The Bastarnae are classified as GERMANICS; their name means “bastards,” however, implying a mixed background, probably with both CELTS and SARMATIANS as ancestors. They lived primarily east of the Carpathian Mountains, claiming territory between the upper valleys of the Dniester River and the delta of the Danube River in present-day Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. They are considered the easternmost of Germanic-speaking tribes.
The Macedonians under King Philip V conscripted the Bastarnae as soldiers against the ROMANS in the Second Macedonian War of 201-200 B. C.E. About that time some Bastarnae, known as the Peucini, settled on an island,
Peuce Island, in the mouth of the Danube on the Black Sea, while others returned north. (The name Peucini is sometimes applied to all Bastarnae.) Bastarnae also fought under the Macedonian king Perseus in the Third Macedonian War of 171-168 B. C.E. And they served in the forces of Mithradates VI Eupator of the kingdom of Pontus in present-day Turkey in Asia Minor against the Romans in the 80s-60s B. C.E.
The Bastarnae were subdued by the Romans in 29 B. C.E. In the early second century C. E. they joined the DACIANS under Decebalus in their wars against Rome. By the end of the second century some of them had merged with the GOTHS. Others settled in the Roman provinces of Dacia and Thrace. In the third century, with other Germanic tribes, the Bastarnae attacked various weakening Roman areas. In 279-280 C. E. once again the Romans prevailed as Emperor Marcus Aurelius Probus settled a number of Bastarnae south of the Danube River. Surviving Bastarnae communities were defeated by the HUNS in the fourth and fifth centuries.
World History
