It is a frequent assertion that Suavs were not only late to the game when it comes to appearing on the historical stage but also that their appearance was astounding in its sudden geographic reach and its ethnolinguistic consequences for all of previously Germanics, Sarmatians and, in parts, even Celtic Europe. At the same the frequently mentioned Veneti are dismissed as ancestors of the Suavs (following a suggestion made most durably by Gustaf Kossina though he was not the first to have made the same) and are supposedly some other “Old European” peoples whose lands the Suavs migrated to and whose name they then inherited in the German tongue (much like the Germans became Prussians). To make this work, of course, you have to create a hypothetical Veneti (that survived the Vandals and the Goths long enough to then have their name transferred to the incoming Suavs). And then you have to assume that, out of nowhere, a mass of Suavs reproducing faster than rabbits swarmed the ancient Veneti seats.
And yes, what’s interesting is that whenever the Veneti are mentioned, they are invariably mentioned as inhabiting or roaming vast territories (irrespective the exact location of those territories) or being a “large” people.
Thus we have Pliny:
“Some writers state that these regions, as far as the river Vistula, are inhabited by the Sarmati, the Venedi, the Sciri, and the Hirri…”
We have Tacitus:
“The Venedi have adopted many Sarmatian habits; for their plundering forays take them over all the wooded and mountainous highlands that lie between the Peucini and the Fenni.”
We have Ptolemy:
“The greater Venedae races inhabit Sarmatia along the entire Venedicus bay; and above Dacia are the Peucini and the Basternae; and along the entire coast of Maeotis are the Iazyges and the Rhoxolani; more toward the interior from these are the Amaxobi and the Scythian Alani. Lesser races inhabit Sarmatia near the Vistula river. Below the Venedae are the Gythones, then the Finni, the the Sulones”
And, of course, we have Jordanes, now speaking clearly of the Suavs:
Near their left ridge [the Carpathians], which inclines toward the north, and beginning at the source of the Vistula, the populous race of the Veneti dwell, occupying a great expanses of land. Though their names are now dispersed amid various clans and places, yet they are chiefly called the Sclaveni and Antes. The abode of the Sclaveni extends from the city of Noviodunum and the lake called Mursianus to the Danaster, and northward as far as the [Vistula?]. They have swamps and forests for their cities. The Antes, who are the bravest of these peoples dwelling in the curve of the sea of Pontus, spread from the Danaster to the Danaper, rivers that are many days’ journey apart. But on the shore of Ocean, where the floods of the river Vistula empty from three mouths, the Vidivarii dwell, a people gathered out of various tribes.”
And, again, in a similar vein:
“After the slaughter of the Heruli, Hermanaric also took arms against the Venethi. This people, though despised in war, was strong in numbers and tried to resist him. But a multitude of cowards is of no avail, particularly when God permits an armed multitude to attack them. These people, as we started to say at the beginning of our account or catalogue of nations, though off-shoots from one stock, have now three names, that is, Venethi, Antes and Sclaveni. Though they now rage in war far and wide, in punishment for our sins, yet at that time they were all obedient to Hermanaric’s commands.”
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