Vikings?

[skel]

just a quick question that popped into my head as iwas looking at the map on this site...

 

 

 

did the romans ever have any contact wtih people of nordic decent? vikings or anything of the like? or were the saxons the closest they ever really came?

[Primus Pilus]

The Romans had limited contact and trade with nordic peoples, though nobody knew them as 'vikings' at the time.

[Guest Scanderbeg]

The earliest record of a Viking invasion was said to have been recorded in 789AD.

[Ursus]

Unless you've ever watched "Xena" where you can have Vikings, Julius Caesar and Dark Age greeks all at once. ;-)

[Zeke]

lol I remember Xena that was such a werid show and no offensve to lesbians but Xena and Gabreal had something going on!

 

I much prefear Hercules the Legandary Journey.

 

Zeke

[Zeke]

But no I doubt the Romans had any contact with those nordic people.

 

Zeke

[PerfectimusPrime]

I read somewhere that the Romans did have contact with some nordic peoples, and traded furs with them, but I could be wrong.

 

But there has been some archeological finding where there was roman coins found... but they could have come from the byzantines.

[Guest Berg]

Coins, the oldest from the times of Nero, has been found aswell as other archelogic findings indicating some, either direct or indirect, contact. Pomponius Mela has also written about an expedition during the reign of Augustus sailing to, what some think is, southern Scandinavia and Tacitus also mentioning some tribes believed to live in what today is reffered to as Scandinavia.

 

Anyway, Im new to this forum but found it interesting reading at once.

[AEGYPTUS]

I would not be to surprised if the Romans had contact with the Vikings or people of Viking descent. As they pretty much colonized the east coast of Ireland founding Dublin, Wexford, Cork and Waterford city on the west coast limerick. The ancient Nordic peoples had been trading Tin and copper with Cornwall long before the time of the Romans. So I have no doubts that it stopped during the Roman reign of Britain.

Also if I recollect correctly the Russe ancient ancestors of the modern Russians had contact with the Byzantines they were descendents of the Vikings they also attacked Constantinople cannot remember the date though.

Edited October 23, 2006 by AEGYPTUS

[caldrail]

The world viking means to go raiding. To go a-viking. The seamanship and travel lust of the nordic bunch hadn't developed during the roman period although there may have been some tenuous trading contact - the vikings would have heard of this massive empire to the south. If it had, the late roman inhabitants of britain would have recorded them. They didn't. They were wholly concerned with saxon intrusions and I therefore wonder if the vikings inherited saxon naval know-how?

 

If I remember right the varangian guard of the byzantines were vikings?

[Ursus]

This thread was started in the Forum Peregrini. Since this culture doesn't really relate to Rome, the best I can say of it is that it should moved to the Post-Roman history folder, where the Viking connections to Byzantium and the Germanic successor kingdoms to Rome may be more on topic.

[Nagelfar]

The Viking age of the Nordic countries starts at about 800 a.d. so direct contact with the Western Roman empire is not really an issue.

 

It is likely that the Romans had contact, at least indirectly through trading, with the ancestors of the Vikings. There is evidence that amber was traded from the Baltic to the Mediterranean long before Rome appeared.

 

The Varangian guard started out with Nordic warriors (V

Edited October 30, 2006 by Nagelfar

[caldrail]

It is not known what the word 'Viking' means.

 

Are you sure? There's a few learned gentlemen who might disagree with you there. But lets be positive. Why do you believe that?

[Pertinax]

Whilst the term "Viking" has been used indiscriminately (for perhaps two hundred years) to refer to a perceived historical episode in British History ( Nordic raiding initially), in Scandinavia the descrition of a person going "a-viking" would (and still does) mean someone going on a voyage (for trade or less worthy purposes). So the term applies more to a temporary state of being than an ethnic identity. Rus and Varangian are however more correctly grounded in ethnicity (the latter by possible mutation from "an oath taking band" to an identifiable group of a certain racial background), though Slavic and Norse scholars continue to contest as to who influenced whom.

[Nagelfar]

It is not known what the word 'Viking' means.

 

Are you sure? There's a few learned gentlemen who might disagree with you there. But lets be positive. Why do you believe that?

 

I'm sure there are many learned gentlemen who disagree. Maybe you can substantiate why they are so sure?

 

However, just to name a few theories on the origins of the word;

 

- From the word "vik" which translates to bay in English. The idea here is that it is a description of pirates who can raid through shallow bays.

- From the word "avvika" which translates to deviate. The ones who left their homes. Similar to the "a-viking" explanation of Pertinax.

- From a naval term on changing rowers (or oarsman).

- the word is much older than the "Vikings", but the label stuck to them.

 

As for a description of ethnic orgin, sure but that does not help in the meaning of the word.

Edited October 31, 2006 by Nagelfar