The Ethnology of EuropeLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
The Ethnology of Europe
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Ethnology -- Europe
In detail, the ancient inhabitants of Wallachia were the Potulatensii,
the Sensii, the Salrensii, the Kiageisi, and the Piephagi of Strabo.
In Moldavia, there had been a displacement as early as the time of
Herodotus.
The Skoloti of Russia reached the Carpathians, inasmuch as they were
conterminous with the Agathyrsi, and the Agathyrsi were on the Maros,
_i.e._, in Transylvania.
Whether the Skoloti extended thus far westward, when Trajan conquered
Decebalus is uncertain. I think that during the interval between the
time of Herodotus and the Dacian war, the Skoloti had either retired or
become amalgamated; so that the Dacian population lay in one large
uniform mass from the _Vallum Romanum_ in Hungary to the _Solitude of
the Getæ_ in Bessarabia. The reasons for this are drawn from the
language.
1. This is uniform throughout, and uniformity of speech in the case of
exotic languages, is _primâ facie_ evidence of the uniformity in both
the tongue which is introduced and the original tongue of the country.
For identical fruits we must have like stocks as well as like grafts.
The Roman in a Keltic country becomes French; in an Iberic, Spanish.
2. The terminations -_ensii_ and -_dava_ are common to the whole Dacian
area--Predan-_ensii_, Rhatac-_ensii_, Alboc-_ensii_, Burid-_ensii_,
Potulat-_ensii_, Satr-_ensii_, S-_ensii_, Cot-_ensii_,
Cauco-_ensii_--Comi-_dava_, Perobori-_dava_, Rhami-_dava_, Neter-_dava_,
Burri-_dava_, Argi-_dava_, &c.
Of the uniformity of language no country, of which the early history is
equally obscure, shows stronger proofs than ancient Dacia.
The reasons for believing this to have been Sarmatian will be given in
the sequel.
Tolerably pure, for a Danubian population, the Rumanyos of Wallachia are
Romano-Slavonic. In Moldavia there is a trace of Turk (Skolotic) blood.
_Servia._--Our divisions are political; so Servia, as an independent
principality, must be dealt with by itself; and as, from their
complexity, the Austrian and Ottoman empires are reserved for the last,
it will be separated from the areas with which it is most immediately
connected--Southern Hungary and Bosnia.
Bounded by the rivers Drin and Timoc, the present principality coincides
nearly, though not quite, with the Roman Province of Mœsia Superior.
The valley of the Margus is the famous _Plain of the Triballi_
(Τριβαλλἱκον πἑδιον); the mountains, those of the Macedonian, Illyrian,
and Bulgarian frontiers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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