This might have happened. The Cimbri are still remembered by the old
district name Himmerland. Plutarch describes the battle at Vercellae,
which took place 101 B.C., and its immediate aftermath. Other classical
writers, such as Tacitus and Strabo, and a treasure of archeological
material enable us to guess at the Cimbri themselves. Apparently
they were a Germanic tribe from Jutland, with some elements of
Celtic culture; by the time they reached Italy they had grown into a
formidable confederation.
King Mithradates the Great (more commonly but less correctly spelled
Mithridates) is, of course, also historical. His expedition into
Galatia in 100 B.C. is not mentioned by the scanty surviving records;
but it is known that he had already fought with that strange kingdom
and annexed some of its territory, so border trouble followed by a
punitive sweep down past Ancyra is quite plausible.
At that time the area now called southern Russia was dominated by
the Alanic tribes, among whom the Rukh-Ansa were prominent. They are
presumably identical with the "Rhoxolani" whom Mithradates' general
Diophantus defeated at the Crimea about 100 B.C.
The tradition described in the epilogue may be found in the
thirteenth-century _Heimskringla_ and, in a different form, in the
chronicle of Saxo Grammaticus.
Otherwise my sources are the usual ancient and modern ones. I have
tried to keep the framework of verifiable historical fact accurate. For
whatever brutality, licentiousness and unreasonable prejudice is shown
by the people concerned, I apologize, adding only that by the standards
of the modern free world the era was a good deal worse than I care to
describe explicitly.
For the sake of connotation, cities and other political units are
generally referred to by their classical rather than contemporary
names. It should be obvious from context where any particular spot lies
on the map. However, the following list of geographical equivalents may
be found interesting.
Ancyra: Ankara, Turkey
Aquitania: West central France
Arausio: Orange, France
Asia: In ordinary Roman usage, the modern Asia Minor plus India
Byzantium: Istanbul, Turkey
Cimberland: Himmerland, northern Jutland, Denmark
Cimmerian Bosporus: A Greek kingdom in the Crimea
Colchis: Mingrelian Georgia, U.S.S.R.
Dacia: Rumania
Galatia: Central Turkey
Gaul: France
Halys River: Kizil River, Turkey
Hellas: Greece
Hellespont: Dardanelles
Helvetia: Switzerland
Macedonia: Northern Greece
Massilia: Marseilles
Narbonensis: Provence, i.e., southern France
Noreia: Near Vienna, Austria
Parthian Empire: Iran and Iraq
Persia: Iran
Pontus: Eastern half of northern Turkish coast, and southward
Sinope: Sinop, Turkey
Tauric Chersonese: The Crimea
Trapezus: Trabzon, Turkey (medieval Trebizond)
Vercellae: Vercelli, Italy, between Turin and Milan