Aventinus 9

Johannes Turmayr's 1520 History of Bavaria, Chapter 9 - translated and annotated by Ras Feqade, AD 2020.

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## 9. What heroes and kings went with the Emperor Tuitscho and where they presently settled, and of the first king Gomer and his three sons.

**Gomer**, the first king, who migrated with Tuitsch, took Italy. He had three sons named Asch, Reiph, and Tagus; knowing one current and different speech.

[The names in this first section are not included with the 2399 BC migration of Tuyscon in other accounts, including even Aventinus' own version in Latin. Aventinus thus presents here (in Late High German) a tradition that is slightly garbled. It appears that Gomer indeed ruled Janigenes at Genoa, Italy, not as first king but second after Noah himself, from 2414 to 2362 BC.]

**Tagus** was Spanish, he migrated to Hispania with his father's brother **Thubal**, the other king, and took the same country.

[This reflects a confusion present in a number of sources between the name of Gomer's son, Togarmah, and a much later Iberian king called Tagus Orma, who ruled from 2102 to 2073 BC. It appears that Togarmah in fact had remained in Aratta, where his son Hayk slew Enmerkar in 2398 BC.

As for Tubal, he had indeed settled in Spain in 2412 BC as first king there, and thus was not included with Tuyscon's migration.]

**Reiph**, or Reiss was Windish, he settled in White Russia with his father's brother, called the **Moska**, from whom the same country still keeps the name.

[Instead of Meshech son of Japheth, 'the Moska' in this case should rather refer to the Massagetae, who according to *Defloratio* were formed from the tribes of Mash and Gether, sons of Aram, in 2379 BC, while the tribe of Riphath son of Gomer had been settled just beyond them, near the Ural mountains, by Japheth in 2439 BC as indicated by Couillard.]

**Asch** was German, from him Poland and Prussia were perhaps for many years called Aschaburg, as Ptolemy indicates; the Gothlanders are said to have come from him, thus say Josephus, Eusebius, and St. Jerome. In Latin he is called Ascanius, the holy scripture calls him Askenest, whence the current Jews now call us Germans Askenest.

[I am inclined rather to believe the accounts that posit that this Askenaz, third son of Gomer, and Tuyscon, were infact one and the same, however Aventinus instead makes Tuyscon a son born directly to Noah after the Deluge.]

### Of Dis and Albion, the third and fourth king of the Emperor Tuitscho or Teutsch.

King **Dis**, a son of Japheth and brother of the above mentioned king Gomer and Thubal, took all land from the Rhine up to the mountains of Runceval and Spain, as one now calls the provinces Delphinat, Burgundy, and France; who had one speech with the Germans. The said land also spoke German for a time like the present day Rhine valley, as I shall hereafter show with more reason.

[Dis is known to be a surname of the Samot or Samothes mentioned in the last chapter as a foreman at Babel. He had migrated by sea (per Conrad of Salisbury, AD 1160) to Nantes, France, also in 2412 BC, becoming first king of Samothea, later known as Celtica. Samothes Dis has also mistakenly been associated with Meshech, son of Japheth; the first century text *Biblical Antiquities* names the third foreman rather as Phenech, son of Rhode (Dodanim) son of Javan. This seems to me the likelier genealogy for Samothes, whether this Phenech be another name for him, or a confusion with another character associated with the tower, Fenius of the family of Riphath.

Antoine Couillard (1557) relates that in ca. 2393 BC, or about 5 years after Tuiscon settled on the Rhine, Samothes sought, along with the neighboring kings Gomer and Tubal, to place the region between the Rhine and Seine, the future Belgica, under the administration of Tuyscon, as it was overgrown with wild beasts. A mission was sent to secure permission for this border change from the monarch in Armenia, who at that time would be Scythes of Aratta Saga; Tuiscon thus began to administer as far as the Seine, from 2389 BC until the end of his reign, when it reverted to Samothes' son Magus; following Magus it would once again be occupied by Germans under Trebeta.]

King **Albion** ruled on the island that one now calls England and Scotland; it was called Albion long ago, so it is called by Ptolemy, who artfully and correctly described the whole world.

[Albion according to most tradition was a renegade grandson of the somewhat later Osiris; British historians say Albion and his host seized Great Britain from the Samotheans (ca. 2025 BC), and his defeat by Hercules (Nebtawyre) on the Rhone would occur in 1985 BC. Why Aventinus places Albion here is somewhat inexplicable, but he clearly could not have accompanied Tuyscon.

Aventinus' later *German Chronicle* calls Albion a son of Ister and makes him the same as Elb below, saying he ruled both Bohemia and Britain, however Britain seems to have been uninhabited until Samotheans settled the south, after 2255 BC.]

### Of Jon and Tyras, the fifth and sixth kings of the Emperor Tuitsch or Teutsch.

**Jon** the king, a brother of the aforementioned king Gomer and Tubal. This one had settled in Greece with his cousins **Arcadius** and **Emathius**, whence the same places were called long ago Ionia, Arcadia and Emathia.

[Javan had already settled the Aegean islands with his people in 2439 BC, and thus was not included on Tuyscon's migration of 2399 BC. Arkad and Hamath, sons of Canaan, are known from *Defloratio* to have settled Arcadia and Emathia (the later Macedon) respectively, in 2352 BC, and should also not be included with Tuyscon's entourage.]

The hero **Tyras**, the above mentioned Jon's brother, took the land where Constantinople lies. the Turks have all this land now, and it was called little Turkey from them.

[Aventinus' version is somewhat muddled; it rather appears that in 2352 BC, along with Arkad and Hamath mentioned just above, Tiras son of Japheth migrated from Tyre in Lebanon, to the mouth of the Dniester, anciently called Tyras. The name Thracia referred to different areas of the Balkans at different times, and only finally came to mean the region around Constantinople.]

So all things operate at the time, country and people, including their names, perish and dissolve; though it is very little, that should be done most, to consider and take to heart.

### Of the other 22 heroes, who came to our land with Emperor Tuitsch.

[Unlike the names in the preceding section, those in this section do seem to be bona fide members of Tuyscon's party who settled Germania in 2399 BC.]

**Scharmater** the highest captain who came with king Tuitsch into the land, invented warriors, unknown at the time, to shield the country and people, wherefore he acquired great favor with the common man, some of them were described by very old historians (such as Berosus and the Chaldeans) as Sarmatians, called in Hebrew and the Bible Sharmoth. Claudius Ptolemeus, the most famous scholar of star measurement and arithmetic, names the land beyond the Vistula towards the rising of the sun in Greek, that is Sarmatia, where now dwell noticeably large Windish peoples, the Prussians, Livonians, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Moscovites and part of the Tatars.

[*Defloratio*, here called 'Berosus', uses the name Sarmatia to mean all Germania. Genesis mentions Hazarmaweth as a son of Joktan. If he assembled a force, the claim here to be the first is questionable; it seems Enmerkar or Nimrod had already assembled an army with which he had subjected Hamazi ca. 2414 BC and invaded Aratta around the same time as Tuyscon's emigration in 2399 BC, although following the great Deluge in 2755 BC, battles and wars proper would not recommence being fought on Earth again until 2376 BC, Kish v. Elam.

Procosius (10th century) allegedly also mentioned the same tradition that Sarmatia was Hazarmaveth, however he asserted rather that this Sauromates was in fact a son of Elishah, son of Javan, and ancestor of the Polish royalty. ]

But for a while perhaps the Bavarians also traversed such territory long ago, as I shall describe hereafter, at the end of this first book.

This Scharmat's son, called king **Tanaus**, gave name to the river Tanais (which rises in Mosquiterland and is now called Don by the Tartars living there now), and divided Europe and Asia from one another.

['Mosquiterland' is probably a corruption from Massagetae and not just 'Muscovy'.]

The 14th prince is in our speech **Dan**, in Latin Danus or Dacus. From him have arrived the Danes, whose king is very mighty and famous with the Germans. Not long now in fresh memory, the Duke Christoph of Bavaria was king of the Danes from the said lands. From the Danes is Denmark named, which is a peninsula stretching in the German Sea, the inhabitants of which region were called Cimbros, Cimmerios by the ancient Greeks and Romans, Kemper and Kempfer in our speech.

**Gott** is the 15th hero (in Latin Geta and Gotus), he built the principality and island of Gotland and named it after himself. From this country, the Goths (in Latin Getae and Goti) after many years (when kings Haun, Norein, and Baiger the sons of King Alman, the German Hercules, came to Germania) migrated with their kings Berreich and Vilmer to the Danube and the river Theisa, which has this name name from **Theissa**, in Latin Tibisco, the 16th hero and captain of king Tuitsch or Teutsch. The same region is now called Hungary, Transylvania and Wallachia. Now the Gothic kingdom should have stood more than two thousand years around the above mentioned two waters, the Danube and Theissa. So Jordanus, a bishop of Ravenna, by birth a Gotlander, writes in the days of emperor Justinian the great, but his book is wrong and not yet fully printed.

From the aforementioned two princes, Dan and Goth and their descendants, the Eastern Sea from the Elbe to the Vistula has perhaps taken the name Gottenau, a large arm of the high aind great German Sea, according to the residents of the open and Western Sea. Gottenau is called 'sinum Godanum' in Latin, according to Pliny and Pomponius Mela, describers of lands and peoples.

[Gott is known as Gethar in Magnus, who relates that he was a son of Magog, and that the Magogites had migrated to the Upper Baltic region already as the tower was being built. Gethar established the Goths in the lower Baltic the same year the tower was abandoned in Eridu, 2424 BC, thus preceding the migration of Tuyscon et al. into Europe by 25 years. Therefore it seems that the Goths were already active in this area when Tuyscon's party would have encountered them. At this time Gott or Gethar son of Magog would have voluntarily become one of Tuyscon's subjects, as suggested by his inclusion in this section. However upon Gethar's death in 2305 BC, the Goths became ruled by the Swedish king Ubbo, indicating their transfer away from Tuyscon in that year.

The later migration mentioned here, of part of the Goths to the Danube under Beric and Filmer, took place 1780-1705 BC; additionally it was in 1751 BC that King Humbel of Sweden appointed his son Danus over Vetala, founding the Danish monarchy. The inclusion of a Danus in this section among the captains of Tuyscon in 2399 BC, must then refer to an earlier individual, accounting for the province between the Elbe and Vistula. Latin *Gedanum* seems to refer to the Bay of Gdansk, but I have found no reference to a Gottenau in that area.]

**Meis** or Mæsa the 17th prince, with his sons **Brigs** or Phryx, and **Thyn** or Bithyn, built the kingdom under the Sava, so with the Danube stretching to the sea, in Europe also beyond the sea in Asia, occupied with people, named after him and his sons. The Roman and Greek geographers, rhymers and poets name the kingdom under the Sava after the aforementioned princes, that now may be called Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Moesia (in our speech Meysen) and after his sons in Asia Bithynia, Mysia, Phrygia, so the best known for our Germans is called the kingdom of Troy. Such vast, powerful countries are now all Turkish.

[This Meis or Maesa is the correct identity of Meshech, son of Japheth, whom others have confused with Mesh son of Aram, or with Samothes Dis. It seems his tribe was allowed to settle Moesia in 2399 BC, as a staging zone or liason area for transferral to their greater inheritances that lay beyond the Atlantic.

Aventinus' later *German Chronicle* claims Mesa is the father not only of Brigus and Thynis, but also of Danus, Gotus, and Panno, and further that Mesa is the son of Aram and brother of Alanus. Since only the parentage of Danus is not known, it is possible that he was a son of Meshech.]

Dalmatia the kingdom, called by the old Germans Möran from a city lying on the Venetian Sea, whence now our emperor, king and earlier the Bavarian princes, landgraves of Dachau near Munich, margraves of Andex or Heiligenberg above Munich (as I find in the old letters of freedom to Tegernsêe Beuern and Diessen) title Duke. It had its name from king **Dalmater** the 20th captain of Emperor Teutsch. On him adjoined king Ophir or **Epirus** on the east below, duke **Jader** on the west above. This kingdom was called Albania and Rumania not so many years ago, but now Turkey, in Latin and Greek it is called by the above mentioned noble Epirus.

[Dalmatia and Epirus are Almodad and Ophir, sons of Joktan who had refused to work on the tower (*Bib. Ant.*), and were smuggled to Armenia by their father. The original Epirotes did not long remain in Epirus, but migrated to the Indus Valley after 2374 BC where they established Ophir and Melukka.]

The Windish Mark, belonging to the archduchy of Austria, was set up by the hero Jader, there he built cities and places named after him, as Pliny and Ptolemy the geographer give good witness, called now by the learned Liburnia and Illyricum, in our tongue as Larnam and Illyria. After a long time the Winds forced the Romans away from the land; after the Winds we Germans now call it the Windish March.

[Jader probably corresponds with Jerah, a son of Joktan.]

The Sava, the large river that now divides the Hungarian kingdom and the Austrian archduchy from the Turks, got its name from the hero **Sau**, the 22nd duke and companion, who with King Tuitsch, our first father and master, came from Armenia. The Sava rises in Crainberg [Kranjska Gora] above Laubach, the main town in Carania.

[Sau seems to be Saba son of Joktan, who also had refused to work on the tower. He also emigrated after 2374 BC, resettling in Yemen along with Havilah.]

The hero **Äzel** and his kinsman **Benno** lived in the country above the Sava between the Danube and Drava, which region now is partly of the Hungarian king, partly of the archduke of Austria; it was previously called Äzelland by the Germans, later Niderpangä, in Latin Pannonia, in Greek Pæonia, and the town of Ofen Atzelburg, from Panno the king, who later also went there. From the first two captains mentioned, quite a few cities, spots and areas were named there, as listed in Ptolemy and Berosus. Hungary, Bavaria, and Winds have wrested such land from the Italians and the Roman empire, as I will say afterwards in the third and fourth books.

[Azel is Uzal, son of Joktan, while Benno is possibly Cainan, great grandfather of Joktan.]

**Eber** and his son **Hister** settled above the Drava between the Lech and Danube. Eber built Ebersau around Chrems, a town called Eburodunum by Ptolemeo. From Hister the Danube, the largest river in Europe, is called in Latin and Greek as Hister and also the land Histria, as when the old letters, still available, indicated that the Bavarian princes in the same place, titled themselves in the margrave. Now it is under the rule of Venice, but the Archduke of Austria has Trieste inside. Above the Lech to the west, there lived king **Adler**, the 28th captain of the Emperor Tuitscho, from whom the Adlerberg still got its name and in Ptolemy the mountain from which the Rhine springs is called mons Adulas. His son **Thau** lived on the Danube, and gave the river the same name that it still has with us.

[Hister is Joktan himself, already mentioned in the last chapter as Ister. The 12th century historian Michael the Syrian also mentions that some of Joktan's sons settled on the Danube. Adler or Adula is Hadoram, son of Joktan. The descendants of Eber's other son, Peleg, remained near the tower at Ur.]

The hero **Sala** settled in Nordgau, and **Elb** the King in Bohemia; From these the rivers Sal and Elb took their names, as they are still so called. From Sala are named Sal, Saler, Salerau, Solern, Salistat, Seliberg, Saller: old Bavarian place names.

[Sala is the son of Cainan, father of Eber and grandfather of Joktan. Elb is possibly Jobab, another son of Joktan who had refused to build the tower.]

Where the two heroes **Dickel** and **Höril** settled, who were also companions of King Tuitsch, and migrated with him to this country from Armenia, I have not yet learned to explore another. Thus I want to return and go further.

[These would be Decla and Obal, another two of Joktan's sons. Höril might easily be supposed in error to mean Havilah, but Aventinus' Latin text here unambiguously gives his name as Obalus. Obal, and perhaps also Decla, ended up in Yemen with Saba.

Saba, Ophir, and Obal are thus the three sons of Joktan who settled in Europe, but soon thereafter turn up in Asia. They are also the same three who several centuries later, around 1700 BC, migrated from Asia to Africa. One of Joktan's sons had evidently settled in Arabia Felix first in 2406 BC, in the 18th year of Enmerkar; *Defloratio* says Saba and his son Gogus, but surely it was Havilah -- rather than Saba who only 7 years later settled on the Sava in the Balkans as seen above.

What Aventinus was not able to find in German records regarding Saba, Ophir and Obal may be deduced from Semitic accounts. A number of early sources include a cursory notation taken from some lost ancient annal about Ophir being established on the Indus, and Saba and Havilah in Yemen. These include *Kitab al-Magall*, *Cave of Treasures*, and *Conflict of Adam*. The *Chronicle of Michael the Syrian* (AD 1195) provides the fullest form of this material, though still somewhat confusedly:

*"Now when Peleg died, the sons of his brother Joktan observed that they had not received their legacy and they were angry. They set up three leaders for themselves: Saba, Ophir, and Havila. They cleverly made weapons—swords, bows, armor, helmets, shields—and started to defeat everyone who fled before them. In order to withstand their depredations and survive, they began to construct fortresses and strongholds. This was the start and cause of weaponry. After many were defeated by them, they beseeched the sons of Joktan to take their legacy wherever they pleased and to end the warfare against them. Saba took the incense-producing country which was called Saba after his own name. Ophir took the land of gold mines which is India. Havila took the land of precious stone which was named after him Evilath.*" [French translation: Havila took the region of the Danube river, where are precious stones.]'Havila' here should presumably read his similarly named brother Obal, who may have settled first on the Danube before emigrating to Yemen. Peleg begat Reu in 2483 BC (*Jubilees*) and died 109 years later (Samaritan Genesis), 2374 BC. At that time, 25 years after settling in the Balkans, and only two after the first actual war had occurred between Kish and Elam, it seems some dispute arose in Europe with several of the Joktanite states arming themselves against unspecified neighbors. Aventinus may allude to this time with his assertion above crediting Sarmatia ie Hazarmaveth with creating the first army.

*Defloratio* later goes on to note that "in the 45th year of Belus (which is 2323 BC), Janus led some colonies out into Arabia Felix". This seems to indicate the year that Barwain or Janus II / Jonitus, the fourth son of Noah, assisted the peoples of Saba and Obal, who then abandoned their settlements in Europe, to establish Sabea in Yemen. The nation of Ophir, after leaving their name to Epirus, likewise made the move to the Indus where they were known as Puru, Melukka, and Indus Valley Civilization. Barwain had ruled Elam after 2342 BC and was allied with Scythes of Scythia; we may conjecture that Saba and Ophir formationed with Sarmatia to oppose the Scythian advance to the Don across the allotment of Shem, and were bought off by Barwain's efforts.]

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