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.
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.
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)!
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!