GALINDAE
GALINDAE (
Γαλίνδαι), mentioned by Ptolemy (
3.5.21) in connection with the Venedae, Sudini, and Stavani.
There can be but little hesitation in identifying the names (as Zeuss has done) with that of the Galinditae of
Dusberg and the Prussian antiquarians; whose locality was the tract called Galanda, Galandia, Galendia, Golentz, &c. in East Prussia, on the Spirding Lakes, and in contact with that of the
Sudo-witae the equivalents of the
Sudini. Galindia was one of the eleven divisions of Prussia, that is, of Prussia before it became German; its language being that of the
Old Prussians, a branch of the Lithuanic.
The name of the Galindae is said to occur on the coin of the emperor Volusianus (A.D. 253) which has been the subject of so much controversy. (Vaillant,
Num. Imp. Rom. vol. ii. p. 317; Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 369;
Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscr. vol. xxviii. p. 606.)
Jornandes (
de Get. 23) enumerates this people, under the name of GOLTHES, among the northern tribes who were vanquished by Hermanric, king of the Ostrogoths.
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R.G.L]
