Baltic Tribes Discussion

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The Roman Historian Tacitus first mentions in 98 AD the existence of a tribe living near the Baltic Sea called the Aesti. These were a Baltic peoples, who descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between the Vistula and southeast shore of the Baltic Sea, and upper Daugava and Dnieper rivers. The thousands of lakes and swamps helped contribute to the Baltic geographic isolation. Western and Eastern Balts began to differentiate in the later centuries BC. The Western Balts included the Brus/Old Prussians, Sudovians, Scalvians, Nadruvians and Curonians. The Eastern Balts meanwhile were living in modern day Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. As the Roman Empire collapsed, Eastern Balts were pushed to the west and Slavic tribes from the Volga appeared on the scene. Many of the Eastern and Southern Balts were assimilated and slavicized. Brus/Old Prussians were meanwhile Germanized.
The Baltic Tribes leveraged the natural landscape to build thousands of hill forts along key areas which were effectively fortified wooden pallisades which would be heavily defended. The Baltic peoples were known to be fierce warriors, excellent sailors and pirates.