The Roman Empire and Southern Scandinavia - a Northern Connection!

A re-evaluation of military-political relations between the Roman Empire and the Barbaricum in the first three centuries AD with a special emphasis on southern Scandinavia. Submitted as Ph.D.-dissertation at the SAXO-Institute, University of Copenhagen. The aim of this work is to enhance the knowledge of Roman relations to the northern Barbaricum, i.e. southern Scandinavia. The nature and extent of the northern parts of the Roman Empire has for long been thoroughly examined within a multitude of scholarly disciplines. Likewise, the parts of Europe outside the Roman Empire have undergone thorough scholarly examination. However, whereas the Roman Empire has attracted the attention of both historians, philologists and archaeologists, northern Europe has mainly been subjected to the scrutiny of prehistorical archaeologists. But the fact that one area was seen to have influenced the other is quite apparent as the period of interest in prehistorical chronology is labelled 'The Roman Iron Age'. That the two parts of Europe were not completely isolated is of course well known and for one thing illustrated by the numerous finds of Roman origin in northern Europe. However, within provincial Roman research, represented by both classical and prehistorical archaeologists as well as historians, Roman-'Barbarian' contacts has generated an interest in the immediate vicinity of the Roman borders. The parts of Europe more distantly situated from the Roman Empire have primarily been of interest to prehistorical archaeologists alone, who have looked southwards with a base in the local context. As is apparent from the title, this work strives to reveal military-political connections between the Roman Empire on one hand and on the other an area situated at quite a distance from this Empire. The motivation for choosing this part of Barbaricum is based on a number of reasons. Various aspects of the Roman Iron Age in Scandinavia indicate that relations could have been present. This is seen through finds from, for instance, the princely graves at Himlingøje or from the war booty sacrifices. Within each of these fields of study, it has been suggested that there might be some sort of connection to the Roman Empire or occurrences related to the Roman Empire. It is therefore the purpose here to examine all these vague indications from another point of view for once, in order to establish an overview of these relations.