The spali of Jordan and the pali of Pliny the Elder.

The historicity of Jordanes’ narrative of the migration of the Goths to the country of Oyum, and of the tribe of the Spali, encountered by the Goths when crossing a river, remains controversial in modern scholarship. A number of scholars deny the historicity of this tribe and the entire “Gothic resettlement saga”, some others identify the Spali as the early Slavs, and others correlate them with the Spalaei of Pliny the Elder. S.R. Tokhtas’ev argued that the similarity of the ethnonyms of the Spalaei-Spali is accidental and can be explained by dittography, which is supported by the name of King Palakos and the name of the Palakion fortress among the Crimean Scythians. Combining the hypothesis of Tokhtas’ev and the hypothesis of L.A. El’nitskiy about the possible proximity of the Spalaei and Pali, the author argues that Pliny’s Spalaei and the Spali of Jordanes may be identified with the Pali who lived in the steppe part of the Crimea from the second century BC and are mentioned by Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny the Elder and Stephanus of Byzantium. The royal fortress of Palakion fortress and the name of the King Palakos confirm this version.

Keywords

Jordanes, Pliny the Elder, Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Goths, Spali, Satharcheos, Crimea

Received

28.12.2020

Publication date

28.12.2020

Number of characters

34288

Cite

GOST	Sharov O. The “spali” of Jordan and the “pali” of Pliny the Elder. // Vestnik drevnei istorii – 2020. – V. 80. – Issue 4 C. 979-994 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/vdi/s032103910012253-1-1-en (circulation date: 25.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S032103910012253-1
MLA	Sharov, Oleg "The “spali” of Jordan and the “pali” of Pliny the Elder.." Vestnik drevnei istorii 80.4 (2020):979-994. DOI: 10.31857/S032103910012253-1
APA	Sharov O. (2020). The “spali” of Jordan and the “pali” of Pliny the Elder.. Vestnik drevnei istorii 80(4), pp.979-994 DOI: 10.31857/S032103910012253-1

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