Bastarnae

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Bastarnae" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Bastarnae (

The earliest Graeco-Roman historians to refer to the Bastarnae imply that they spoke Celtic languages. In contrast, later historical sources imply that they spoke Germanic languages, and could be considered Germanic peoples. Like other peoples who lived in the same geographical region, Graeco-Roman writers also referred to the Bastarnae as a "Scythian" people, but this was probably a reference to their general way of life, rather than a linguistic category.

Although largely sedentary, some elements may have adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle. So far, no archaeological sites have been conclusively attributed to the Bastarnae. The archaeological horizons most often associated by scholars with the Bastarnae are the Zarubintsy and Poienesti-Lukashevka cultures.

The Bastarnae first came into conflict with the Romans during the first century BC when, in alliance with Dacians and Sarmatians, they unsuccessfully resisted Roman expansion into Moesia and Pannonia. Later, they appear to have maintained friendly relations with the Roman Empire during the first two centuries AD. This changed c. 180, when the Bastarnae are recorded as participants in an invasion of Roman territory, once again in alliance with Sarmatian and Dacian elements. In the mid-3rd century, the Bastarnae were part of a Gothic-led grand coalition of lower Danube tribes that repeatedly invaded the Balkan provinces of the Roman Empire.

Many Bastarnae were resettled within the Roman Empire in the late third century.

Etymology

The origin of the tribal name is uncertain. It is not even clear whether it was an exonym (a name ascribed to them by outsiders) or an endonym (a name by which the Bastarnae described themselves). A related question is whether the groups denoted "Bastarnae" by the Romans considered themselves a distinct ethnic group at all (endonym) or whether it was a generic exonym used by the Greco-Romans to denote a disparate group of tribes of the Carpathian region that could not be classified as Dacians or Sarmatians.

One possible derivation is from the

It is possible that the Roman term basterna, denoting a type of wagon or litter, is derived from the name of this people (or, if it is an exonym, that the name of the people is derived from it) who were known, like many Germanic tribes, to travel with a wagon train for their families.^{[4][improper synthesis?]}

It has also been suggested that the name is linked with the Germanic word bastard, meaning illegitimate or mongrel, and this name is sometimes contrasted to proposed Germanic etymologies for the name of the Sciri who lived in the same general region. However, Roger Batty considers this Germanic derivation unlikely.^[5] If the name is an endonym, then this derivation is unlikely, as most endonyms have flattering meanings (e.g. "brave", "strong", "noble").

Trubačev

The original homeland of the Bastarnae remains uncertain. Babeş and Shchukin argue in favour of

It thus appears that the Bastarnae were settled in a vast arc stretching around the northern and eastern flanks of the Carpathians from south-east Poland to the Danube Delta. The larger group inhabited the northern and eastern slopes of the Carpathians and the region between the Prut and Dnieper rivers (modern-day Moldova/western Ukraine), while a separate group (the Peucini, Sidoni and Atmoni) dwelt in and north of the Danube Delta region.^[16]

Ethno-linguistic affiliation

Scholars hold divergent theories about the ethnicity of the Bastarnae. One view, following what appears to be the most authoritative view among earliest scholars, is that they spoke a

Polybius (200–118 BC) writing about the time of Perseus of Macedon (d. 166 BCE):

"A mission from the Dardanians now arrived, telling of the Bastarnae, their numbers, the huge size and the valour of their warriors, and also pointing out that Perseus and the Galatians were in league with this tribe. They said they were much more afraid of him than of the Bastarnae, and they begged for aid."^[22]

According to Livy (64 BC – 17 AD):

"The way to the Hadriatic and to Italy lay through the Scordisci; that was the only practicable route for an army, and the Scordisci were expected to grant a passage to the Bastarnae without any difficulty, for neither in speech nor habits were they dissimilar, and it was hoped that they would unite forces with them when they saw that they were going to secure the plunder of a very wealthy nation."^[17]

According to Strabo (64 BC – 24 AD):

"However, it is clear from the "climata" and the parallel distances that if one travels longitudinally towards the east, one encounters the regions that are about the Borysthenes and that are to the north of the Pontus; but what is beyond Germany and what beyond the countries which are next after Germany — whether one should say the Bastarnae, as most writers suspect, or say that others lie in between, either the Iazyges, or the Roxolani, or certain other of the wagon-dwellers — it is not easy to say; nor yet whether they extend as far as the ocean along its entire length, or whether any part is uninhabitable by reason of the cold or other cause, or whether even a different race of people, succeeding the Germans, is situated between the sea and the eastern Germans. And this same ignorance prevails also in regard to the rest of the peoples that come next in order on the north; for I know neither the Bastarnae, nor the Sauromatae, nor, in a word, any of the peoples who dwell above the Pontus, nor how far distant they are from the Atlantic Sea, nor whether their countries border upon it."^[18]

According to Plutarch (46–120 AD):

"He also secretly stirred up the Gauls settled along the Danube, who are called Basternae, an equestrian host and warlike; and he invited the Illyrians, through Genthius their king, to take part with him in the war. And a report prevailed that the Barbarians had been hired by him to pass through lower Gaul, along the coast of the Adriatic, and make an incursion into Italy."^[23]

According to Tacitus (56–120 AD), describing the peoples of Germania:

"As to the tribes of the Peucini, Veneti, and Fenni I am in doubt whether I should class them with the Germans or the Sarmatæ, although indeed the Peucini called by some Bastarnæ, are like Germans in their language, mode of life, and in the permanence of their settlements. They all live in filth and sloth, and by the intermarriages of the chiefs they are becoming in some degree debased into a resemblance to the Sarmatæ."^[19]

According to Cassius Dio (155–235 AD):

"During the same period in which these events occurred Marcus Crassus was sent into Macedonia and Greece and carried on war with the Dacians and Bastarnae. I have already stated who the former were and why they had become hostile; the Bastarnae, on the other hand, who are properly classed as Scythians, had at this time crossed the Ister and subdued the part of Moesia opposite them, and afterwards subdued the Triballi who adjoin this district and the Dardani who inhabit the Triballian country."^[24]

According to Zosismus (490s–510 AD):

"He likewise left in Thrace the Bastarnae, a Scythian people, who submitted to him, giving them land to inhabit there; on which account they observed the Roman laws and customs."^[25]

Celtic

A leading reason to consider the Bastarnae as Celtic is that the regions they are documented to have occupied (the northern and eastern slopes of the Carpathians) overlapped to a great extent with the locations of Celtic tribes attested in the northern Carpathians. (The modern name of this region,

The earliest historians give a Celtic or Gallic origin to the Bastarnae. Roman historian Livy, writing in c. 10 AD, attests that the Bastarnae spoke Celtic. Relating the Bastarnic invasion of the Balkans of 179 BC (see Allies of Philip of Macedon below), he describes them then as "they were not very different in either language or manners" to the Celtic tribe of the Scordisci, a tribe of Pannonia. The Scordisci are described as Celtic by Strabo (although he adds that they had mingled with Illyrians and Thracians).^[28] The Greek historian Plutarch inform us that the Roman consul Hostilius "secretly stirred up the Gauls settled along the Danube, who are called Basternae".^[23]

However, a Celtic identity for the Bastarnae is apparently contradicted by

The three names of Bastarnae leaders found in ancient sources are of Celtic origin: Cotto,[33] Clondicus^[34] and Teutagonus.^[35][36]

Germanic

Greco-Roman geographers of the first century AD are unanimous in associating the Bastarnae and Peucini with Germanic peoples, and one source, Tacitus, specifies that they spoke a language like the Germanic peoples. The Greek geographer Strabo (writing c. 5–20 AD) says the Bastarnae are "of Germanic stock".^[10]

The Roman geographer

The Roman historian Tacitus (c. 100 AD) described the Bastarnae as probably being a Germanic people, but with substantial Sarmatian influence:^[40]

As to the tribes of the Peucini, Veneti, and Fenni I am in doubt whether I should class them with the Germans or the Sarmatæ, although indeed the Peucini called by some Bastarnæ, are like Germans in their language, mode of life, and in the permanence of their settlements. They all live in filth and sloth, and by the intermarriages of the chiefs they are becoming in some degree debased into a resemblance to the Sarmatæ.

Peucinorum Venethorumque et Fennorum nationes Germanis an Sarmatis adscribam dubito. quamquam Peucini, quos quidam Bastarnas vocant, sermone cultu sede ac domiciliis ut Germani agunt. sordes omnium ac torpor procerum: conubiis mixtis nonnihil in Sarmatarum habitum foedantur.

Scytho-Sarmatian

Strabo includes the

It is possible that some Bastarnae may have been assimilated by the surrounding (and possibly dominant) Sarmatians, perhaps adopting their tongue (which belonged to the Iranian group of Indo-European languages) and customs. Thus Tacitus' comment that "mixed marriages are giving [the Bastarnae] to some extent the vile appearance of the Sarmatians".^[40] On the other hand, the Bastarnae maintained a separate name until ca. 300 AD, probably implying retention of their distinctive ethno-linguistic heritage up to that time.^[43] It seems likely, on balance, that the core population of Bastarnae had always been, and continued to be, Germanic in language and culture.

Material culture

According to Malcolm Todd, traditional archaeology has not been able to construct a typology of Bastarnae material culture, and thus to ascribe particular archaeological sites to the Bastarnae.^[44] A complicating factor is that the regions where Bastarnae are attested contained a patchwork of peoples and cultures (Sarmatians, Scythians, Dacians, Thracians, Celts, Germans and others), some sedentary, some nomadic. In any event, post-1960s archaeological theory has questioned the validity of equating material "cultures", as defined by archaeologists, with distinct ethnic groups. In this view, it is impossible to attribute a "culture" to a particular ethnic group: it is likely that the material cultures discerned in the region belonged to several, if not all, of the groups inhabiting it. These cultures probably represent relatively large-scale socio-economic interactions between disparate communities of the broad region, possibly including mutually antagonistic groups.^[44]

It is not even certain whether the Bastarnae were sedentary, nomadic or semi-nomadic. Tacitus' statement that they were "German in their way of life and types of dwelling" implies a sedentary bias, but their close relations with the Sarmatians, who were nomadic, may indicate a more nomadic lifestyle for some Bastarnae, as does their attested wide geographical range.^[45] If the Bastarnae were nomadic, then the sedentary "cultures" identified by archaeologists in their lebensraum would not represent them. Nomadic peoples generally leave scant traces, due to the impermanent materials and foundations used in the construction of their dwellings.

Scholars have identified two closely related sedentary "cultures" as possible candidates to represent the Bastarnae (among other peoples) as their locations broadly correspond to where ancient sources placed the Basternae: the

Starting in about 200 AD, the Chernyakhov culture became established in the modern-day western Ukraine and Moldova region inhabited by the Bastarnae. The culture is characterised by a high degree of sophistication in the production of metal and ceramic artefacts, as well as of uniformity over a vast area. Although this culture has conventionally been identified with the migration of the Gothic ethnos into the region from the northwest, Todd argues that its most important origin is Scytho-Sarmatian. Although the Goths certainly contributed to it, so probably did other peoples of the region such as the Dacians, proto-Slavs, Carpi and possibly the Bastarnae.^[49]

Relations with Rome

Roman Republican era (to 30 BC)

Allies of Philip of Macedon (179–8 BC)

The Bastarnae first appear in the historical record in 179 BC, when they crossed the Danube in a massive force. They did so at the invitation of their long-time ally, King

However, Philip, now 60 years of age, died before the Bastarnae could arrive. The Bastarnae host was still en route through Thrace, where it became embroiled in hostilities with the locals, who had not provided them with sufficient food at affordable prices as they marched through. Probably in the vicinity of Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv, Bulgaria), the Bastarnae broke out of their marching columns and pillaged the land far and wide. The terrified local Thracians took refuge with their families and animal herds on the slopes of Mons Donuca (Mount Musala), the highest mountain in Thrace. A large force of Bastarnae chased them up the mountain, but were driven back and scattered by a massive hailstorm. Then the Thracians ambushed them, turning their descent into a panic-stricken rout. Back at their wagon fort in the plain, around half of the demoralised Bastarnae decided to return home, leaving c. 30,000 to press on to Macedonia.^[34]

Philip's son and successor Perseus, while protesting his loyalty to Rome, deployed his Bastarnae guests in winter quarters in a valley in Dardania, presumably as a prelude to a campaign against the Dardani the following summer. However, in the depths of winter their camp was attacked by the Dardani. The Bastarnae easily beat off the attackers, chased them back to their chief town and besieged them, but they were surprised in the rear by a second force of Dardani, which had approached their camp stealthily by mountain paths, and proceeded to storm and ransack it. Having lost their entire baggage and supplies, the Bastarnae were obliged to withdraw from Dardania and to return home. Most perished as they crossed the frozen Danube on foot, only for the ice to give way.^[52] Despite the failure of Philip's Bastarnae strategy, the suspicion aroused by these events in the Roman Senate, which had been warned by the Dardani of the Bastarnae invasion, ensured the demise of Macedonia as an independent state.^[53] Rome declared war on Perseus in 171 BC and after the Macedonian army was crushed at the Battle of Pydna (168 BC), Macedonia was split up into four Roman puppet-cantons (167 BC).^[54] Twenty-one years later, these were in turn abolished and annexed to the Roman Republic as the province of Macedonia (146 BC).

Allies of Getan high king Burebista (62 BC)

The Bastarnae first came into direct conflict with Rome as a result of expansion into the lower Danube region by the

The presence of Roman forces in the Danube Delta was seen as a major threat by all the neighbouring transdanubian peoples: the Peucini Bastarnae, the Sarmatians and, most importantly, by Burebista (ruled 82–44 BC), king of the Getae. The Getae occupied the region today called Wallachia as well as Scythia Minor and were either a Dacian- or Thracian- speaking people.^{[Note 3]} Burebista had unified the Getae tribes into a single kingdom, for which the Greek cities were vital trade outlets. In addition, he had established his hegemony over neighbouring Sarmatian and Bastarnae tribes. At its peak, the Getae kingdom reportedly was able to muster 200,000 warriors. Burebista led his transdanubian coalition in a struggle against Roman encroachment, conducting many raids against Roman allies in Moesia and Thrace, penetrating as far as Macedonia and Illyria.^[62]

The coalition's main chance came in 62 BC, when the Greek cities rebelled against Roman rule. In 61 BC, the notoriously oppressive and militarily incompetent proconsul of Macedonia,

Once he had established himself as sole ruler of the Roman state in 30 BC, Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted son Augustus inaugurated a strategy of advancing the empire's south-eastern European border to the line of the Danube from the Alps, the Dinaric Alps and Macedonia. The primary objective was to increase strategic depth between the border and Italy and also to provide a major fluvial supply route between the Roman armies in the region.^[69]

On the lower Danube, which was given priority over the upper Danube, this required the annexation of Moesia. The Romans' target was thus the tribes which inhabited Moesia, namely (from west to east) the

The Bastarnae provided the casus belli by crossing the Haemus and attacking the Dentheletae, a Thracian tribe who were Roman allies. Crassus marched to the Dentheletae's assistance, but the Bastarnae host hastily withdrew over the Haemus at his approach. Crassus followed them closely into Moesia but they would not be drawn into battle, withdrawing beyond the Tsibritsa.^[73] Crassus now turned his attention to the Moesi, his prime target. After a successful campaign which resulted in the submission of a substantial section of the Moesi, Crassus again sought out the Bastarnae. Discovering their location from some peace envoys they had sent to him, he lured them into battle near the Tsibritsa by a stratagem. Hiding his main body of troops in a wood, he stationed as bait a smaller vanguard in open ground before the wood. As expected, the Bastarnae attacked the vanguard in force, only to find themselves entangled in the full-scale pitched battle with the Romans that they had tried to avoid. The Bastarnae tried to retreat into the forest but were hampered by the wagon train carrying their women and children, as these could not move through the trees. Trapped into fighting to save their families, the Bastarnae were routed. Crassus personally killed their king, Deldo, in combat, a feat which qualified him for Rome's highest military honour, spolia opima, but Augustus refused to award it on a technicality.^{[Note 4]} Thousands of fleeing Bastarnae perished, many asphyxiated in nearby woods by encircling fires set by the Romans, others drowned trying to swim across the Danube. Nevertheless, a substantial force dug themselves into a powerful hillfort. Crassus laid siege to fort, but had to enlist the assistance of Rholes, a Getan petty king, to dislodge them, for which service Rholes was granted the title of socius et amicus populi Romani ("ally and friend of the Roman people").^[77]

The following year (28 BC), Crassus marched on Genucla. Zyraxes escaped with his treasure and fled over the Danube into Scythia to seek aid from the Bastarnae.^[78] Before he was able to bring reinforcements, Genucla fell to a combined land and fluvial assault by the Romans.^[71] The strategic result of Crassus' campaigns was the permanent annexation of Moesia by Rome.

About a decade later, in 10 BC,

It appears that in the final years of Augustus' rule, the Bastarnae made their peace with Rome. The Res Gestae Divi Augusti ("Acts of the divine Augustus", 14 AD), an inscription commissioned by Augustus to list his achievements, states that he received an embassy from the Bastarnae seeking a treaty of friendship.^[79] It appears that a treaty was concluded and apparently proved remarkably effective, as no hostilities with the Bastarnae are recorded in surviving ancient sources until c. 175, some 160 years after Augustus' inscription was carved. But surviving evidence for the history of this period is so thin that it cannot be excluded that the Bastarnae clashed with Rome during it.^{[Note 5]} The Bastarnae participated in the Dacian Wars of Domitian (86–88) and Trajan (101–102 and 105–106), fighting on both wars on the Dacian side^[80]

In the late second century, the Historia Augusta mentions that in the rule of Marcus Aurelius (161–180), an alliance of lower Danube tribes including the Bastarnae, the Sarmatian Roxolani and the Costoboci took advantage of the emperor's difficulties on the upper Danube (the Marcomannic Wars) to invade Roman territory.^[81]

Third century

During the late second century, the main ethnic change in the northern Black Sea region was the immigration, from the Vistula valley in the North, of the

Under the leadership of the Goths, a series of major invasions of the Roman empire were launched by a grand coalition of lower Danubian tribes from c. 238 onwards. The participation of the Bastarnae in these is likely but largely unspecified, due to Zosimus' and other chroniclers' tendency to lump all these tribes under the general term "Scythians" – meaning all the inhabitants of Scythia, rather than the specific

Claudius II was the first of a sequence of military emperors (the so-called "Illyrian emperors" from their main ethnic origin) who restored order in the empire in the late third century. These emperors followed a policy of large-scale resettlement within the empire of defeated barbarian tribes, granting them land in return for an obligation of military service much heavier than the usual conscription quota. The policy had the triple benefit, from the Roman point of view, of weakening the hostile tribe, repopulating the plague-ravaged frontier provinces (bringing their abandoned fields back into cultivation) and providing a pool of first-rate recruits for the army. It could also be popular with the barbarian prisoners, who were often delighted by the prospect of a land grant within the empire. In the fourth century, such communities were known as laeti.^[87]

The emperor

• Carpathian Tumuli culture
• Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus
• List of Germanic tribes
• List of Celtic tribes

Notes

References

1. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), William Smith, LLD, Ed, Peucini
2. ^ Iris von Bredow, "Peucini, Peuci", in Brill's New Pauly.
3. ^ Köbler *bʰas
4. ^ ^{a b} Dio LI.24.4: "For not only were they hindered by their waggons, which were in the rear, but their desire to save their wives and their children was also instrumental in their defeat."
5. ^ Batty (2008)
6. ^ ^{a b} Trubačev INDOARICA в Северном Причерноморье, pp. 212–3
7. ^ Procopius. Wars (VIII.I4, 22–30)
8. ^ Shchukin (1989) 65-6, 71–2
9. ^ Batty (2008) 248
10. ^ ^{a b c d} Strabo VII.3.17
11. ^ Babeş (1969) 195–218
12. ^ ^{a b c} Batty (2008) 238
13. ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History, English IV.25, Latin IV.xii.81
14. ^ Pliny the Elder, New History, IV.xiv.100 (Peucini, Basternae, supra dictis contermini Dacis)
15. ^ Ptolemy III.5.9
16. ^ Barrington Plate 22
17. ^ ^{a b} "Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 40, chapter 57". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
18. ^ ^{a b} "LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book VII Chapter 2". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
19. ^ ^{a b} "Cornelius Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, chapter 46". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
20. ^ Shchukin (1990), p. 10.
21. ^ Batty (2008), 243.
22. ^ "Polybius • Histories — Book 25". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
23. ^ ^{a b} "Plutarch • Life of Aemilius". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
24. ^ "Cassius Dio — Book 51". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
25. ^ "Zosimus, New History 1.71 – Livius". www.livius.org. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
26. ^ Batty (2008), 222.
27. ^ ^{a b c} Batty (2008), 237.
28. ^ Strabo VII.5.2
29. ^ Polybius XXV.6.2
30. ^ ^{a b} Almassy 2006, p. 253.
31. ^ CAH Vol X 1996.
32. ^ Année Epigraphique (1905) no. 14
33. ^ ^{a b} Livy XL.57
34. ^ ^{a b} Livy XL.58
35. Gaius Valerius Flaccus
    Argonautica VI.97
36. Teutates
    .
37. ISBN 0-14-051054-0
    .
38. ISBN 0-85229-571-5
    .
39. ^ Pliny NH IV.14
40. ^ ^{a b} Tacitus G.46
41. ^ Dio LI.23.3, 24.2
42. ^ ^{a b} Zosimus I.34
43. ^ cf. Historia Augusta Probus 18
44. ^ ^{a b} Todd (2004) 23-4
45. ^ Todd (2004) 23
46. ^ Shchukin (1989, p. 10)
47. ^ Mallory. EIEC. Page 657
48. ^ Batty (2008) 237-9
49. ^ Todd (2004) 26
50. ^ Livy XXXIII.30
51. ^ A Mocsy. Pannonia and Upper Moesia
52. ^ Livy XLI.19
53. ^ Livy XLI.23 and XLII.12-4
54. ^ Livy XLV.19
55. ^ Smith's Dictionary: Curio
56. ^ Strabo VII.6.1
57. ^ Smith's Dictionary: Lucullus
58. ^ Strabo VII.3.2
59. ^ Strabo VII.3.13
60. ^ Vladimir Georgiev (Gheorghiev), Raporturile dintre limbile dacă, tracă şi frigiană, "Studii Clasice" Journal, II, 1960, 39–58.
61. ^ Dio LI.22.6–7
62. ^ Strabo VII.3.11–12
63. ^ Dio XXXVIII.10.2
64. ^ Dio XXXVIII.10.3 and LI.26.5
65. ^ Crişan (1978) 118
66. ^ Strabo VII.3.5
67. ^ Strabo VII.3.11
68. ^ Dio LI.26.1
69. ^ Res Gestae 30
70. ^ Ptolemy
71. ^ ^{a b} Dio LI.26.5
72. ^ Dio LI.23.2
73. ^ Dio LI.23.5
74. ^ Dio LI.25.2
75. ^ CIL VI.873
76. ^ Syme (1986) 271-2
77. ^ Dio LI.24
78. ^ Dio LI.26.6
79. ^ Res Gestae Aug. 31
80. ISBN 8886359349
    . Retrieved 19 June 2021.
81. ^ Historia Augusta Marcus Aurelius II.22
82. ^ Wolfram (1988) 45
83. ^ Wolfram (1988) 45–46
84. ^ Zosimus I.16, 21
85. ^ Zosimus I.16, 20, 21
86. ^ Zosimus I.22-3
87. ^ Jones (1964) 620
88. ^ Historia Augusta Probus 18
89. ^ Eutropius IX.25
90. ^ Zosimus IV.104-7; 107
91. ^ Jordanes 38–40
92. ^ Jordanes 38
93. ^ Sidonius Carmina 7.341
94. ^ Thompson (1996) 149

Bibliography

Ancient

• Res Gestae Divi Augusti (c. 14 AD)
• Ammianus Marcellinus Res Gestae (c. 395 AD)
• Dio Cassius
  Roman History (c. 230 AD)
• Eutropius Historiae Romanae Breviarium (c. 360 AD)
• Anonymous Historia Augusta (c. 400 AD)
• Ab urbe condita
  (c. 20 BC)
• Jordanes Getica (c. 550 AD)
• Naturalis Historia
  (c. 70 AD)
• Geographia
  (c. 140)
• Sextus Aurelius Victor
  De Caesaribus (c. 380 AD)
• Sidonius Apollinaris Carmina (late fifth century AD)
• Strabo Geographica (c. 10 AD)
• Tacitus Annales (c. 100 AD)
• Tacitus Germania (c. 100 AD)
• Zosimus Historia Nova (c. 500 AD)

Modern

• Almassy, Katalin (2006). "Celts and Dacians(?) In the Great Hungarian Plain 1st c. BC to 1st c. AD" (PDF). In Salac, V.; Bemman, J. (eds.). Mitteleuropa in Zeit Marbods. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.
• Babeş, Mircea: Noi date privind arheologia şi istoria bastarnilor in SCIV 20 (1969) 195–218
• Barrington (2000): Atlas of the Greek and Roman World
• Batty, Roger (2008): Rome and the Nomads: the Pontic-Danubian region in Antiquity
• ISBN 978-052126430-3
  .
• Crişan, Ion (1978): Burebista and his Time
• Faliyeyev, Alexander (2007): Dictionary of Continental Celtic Placenames (online)
• Goldsworthy, Adrian (2000): Roman Warfare
• ISBN 0-5200-8511-6
  . Retrieved 5 May 2013.
• ISBN 1-8438-3033-7
  . Retrieved 12 April 2014.
• Heather, Peter (2009): Empires and Barbarians
• Jones, A.H.M. (1964): Later Roman Empire
• Köbler, Gerhard (2000): Indo-Germanisches Wörterbuch (online)
• Müllenhoff, Karl (1887): Deutsche altertumskunde (vol. II)
• Shchukin, Mark (1989). Rome and the Barbarians in Central and Eastern Europe: 1st Century B.C.-1st Century A.D. B.A.R.
  ISBN 978-0-86054-690-0
  .
• Thompson, E.A. (1996): The Huns
• Todd, Malcolm (2004): The early Germans
• O. N. Trubačev (1999): INDOARICA в Северном Причерноморье
• Waldman, Carl; Mason, Catherine (2006). Encyclopedia of European Peoples.
  ISBN 1-4381-2918-1
  . Retrieved 5 May 2013.
• Wolfram, Herwig (1988): History of the Goths

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bastarnae.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Bastarnae".