Alains

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DateFormat = yyyy Period = from: 20 till: 2010 TimeAxis = orientation: horizontal ScaleMajor = links: year increment: 100 start: 100 gridcolor: grid ScaleMinor = links: year increment: 20 start: 20 gridcolor: smallgrid

Bardata = bar: Africa text: " Africa " bar: Gaul text: Gaulle bar: The Danube text: the Danube bar: Forecaucasus text: Précaucase bar: Caucasus text: the Caucasus

Plotdata = bar: Forecaucasus from: start till: 375 color: sovereign $wide bar: Forecaucasus At: 50 text: " Alain" kingdom;

bar: Forecaucasus At: 375 text: Huns bar: Forecaucasus from: 375 till: 455 color: subject $wide bar: The Danube from: start till: 175 color: sovereign $wide bar: The Danube At: 30 text: " Roxolans bar: The Danube At: 170 text: " & Iazyges " bar: The Danube from: 380 till: 480 color: subject $wide bar: The Danube At: 385 text: " Alains settle in Pannonie" bar: Gaul from: 406 till: 464 color: semi $wide bar: Gaul At: 406 text: " Kingdom Alain close to Orleans and Valence" bar: Africa from: 429 till: 534 color: sovereign $wide bar: Africa At: 430 text: " Kingdom Vandal and Alain " bar: Forecaucasus from: 455 till: 1239 color: sovereign $wide bar: Forecaucasus from: 721 till: 965 color: semi $wide bar: Forecaucasus At: 750 text: " Khazars " Bar: Forecaucasus At: 1000 text: " Alanie Mediévale"

bar: Forecaucasus from: 1239 till: 1440 color: subject $wide bar: Forecaucasus At: 1245 text: Mongolian bar: Forecaucasus from: 1440 till: 1774 color: semi $wide bar: Forecaucasus from: 1774 till: end color: subject $wide bar: Forecaucasus At: 1810 text: " Os of North-Alanie " bar: The Danube from: 1318 till: end color: subject $wide bar: The Danube At: 1500 text: " Jassics (Jazones) in Hungary " bar: Caucasus from: 1239 till: 1440 color: subject $wide bar: Caucasus from: 1440 till: 1804 color: semi $wide bar: Caucasus At: 1500 text: " Tuallag" bar: Forecaucasus At: 1500 text: " Iron ~ Digor " bar: Caucasus from: 1804 till: 1991 color: subject $wide bar: Caucasus At: 1810 text: " Os of the South " bar: Caucasus from: 1991 till: end color: semi $wide

Origin

At that time, Alains appear with the accesses of the Perse where their incursions are one of the causes of the fall of the Parthes. The Sassanides which succeed the latter establish in 226 a durable empire, driving back Alains with the borders of the Gift, the the Ural and the the Caucasus; Alains found a transitory pretense of kingdom then there.

In 375, date of the beginning of the “Great invasions”, a part of them escape in front of the Huns of Balamber and are found in Germanie.

Alains as a Gaulle

Initially combined with the tribes vandals and Quades, and taken along by their Chief Goar, the Clan S alains (around: 50000 individuals ? ) takes part in the crushing of the Mercenaire S Francs led by the Duc of Mainz. Alains also save the Vandals, who have just lost their king, of an enormous massacre; at the sides of the other Germanic invaders , they devastate the Gaulle Roman of 407 with 409: Worms, Mainz, Strasbourg, Turned, Arras, Amiens, Rheims falls and is put at bag. Paris, Orleans, Tours is threatened.

Then, they cross the the Loire in 408 (setting fire to with the passage the extremely gallo - Roman of Meung-sur-Loire). However, contrary to their companions of Weapon S, Alains are divided into several armed bands, in several clans, several historians determining a number of approximately: 3000 individuals per clan.

A part of them, always carried out by Goar, obtains a treaty ( Fœdus ) with the Roman Empire: Aetius enables them to settle on the Loire, around Orleans, but Alains, turbulent, are very badly perceived by the indigenous S. One day, estimating not to be paid rather quickly or sufficiently, of Alains do not hesitate to kill out of the Senator S of Orleans.

Alains traverse in all directions the peninsula of Armorique that Aetius had given up to them to save the other parts of the Gaulle.

In 445 - 448, of Alains placed under the authority of some Eochar repress the revolt of the Bagaudes of Armorique for the account of Rome: it is probably about Alains de Goar.

In 451, whereas their chief is from now on Sangiban, these same Alains form the center of the military device set up against the forces of Attila at the catalaunic Champs ( Campus mauriacus in Latin) close to Moirey, in the area of Troyes: this role is mainly due to the merits of the heavy cavalry alaine (the cataphracte S, true “tanks” of Antiquity).

Previously, we also know that Alains clans, carried out by their chief Sambida, fix themselves on the the Rhone around Valence, where they are as difficult to live besides, as their cousins of the Loire.

Alains in Hispanie

Their tour with the Vandals continues then until in Andalusia and the clans alains of Hispanie, very decreased by the attacks of the Visigoths, place themselves under the authority of the unified Vandals: in 428, the king vandal Genséric takes the title of “king of the Vandals and Alains” and takes along in 429, the 80  000 Cruel which follows it in North Africa. The Histoire of Alains merges there consequently with that of the “kingdom of Carthage”: founded in 439 in the part NR. - E. current Tunisia and in the East of the Algeria, this “State” is destroyed by the Byzantine troops in 533/34, at the time of the transitory Byzantine reconquest of Africa.

Thereafter, the whole of the clans alains, fewer than the other cruel people, naturally and were gradually integrated into the close people, when they are not quite simply exterminated by other more powerful people (Visigoths in particular).

In the east, their distances cousins, after having survived the massacres of the Mongolian or the Tatars of Tamerlan, and after having assimilated other elements caucasophones, still currently live in the Caucasus under the name of Os. The latter are mainly of orthodoxe Religion , with an important Moslem minority .

On the cultural level, only Alains of are wandering riders or seminomad. It is impossible to properly distinguish from the elements alains in Africa.

Testimonys of the presence of Alains as a Gaulle

As for the majority of the cruel people in migration (except the Goths in Spain), Alains left only very few traces of their presence on the Gallic, Hispanic, and African ground.

The “Alains of the Loire”, present around Orleans, could leave, as a heritage, them Ethnonyme at the origin of the name of a hundred localities: Allaines, Allainville, Alaincourt, etc

In Normandy, in the Apple-brandy, the alaine presence is attested perhaps better by an important funerary furniture dated from the beginning of the 5th century: the “Treasure of Airan”. But perhaps it acts only of one group of Lètes sarmates.

Found by chance with Grinds in 1876, this treasure contains a certain number of parts of Orfèvrerie Polychrome allotted either to Alains, or in Huns. The Tomb, located near two Roman camps belonging to the line of defense drawn up against the pirate Saxon Clippings and , perhaps that of a barbarian princess who accompanied her husband there, as for him federate of Rome. Nevertheless, the presence of Eastern Germanic elements (Fibule, chain) and Romans (plate-buckles of belt) at the sides of the elements alano-sarmates make the origin ethnic of this woman impossible to determine.

The Patronym “Al (L) Ain”, in which it is perhaps necessary to seek the origin of the Prénom “Alain”, at the origin very popular in Brittany and used in Armorique as of the 6th century, can still come from the name of this barbarian tribe; however, a Celtic etymology , more plausible, is also suggested for this first name.

One of the rare traces of their passage and their transitory presences in Occident is also in Spain, where Alains are at the origin of a Race of robust Chien S imported by the latter, race which kept their name: Alanos Espanol.

Their presence in the Greek empire

Language

The original language of Alains must be an Iranian speech north-Eastern of Caucasian type ( according to G. Dumézil ), probably similar to that of the Sarmates. It evolves/moves thereafter at their descendants of the the Caucasus to the Moyen-âge to become almost identical to the current Os.

Civilization

The Roman historian-soldier Ammien Marcellin, eyewitness who mixes his observations with the rumors (? ) that he heard on the Barbarians, brings some information on Alains of the north of the Caucasus, information which must be approached with caution.

It describes their physical appearance: Alains are of small size but robust, have the moderately fair hair, the martial glance and are civilized in their manner of getting dressed and of nourishing themselves that Huns.

On the plan of manners, according to him, Alains are quarrelsome and courageous: their ferocity and the speed of their attacks does not have anything to envy those of Huns. They are unaware of slavery and scorn the weak ones and the old men. They scorn the old men because for them (as for many other cruel people), it is an honor to die in the combat, but a dishonor to die of old age.

As regards their lifestyle, Alains are unaware of the work of the ground and use covered carriages of bark as houses.

Ammien Marcellin still lends the habit of scalper to them their adversaries and to attach the hair of them to their mounting. They return also a worship to a divinity of the war (identified at Mars) thanks to a simple sword driven out of ground and being used as furnace bridge (the worship of a “magic” sword is in addition lent to Huns).

It should be noted that this information corresponds milks for feature with the legends traditionally attached to the people of riders of the steppes by their sedentary neighbors: Ammien Marcellin even writes that it was reported to him that certain Alains Eastern would be anthropophagous.

The archaeological sources, as for them, indicate the existence at Alains of one or more divinities of fire and the sun.

The decorative art of Alains is primarily animalist: similar to that of Saces until the 2nd century, it makes the good share with the polychrome decorations partitioned with. These decorations spread in Occident at the time of the great invasions (), in particular by the relay of the Eastern, many Germanic people to adopt reasons scythic for the art of the steppes (Goths, Burgondes, Vandales).

Thereafter, of many cultural elements sarmato-alains is found at OS, until the 14th century.

According to Georges Dumézil, the current Os are, linguistically and culturally, the most characterized descendants of Alains. Their legends (cycle of the Nartes) present interesting resemblances to those of the Indo-European and in particular Celtic surface (Légende arthurienne).

See too