XXXIII

PART 5 – Ch.XXXIII.16

The Pelasgians or proto – Latins (Arimii)

(The Pelasgians from the northern parts of the Danube and the Black Sea)

XXXIII. 16. Migrations of the White Arimii (Abii or Abarimonii) from Asiatic Sarmatia to Europe.

The mountains so-called Urali, which stretch in a continuous line up to the Arctic Ocean and separate the continent of Asia from that of Europe, had been inhabited in ancient times by a Pelasgian population.

In Roman times, the entire southern part of these mountains, covered with woods and excellent pastures, was called ta Rymmicha ore (Ptolemy, lib. VI. 14), meaning the Rumic Mountains. (One of the highest points of central Urals is called even today Iremel, a corrupt form of Arameni). From this group of mountains springs the river called ‘Rymmos by Ptolemy (lib. VI. 14), ‘Rymos by Eustathius (ad Odyss. XXIV. p. 843, 1967), and ‘Rymnos by Agathemerus (lib. II. 10), today Ural, flowing into the Caspian Sea.

In the lower parts of this river dwelt in antiquity the people called ‘Rymmoi and ‘Erymmoi by Ptolemy (lib. VI. 14), Rhymnici by Pliny (lib. VI. 14. 10), and Rumi Scythae on the Tabula Peutingeriana (Segm. XII. 1. 2).

We find in these regions the remains of an indigenous population of Romanic origins even until late, in the Middle Ages.

The Minorite monk Wilhelm de Rubruquis, sent in 1253 by Louis IX, the king of France, to the Tatars or Mongols of Asia, who had devastated in 1241 a large part of the countries of Europe, relates the following: “I have finally arrived to Etilia (Volga), a very big river … and the next day, after the feast of the Holy Cross, I continued the trip on horse, and I kept going towards east until the feast day called All Saints. In this entire country, but even farther, dwell the so-called Cangle, a people related with the Romans (Ascelin, 1246ad, calls the same people Kangitae). In the northern part is situated great Bulgaria (from where flows the river Volga), and in the southern part is the Caspian Sea. After I traveled like this for 12 days, from Etilia eastwards, I reached a big river which those locals call Iagag (Iaik). This river comes from the northern parts, from the country Pascatir (Baschiria) and flows into the Caspian Sea. Near the country Pascatir dwells the people Ilak, a name identical with Blac, but the Tatars cannot pronounce B. From these Ilac had come those who dwell now in the country of Asan. Both these peoples are called Ilac (Densusianu, Documente, Vol. I. a. p. 272-279; Fejer, C. dipl. IV. 2. 261 seqq; Abulgasi, Hist. geneal. d. Tatares. Leyde, 1726, p. 45)….So I traveled through the country Cangle, from the feast day of the Holly Cross to the feast day of the All Saints, covering each day a distance about as long as from Paris to Orleans … Finally, on the eve of the feast day of the All Saints I left the road towards east and I traveled for 8 days towards south, crossing some high mountains. Here I asked about the citadel called Thalas, in which dwelt also Germans … When I arrived though to the citadel of Mangu Cham, I found out that Mangu had transferred those, from Thalas towards east, to a village called Bolac, about one month of travel away from here, where they work in the gold mines”.

Another significant group of the family of the Scythians, or the Asiatic Arameii, was called by the ancient authors Abii, io ‘Abioi Schythai (Ptolemy, lib. VI. 15).

The dwellings of this Pelasgian population were, as Ptolemy tells us, in the northern parts of eastern Asia, beyond the sources of the river Iaxartes, in Scythia extra Imaum.

The mountain Imaus, according to the beliefs of the ancients, stretched in a north to south line through the central parts of Asia and formed only a branch of the vast and strong massif of Himalaya, called Emodus by the Greeks and the Romans. Abii dwelt therefore, according to Ptolemy, in the eastern parts of the mountain Imaus, or in the western parts of Tibet, of eastern Turkistan, of Mongolia and of eastern Siberia.

On the Tabula Peutingeriana (Segm. XII. 3), the Abii appear under the name Abyoschythae and are the northernmost people of the known parts of Asia.

According to Arrianus of Nicomedia (2^nd century ad), the Abii were an autonomous people. They governed themselves by their national laws, were not subjected to anybody, were poor, but just (Exp. Lib. IV. 1. 1; Curtius Rufus, lib .VII. 6).

The geographers of antiquity also give the Abii the name White barbarians and Leucofirimanae (read Leucoarimanae, meaning white Arimanii – Riese, Geogr. Lat. min. p. 87-88).

From the point of view of its meaning and etymology, the term Abii – as results also from the synonyms above – is only a simple dialectal form of Albi (TN – White), as the Romanians from Istria say even today abi instead of albi (and as in the Ionian dialect the letter l also fell often).

In the times of Alexander the Great, the Abii from near the mountain Imaus appear also under the name Abarimon, meaning the White Arimonii. The Scythian nations, writes Pliny, those from Asia, as well as those from Europe, had in ancient times the common name of Aramaei, meaning Aramani. The Abarimonii or White Aramonii dwelt, as Beton, the military engineer of Alexander the Great had reported, in a large valley of the mountain Imaus, where they led a nomad life, entirely primitive (Pliny, lib. VII. 3. 3).

These Pelasgian tribes from the north of the Himalaya mountains had been certainly called Abii, White Barbarians, Leucoarimanae and Abarimones, only in contrast with the Scythian or Arimic populations from the southern parts, who differed by a darker skin color. (See the Turkish term Kara Iflac – Black Romanians; the Greek mauroblachos, the Serb karavlah, and morovlachi, moroblachi, Italian morlacchi in the Latin documents of Dalmatia).

In the southern regions of the Ganges, writes Pliny, the people are more burnt by the sun, but they are not so burnt as the Ethiopians. But the closer to the river Indus these tribes are, the darker their skin color (lib. XXII. 6).

With the migrations of the Pelasgian tribes from the regions of Asia towards west, the name of the Abii or Abarimonii also passes and spreads into the continent of Europe.

Homer mentions the Abii who dwelt in the neighborhood of the Thracians and the Mysii from the lower Danube (Iliad, XVI. V. 5-6; Eschyl, Prom. fr. 72; Albeni and Albesci are names of a number of villages in Romania. Alba is a characteristic name for the Romanian women from the mountains – Cantemir, Descr. Mold. c. 1; Alecsandri, P. p. p. 267).

The most distinguished heroes of the Pelasgian nation, whose souls lived in the blessed island from near the mouths of the Danube, are given by Hesiodus the epithet olbioi (Op. v. 170), with the meaning of “happy” in Greek language, but at the same time with the indication of albi (TN – white) in regard to their ethnic family.

Marcellinus mentions the Abii who dwelt in the eastern parts of the Caspian Sea (lib. XXIII. 25), but the Abii had also occupied a vast territory on this side of the Caspian sea.

Wilhelm de Rubruquis, the Minorite monk, sent by the king of France as ambassador to the Tatars of Asia, wrote around 1254ad that the entire region which bordered at east with the Caspian Sea, at west with the Meotic lake, and at north with the Ocean, had once been named Albania (Densusianu, Documente, I. 271, 1254).

This Important geographical note of Rubruquis was based on positive ethnographic data.

In the Middle Ages, the entire northern part of European Russia was inhabited by a people called Biarmi, a simple abbreviated form of the name Abarimoni or White Arimani, about which we spoke above. The inhabitants of Iceland called the entire territory of northern Russia, starting from the shores of the White and Arctic Seas, and ending to the mouths of the river Dvina and to the Urals, Biarmaland (Schlozer, Nestor. Russ. Annalen, 1802, p. 44)

These Biarmi (also called Parmii) had once formed the dominant nation in the north-east of Europe. Their territory also comprised the northern Urals, or the entire administrative districts today called Perm, Vologda and Archangelsk. With the chroniclers of the Middle Ages, the Biarmii appear as a rich people, powerful and civilized, who knew agriculture and industrial arts. On the banks of the river Visera from the central region of the Urals are even today found traces of some fortified localities, belonging to some defensive constructions made by this people, who, as we see, had had an ancient social, political and military organization.

The Biarmii, as Nestor tells us, did not speak the Slav language (Ed. Schlozer, c. 17). Today though they are denationalized and their type almost extinct.

In the ancient traditions of the Poles and the Ruteni, these Biarmii appear under the name Olbrimi. The Slav nations from the northern parts of Europe had once been subjected to the Olbrimii. In Polish legends they are presented as some terrifying giants, as seen by the Slav tribes. Their rule had stretched west to Gallia, and very far towards north (Lelewel, ap. Ossolinski, Vincent Kadlubek, Warsaw, 1822, p. 513 seqq; Mickiewicz, Les prem. siecles de l’hist. de Pologne, Paris, 1868, p. 34).

This tradition is also confirmed by ancient geographical descriptions.

Dionysius Periegetus, who had lived in the first century bc, calls the German populations near the northern ocean leucha fyla areimaneon Germanon (Descr. Orb. v. 285), meaning the white tribes of the German Arimanii, or in other words, the White Arimanii.

In Ravennas’ cosmography (lib. I. c. 11), the northern parts of Germany, situated close to Denmark, are called Albis patria, and with Other, the Norwegian navigator from the 10^th century, the territory of Prussia appears under the name Witland, meaning terra alba (Schlozer, Gesch. see Littauen – Allg. Weltgeschichte, L. Theil, p. 10; Nestor, p. 55).

The Abii or White Arimonii pass, even during the prehistoric times, from the continent of Europe to great Britannia, which, as Pliny tells us, had been called in the beginning Albion (lib. IV.30.1), meaning the country of the Albii. From Britannia, and probably from the northern parts of European Russia, the White Arimii extend to Iceland, from where some groups pass later even farther, westwards over the sea, to the neighboring islands of Greenland.

The epic songs of Iceland celebrate an ancient hero of this island called Arimarsson, a name which the modern authors have translated as Arius Maris filius. But the correct form of this name seems to have been Arimars-son, meaning Arimari filius.

This son of Arimar emigrates from Iceland, and after navigating for 6 days towards west, arrives to the island, or country, called Hvitramanalandia – terra alborum hominum (Rafn, Antiquitates Americanae, Hafniae, 1837, p. 208-215), more correct though, the country of the White Aramanii.

In German epic poems it is also told about a famous hero from the northern parts, with the name Ramunc von Islande (Grimm, D. Heldensage, p. 140, 197).

The poet Juvenal also mentions a very significant fact for the ethnographic conditions of ancient Iceland, called Thule in Greek and Roman geography. It is told, says he (Sat. XV. 111-112), that the inhabitants of Thule wanted to bring there a teacher, to teach them to speak the Latin language, correctly and nicely.

Finally, we also note here that Iceland was called in ancient German language Valland, exactly like France and Italy (Schlozer, Nestor, p. 57).

As we see, we are faced here with a new chapter in the ethnography and civilization of the ancient world. We stop here though, leaving for other times, or maybe for others, the following of Pelasgian migrations beyond the Atlantic Ocean.

So now we can understand the real significance of the ethnographic table of Ephorus, from the 4^th century bc, which claimed (fragm. 38, in Fragm. Hist. gr. I. p. 243) that the entire northern region of the ancient world had been occupied by the Scythians, once called, as Pliny tells us, Aramei.

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