Roxolani

[2] Historian George Vernadsky suggested that the Rocas (or Rogas), a tribe conquered by the Ostrogoths in the 4th century, may be a corruption of Ruxs-As.

[4][5] Their first recorded homeland lay between the Volga, Don and Dnieper rivers; they migrated in the 1st century AD toward the Danube, to what is now the Baragan steppes in Romania.

[2] Around 100 BC, they invaded the Crimea under their king Tasius in support of the Scythian warlord Palacus but were defeated by Diophantus, general of Mithradates VI.

Tacitus describes the weight of the armour worn by the "princes and most distinguished persons" made "it difficult for such as have been overthrown by the charge of the enemy to regain their feet".

[7][non-primary source needed] The long two-handed kontos lance, the primary melee weapon of the Sarmatians, was unusable in these conditions.

The Emperor Hadrian reinforced a series of pre-existing fortifications and built numerous forts along the Danube to contain the Roxolani threat.