Bastarnae - Ethno-linguistic Affiliation

Ethno-linguistic Affiliation

The Roman historian Livy, writing in ca. AD 10, may imply that the Bastarnae were of Celtic origin. Relating events of ca. 180 BC, he describes them then as "similar in language and customs" to the Scordisci, a tribe of Illyria described as Celtic by Strabo (although he adds that they had mingled with Illyrians and Thracians). Livy also names their king, Cotto. This name is possibly of Celtic derivation (cf. Cottius, king of the Alpine Salassi tribe and friend of Augustus, after whom were named the Alpes Cottiae Roman province and the Cotini Celtic tribe of the northern Carpathians. Both probably derived from cotto- = "old" or "crooked"). It is possible that the Bastarnae were originally a mixed Celto-Germanic group. If so, they may have originally comprised residual Celtic elements in central eastern Europe such as the Cotini, who formed a Celtic enclave in the Germanic-speaking zone and are described by Tacitus as iron-ore miners working as tributaries of the powerful Quadi Germanic people. The Romans often used "German" as a geographical rather than ethnic classification.

In any case, other Greco-Roman writers of the 1st century AD are unanimous that the Bastarnae were, in their own time, Germanic in language and culture. The Greek geographer Strabo, writing ca. AD 5-20, says the Bastarnae are "of Germanic stock", although he includes the non-Germanic Roxolani, a Sarmatian tribe, among the sub-tribes of the Bastarnae (probably in error). The Roman geographer Pliny the Elder (ca. AD 77), refers to "Bastarnae and other Germans". The Roman historian Tacitus (ca. AD 100), states: "The Peucini, however, who are sometimes called Bastarnae, are like Germans in their language, way of life and types of dwelling and live in similar squalor and indolence... mixed marriages are giving them to some extent the vile appearance of the Sarmatians."

In the 3rd century, however, the Greek historian Dio Cassius states that the "Bastarnae are properly classed as Scythians" and "members of the Scythian race". Likewise, the 6th century historian Zosimus, reporting events around AD 280, refers to "the Bastarnae, a Scythian people". It is possible that the miscegenation mentioned by Tacitus had, by the 3rd century, resulted in the Bastarnae becoming assimilated by the Sarmatians, perhaps adopting their tongue (which belonged to the Iranic group of Indo-European languages) and/or Sarmatian customs. On the other hand, the Bastarnae maintained a separate name-identity into the late 3rd century AD, possibly implying retention of their Germanic cultural heritage, distinctive in the lower Danube, until the arrival of the Goths.

Ultimately, the question remains an open one. The Basternae could indeed have spoken a form of Indo-European which became extinct or developed into something new. Shchukin states that rather than trying to label them Celtic, Germanic or Sarmatian, the "Basternae were the Basternae".