Landogar (165 AD)
I was given the name Landogar, like my uncle was called before. My family lives near the Hercynian wods. Our small assembly of farmsteads is not easy to find. The family is numerous and so are our lands, they are the widest in the district.
Travellers are an ever-welcome diversion in our hall. The wealth of my family brings us the privilege to host guests, which adds to our remarkable esteem.
Three solstices ago there came a family with many sons, that told quite a story of our neighbours. Their harvests had been poor and many a clan had set out for the rich and fertile lands of the Romans. The sons of our guests too wanted to join the assembly to obtain lustre and riches.
I had forever been standing in the shadow of my older brother who could run and speak faster, who was more successful at the hunt und more favoured by the girls than I was. He was tall and shapely and of very fair appearance, with his full beard and his dense hair.
Thus I journeyed south with the Gaidemar clan. But my situation did not really change, for while I was accepted into Gaidemar’s staff, I was not given the same rank as his sons. We joined an uncountable host of men. We were so many that the Romans bought themselves off in panic as soon as we came across their manors. We took their corn, horses and jewellery.
After many a day on foot something unexpected happened. While I was on the riverside during a halt, dying my hair red, Roman riders descended on us and began to slaughter our people. I swam away through the red water, and I did not know what was blood and what was dye. The current took me far away, yet I still heard the cries of women and children and the hammering of weapons and shields.
As I reached the camp at dusk, the few of us who had survived gathered. We took what was left and set out to the East. On our way we met some traders who carried amber (1) and fabrics. In a place called Carnuntum (2) we exchanged parts of the loot and returned to the north.
One of the women, young and yet childless, whose husband had been killed, wanted to become my wife, for I had gained wealth and reputation. I gave my word to Bilhildis, but we agreed to lay with each other not before we had settled down. We waited for some months until we moved into a deserted homestead and joined a household community.
Major routes, used by the merchants who deliver amber and salt to the Romans, lead through our lands and thus more riches come our way. Our farms are located near the court of Ballomar, whom the Romans have set up as a rex, which equals to the rank of a duke or chieftain. He has gloriously fought with the Romans as commander of the Marcommanic (3) riders and has well attained favour and gold amongst them. I have heard of plans to turn our land into a new province of the Romans under the name of Marcomannia. This causes a lot of unrest, for most of the men don’t want to be underlings to Rome. We shall wait and see what the Grand Thing decides in spring...
1 Amber, a fossil resin found mainly on the shores of the Baltic sea, has been traded ever since the stone age and as far as to Egypt in the third millennium BC. Also in Rome electrum was of high value, according to Pliny the Younger a small figurine of amber could be more costly than a slave. The European amber trading route ran from the Baltic Sea via Canruntum to Aquileia (near Triest) at the Adriatic Sea and was one of the most important trading connections between the Barbaric and Mediterranean sphere.
2 Carnuntum (not far from today’s Vienna) was a Roman legion fort and the capital of the province Pannonia (roughly nowadays Neather Austria and Hungary). During the Marcomannic wars the emperor Marcus Aurelius had his headquarters there.
3 The Marcomanni were a partial tribe of the Suebi and are primarily mentioned in the host of Ariovist during the Gaulish War. Around the beginning of the common era they set out from the Elbe region and occupied parts of the Main area and Bohemia after they had driven away the residential Celtic tribe of the Boii. Soon their realm got under Roman influence. The conflicts finally culminated in the Marcomannic wars, which lasted from 166 to 180 AD.
