Gotini

TheGotini(inTacitus), who are generally equated to theCotiniin other sources, were aGaulishtribe living duringRomantimes in the mountains approximately near the modern borders of theCzech Republic,Poland,andSlovakia.

The spelling "Gotini" is only known from one classical source, theDe Origine et situ GermanorumofTacitus.Tacitus clearly distinguishes the Gotini from the similarly namedGotones,whom he discusses in the immediately following passage.

Tacitus described the Gotini as speaking aGaulish languageand working, to their degradation, in mining. Like their neighbours in the mountains, theOsi,they had to pay tribute to both the neighbouringQuadiandSarmatians.Although the Gotini lived in the midst ofSuevicpeoples, in geographicalGermania,they were notGermanicin their language.

The Roman empire underHadrian(ruled 117-38), showing the location of theCotiniCeltic tribe in the northernCarpathianmountains

Probably resident in the area of modern westernSlovakia,Moravia,and southernPoland,they may have constituted all or part of the archaeologicalPúchov culture,with its center in Púchov.

It has also been suggested that the same people are reported byClaudius Ptolemyas the Κῶγνοι.Ptolemy places them south of the Sidones, south of the Askiburgi mountains (probably the modernSudeten mountains) but north ofHercynian valley.So as in Tacitus, they are situated near theBuriand north of the Quadi.

The tribe was apparently first mentioned in 10 BC in the so-called Elogium of Tusculum, an inscription from the time ofAugustusfound inTusculum,south of Rome. It records how alegateofIllyricumentered relations of peace or war with the Cotini andAnarti.

The "Cotini" are later mentioned byDio Cassius,negotiating with the Romans during theMarcomannic Wars.He reports that around 172 AD the Cotini offered to attack the Marcomanni in exchange for a grant of land, then ensured their own destruction by failing to uphold their end of the bargain.

It has been suggested that to punish them,Marcus Aureliusmoved all or some of the Cotini to LowerPannonia,which happened not later than 180 AD. Roman inscriptions of 223-251 AD mention a Pannonian people known as the "cives Cotini"- the Cotini people.