nature, translation, foreword and notes by D. Murăraşu, Bucharest, Minerva Publishing House, 1981)
See also in Tacitus’ (De vita Julii Agricolae, chap.XI) the passage where he recounts about the sky position that had given the human bodies a certain habitus; and in Diodorus Siculus’ (Bibl. Hist., chap.8, p.m. 212) who mentions the Gaulateils’ hairs growing in accordance with the nature (ek fusewV). See also in Cicero’s (De Divin., lib. 11, p.m. 1 23), who in his turn comes to, by very clear words, confirm quite the same thing. “Why? He says: a distinction between places, isn’t it ever naturally to entail also distinct offspring in people? Those we can easily review: why are there so great differences between Ethiopians and Syrians as regards their bodies and souls, as different as their homelands are: wherefrom it could be understood that at birth it matters more the position of the land (homelands) than the trajectory of the Moon.” VIII. At the Attendant on the Holies in almost the entire Christian Universe, at the Royal Council that thing has been told by the energetical Nico1aus Ragvaldus (the then representative of Wexionensus, sent to the said council, thereafter even High Pontiff of Uppsala (see C. Stephanus) which everyone subscribed to, a thing included in the Documents executed at that Council and even in the history. Such thing also occurs in the speech held there and together with the annex of a solemn contestation, published both in Latin, and in the mother's tongue. IX. It is disputed the authenticity (aύtentikvV) of the confirmation given the laws of CHRISTOPHORUS‚ King of Sueonia, Dania and Norway, which are preserved to our days in the Archives of the Kingdom (the Ancient History by Ablavius, conveyed in manuscript confirms the laws of the Kingdom of Sueonia having been common with those of the Danes, since they are undersigned by the Kings of both kingdoms. And such arguments are important, since by us, the lawyers, it is understood an eviction (evincentia) and which just “on such an occasion, almost only at a sign (by the thumb, I guess, T.’s N.) it could suffice to obtain it (I think it deals with a recognition/confirmation of the authenticity of the laws in question, T.’s N.)
§2. I already said in the preceding paragraph this being the common opinion of the writers: that is the power of the truth entailing a unanimous consent. And among the historians who did really doubt it? If, for too much concern about novelty, you deny such a thing, then you would need to deny everything: if you say it is a lie coming from the old ones, then you have to say that everything is a lie. So, what a force more powerful than the history’s, which you should give credit, than the old mandates conveyed to us through the monuments. And why just them, in point now, the Goths, the Langobards and others; there it is confessed they have left for many corners of the world: in what directions and how; by the own confession of everyone, as living beings, gifted with sight, prudence, of those whose memory did not yet get to sleep, I note it is my duty to completely reveal the truth and dissolve the misunderstandings.
§3. So, let’s start with Jordanes, himself a Goth (i.e. Geta, T.’s N.) who extracted his work from the ancients’ writings; he recounts the Goths having come from SCANZIA (Scandinavia of our days) just like a bee swarm (De Getarum sive Gothorum origine et rebus gestis, C. I, II, III, IV, V). He then shows us what means that SCANZIA and the nations living there; thus, making use of a reach vocabulary, he reveals the way the Goths left their dwellings. So, he calls our Scandia a plant of peoples, a womb of nations. Further on he shows us the extent of the eastern and western Goths have spread, although Getae by the voice inflection (thus, singing, because they did sing their laws too like psalms, proving that their language was harmonious and melodious, a feature proved also by the fact that Ovid could adapt the Latin prosody to the Getic language, see the poem Laudes de Caesare, T.’s N.) called those peoples Ostrogoths and Visigoths. So, we should understand: with another troop of Goths they left Scanzia (under the ruling of King Berich (read Herich), Jordanes mentions; things about he spoke above, he now repeats them on short.
§4. Procopius (Hist. Goth., IV, fragment, p.m. 241 and 248) takes
out the Ostrogoths and Visigoths from the same Scanzia, as well as the
Langobards (so, he added that to the same history fragment, relating to
the countries inhabited by the Goths). Same way does Procopius7, adding
to them other uncounted Vandals (in Tacitus’, De Mor. Germ., chap.II,
we find under the name of VANDALS, in Procopius’ and Zosimus
bandiloi, and in Eutropius ouandaloi, with the versions Vandeli, Vindili,
Vinili, Vinuli, Winili, Winuli), with the Goths affirming their common
origin: Goqoi te eisi kai Bandiloi kai Ouisigoqoi kai
Gepaideς (“Goths are also the Vandals and the Visigoths and the
Gepidae”, Hachenberg, Orig. Germ., XIII); that the Vandals have
adjoined to the other Goths, it confirms us an issue of great confidence
(Procop., Vandal., lib. I, lib.IV, chap.39) - under King Gilimer, who
enjoyed a great sympathy; he had under his leadership the every and the
most noble offspring of the nation; among the writers enjoying the
greatest confidence is Grotius (Proleg. Hist. Goth.)
§5. Alike Paulus too, in The Langobard Warnefridi (De Gestis Langobardorum, lib. I, chap.II), as himself confesses, mentioning his nation, it proved that its inhabitants (the Langobards) together with the Goths, leaving our Scandinavia, approached Scandinau. Johannes Boëmus (De Mor., leg. et ritibus omnium gentium, lib. III, chap.8) calls it with the same name, yet also with many others; then also in Ptolemy’s we find mentioned Goths living by the Vistula. Naturally Mela too (lib. III, chap.6) calls them identically, with the same word. The same way does Plinius (IV, 1 2), as well as Solinus (III, 19 şi 20). Right here, in Scandia (just how Plinius said) Isidorus asserts (Init. Chron. Gothorum) there was the oldest kingdom of the Goths (= Getae, T.’s N.) And as he very accurate mentions, it came out from the Kingdom of the Scythians. For that reason Dexippus (lib. II) entitled his books dedicated to the matters of the Goths, Ta Skuqika (“The Exploits of the Scythians) to make clear every good faith writer that historical truth (namely, the Getae descend from the Scythians, T.’s N.) And Eunapius mentions the Scythians in a blurred language, idem Ammianus; and Ablavius Gothus, in a choice language, speaks most accurately of all (Nicol. Ragv. Orat., p.m. 165 ex Ablav.) But Dion Chrysostom, in his book about the wars of the Goths, calls them Getikon, “Getic”8 (here Carolus Lundius makes a serious error, for it is common knowledge that Dion lived in the 1st century AD and wrote a treatise titled Getika (Getic Matters) from which JORDANES/JORNANDES inspired himself, as Lundius calls him again and again, while the Goths (even if the same thing with the Getae) appeared in the history, certainly detached from the Getae, only in the 4th or 5th century AD, T.’s N.) Let’s add here Zosimus and Zonaras too, in many passages of their works; beside them, Plinius himself counts the Getae among the Scythian peoples (IV, 12); the same with Trebellius Pollio (Vita Galieni et Claudii), where the Austro Goths are included in the set of the same nations. Anastas comes to adjoin here, too. (Hist. Chronol.) Skuqai oi legomenoi Gotqoi (“the Scythians that are called Goths”). Rosendius (Antiquit. Lusit.): “Many peoples”, he says, “draw their Gothic names from Scania, a thing overlooked by the old writers and confusedly presented under the title of Getica.” Jacobus Bergomensis (Suplem. Chron.): “Peoples that have been called by the Greek and from which Scythia and Gothia drew their names.” Schedel/Senensis: “the Scythians from which Svecia and Gothia draw their names.” Heinsius, in Paneg. Gust. Magni asserts: “The more recent geographers unwittingly made a distinction between the ancient Getae and the Goths. They didn’t realise that the Getae and the Goths are pretty alike and in several books by the old ones, the authors rely on both the testimonies of the Romans, and those of the Greeks, since they share both a common name and origin.” From here Ferrarius recounts, relating to that historical truth, recollecting the most serious writers whose authority compels like a marble stone (Paneg. R. Christ. laud. dic.)
§6. But all these assertions do not coincide in every respect with our histories and the ancient Annals of Sveonia? Of course they do! Af Japhet are komne Scyther och Geter, som longt epter Kalladis Gother / och nu Schwenske (“the Scythians and the Getae draw from Japhet, and later on, after the Goths, they were called Sueones” (accord. to Chron. and Hist. Pat.) I now pass by the Scythian Empire stretching over the whole Globe and about which fully recount Herodotus, Xenophon, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus and how many ever others and in how many ever passages and whose assertions fully agree with every major history and national annals.
§7. About the Hispani Alphonsus de Villa Diego The Hispano too heard (Chron. Goth. Regni p.m. II): “Gothia is in Scandia, he says, the natural fatherland of our Gothic people, where themselves set out, and where they still have their Royal and State residence.” To such assertion consent Roderic and Tolet, too. (Rerum in Hispania gest., lib. II, chap.4); Joh. Lup. (De J. et J. Regni Navari, VI. 4): Alphons. Carthag. (Anac. Regum Hisp., chap.IX) and others.
§8. As for the set-out of the Goths from there to Italy, Italians themselves witness it with one voice, which by all means served as an argument in the History drawn up, partly printed, partly hand written, kept in the Library of the Vatican in Rome, not both in Latin, as rather in Italic dialect (isn’t it by chance just the old Romanian language, I mean Geto-Dacian? T.’s N.), in it being included the Exploits of the Goths, as conveyed to the Posterity. It didn’t propose itself so much to bring great praises the Goths with elegance and firmness, as it tells us illustrious Octavius Ferrarius (Pan. Chr. Reg., p. 7, 8, and 19). Connected therewith also Sigonius (De regno Ital., lib., I, p.m. 11) proves that the Goths themselves would not have given birth the eternal empire of the Romans in Italy, quite conversely, since, as I was saying, the Scythians were the creators of Italy. Among other writers concerned with the origins of the Goths/Getae, also counted Cato, from whom there have preserved fragments that survive in our days, too (so, less than four centuries ago, Cato Maior’s book, The Originis of Rome, in which he also recounts about ancientness of the Getic writings, still existed or at least fragments of it, T.’s N.) So it wasn’t surprising when Plautus called Italy barbarian (Poen III) II, 21). The Italic priest of Hercules he called Poticium The Barbarian(Poticium = Pinars, -orum, an old family in Latium dedicated to Hercules, T.’s N.), and the Italian ritual, barbarian. The Italian cities have got the epithet of barbarian , too. The Italian or Roman laws have also been labelled as barbarian (Bacchid., I, 11, 15; Casin., II, VI. 19; Chap., IV, II, 104 and III, 1, 32) and translated into Latin in a barbarian manner. And why not should I say the holidays, too, as well as others, have been deemed as barbarian, once such names were accepted with any peoples, except for the Greeks. Even the oldest words that were by origin Tuscan (from Tuscany in Etruria, i.e. Etruscan) and Scythian, are clearly convincingly Gothic (indeed Getic!, T.’s N.), accord. to Plautus., Asin., prol. II and Trin., prolog. XIX. The verb pultare (“to strike lightly”), which Plautus uses very often, comes from our pulta or bulta (Latin French Dictionary, the 5th edition, Hachette, 1923, provides us with the following explanation: pulto,-are is an archaism for pulso,-are, “to strike”, “to knock at the door”, it meaning in Plautus “to slightly knock at the gate/door” and, whereas the comic poet Titus Maccius Plautus, designated as an inimitable painter of bad popular habits, lived between 250 and 184 BC, it is quite obvious that all the barbarian words present in his comedies come from the Geto-Dacian language and not from the Gothic itself, Gothic being in its turn an adorned Getic, as old sources reveal it, more so that the Goths (in my opinion, quite at all far from Lundius’ opinion, T.’s N.) they appeared on the stage of the history (the East Goths and the West Goths - Ostrogoths and Visigoths) in the middle of the 4th century (350-375), with Amaler and Hermanrich, respectively (350-375), an empire, destroyed by the Huns; W-G under Alarich (395-410) invaded Italy (in 410 they took over Rome); Rekkared (586-601) > Catholicism; their last King was Roderich (710-711). W-Goths their last king, King Teja, falls at Vezuv in 552; they disappeared in 601 AD, so their ruling extended over a period of two and a half centuries. Thus, with not even a trace of doubt, every barbarian word used by the talented Latin comediographer Plautus are created from the Getic language, since the Getae and the Dacians had arrived on the Italic soil long before Rome has been founded and remained at home as such, to which have adjoined the prisoners of war - some of them reduced to slavery - therefore the characters - slaves of the comedies, both Greek and Latin are called simply Davos or Davus, Getes or Geta (yet there was a Roman Emperor, Antoninus Geta, among those seven Antonins Emperors (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, Verus and Commodus). Antoninus Geta (born in Milan in 189) was Caracalla’s brother, with whom he shared the reign and who killed him in 212 AD, thus at the age of 23. Caracalla ordered to be executed over 20,000 people; he was also the murderer of the jurist Papinian, because he refused to make the apology of Geta's having been murdered (so those state rulers killing also their next relatives descend from that hateful Roman emperor, T.’s N.) The verb mulcare (“to milk”) is not a Latin word, VARRO (116-27 BC, a poet and one of the most renowned scholars of his time, from who also a treatise on the agriculture, De re rustica, has preserved; so the author relies on very reliable sources, authors that lived centuries BC, reinforcing the idea of having to deal with a pure Getic vocabulary, T.’s N.), yet Gellius too admits it openly (Noct. Attic., lib. XI) chap.1). As neither the verb mulctare is Latin. Since, in fact, in the same way, by milking, the milk is drawn from the teats (udder), which by a sermone vernaculo, i.e. a popular word (in Varro, however, by the words vernacula vocabula it is meant “Latin words”), we say mulka, molka (Thys. and Gronovius in Plautus, Stich., III, 1, 19; Fragm. Legum Sueon. et Goth., chap.XVI). There are some asserting that mulgeo and mulceo (“I milk”), herein and mulcto or mulco (“I punish”) would come from the Greek amelgw (“I milk”), while in fact it is suitable to look for a common source, first of all, in Scythian. Halophantam, a word we know it occurs in Plautus (Curcul., IV, I, 2), as well as in Salmasius and Scaliger, as the commentators of the same passage, (but that word can perfectly be derived from hal and fante and we deem it being wrongly connected to the Greek olofanthV (a word that appears neither in Bailly, Old Greek Dictionary, Paris, 1929 nor in E. Legrand, ample modern Greek dictionary, Paris, printed about in the same time period; I suspect it being a pure legal term, used in the Middle Ages, which could be found in a specialty dictionary), meaning “the requirement to appear before a court of law", “to pay a bail for someone”, “vessel”, an expression originating in Sueonia and that can be connected to a similar wording, occurring again in Martial in his 9th book, T.’s N.); same are things with the word bustirapus (at origin meaning “thief/graves desecrater”), Bust-ei-rapr, which in the old Gothic language/i.e. Getic means “man”, is used by Plautus with the same meaning, of “bald man”, having no hair on the head to be entitled to be called a full man (vir bonus); in Plautus (Merc., V, 2, 85, and Rud., II, II, 9) the word MACHAERIA is used with the meaning of “small swords”, it being the old Gothic word MAEKER, from where also the Greek macaira (“meat chopper”) took it; de socco, socca (from the word soccus, a special low boot put on by the comedy actors), used by Plautus in his Boastful Soldier, last act (comp. with Mercat., V, II, 85; Rud., II, II, 9 and Edd. Havamal., LXXI) is Scyhtian by origin, and the Gothic SOLA (see Bacchid. II, III, 98) answers perfectly that word (we should not forget that always in question is a Geta or a Geta too, when he says Goth, T.’s N.); SCURRA (“buffoon”, “sycophant”, “trickster”) which with the ancients meant “to utter idle talk/sarcasms to trigger the laugh of others”, takes us to the meaning of SKURA of our national language, meaning “prattler”, “babbler.” Yet what status have other pure Scythian (i.e. Getic words, T.’s N.) which occur frequently in ENNIUS, PLAUTUS, CATO, VARRO and many other authors, from whom we quote a part: vinnula, cista, cistula. cistellula, herus, herilis, heres, heredium, herediolum, caput, arca, arcula, cippula, nasus, denasare, casteria, claro, clarifico, claritas, claror, claritudo, clarigatio, mundus, mundare, vocare, advocare, fallere, velare, stygius, carcer, carcerare, gelu, cura, curare, stare, urbare, turbare, nomen, nominare, meminisse, taberna, tabernarius, catus, catč, nicere, nere, nictare, sputare, insputare, caupo, stega, puteus, potus, putus, putillus, baltheus, pipare, pipire, boreas, rica, ricula, ricinium, acheruns, boia, rosca, pellis, palla, pallium, pallula, palliolum, palliolatus, paludamentum, paludatus, palatum, palatium, specio, cum compositis, specto, speculor, spiculum, speculator, speculum, specus, spelunca, species (a majority of those words also occur in present German language - fein, kiste, Kapitel, klar, Palast, Niere - not only in Romanian, proving once more that our ancestors shared a common history with Germanic peoples, we lived in the same regions, the Vlacho-Geto-Dacians and Carpian peoples spoke the same or almost the same language as the Cimmerians, the Celts and the Teutons, the Getic laying in fact at the bedrock of all, in its bosom being he writing, too - T.’s N.) Reverting to the ancient word PAN, analysed here above, we found it is at the same time, Greek, Italic, and Germanic, since originally it is a Scythian/Getic word. i.e. Getic. To the Latin legere (“to read”) it corresponds the Greek legein legein, and lesa/läsa in our language, and in Wulfila legunt (“they read”) (Math., VI. 26) occurs lisan. Zythus, and in Diodorus Siculus’ ZuqoV is neither an Egyptean nor a Greek word, from zew zew meaning “to boil”, yet pure Gothic (i.e. also Getic, T.’s N.), since the Greek ZuqoV reads with us seth sodh, where th is expressed by th or dh (Arngrim confirms it, lib. I, chap.III) and from him, also Verelius (Runog. Scand., chap.VII, chap.III); hence has formed the verb sieda, siuda, in German sieden, meaning “to boil”, “to thaw.” We say, for instance, a drink of boiled barley; the Greek teirw, in Latin tero (“I crush, crumble, grind”) comes from our verb teira/tera, wherefrom handtera (“to grind/crush by hand”; qin or qiV qinoV (“pile”, “accumulation”) is said to come from qew, meaning “plenty”; for such a derivation I won’t give a dime, for it is clear to me that it comes from the Getic tina, since in Cicero (Ora