The Victohali, Victovali, Victufali, Victuali, or Victabali were a people group of Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...

. In Greek their name is Biktoa or Biktoloi. They crossed the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

 with the Marcomanni

Marcomanni

The Marcomanni were a Germanic tribe, probably related to the Buri, Suebi or Suevi.-Origin:Scholars believe their name derives possibly from Proto-Germanic forms of "march" and "men"....

 and Quadi

Quadi

The Quadi were a smaller Germanic tribe, about which little is definitively known. We only know the Germanic tribe the Romans called the 'Quadi' through reports of the Romans themselves...

 during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161–180). According to Julius Capitolinus in his chapters of the Historia Augusta:

. . . now not only were the Victuali and Marcomanni throwing everything into confusion, but other tribes, who had been driven on by the more distant barbarians and had retreated before them, were ready to attack Italy if not peaceably received.

They also participated in the Marcomannic Wars

Marcomannic Wars

The Marcomannic Wars were a series of wars lasting over a dozen years from about AD 166 until 180. These wars pitted the Roman Empire against the Marcomanni, Quadi and other Germanic peoples, along both sides of the upper and middle Danube...

, or, as Capitolinus calls it, the "German war" or "war of many nations".

They participated in the barbarian conflict with the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 in 290, or earlier. According to Eutropius, writing around 360, nunc Taifali, Victohali et Tervingi habent ("the Taifali, Victohali, and Tervingi now possess") Dacia

Dacia

In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...

. Claudius Mamertinus

Claudius Mamertinus

Claudius Mamertinus was an official in the Roman Empire. In late 361 he took part in the Chalcedon tribunal to condemn the ministers of Constantius II, and in 362, he was made consul as a reward by the new Emperor Julian; on January 1 of that year he delivered a panegyric in Constantinople by way...

, in a speech praising Maximian

Maximian

Maximian was Roman Emperor from 286 to 305. He was Caesar from 285 to 286, then Augustus from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocletian, whose political brain complemented Maximian's military brawn. Maximian established his residence at Trier but spent...

, says of some year shortly after 291 Tervingi, pars alia Gothorum, adiuncta manu Taifalorum, adversum Vandalos Gipedesque concurrunt ("Tervingi, another part of the Goths

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

, together with the Taifals

Taifals

The Taifals, Taifali, Taifalae, Tayfals, or Theifali were a people settled by the late Roman Empire in Poitou in the fourth century. They served as dediticii and laeti in the Roman and subsequently Merovingian militaries...

, campaigned against the Vandals

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

 and Gepids"). Given the location of this fighting and the peoples involved, "Vandals" in this instance is probably an error for Victohali, who are known to have inhabited the region of the Theiss

Theiss

Theiss may refer to:* Brooke Theiss , American actress* William Ware Theiss , American costume designer-See also:* Tisza * Thiess * Theissen * Thiessen...

 and Somes rivers at this time (from Eutropius). Perhaps the Victohali were a part of the Vandals (Vandili), along with the Lacringi

Lacringi

The Lacringi were a Germanic peoples mentioned in ancient history for their role in the border wars conducted by the peoples along the Danube against the emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Julius Capitolinus in his Life of Marcus Antoninus tells us that the Lacringes were part of the general invasion over...

, Asdingi, Silingi

Silingi

The Silings or Silingi supposedly were an East Germanic tribe, probably part of the larger Vandal group. According to most scholars, examples Jerzy Strzelczyk, Norman Davies, Jerzy Krasuski, Andrzej Kokowski, Henryk Łowmiański, the Silingi may have lived in Silesia...

, Helvecones, and Narharnavales.

During the reign of Constantius II

Constantius II

Constantius II , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 361. The second son of Constantine I and Fausta, he ascended to the throne with his brothers Constantine II and Constans upon their father's death....

, the Sarmatian chieftains were defeated by a slave revolt and fled to the Victohali for protection, as Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...

writes:

And these native chiefs, losing all their wisdom in their fear, fled to the Victohali, whose settlements were at a great distance, thinking it better in the choice of evils to become subject to their protectors than slaves to their own slaves.