The Spali ( la, Spalaei, Spali, Palaei, Pali) was an ancient tribe mentioned in
classical geography
;Pre-Hellenistic Classical Greece
*Homer
* Anaximander
* Hecataeus of Miletus
* Massaliote Periplus
* Scylax of Caryanda (6th century BC)
*Herodotus
;Hellenistic period
* Pytheas (died c. 310 BC)
*''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' (3rd or 4th centur ...
that inhabited the south of Russia.
Pliny
Pliny may refer to:
People
* Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'')
* Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
( 77–79) enumerated a group of tribes through which the
Don River
The Don ( rus, Дон, p=don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire.
Its ...
(''Tanais'') crossed, in which the Spalaei are last mentioned. He mentioned the conquerors of the
Napaei as the Palaei (6, 50), while in another chapter (6, 22) says that it was the three Scythian tribes of Auchetae, Athernei and Asampatae that defeated them. It is believed that the Spalaei and Palaei are one and the same. Diodorus (2, 43) reported that the Spalaei/Palaei/Pali were descendants of Scythian king
Palus
Palus may refer to:
* Palus, Maharashtra, a place in India
* 24194 Paľuš, a main belt asteroid, named for Pavel Paľuš (born 1936), Slovak astronomer
* Palus tribe, or Palouse people
* ''Palus'', a grade of gladiator
See also
* Palu (dis ...
, the son of Scythes. The mythical origin and chapter '6, 22' suggests that the Spalaei/Palaei/Pali was a "collective designation of the eastern branch of Royal Scythians". By examinating Pliny and Diodorus, the
Auchetae (or Euchatae) were part of the Spalaei/Palaei/Pali.
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
( 440 BC) stated that the Scythians or Scoloti consisted of the Auchatae (descending from Lipoxais), Catiaroi and Traspies (from Arpoxais), and Paralatae (from Colaxais), the latter which was "the youngest of them, the royal race".
Tadeusz Sulimirski
Tadeusz Joseph Sulimirski (1 April 1898 – 20 June 1983) was a Polish-born British historian and archaeologist, who emigrated to the United Kingdom soon after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Sulimirski was a pioneer and leading expert in th ...
believed that they were a branch of the
Roxolani
The Roxolani or Rhoxolāni ( grc, Ροξολανοι , ; la, Rhoxolānī) were a Sarmatian people documented between the 2nd century BC and the 4th century AD, first east of the Borysthenes (Dnieper) on the coast of Lake Maeotis (Sea of Azov), a ...
. Sulimirski attributed
Sarmatian
The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples of classical ant ...
archaeology on the mid-
Dnieper
}
The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...
to the tribe, supported by the Sarmatians' downfall after the
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
invasion in 200 AD. The "Royal Scythian" connection is supported by Indo-Parthian royal names ''
Spalirisos
Spalirisos, also spelled Spalirises, ( Greek: , (epigraphic); Kharosthi: , ) was an Iranian king who ruled Arachosia in the 1st century BCE.
Name
Spalarisos's name is attested on his coins in the Greek form () and in the Kharosthi form ...
'', ''Spalyris'', ''
Spalahora
Spalahores, also spelled Spalohres or Spalahora, (Greek: ; , (epigraphic); Kharosthi: , ; ruled circa 57-35 BCE), was an Iranian king who ruled Sakastan in the 1st-century BC.
Name
Spalahores's name is attested on his coins in the Greek forms ...
'', and the Slavic word ''ispolin'', ''spolin'' ("giant"), assumed to date back to when
Slavs
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
were ruled by the Spalaei.
Francis Dvornik
Francis Dvornik (14 August 1893, Chomýž – 4 November 1975, Chomýž), in Czech František Dvorník, was a Catholic priest and academic. He is considered one of the leading twentieth-century experts on Slavic and Byzantine history, and on rela ...
(1893–1975) believed that the
Sporoi Sporoi ( el, Σπόροι) or Spori was according to Eastern Roman scholar Procopius (500–560) the old name of the Antes and Sclaveni, two Early Slavic branches. Procopius stated that the Sclaveni and Antes spoke the same language, but he did no ...
mentioned by
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gener ...
(500–560) as being the old name of the
Antes and
Sclaveni
The ' (in Latin) or ' (various forms in Greek, see below) were early Slavic tribes that raided, invaded and settled the Balkans in the Early Middle Ages and eventually became the progenitors of modern South Slavs. They were mentioned by early Byz ...
were probably the ''Spali'' mentioned by
Jordanes
Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Goths, Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history (''Romana ...
( 551) and ''Spalei'' mentioned by Pliny.
Annotations
References
Sources
*
*
Further reading
*Воронятов, С.В., О территории сражения готов со спалами в «Getica» Иордана. Война и военное дело в скифо-сарматском мире: материалы Международной, p. 57.
*Жих, М.И., 2014. К вопросу о соотношении Spali Иордана и Satarcheos Spalaeos Плиния Старшего. Материалы по археологии и истории античного и средневекового Крыма, (6).
*Жих, М.И., 2014. Славяне и готы на Волыни и в верхнем Поднестровье. Проблема локализации земли Oium и «Племени»(gens) Spali. Русин, (2 (36)).
*Gardiner-Garden, J.R., 2013. Ancient literary conceptions of eastern scythian ethnography from the 7th to the 2nd Century BC.
{{Scythia
Sarmatian tribes
Ancient history of Ukraine
Scythian tribes
Ancient peoples of Russia
Don basin