The Anartes (or Anarti, Anartii or Anartoi)
[Jan Czarnecki (1975) 120] were
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
tribes, or, in the case of those sub-groups of Anartes which penetrated the ancient region of
Dacia
Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus ro ...
(roughly modern
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
), Celts culturally assimilated by the
Dacians
The Dacians (; ; ) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians. This area include ...
.
[Oltean Ioana A (2007) 47]
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...
's ''
Geographia
The ''Geography'' (, , "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, compiling the geographical knowledge of the 2nd-century Roman Empire. Originally wri ...
'' locates the ''Anartoi'' in the north of
Dacia
Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus ro ...
.
[Jan Czarnecki (1975) 119] Some groups of Anartes occupied parts of modern
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
and southeastern
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
.
The Dacian town of ''
Docidava'' was situated in the territory of the Anartes, according to Pârvan.
The ''Anartophracti'' (or ''Anartofraktoi'') are mentioned by Ptolemy. This tribe's name appears to be compound Latin-Greek name and may be related to the ''Anartoi'' resident in Dacia, Czarnecki argues.
[Jan Czarnecki (1975) 119] The ''Anartofraktoi'' were a northern Dacian tribe, according to Braune or mixed Dacian-Celtic, according to Pârvan.
In ancient sources, the earliest mention of the Anartes is in the
Elogium of Tusculum (10 BC).
In ''
De Bello Gallico'', an account of his own campaigns in the
Gallic Wars
The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, and Switzerland). Gauls, Gallic, Germanic peoples, Germanic, and Celtic Britons, Brittonic trib ...
(58-51 BC),
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
wrote (VI.25.1-2):
The breadth of this Hercynian forest, which has been referred to above, is to a quick traveler, a journey of nine days. For it can not be otherwise computed, nor are they acquainted with the measures of roads. It begins at the frontiers of the Helvetii
The Helvetii (, , Gaulish: *''Heluētī''), anglicized as Helvetians, were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. According to Ju ...
, Nemetes, and Rauraci, and extends in a right line along the river Danube to the territories of the Daci and the Anartes.
Around AD 172, the Anartes refused to assist the
Romans in their war against the
Marcomanni
The Marcomanni were a Germanic people who lived close to the border of the Roman Empire, north of the River Danube, and are mentioned in Roman records from approximately 60 BC until about 400 AD. They were one of the most important members of th ...
. To punish them, the
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...
ordered the deportation of (all?) the Anartes from their native homelands to the
Roman province
The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...
of
Pannonia Inferior
Pannonia Inferior, lit. Lower Pannonia, was a province of the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sirmium. It was one of the border provinces on the Danube. It was formed in the year 103 AD by Emperor Trajan who divided the former province of Pannonia ...
, a movement which took place not later than AD 180.
Archaeological evidence
The Anartes were probably identical with, or constituted a significant part of, the archaeological
Púchov culture
The Púchov culture was an archaeological culture named after site of Púchov-Skalka in Slovakia. Its probable bearer was the Celtic Cotini and/or Anartes tribes. It existed in northern and central Slovakia (although it also plausibly spread to ...
in Slovakia, which included the centres of
Zemplín,
Bükkszentlászló in Hungary and Galish-Lovačka in Ukraine
During the late
La Tène period, mixed settlements of Celts and Dacians spread over the eastern Slovak lowlands with Zemplin at its center, according to Husovska. According to Ioana Oltean, archaeological excavation has revealed that some Celtic tribes (Anartes,
Teurisci) had migrated eastwards as far as
Transylvania
Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...
, where they were eventually assimilated by the Dacians.
[Oltean Ioana A (2007) 47] Even though some groups of Anartes advanced as far as the Transylvanian plateau, the main area of their domination was to the West of it, Macrea & Filip argue.
[Macrea and Filip (1970) 893]
Sources
* Archeologie Barbaru. 2005,
n:Ján Beljak. Puchowska kultura a Germani na pohroni v starsej dobe rimskej. pp. 257–272
* The Works of Tacitus. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
["Below the Venedae are the Gythones, then the Finni, then the Sulones; below whom are the Phrungundiones; then the Avarini near the source of the Vistula river; below these are the Ombrones, then the Anartophracti, then the Burgiones, then the Arsietae, then the Saboci, then the Piengitae and the Biessi near the Carpathian mountains. Among those we have named to the east: below the Venedae are the Galindae, the Sudini, and the Stavani, extending as far as the Alauni; below these are the Igylliones, then the Coestoboci and the Transmontani extending as far as the Peuca mountains."]
* Czarnecki Jan (1975) "The Goths in ancient Poland: a study on the historical geography of the Oder-Vistula region during the first two centuries of our era, University of Miami Press"
* Macrea and Filip Jan (1970) "Actes du VIIe Congrés International des Sciences Prehistoriques et Protohistoriques", Prague published by the "Institut d'Archéologie de l'Académie" Prague
* Oltean Ioana A (2007) Dacia: Landscape, Colonization and Romanization, , 2007
* Schutte, Gudmund (1917) Ptolemy's maps of northern Europe: a reconstruction of the prototypes, (1 ed.), publisher H. Hagerup
*
Notes
{{Dacia topics
Ancient Slovakia
Historical Celtic peoples
Dacian tribes
Prehistoric Poland
Ancient tribes in Dacia