Taifals

The Taifals or Tayfals (Latin: Taifali, Taifalae or Theifali) were a people group of Germanic or Sarmatian origin, first documented north of the lower Danube in the mid third century AD. They experienced an unsettled and fragmented history, for the most part in association with various Gothic peoples, and alternately fighting against or for the Romans. In the late fourth century some Taifali were settled within the Roman Empire, notably in western Gaul in the modern province of Poitou. They subsequently supplied mounted units to the Roman army and continued to be a significant source of cavalry for early Merovingian armies. By the sixth century their region of western Gaul had acquired a distinct identity as Thifalia.

One of the earliest mentions of the Taifals puts them in the following of the Gothic king Cniva when he campaigned in Dacia and Moesia in 250 and the years following. They are sometimes classified as a Germanic tribe closely related to the Goths, although some believe they were related to the (non-Germanic) Sarmatians with whom they might have emigrated from the Central Asiatic steppes.

In the late third century they settled on the Danube on both sides of the Carpathians, dividing the territory with the Goths, who maintained political authority over all of it. In Spring 291 they formed a special alliance with the Gothic Thervingi, forming a tribal confederation from this date until 376, and fought the Vandals and Gepids: Tervingi, pars alia Gothorum, adiuncta manu Taifalorum, adversum Vandalos Gipedesque concurrunt. Along with the Victufali, the Taifals and Thervingi were the tribes mentioned as having possessed the former Roman province of Dacia by 350 "at the very latest". Archaeological evidence suggests that the Gepids were contesting Transylvania, the region around the Someş River, with the Thervingi and Taifals. The Taifals were subsequently made foederati of the Romans, from whom they obtained the right to settle in Oltenia. They were at that time independent of the Goths.

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