A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 49. (Nyíregyháza, 2007)

Régészet - Fernando López Sánchez: Rome and its Sarmatian allies (AD 68–175)

Római éremkibocsátás és a szarmata szövetségesek (68-175) the end of the 2

nd century AD, within the context of the Danubian wars of Marcus Aurelius, but not before. The objective of this paper is to analyse the century between the death of Nero (AD 68) and that of Marcus Aurelius (AD 180). During this period there are iconographical allusions to the Sarmatians in Roman monetary series in AD 69, 98, 118, 136 and 140 which have not until now been studied by numismatists or historians. These monetary series prove that Rome considered the Roxolani and Iazyges of this period as foreigners, but as allies of the Empire. It is in fact difficult to comprehend the Iranian revolts against Rome in AD 68-70, 89-98, 117-118, 136-140 and 166-180 without taking into account the deep dissatisfaction caused by the lack of subsidies given by the Empire to the Iazyges and the Roxolani. In each of these cases, Rome also had to face revolts of Germanic-Suevic people, a possible indication of strong connections between these two peoples. In order to solve the recurrent Germanic-Iranian crises, Rome, however, tended to grant primacy in negotiations to the Sarmatians over the Suevi. This differentiation could be explained simply by the existence of a tendency towards Sarmatization amongst the Quadian elites, at least from AD 98 onwards, when Tacitus refers to "foreign kings" in this Germanic nation. It is also clear that Rome had too much need of the Sarmatians during the 1

st and 2

nd centuries AD to continue considering them as mere allies of Rome by the decade of AD 170. This is precisely the reason why Marcus Aurelius hesitated over granting the status of provincia to the Sarmatia inhabited by the Iazyges. The deep Sarmatization of the Roman cavalry during this period and the following two centuries is an irrefutable proof of the level of integration of the Sarmatians in the periphery of the Roman Empire. Fernando LOPEZ SANCHEZ University of Zaragoza Ciudad Universitaria Plaza de S. Francisco 50009 Zaragoza, Spain Wolfson College Linton Road OX2 6UD, Oxford, UK e-mail: flopezsanchez@hotmail.com 113