Silingi

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The Silings or Silingi (Latin: Silingae, Ancient Greek Σιλίγγαι – Silingai) were a Germanic tribe, probably part of the larger Vandal group. The Silingi may have lived in Silesia.[1][2][3][4][5] The name Silesia and Silingi may be related.

The Silingi were part of the migratory movements of the Vandals, into the Iberian peninsula and later on to North Africa, which was one of the causes of the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

The distribution of the primary Germanic dialect groups in Europe in around AD 1:
  North Germanic
  North Sea Germanic, or Ingvaeonic
  Weser-Rhine Germanic, or Istvaeonic
  Elbe Germanic, or Irminonic
  East Germanic

By the 1st century CE, the writings of Pomponius Mela, Pliny the elder, and Tacitus indicate a division of Germanic-speaking peoples into large groupings who shared ancestry and culture. (This division has been appropriated in modern terminology about the divisions of Germanic languages.)

The expansion of the Germanic tribes 750 BC – AD 1 (after the Penguin Atlas of World History 1988):
   Settlements before 750 BC
   New settlements by 500 BC
   New settlements by 250 BC
   New settlements by AD 1

Ancient sources

Claudius Ptolemaeus wrote that they had lived south of the Suebi-Semnone tribe:

Back below the Semnones the Silingae have their seat, and below the Burguntae the Lugi Omani, below whom the Lugi Diduni up to Mt. Asciburgius; and below the Silingae the Calucones and the Camavi up to Mt. Melibocus, from whom to the east near the Albis river and above them, below Mt. Asciburgius, the Corconti and the Lugi Buri up to the head of the Vistula river; and below them first the Sidones, then the Cotini, then the Visburgii above the Orcynius valley.[6]

During the reign of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, (A.D. 161–180) the Silingi lived in the "Vandal mountains", later part of the former Sudetenland which now is part of the Czech Republic.[7]

Naharvali

The tribe of Naharvali is speculated by modern scholars to be the same as the Silingi. Tacitus Germania, 43 mentions the Naharvali as the keepers of sanctuary of the Lugian federation (the grove to twin gods Alcis). Tacitus does not mention the Silingi; however, he places the Naharvali in about the same geographical area in which Ptolemaeus placed the Silingi.[8]

The region Silesia

Main articles: Silesia#Etymology and Silesian tribes
Historic Silesia, superimposed on modern international borders of Poland, Germany and Czech Republic: The mediæval Bohemian crown land (as of 1538) outlined in turquoise, Prussian Silesia from 1742 in yellow

According to some historians, the names of Silesia and the Silingi are related.[9] Another hypothesis derives the name of the mountain and river, and hence the region, from the old Polish word "Ślągwa", meaning "humid" or "damp", reflecting the climate of the region.[10]

The name of the territory Silesia is often assumed to either derive from the river or the mountain now called the Ślęza River or Mount Ślęża. The hill was a religious center of the Silingi, situated south-south-east of modern day Wrocław (Breslau),[11][12] although the religious importance of the location dates back to the sun-worshipping people of the Lusatian culture, as early as 1300 B.C.[10]

The Silingi lived north of the Carpathian Mountains, in what now is Silesia. After the migratory movement of the 5th century, any Silingi remaining in Silesia were most likely slowly replaced in the sixth century by a influx of people holding the Prague-Korchak cultures, who are supposed to be new Slavic tribes migrating from the east.[13]

Legacy

Corps Silingia Breslau (de) is a student organization (Studentenverbindung) which has been operating since 1877, currently (2010) in Cologne, Germany, as Corps Silingia Breslau zu Köln (Silingia Corps Wrocław in Cologne).[14]

See also

Languages
Prehistory
Roman Iron Age
Migration Period
Society and culture
Religion
Dress
Warfare
Burial practices

References

  1. ↑ Jerzy Strzelczyk, "Wandalowie i ich afrykańskie państwo" p. 59, Warszawa 1992.
  2. ↑ Norman Davies, Roger Moorhouse "Mikrokosmos", p.70, Kraków 2003
  3. ↑ Jerzy Krasuski "Historia Niemiec" p. 13, Wrocław 1998.
  4. ↑ Andrzej Kokowski "Starożytna Polska" p. 260, Warszawa 2006.
  5. ↑ Jerzy Strzelczyk, "Wandalowie i ich afrykańskie państwo" p. 29, Warszawa 1992.
  6. ↑ "The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy", Book II, Chapter 10: "Greater Germany"", English translation published by Dover Publications, 1991, reduplication of the public domain publication of 1932 by The New York Public Library, N.Y., transcript
  7. ↑ John Hugo Wolfgang, Gideon Liebeschuetz "Decline and Change in Late Antiquity", 2006, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 0-86078-990-X p. 61 (google Books)
  8. ↑ J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz, "Gens Into Regnum: The Vandals". IN: Hans-Werner Goetz, Jörg Jarnut, Walter Pohl (ed.), "Regna and Gentes: The Relationship Between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples and Kingdoms in the Transformation of the Roman World", Brill, 2003, ISBN 1386 4165, p.62.
  9. ↑ Andrew H. Merrills, "Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa", 2004, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 0-7546-4145-7 p.34, (Google Books)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Paweł Jasienica, "Polska Piastów" (Piast Poland), Munken, 2007, pg. 35
  11. ↑ Adrian Room "Placenames of the World", McFarland 2004m ISBN 0-7864-1814-1 p.333 (Google books)
  12. ↑ Anthony Richard Birley, "Agricola and Germany" 1999, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-283300-6 p.130 (Notes to pages 56–60) (Google books)
  13. ↑ T. Hunt Tooley "National Identity and Weimar Germany: Upper Silesia and the Eastern Border", 1997 University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0-8032-4429-0 p.6 (Google Books)
  14. ↑ http://www.silingia.de
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