Folia archeologica 53.

István Vida: Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Hungary, Budapest, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum, Vol. III. Moesia Inferior, Supplement 1, Nicopolis ad Istrum

EXCAVATIONS OF A „ROYAL" BARROW-GRAVE IN THE SOUTHERN UR.\

I. H7 Fig. 9. Golden bracelet from grave 4 9. ábra. Arany karperec a 4. sírból It is suggested that armed Sarmatian troops could take an active part in the events connected with the lall of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in the 2

n

d century B.C.,

7 situated in the southern part of Central Asia and founded by Alexander the Great. In the first centuries A.D., the intensive moves ofSarmatians in llie steppes of Eastern Europe, from the North Caucasus and Bosporus up to the Danube, became one of the factors catalysing the Great Migration of the Peoples. In this context, the conflict between the „Barbarians" and Roman Empire had a special significance. It was suggested that the remains of Sarmatian and Alanic population could be involved into the Gothic empire of Hermanarich, that made a great harm to the Roman Empire ending in its fall and split into „Western" and „Eastern" ones in 395. The final dissolution of the Roman Empire took place somewhat later (5th century) under the strikes of the Huns, whose horde must have involved, in all probability, remains of Sarmatian groups. The consequences of the fall of the Roman Empire and the formation of the Byzantine Empire with Constantinople as capital, are well known for the history of ancient Russia. More than that, there are suggestions that Hermanarich's country was the antecedent of the Kievan Rus.

8 ' SKRII'KIN 1990. » PEIKUKHIN, RAEVSKIJ 1998, 132-136.