Istvánovits Eszter: International Connections... (Jósa András Múzeum Kiadványai 47. Aszód-Nyíregyháza, 2001)

Andrea Vaday: Military system of the Sarmatians

the Picensis tribe as Limigans. This provides more evidence that the Sarmatae Servi cannot be accepted as a unified Sarmatian bloc The sources refer to both the Free Sarmatians and the Servant Sarmatians in the plural, and if we further consider that the Free Sarmatians were compelled to arm the Servant Sarmatians in the battle on the Maros, it seems conceivable that, prior to the Gothic attack, the Sarmatian territory was already divided into several regions. For not only the Sarmatians of the Banat {Arcaragantes) and their servants (Limigantes = Amicenses and Picenses) were compelled to take part in the battle, but the Sarmatians living in the territories north of the Maros as well. This may serve as indirect evidence of the tribal segmentation in the middle and southern parts of the land east of the Tisza and explain the aspect of the Roman punitive campaign concerning the participation of the Sarmatae Liberi against the Picenses. It is namely rather improbable that the expelled Sarmatae Liberi, who had fled to the Victovali, would have taken part in this battle. Another facet of these events should be mentioned. One of the main arguments for mentioning the Csörsz Ditch as the limes Sarmatae (SOPRONI 1969)

30 is that the entrenchment enclosed the Sarmatian territory and no Sarmatians lived outside it. The Picenses, if we accept that they lived in the territory facing Pincum, also occupied territories east of, i.e. beyond, the entrenchments. If this is true, then either there was no automatic correspondence between the Sarmatian border and the Csörsz Ditch in the Banat or the Picenses had spread beyond the entrenchments. In any case, it is certain that the Romans did not like their presence near the limes, so they resettled them farther away: "...parère imperiis, et sedes alias suscipere sunt assensi, tranquillas etfidas, ut пес bellis vexari, пес mutari seditionibus possinf (Ammian. XVTI. 13. 23). We find further reference to the resettling of the people at the appraisal of the victory: "Limigantes ad loca migrare compulimus longe discreta" (Ammian. XVII. 13. 30) and "Limigantes Sarmatas ... paulatim posthabitis locis quae eis anno praeterito utiliter sunt destinata, ne, ut sunt versabiles aliquid molierentur iniquum..." (Ammian. XIX. 11. 1). The subsequent events attest that while the peace concluded with other Sarmatian tribes was successful, the Roman measures were not satisfactory for the displaced Limigantes. They appeared at the Valerian limes and harassed the Romans. The Emperor, having been appraised of it, appeared on the spot and sent two tribuni with an interpreter to the Limigantes, who asked for redemption from the Emperor. Ammianus recounted these events in detail (XIX 11. 1-17). After the defeat of the Sarmatae Servi, the Sarmatae Liberi were offered the possibility to return to their original home. The unification of the Sarmatian Barbaricum had been the aim of the Emperor in appointing Zizais to be the king of both the Sarmatae Liberi and the displaced Sarmatae Servi (Ammian. XVII. 12. 23, 30). It is significant from the aspect of the Sarmatian problem that the Limigantes, evicted from the foreground of Acumincum-Pincum, soon appeared in the vicinity of MÓCSY 1990, 298 note 22 called attention to the fact that the limes Sarmatiae could not be found in the classic sources, so S. Soprani's use of the expression might be misleading. It should also be noted that Soproni could only rely on M. Párducz's publications, and many new excavations have been conducted in the meantime on the northern and northeastern fringes of the Hungarian Plain (by, among others, Csilla Ács, László Domboróczki, István Fodor, Zsigmond Hajdú, Eszter Istvánovits, Valéria Kulcsár, Emese Lovász, Pál Raczky, Adél Váradi etc.), which provide further data on the environment of the entrenchment stretches (PATHS 1997).