“Aesti”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Aesti (also Aestii, Astui or Aests) were an ancient people first described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his treatise Germania (circa 98 AD).^[1] According to Tacitus, the territory of Aesti was located somewhere east of the Suiones (Swedes) and west of the Sitones (possibly the ancient "Kvens"), on the Suebian (Baltic) Sea. This and other evidence suggests that they lived in or near the present-day Russian enclave of Kaliningrad Oblast (previously East Prussia).

Despite the phonological similarity between Aestii and the modern ethnonyms of Estonia, especially in popular etymologies, the two geographical areas are not contiguous and there are few, if any, direct historical links between them.

Overview

Geographical and linguistic evidence suggests that the Aesti were, ethnologically, a Baltic people. They may have been synonymous with the Brus/Prūsa or "Old Prussians" – that is, not a Germanic people like modern Prussians, and not a Finno-Ugric people, such as modern Estonians. Tacitus almost certainly erred in implying that the Aesti were a hybrid Celtic-Germanic culture: he claimed that while the "Aestian nations" followed the "same customs and attire" as "the Suebians" (at the time a collective term for eastern Germanic peoples), their speech resembled that of the Britons (i.e., a Celtic language rather than the Germanic languages of the Suebii). Tacitus often utilised unreliable, secondary sources,^[2] and may not have been aware of such distinctions in any case.

Tacitus' mention of a cult of the mother of the gods among the Aesti along the eastern Baltic coast does apply to the ancient Estonian and Baltic pagan religions.^[3] He also refers to the Fenni living next to the Aesti—the Fenni being ancestors to the Finns or the Sámi would situate them closest to the Estonians. Ultimately, Tacitus' use of Aesti could apply equally well to either a specific people or to a grouping of ethnically diverse peoples across a wider area .^[3]

In the modern Estonian language, Eesti is the endonym for "Estonia". Estonia was known as Estia or Hestia in some early Latin sources, and Eistland in ancient Scandinavian sagas. Estonians themselves used Maarahvas, meaning people of the land, to refer to themselves until the early modern era. The etymologies of Aesti and Eesti remain subjects of scholarly conjecture.

Tacitus is also credited with recording the only surviving example of the Aestian language: glesum, an apparently Latinised word for amber and similar to the later Latvian equivalent: glīsis^[4] or glēsa.^[5] Both may be loanwords from a Germanic language, given their similarity to the Gothic word glas.^[6]

There is evidence that the area around the Vistula Lagoon was strongly associated with the Aesti: the Old Prussian and modern Lithuanian names for the lagoon, Aīstinmari and Aistmarės respectively, appear to be derived from Aesti and mari ("lagoon" or "fresh water bay").^[7] Therefore, the oldest known name of the body of the water was "lagoon of the Aesti".

Historical sources

Tacitus

The ancient writers, beginning with Tacitus, who was the first Roman author to mention them in his Germania, provide very little information on the Aestii.^[8] Although Tacitus never travelled to Magna Germania himself and only recorded information he had obtained from others, the short ethnographic excursus below is the most detailed ancient account of the Aestii that we have:

The placement of the Tacitean Aestii is based primarily on their association with amber, a popular luxury item during the life of Tacitus, with known sources at the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Baltic amber trade, which appears to have extended to the Mediterranean Sea, has been traced by archaeologists back to the Nordic Bronze Age; its major center was in the region of Sambia.

This trade probably existed before the historical Trojan War in the 13th century BCE, as amber is one of the substances in which the palace of Menelaus at Sparta was said to be rich in Homer's The Iliad.^[9]

Cassiodorus

Cassiodorus' Variae, published in 537, contains a letter written by Cassiodorus in the name of Theodoric the Great, addressed to the Aesti:

The style of the letter proves that the nation was at that time independent, not ruled by the Ostrogoths. Apparently Cassiodorus considered it politically essential to establish friendly relations with the Nordic region. The letter also indicates that the Aesti were fully confident of the value of amber and had made out of it a trade secret. The sending of presents and the promise to show future favors were in ancient times a cordial way of giving de jure recognition to another power.^[10]

Jordanes

Sixth Century historian Jordanes makes two references the Aesti in his book "The Origins and the Deeds of the Goths", which was a treatment of Cassiodorus' longer book (which no longer survives) on the history of the Goths. The first quote places the Aestii beyond the Vidivarii, on the shore of the Baltic: "a subject race, likewise hold the shore of Ocean." The next quote concerns the subjugation of the Aesti by Hermanaric, king of the Gothic Greuthungi: "This ruler also subdued by his wisdom and might the race of the Aesti, who dwell on the farthest shore of the German Ocean".

Alfred the Great

In an 11th-century manuscript of King Alfred's account of the voyage from Hedeby to Truso by Wulfstan, held by the British Museum, includes ethnographic information on the medieval Aestii,^[11]^[12] in which the terms Esti,Est-mere and Eastland are used. In the text, a summary description of the country and its riches is followed by a very detailed account of the people's funeral customs.

Adam of Bremen

During the 11th Century Adam of Bremen, citing Einhard (who in the Vita Caroli Magni states "the Slavs and the Aisti live on the shores of the Eastern Sea"), denotes the coastal tribe as the Haisti and refers to today's Estonia as Aestland.^[14]

Notes

1. ^Tacitus, Germania, Germania.XLV
2. ^E. J. Kenney, The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 2, Latin Literature, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 647–8.
3. ^¹Lang, Valter. The Bronze And Early Iron Ages In Estonia, Estonian Archaeology 3. University of Tartu Press, Tartu. 2007. retrieved at 26 December 2013
4. ^{{Cite web|url=http://tezaurs.lv/#/sv/gl%C4%ABsis/1|title=Tēzaurs|website=tezaurs.lv|access-date=2017-02-25}}
5. ^{{Cite web|url=http://tezaurs.lv/#/sv/gl%C4%93sa|title=Tēzaurs|website=tezaurs.lv|access-date=2017-02-25}}
6. ^Rübekeil, Ludwig. Suebica - Völkernamen und Ethnos Innsbruck, 1992. p. 72f.
7. ^Mikkels Klussis, Dictionary of Revived Prussian: Prussian - English, English - Prussian, Vilnius 2005–06, p. 47.
8. ^For a theory that the Aestii are the Osismii of Strabo and the Ostimii of Pytheas also mentioned by Strabo, see {{cite book|first=Endre|last=Bojtàr|title=Foreword to the Past: a Cultural History of the Baltic People|publisher=Central European University Press|year=1999|isbn=963-9116-42-4|page=104}} This is not a majority view as there is evidence of the continuity of the Osismii in France.
9. ^Lillian Feder (1964), Crowell's Handbook of Classical Literature, p. 192. USA: Crowell.
10. ^Edgar V. Saks. Aestii. p. 52–53.
11. ^Kemp Malone, On King Alfred's Geographical Treatise, Speculum, Vol. 8, No. 1. (Jan., 1933), pp. 67-78
12. ^Samuel H. Cross, Notes on King Alfred's North: Osti, Este, Speculum, Vol. 6, No. 2. (Apr., 1931), pp. 296-299
13. ^{{cite book |title=King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of the Compendious history of the world by Orosius |author=Orosius, Paulus |author2=Alfred, King of England |translator-last=Bosworth |translator-first=Joseph |editor-last=Hampson |editor-first=Robert Thomas |url=https://archive.org/stream/kingalfredsangl00boswgoog#page/n100/mode/2up/search/Truso |via=archive.org |page=101}}
14. ^Endre Bojtár, Foreword to the past: a cultural history of the Baltic people, Central European University Press, 1999, p106