TheVictohali[A] were a people ofLate Antiquity who lived north of the Lower Danube. In Greek their name isBiktoa orBiktoloi. They were possibly aGermanic people, and it has been suggested that they were one of the tribes of theVandals.[1]
They crossed theDanube with theMarcomanni andQuadi during the reign ofMarcus Aurelius (161–180). According to the chapters attributed to "Julius Capitolinus" in the unreliableHistoria 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.[2]
They also participated in theMarcomannic Wars, or, as Capitolinus calls it, the "German war" or "war of many nations".[3]
They participated in the barbarian conflict with theRoman Empire in 290, or earlier. According toEutropius, writing around 360,nunc Taifali, Victohali et Tervingi habent ("the Taifali, Victohali, and Tervingi now possess")Dacia.[4]Claudius Mamertinus, in a speech praisingMaximian, says of some year shortly after 291Tervingi, pars alia Gothorum, adiuncta manu Taifalorum, adversum Vandalos Gipedesque concurrunt ("Tervingi, another part of theGoths, together with theTaifals, campaigned against theVandals andGepids"). Given the location of this fighting and the peoples involved, "Vandals" in this instance is possibly an error for Victohali, who are known to have inhabited the region of theTisza andSomes rivers at this time (from Eutropius), or alternatively perhaps the Victohali were a part of the Vandals (Vandili), along with theLacringi,Asdingi,Silingi,Helvecones, andNahanarvali.
During the reign ofConstantius II, theSarmatian masters (theArcaragantes) were defeated by their slaves (theLimagantes) during a revolt and fled to the Victohali for protection, asAmmianus Marcellinus 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.[5]