Fenni

The Fenni were an ancient people of northeastern Europe first described by Cornelius Tacitus in Germania in AD 98.

The Fenni are first mentioned by Cornelius Tacitus in Germania in 98 A.D. Their location is uncertain, due to the vagueness of Tacitus' account:"they (Venedi) overrun in their predatory excursions all the woody and mountainous tracts between the Peucini and the Fenni". The Greco-Roman geographer Ptolemy, who produced his Geographia in ca. 150 AD, mentions a people called the Phinnoi, generally believed to be synonymous with the Fenni. He locates them in two different areas: a northern group in northern Scandia (Scandinavia), then believed to be an island; and a southern group, apparently dwelling to the East of the upper Vistula river (SE Poland). It remains unclear what was the relationship between the two groups.

The next ancient mention of the Fenni/Finni is in the Getica of 6th-century chronicler Jordanes. In his description of the island of Scandza (Scandinavia), he mentions three groups with names similar to Ptolemy's Phinnoi, the Screrefennae, Finnaithae and mitissimi Finni ("softest Finns"). The Screrefennae are believed to mean the "skiing Finns" and are generally identified with Ptolemy's northern Phinnoi and today's Finns. The Finnaithae have been identified with the Finnveden of central Sweden. It is unclear who the Finni mitissimi were.

Tacitus was unsure whether to classify the Fenni as Germanic or Sarmatian. The vagueness of his account has left the identification of the Fenni open to a variety of theories. It has been suggested that the Romans may have used Fenni as a generic name, to denote the various non-Germanic (i.e., Balto-Slavic and Finno-Ugric) tribes of NE Europe. Against this argument is the fact that Tacitus distinguishes the Fenni from other probably non-Germanic peoples of the region, such as the Aestii and the Venedi.

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