Aventinus 64

Johannes Turmayr's 1520 History of Bavaria, Chapter 64 - translated and annotated by Ras Feqade, AD 2020.

* Previous Chapter: Aventinus 62, 63
* Next Chapter: Aventinus 65
* (To Table of Contents)

64. How King Baier along with his brothers a great people, German and Windish, men and women, fought even in Asia and in the land one now calls Tartary, up to Greater Armenia and the river Euphrates; one called them the Kempher and Mazen, like now the landsknecht and Swiss. Of Theuer and Abo.

At this time, while the Emperor Baier ruled in Germania for sixty years, there was a great uproar in the whole world, in Asia, Africa, Europe, a very notable fatal powerful thing happened, in Italy, in Egypt, in Greece and the promised land, as I shall describe one after the other.

[Boiger reigned 60 years, as stated here and in Anderson; I count it from 1758 BC, the end of the Germanic Civil War, to 1698 BC.]

At first, as Schreitwein and Freithilf say, also as the ancient Greek poets and historians give notice, this king and hero Baier and his brothers Haun, Deut, Abo, Glan, Schyther sent many people, Windish and German, from Germania, namely a special force from the open seas, from Denmark and Gotland, men and women two armies: the men’s army was called the Kempher like now the landsknecht, the women the Mazen; the male armies were divided into two groups. They had to leave their old dwelling, seek another country; several say because of their habit of robbing and looting, others say that they had too many people at home, so many people would no longer be able to help and nourish each other at home. Several also mention a third cause, namely that the open sea lifted up and a large water came, and drove these people out of their lands.

[Before this, the resident training ground of the Cimbri or Kempfer had been the Jutland peninsula, later occupied by Denmark. The other force arrived from Gothland in Sweden, which was independent of the German realms. Mention of the island Gotland in place of mainland Scandinavia is a frequent confusion or decoy in pre modern accounts.]

The first group migrated from the Gotland island, lying over the Vistula, north of Denmark, with their kings Gebreich and Vilmer, they came through the kingdom, now called Poland, then Haunreich, to the Danube and Theissa, and settled there. They are called by the Romans Daci, by the Greeks Gotæ, by the Germans Goths, Danauer, Dunkauer, Dackauer from the Danube. They lived there for 1881 years to the time of Emperor Valens. Then they were driven across the Danube into the Roman Empire by the Huns, as I will describe in the other book, they then caused much trouble to the Romans. Their abandoned land on the Danube is now called Hungary, Transylvania, Würzerland and Wallachia.

[The Goths allegedly gave Valens this figure in AD 376, which would calculate to 1505 BC, but 1705 BC is a much better fit, so this must be adjusted to 2081 years. The trek of the 'External Goths' or Getae, from modern Sweden to Romania, from 1780 to 1705 BC, under seven kings from Beric to Filmer, is detailed in Gothic and Swedish histories including Jordanes and Magnus.]

The other group gathered in Bohemia, in Merhern. King Boier and the Bavarians did not want to let them go through Bohemia, where they lived then; they migrated through the Markveld with their king Theur, king Baier's brother, came over the Danube to the aforementioned king Norein, who was also king Baier's brother, attacked and seized the country, now belonging to the Hungarian kingdom and the Austrian archduchy, that before times was called Pongä, Illyria. There a part of them settled down, they were called the white or German Greeks. As Strabo thinks, to the territory of Venice the Wends are said to have given their name, in Latin Venedi, who then moved with the Germans, since then the city of Venice was built and named long afterwards, probably five hundred years after the birth of Christ, in the time of King Attila, as I will show amply in the following book.

[A good share of the conflict in the civil war was between Boiger and Theur, and when Theur with Ab (who had shifted his support from Haun), and a contingent of subject Wends, decided to emigrate and leave Germany proper to Boiger, they were unable to pass through Bohemia, being occupied by Boiger and the Bavarians, and had to move around it, en route to Pannonia and Illyria.]

The remaining part of the above-mentioned knights, together with their kings Aben and Theuer, moved along the Danube until it runs into the Black Sea, moved across the Danube and on the same sea to the north as far as the two seas and swamp, that one calls paludes Mæotis in Latin and Greek, where Tartary now arises and the Black Sea; is now called Wallachia, Russia. Aben was allowed to sit down with his people there, but didn't want to move on with the women into Asia, wherefor Homer called them the stupid milk-eaters, as we do the Swiss.

[Leaving the Wends to occupy Illyria, the party of Theur and Ab continued to the Black Sea as far as Crimea, where Ab's party settled.]

King Theuer and the women took there a big wide peninsula here in Europe, that stretches from the south into the sea, from the north into the above-mentioned sea and is almost an island, because there is only a very narrow way from the decline in and towards the rise of Asia almost comes across; so the sea is narrow there, is only half a mile wide, as Pliny writes and Ptolomeus, at thirteen miles long. Taking this peninsula, they named it after their king Teuersau, the narrow of the sea and there a city of the Kempher Ox Ford, of the one that an ox likes to swim over it from one country to the other, from Europe to Asia. Also they called the capital of the island in the middle of the country Kemphering, the Greeks call it Cimerium, the Latins call it Cimbricum. And as Ptolomeus measured it, it was twenty-two miles wide and twenty-seven long.

Afterwards they continued over the above arm, that was only a little half mile wide, and took likewise a long peninsula across in Asia, that also went into the above sea and sea, at twelve miles wide and thirty-eight long. There was a big mountain in the middle of the sea, called the Kempher mountain to the east was also called a mighty mountain twelve miles wide, more than a hundred long, called the Amazon and gray mountain (which was alway beautiful). Later they moved into the country, where the Turks are now and from them is called the big and small Turkey, on both sides of the sea; they further made the adjoining land valid, also a big city in Asia, a sea coast under the mountain Ida, the Antadros was called, they called Kemphring; lived there a hundred years, as Aristotle wrote. Just as the Turk now dominates the country, the Germans did the same thing long ago; men and women. When they overran the above-mentioned narrow of the sea, they might even well over, ought not to have much trouble; might get over with rafts, couldnt keep the trees in check, needed not much shipping, shopping and shelling. Of these two heroes we still call the old songs of strange and wonderful things and travel 'abentheuer' and 'theuerdank'.

[The party of Theur, including the Kempfers or Cimbri and the Mazens or Amazons, occupied the areas around later Constantinople and Troy, and both sides of the Bosphorus or 'Ox Ford'.

Although the Goths actually crossed from Sweden as invaders hostile to everyone, over the course of history they eventually joined with Cimbri and like them, married the Amazons, who were German and should not be confused with the Palatuans or Libyan Amazons who had invaded Europe centuries earlier, and were not known to marry. It was only after several hundred years of campaigning all around the Black Sea, that the Cimmerians, their descendants, penetrated as far as the Euphrates, as the Assyrian Empire collapsed; despite the title or superscript this is actually described in subsequent chapters. Furthermore while Boiger may have sent them out of Germany, he did not himself campaign in Asia, which makes it questionable if Aventinus wrote the headlines, that seem to show a more hyperbolic and promotional hand.]