Aesti
the
Aesti (or
Aestii) were a people described by the
Roman historian
Tacitus in his book
Germania (ca.
98 CE). According to his account, the Aesti spoke a language related to that spoken in
Britain; they worshipped a deity known as the 'mother of the gods', as well as the wild boar commonly found in the region; for weapons they used wooden clubs and occasionally iron implements; they were also the only people to gather and trade
amber.
Most scholars identify the Aesti as ancient inhabitants of
Prussia, speakers of a
Baltic language closely related to modern
Latvian and
Lithuanian.
This identification is based primarily on their association with amber, a popular luxury item during the life of Tacitus, with known sources at the southeastern coast of the
Baltic Sea. The Baltic
amber trade, which appears to have extended to the
Mediterranean Sea, has been traced by archaeologists back to the
Nordic Bronze Age; its major center was located in the region of
Sambia.
Some historians think that the term
Aesti may refer to all of the peoples living by the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, including the
Estonians, who speak a language of the
Finnic group. Tacitus mentions another people known as the
Fenni (probably
Sami), living in proximity to the Aesti; this could be an indication that the Aesti were forerunners of the
Estonians rather than a linguistically
Baltic people.
Whatever the case, it seems that the word was eventually applied specifically to
Estonians and is the origin of the modern national name of
Estonia (
Eesti in
Estonian), called
Eistland in ancient Scandinavian Sagas and
Estia,
Hestia and
Estonia in early Latin sources.
