Chapter 4

The Cimbri and the Cimmerians

 

From a historic viewpoint, one of the clues that one has in finding the route of migration of the Israelites toward Western Europe, is the name “Bit Khumri” by which they were known to the Assyrians.  Many Assyrian inscriptions describe, indeed, the house of Israel as “the house of Omri” or “Bit Khumri.”

Omri also can be pronounced Ghomri, says the historian Pinches (The Old Testament in the Light of Historical Records, p. 339).

The Israelites (called “Bit Khumri”) didn’t all stay under the yoke of their conquerors during the entire duration of their captivity.  The Assyrian Empire, reigning over several nations, was incapable of maintaining a rigid control over all its vassals.  In the course of years of captivity, revolts ensued, and detached groups successively evaded to the north and the northwest.

 

Some Unknown People Arrive in Europe

 

During the time Sargon (who took Israel captive) was on the throne (721-704 B.C.), no power could keep him in check, since no constituted and organized power still existed as a nation (Ancient History of the Orient, Lenormant, Vol. 4, Chap. 6, p. 235).

The greatest part of Asia Minor, according to Lenormant, was thus occupied by Hellenistic tribes which were mingled with the people of the Hittite race.  At this time, Rome was only thirty years old  (founded in 753 B.C.); it was neither powerful nor well-known.

In less than 100 years, that is to say about 609 B.C., the Assyrian Empire crumbled.  Immediately afterwards, in Europe, a new nomadic nation, immigrants never known before, appear suddenly.  Greek historians, who tell of these unexpected migrations, admit they know nothing of the origin of these immigrants.  At most they tell us these peoples came from the areas around the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Some historians recognize that these peoples, in their entirety, were composed of organized tribes, these saying that they were delivered from the yoke of the Assyrians!

In an irony of sorts (or is it really?) the Assyrians endured to later escape from Babylon, to go to refuge in Western Europe, becoming thus the neighbors of their former captives!  Because of this Assyrian immigration — principally Germanic, since the Assyrians are the ancestors of the Germans — an influx mixed in small part with Israelites, history considers their predecessors  (the Israelites who, taken into captivity previously by the Assyrians, came before them to Western Europe), people of the Germanic race.  But this hypothesis is in error.

While the Assyrians used the name “Bit Khumri” for the whole of the Israelite tribes, the Greeks knew them under the name “Cymry” or “Kimmeroi,” from which proceeded the terms “Cimbri” and “Cimmerians.”

These people were not all the Germanic race.   As a group, it was the Israelites who, in separate groups, came to Europe at different times.  It is very interesting to note what Thierry says on the subject:

“The earliest writer who makes mention of these Kimbri is Philemon, contemporary of Aristotle: according to him, they called their ocean Mori-Maruss, or the Dead Sea, up to the promontory of Rubeas . . .” (Histoire des Gaulois, Thierry, Intro.,  p. 56).

The Cimbri and the Cimmerians came from the area of the Dead Sea, history tells us.  Naturally, since that was the country of their fathers.

 

The Scythians

 

A number of works have been written on the migration of the Cimmerians in Western Europe.  History finds them reading first in “Scythia,” to the north of the Black Sea, inhabited today by the Russians.

“The Cimmeriis are the most ancient inhabitants of Scythia. . . .  Some of them were nomads while others were farmers” (Histoire des Gaulois, Thierry, Intro., p. 56).  The Encyclopaedia Britannica article on “Scythis” adds that the Cimbri, or Cimmerians, were driven far from this country by a group of invaders coming from the North of Asia, about the seventh century.  These invaders called themselves “Scythians.”

History tells us that a little earlier around the same time, a part of the Scythians marched against the regions of the north whose people actually were connected with Persia.  That part called themselves “Saka” or “Sacae”; it was later known under the general name “Scythia.”

Some 100 years later, Darius I inscribed on the famous “Behistun Stone” that the Cimmerians were made to submit to him along with 22 peoples.  This “Behistun Stone” bears an inscription in three languages — Persian, Susa (Elamite), and Babylonian — in which Darius named the provinces made to submit under his authority.

The long list was written on three pillars, each of which gave the name of the country, or of the province, with their phonetic pronunciation in the three languages.  Here is how the name of Sythia appeared there (The Inscriptions of Darius the Great at Behistun):

 

In Persian

In Susa

In Babylonian

SCYTHIA

SCYTHIA

The country of the

CIMMERIANS

Phonetically: SAKA

Phonetically: SAKA

Phoneticlaly: GIMIRI

 

We can then prove that the terms “Saka” in Persian  (Rawlinson spells it “Sacae”  (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,” p. 27), and “Gimiri” in Babylonian, are synonyms.

Also note that Darius associates the Cimmerians with “Sacae,” and even identifies them as the same people.

Who were, rightfully, these “Sacae” that history has ended up grouping under the general name “Scythians”?  Who were their ancestors?  Were they of the same race to which Darius and others associated them?

The “Sacae,” as we have just seen, made up a part of a group of “peoples” called Scythians; among this mixture of peoples, the “Sacae were of Israelite origin.  In other words, of all the peoples called “Scythians,” the Sacae comprised a separate group  (The History of Herodotus, Book IV, Essay I, footnote 1) who later settled in Western Europe, as history indicates (Proceedings of the Royal Asiatic Society, p. 21).

It is indeed established that among the peoples known under the general name “Scythians,” the Sacae were made up of a group of Cimbri or Cimmerians, that is to say, of people of Israelite tribes in migration toward Western Europe, after their liberation.

Always, we should repeat that the term “Scythia,” like the term “Kimri,” included several different peoples, for in ancient times the inhabitants of a region often adopted the name of that area without necessarily being citizens of it or being under the jurisdiction of the government.

This name “Scythians” ended up becoming rather, a geographic term, describing a specific place, and, after the departure of the first “Cimbri” or Sacae,” many other peoples, traversing that area adopted the name in turn.

Among all the peoples known under the general name “Scythians,” the Sacae were the descendants of the children of Israel!   Not only is it possible for us to notice a parallel by comparing the traditions of the two peoples, but history even recognizes that the majority of the peoples of the British Isles, particularly the “Scots” and the “Saxons,” are the descendants of the Scythians  (New English Dictionary, Article: “Scots”), thus of the Israelites!

Among the different historical affirmations, the one made by Diodorus of Sicily is perhaps the most remarkable and the most interesting.  This Greek historian clearly indicates to us that certain tribes of the Scythians came both from Assyria and from the areas inhabited by the Medes  (Diodorus of Sicily, Book II, chap. 3)!

 

The Saxons

 

What then is the degree of parentage between the Saxons and the Scythians?

As we have already indicated, the “Sacae,” upon arriving in Western Europe, notably in the British Isles, took the general name  “Saxons.”

“Among the diverse nations known under the name Scythians, the Sakai or Sacae represent the ancestors of the Saxons . . . .  This fact can be affirmed without violating the chances of prob­abil­ity.  Sakal-Suna, or “Sons of Sakal” is the same thing as “Saxons” (The History of the Anglo-Saxons, Turner, Vol.  2, Chap. 1, p. 81, emphasis ours).

In all likelihood, the exact derivation of the name “Sacae” — or “Sakae” — is from Isaac, the father of Israel.  The names “Sacae” or “Isaac” have the same etymological root.  Because of the fact that the vowels were mute in the ancient Hebrew language, the two names have the same pronunciation.

“Saxons” — or “Sacal-Suna” — represent then a variation of “Isaac’s sons.”  This well demonstrates the truth, for the Israelites were the sons of Isaac, by Jacob!

The final destination of the Cimbri (or Cimmerians) is one of the most well-established historical facts, and is not a matter of the least controversy.  History assures us that the Cimbri migrated to the west, and established themselves in Wales, Great Britain, and France.

At the close of the fourth century B.C., “a new population spread in Gaul; it didn’t arrive in mass, but in the course of a series of invasions; the two principal ones took place at the beginning and at the end of the period . . . .  The invaders called themselves Kymrians, or Cimmerians, where the Romans took the term Cimbri to designate the Cimmerians (France, Witt, pp. 16-17, emphasis ours).

Although the Greeks and the Romans, before Julius Caesar, had only vague notions about the origins of the peoples to the north of their countries, their own historians are unanimous in admitting that the Cimmerians figured among these peoples.  Moreover, Thierry states this point in a rather remarkable way.  He writes indeed:

“Two historical witnesses which date from the time of Alexander the Great attest to the existence of a people called Kimmerii or Kimbri on the coast of the North Sea, in the peninsula which will later carry the name Jutland (Denmark).  And besides, the scholars recognize the identity of the words Kimmerii  and Kimbri, that both belong to a different genus than the Greek and Latin languages” (Histoire des Gaulois, Thierry,  p. 56).

The famous French historian remarked that Strabo and other Greeks, as is said by Posidonius, call Kimmerii those who would be later known under the name “Kimbri.”  Plutarch, in turn, adds that this change is not at all surprising, while Diodorus of Sicily attributes it to “time” and adopts the opinion of Posidonius, which, according to Thierry, differs generally among the learned Greeks.

History has then incontestably established that the Cimmerians, Cimbri or Kymry are the representatives of one and the same people who invaded France in the course of successive invasions.  Notice these invasions began 100 years after the deportation of the tribes of Israel by the Assyrians.

In our time, a part of these Cimbri inhabit France; this fact is natural since the French are their descendants!


 

Previous | Next | Home