Listed 17 sub titles with search on: The inhabitants for wider area of: "GEORGIA Country EAST EUROPE" .
ALBANIA (Ancient country) GEORGIA
Alani (Alanoi, Alaunoi), a people, found both in Asia and in Europe,
whose precise geographical positions and ethnographical relations are difficult
to determine. They probably became first known to the Romans through the Mithridatic
war, and the expedition of Pompey into the countries about the Caucasus; when
they were found in the E. part of Caucasus, in the region which was called Albania
by the Romans, but Alania by Greek writers, and where Alani are found down to
a late period of the Greek empire. (Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 4. s. 6; Lucan x.454;
Procop. Pers. ii. 29, Goth. iv. 4; Const. Porph. de Adm. Imp. 42.) Valerius Flaccus
(Arg. vi. 42) mentions them among the people of the Caucasus, near the Heniochi.
Ammianus Marcellinus, who tells us more about the Alani than any other ancient
writer, makes Julian encourage his soldiers by the example of Pompey, who, breaking
his way through the Albani and the Massagetae, whom we now call Alani, saw the
waters of the Caspian (xxiii. 5). In the latter half of the first century we hear
of the Alani in two very remote positions. On the one hand, Josephus, who describes.
them as Scythians dwelling about the river Tanais (Don) and the Lake Maeotis (Sea
of Azov), relates how, in the time of Vespasian, being permitted by the king of
Hyrcania to traverse the pass which Alexander had closed with iron gates, they
ravaged Media and Armenia, and returned home again. On the other hand, they are
mentioned by Seneca (Thyest. 629) as dwelling on the Ister (Danube); and Martial
(Epigr. vii. 30) expressly calls them Sarmatians; and Pliny (iv. 12. s. 25) mentions
Alani and Roxalani (i. e. Russ-Alans) among the generic names applied at different
times to the inhabitants of the European Scythia or Sarmatia. Thus there were
Alani both in Asia, in the Caucasus, and in Europe, on the Maeotis and the Euxine;
and also, according to Josephus, between these two positions, in the great plains
N. of the Caucasus; so that they seem to have been spread over all the S. part
of Russia in Europe. Under Hadrian and the Antonines we find the European Alani
constantly troubling the frontier of the Danube (Ael. Spart. Had. 4. s. 6; Jul.
Capit. Ant. Pi. 6. s. 8, Marc. 22, where they are mentioned with the Roxalani,
Bastarnae, and Peucini); while the Alani of the E. again overran Media and Armenia,
and threatened Cappadocia. (Dion Cass. lxix. 15.) On this occasion the historian
Arrian, who was governor of Cappadocia under Hadrian, composed a work on the Tactics
to be observed against the Alani (ektaxis kat' Alanon), which is mentioned by
Photius (Cod. lviii. p. 15, a., Bekker), and of which a considerable fragment
is preserved (Arrian. ed. Dubner, in Didot's Script. Graec. Bibl. pp. 250-253).
Their force consisted in cavalry, like that of the European Alani (the poluippon
phulon Alanon of Dionysius Periegetes, v. 308); and they fought without armour
for themselves or their horses. As another mark of resemblance, though Arrian
speaks of them as Scythians, a name which was vaguely used in his time for all
the barbarians of NW. Asia (cont. Alanos, 30), he speaks of them elsewhere (Tact.
4) in close connection with the Sauromatae (Sarmatians), as practising the same
mode of fighting for which the Polish lancers, descendants of the Sarmatians,
have been renowned. Ptolemy, who wrote under the Antonines, mentions the European
Alani, by the name of Alaunoi Skuthai, as one of the seven chief peoples of Sarmatia
Europaea, namely, the Venedae, Peucini, Bastarnae, lazyges, Roxolani, Hamaxobii,
and Alauni Scythae; of whom he places the Iazyges and Roxolani along the whole
shore of tile Maeotis, and then the last two further inland (iii. 5. § 19). He
also mentions (ii. 14. § 2) Alauni in the W. of Pannonia, no doubt a body who,
in course of invasion, had established themselves on the Roman side of the Danube.
Ptolemy speaks of a Mt. Alaunus (to Alaunon oros) in Sarmatia, and Eustathius
(ad Dion. Perieg. 305) says that the Alani probably derived their name from the
Alanus, a mountain of Sarmatia. It is hard to find any range of mountains answering
to Ptolemy's M. Alaunus near the position he assigns to the Alauni: some geographers
suppose the term to describe no mountains, properly so called, but the elevated
tract of land which forms the watershed between the Dniester and the Dnieper.
The European Alani are found in the geographers who followed Ptolemy. Dionysius
Periegetes (v. 305) mentions them, first vaguely, among the peoples N. of the
Palus Maeotis, with the Germans, Sarmatians, Getae, Bastarnae, and Dacians; and
then, more specifically, he says (308) that their land extends N. of the Tauri,
where are the Melanchlaeni, and Geloni, and Hippemolgi, and Neuri, and Agathyrsi,
where the Borysthenes mingles with the Euxine. Some suppose the two passages to
refer to different bodies of the Alani. (Bernhardy, ad loc.) They are likewise
called Sarmatians by Marcian of Heracleia (ton Alanon Sarmaton ethnos: Peripl.
p. 100, ed. Miller; Hudson, Geog. Min. vol. i. p. 56). The Asiatic Alani (Alanoi
Skuthai) are placed by Ptolemy (vi. 14. § 9) in the extreme N. of Scythia within
the Imaus, near the Unknown Land ; and here, too, we find mountains of the same
name (ta Alana ore, § § 3, 11), E. of the Hyperborei M.; he is generally supposed
to mean the N. part of the Ural chain, to which he erroneously gives a direction
W. and E.
Our fullest information respecting the Alani is derived from Ammianus
Marcellinus, who flourished during the latter half of the fourth century (about
350-400). He first mentions them with the Roxolani, the Iazyges, the Maeotae,
and the Iaxamatae, as dwelling on the shores of the Palus Maeotis (xxii. 8. §
30); and presently, where the Riphaei M. subside towards the Maeotis, he places
the Arimphaei, and near them the Massagetae, Alani, and Sargetae, with many other
peoples little known (obscuri, quorum nec vocabula nobis sunt nota, nec mores).
Again ( § 48) on the NW. of the Euxine, about the river Tyras (Dniester), he places
the European Alani and the Costobocae, and innumerable tribes of Scythians, which
extend to lands beyond human knowledge; a small portion of whom live by agriculture;
the rest wander through vast solitudes and get their food like wild beasts; their
habitations and scanty furniture are placed on waggons made of the bark of trees;
and they migrate at pleasure, waggons and all. His more detailed account of the
people is given when he comes to relate that greater westward movement of the
Huns which, in the reign of Valens, precipitated the Goths upon the Roman empire,
A. D. 376. After describing the Huns (xxxi. 2), he says that they advanced as
far as the Alani, the ancient Massagetae, of whom he undertakes to give a better
account than had as yet been published. From the Ister to the Tanais dwell the
Sauromatae; and on the Asiatic side of the Tanais the Alani inhabit the vast solitudes
of Scythia; having their name from that of their mountains (ex montium appellatione
cognominati, which some understand to mean that Alani comes from ala, a word signifying
a mountain). By their conquests they extended their name, as well as their power,
over the neighbouring nations; just as the Persian name was spread. He then describes
these neighbouring nations; the Neuri, inland, near lofty mountains; the Budini
and Geloni; the Agathyrsi; the Melanchlaeni and Anthropophagi; from whom a tract
of uninhabited land extended E.-wards to the Sinae. At another part the Alani
bordered on the Amazons, towards the E. (the Amazons being placed by him on the
Tanais and the Caspian), whence they were scattered over many peoples throughout
Asia, as far as the Ganges. Through these immense regions, but often far apart
from one another, the various tribes of the Alani lived a nomade life: and it
was only in process of time that they came to be called by the same name. He then
describes their manners. They neither have houses nor till the land; they feed
on flesh and milk, and dwell on waggons. When they come to a pasture they make
a camp, by placing their waggons in a circle; and they move on again when the
forage is exhausted. Their flocks and herds go with them, and their chief care
is for their horses. They are never reduced to want, for the country through which
they wander consists of grassy fields, with fruit-trees interspersed, and watered
by many rivers. The weak, from age or sex, stay by the waggons and perform the
lighter offices; while the young men are trained together from their first boyhood
to the practice of horsemanship and a sound knowledge of the art of war. They
despise going on foot. In person they are nearly all tall and handsome; their
hair is slightly yellow; they are terrible for the tempered sternness of their
eyes. The lightness of their armour aids their natural swiftness; a circumstance
mentioned also, as we have seen, by Arrian, and by Josephus (B. J. vii. 7. §4),
from whom we find that they used the lasso in battle: Lucian, too, describes them
as like the Scythians in their arms and their speech, but with shorter hair (Toxaris,
51, vol. ii. p, 557). In general, proceeds Ammianus, they resemble the Huns, but
are less savage in form and manners. Their plundering and hunting excursions had
brought them to the Maeotis and the Cimmerian Bosporus, and even into Armenia
and Media; and it is to their life in those parts that the description of Ammianus
evidently refers. Danger and war was their delight; death in battle bliss; the
loss of life through decay or chance stamped disgrace on a man's memory. Their
greatest glory was to kill a foe in battle, and the scalps of their slain enemies
were hung to their horses for trappings. They frequented neither temple nor shrine;
but, fixing a naked sword in the ground, with barbaric rites, they worshipped,
in this symbol, the god of war and of their country for the time being. They practised
divination by bundles of rods, which they released with secret incantations, and
(it would seem) from the way the sticks fell they presaged the future. Slavery
was unknown to them: all were of noble birth. Even their judges were selected
for their long-tried pre-eminence in war. Several of these particulars are confirmed
by Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, 24). Claudian also mentions the Alani as dwelling
on the Maeotis, and connects them closely with the Massagetae (In Rufin. i. 312):
Massagetes, caesamque bibens Maeotida Alanus.
Being vanquished by the Huns, who attacked them in the plains E. of
the Tanais, the great body of the Alani joined their conquerors in their invasion
of the Gothic kingdom of Hermanric (A.D. 375), of which the chief part of the
European Alani were already the subjects. In the war which soon broke out between
the Goths and Romans in Maesia, so many of the Huns and Alani joined the Goths,
that they are distinctly mentioned among the invaders who were defeated by Theodosius,
A.D. 379-382. Henceforth we find, in the W., the Alani constantly associated with
the Goths and with the Vandals, so much so that Procopius calls them a tribe of
the Goths Hgotthikon ethnos: Vand. i. 3). But their movements are more closely
connected with those of the Vandals, in conjunction with whom they are said to
have settled in Pannonia; and, retiring thence through fear of the Goths, the
two peoples invaded Gaul in 406, and Spain in 409. (Procop. l. c.; Jornandes,
de Reb. Get. 31; Clinton, F. R. s. a.; comp. Gibbon, c. 30, 31.)
In 411 the Alani are found in Gaul, acting with the Burgundians,
Alamanni, and Franks. (Clinton, s. a.) As the Goths advanced into Spain, 414,
the Alani and Vandals, with the Silingi, retreated before them into Lusitania
and Baetica. (Clinton, s. a. 416.) In the ensuing campaigns, in which the Gothic
king Wallia conquered Spain (418), the Alans lost their king Ataces, and were
so reduced in numbers that they gave up their separate nationality, and transferred
their allegiance to Gunderic, the king of the Vandals. (Clinton, s. a. 418.) After
Gunderic's death, in 428, the allied barbarians partitioned Spain, the Suevi obtaining
Gallaecia, the Alani Lusitania and the province of New Carthage, and the Vandals
Baetica. (Clinton, s. a.) Most of them accompanied Geiseric in his invasion of
Africa in the following year (429: Africa, Vandali), and among other indications
of their continued consequence in Africa, we find an edict of Huneric addressed,
in 483, to the bishops of the Vandals and Alans (Clinton, s. a.); while in Spain
we hear no more of them or of the Vandals, but the place of both is occupied by
the Suevi. Meanwhile, returning to Europe, at the time of Attila's invasion of
the Roman empire, we find in his camp the descendants of those Alans who had at
first joined the Huns; and the personal influence of Aetius with Attila obtained
the services of a body of Alani, who were settled in Gaul, about Valence and Orleans.
(Gibbon, c. 35.) When Attila invaded Gaul, 451, he seems to have depended partly
on the sympathy of these Alani (Gibbon speaks of a promise from their king Sangiban
to betray Orleans); and the great victory of Chalons, where they served under
Theodoric against the Huns, was nearly lost by their defection (451). Among the
acts recorded of Torismond, in the single year of his reign (451--452), is the
conquest of the Alani, who may be supposed to have rebelled. (Clinton, s. a.)
In the last years of the W. empire the Alans are mentioned with other barbarians
as overrunning Gaul and advancing even into Liguria, and as resisted by the prowess
of Majorian (Clinton, s. a. 461; Gibbon, c. 36); but thenceforth their name disappears,
swallowed up in the great kingdom of the Visigoths. So much for the Alani of the
West.
All this time, and later, they are still found in their ancient settlements
in the E., between the Don and Volga, and in the Caucasus. They are mentioned
under Justinian; and, at the breaking out of the war between Justin II. and Chosroes,
king of Persia, they are found among the allies of the Armenians, under their
king Saroes, 572-3. (Theo. phylact. ap. Phot. Cod. lxv. p. 26, b. 37, ed. Bekker.)
The Alani of the Caucasus are constantly mentioned, both by Byzantine and Arabian
writers, in the middle ages, and many geographers suppose the Ossetes of Daghestan
to be their descendants. The medieval writers, both Greek and Arab, call the country
about the E. end of Caucasus Alania.
Amidst these materials, conjecture has naturally been busy. From
the Affghans to the Poles, there is scarcely a race of warlike horsemen which
has not been identified with the Alani; and, in fact, the name might be applied,
consistently with the ancient accounts, to almost any of the nomade peoples, confounded
by the ancients under the vague name of Scythians, except the Mongols. They were
evidently a branch of that great nomade race which is found, in the beginning
of recorded history, in the NW. of Asia and the SE. of Europe; and perhaps we
should not be far wrong in placing their original seats in the country of the
Kirghiz Tartars, round the head of the Caspian, whence we may suppose them to
have spread W.-ward round the Euxine, and especially to have occupied the great
plains N. of the Caucasus between the Don and Volga, whence they issued forth
into W. Asia by the passes of the Caucasus. Their permanent settlement also in
Sarmatia (in S. Russia) is clearly established, and a comparison of the description
of them by Ammianus Marcellinus with the fourth book of Herodotus can leave little
doubt that they were a kindred race to the Scythians of the latter, that is, the
people of European Sarmatia. Of their language, one solitary relic has been preserved.
In the Periplus of the Euxine (p. 5, Hudson, p. 213, Gail) we are told that the
city of Theodosia was called in the Alan or Tauric dialect Ardabda or Ardauda,
that is, the city of the Seven gods. (Klaproth, Tableaux de l'Asie; Ritter, Erdkunde,
vol. ii. pp. 845--850; Stritter, Mem. Pop. vol. iv. pp. 232, 395; De Guignes,
Hist. des Huns, vol. ii. p. 279; Ukert, vol. iii. pt. 2. pp. 550--555; Georgii,
vol. i. p. 152, vol. ii. p. 312.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
FASSIS (Ancient city) KOLCHIS
Lazi (Lhasoi, Arrian, Peripl. p. 11; Plin. vi. 4; Lazai, Ptol. v.
10. § 5), one among the many tribes which composed the indigenous population which
clustered round the great range of the Caucasus. This people, whose original seats
were, according to Procopius (B. G. iv. 2), on the N. side of the river Phasis,
gave their name, in later times, to the country which was known to the Greeks
and Romans as Colchis, but which henceforth was called Regio Lazic. They are frequently
mentioned in the Byzantine writers; the first time that they appear in history
was A.D. 456, during the reign of the emperor Marcian, who was successful against
their king Gobazes. (Prisc. Exc. de Leg. Rom. p. 71; comp. Le Beau, Bas Empire,
vol. vi. p. 385.) The Lazic war, the contest of Justinian and Chosroes on the
banks of the Phasis, has been minutely described by contemporary historians. (Procop.
B. P. ii. 15, 17, 28, 29, 30, B. G. iv. 7 - 16, Agath. ii. iii. iv. pp. 55 - 132,
141 ; Menand. Protect. Exc. de Leg. Gent. pp. 99, 101, 133 - 147; comp. Gibbon,
c. xlii.; Le Beau, vol. ix. pp. 44, 133, 209 - 220, 312 - 53.) In the Atlas (pt.
i. pl. xiv.) to Dubois de Montpereux (Voyage Autour du Caucase, comp. vol. ii.
pp. 73 - 132) will be found a map of the theatre of this war. In A.D. 520, or
512 according to the era of Theophanes, the Lazi were converted to Christianity
(Gibbon, l. c.; Neander, Gesch. der Christl. Religion, vol. iii. p. 236), and,
under the name of Lazians, are now spread through the country near the SE. angle
of the Euxine from Guriel to the neighbourhood of Trebizond. Their language, belonging
to the Indo-Germanic family, appears to contain remains of the ancient Colchian
idiom. (Cosmos, vol. ii. note 201, trans.; Prichard, Physical Hist. of Mankind,
vol. iv. p. 263.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
(Machelones, Arrian, Peripl. p. 11; Anon. p. 15), a subdivision of the Colchian
tribes situated to the S. of the Phasis. Anchialus, prince of this people, as
well as of the Heniochi, submitted to Trajan. (Dion Cass. lxviii. 19; Ritter,
Erdkunde, vol. x. p. 116.)
IBERIA (Ancient country) GEORGIA
Near them(Phtheirophagi) are the Soanes, who are no less filthy, but superior to them in power,--indeed, one might almost say that they are foremost in courage and power. At any rate, they are masters of the peoples around them, and hold possession of the heights of the Caucasus above Dioscurias. They have a king and a council of three hundred men; and they assemble, according to report, an army of two hundred thousand; for the whole of the people are a fighting force, though unorganized. It is said that in their country gold is carried down by the mountain torrents, and that the barbarians obtain it by means of perforated troughs and fleecy skins, and that this is the origin of the myth of the golden fleece--unless they call them Iberians, by the same name as the western Iberians, from the gold mines in both countries. The Soanes use remarkable poisons for the points of their missiles; and even people who are not wounded by the poisoned missiles suffer from their odor. Now in general the tribes in the neighborhood of the Caucasus occupy barren and cramped territories, but the tribes of the Albanians and the Iberians, which occupy nearly all the isthmus above-mentioned, might also be called Caucasian tribes; and they possess territory that is fertile and capable of affording an exceedingly good livelihood.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
KOLCHIS (Ancient country) GEORGIA
(Heniochoi). A people in Colchis, north of the Phasis, notorious as pirates.
Heniochi, Heniochian: Perseus Project index
(Moschoi). A people of Asia, dwelling in the southern part of Colchis.
Moschi: Perseus Project
Apsilae, Absilae, Apsilii (Apsilai, Apsilioi), a people of Colchis, on the coast
of the Euxine, subject successively to the kings of Pontus, the Romans, and the
Lazi. They are mentioned by Procopius as having long been Christians. In their
territory were the cities of Sebastopolis, Petra, and Tibeleos. (Arrian, Peripl.
Pont. Eux.; Steph. B.; Plin. vi. 4; Justinian. Novell. 28; Procop. B. G. iv. 2;
Agathias, iii. 15, iv. 15.)
(Manraloi, Ptol. v. 10. § 6), a people on the coast of Colchis, whose name has been traced in the modern Mingrelia.
Moschi (Moschoi, Hecat. Fr. 188, ap. Steph. B. s. v.), a Colchian tribe, who have been identified with the Meschech of the prophet Ezekiel (xxvii. 13; Rosenmuller, Bibl. Alterthumsk, vol. i. pt. i. p. 248). Along with the Tibareni, Mosynaeii, Macrones, and Mardae, they formed the, 19th satrapy of the Persian empire, extending along the SE. of the Euxine, and bounded on the S. by the lofty chain of the Armenian mountains. (Herod, iii. 94, vii. 78.) In the time of Strabo (xi. pp. 497-499) Moschice (Moschike)-in which was a temple of Leucothea, once famous for its wealth, but plundered by Pharnaces and Mithridates-was divided between the Colchians, Albanians, and Iberians (comp. Mela, iii. 5. § 4; Plin. vi. 4). Procopius (B. G. iv. 2), who calls them Meschoi, says that they were subject to the Iberians, and had embraced Christianity, the religion, of their masters. Afterwards their district became the appanage of Liparites, the Abasgian prince. (Cedren. vol. ii. p. 770; Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. xiv. p. 355; St. Martin, Memoires sur l'Armenie, vol. ii. p. 222.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Worship Athena Asia, Phrixus and the ram with the golden fleece among the, voyage of Jason to land of (Colchis), search for the Argo, demand the restoration of Medea from Alcinous, settle among the Phaeacians.
Colchians, Kolchians: Perseus Project Index
ALBANIA (Ancient country) GEORGIA
As for gods, they honor Helius, Zeus, and Selene, but especially Selene; her temple is near Iberia. The office of priest is held by the man who, after the king, is held in highest honor; he has charge of the sacred land, which is extensive and well-populated, and also of the temple slaves, many of whom are subject to religious frenzy and utter prophecies. And any one of those who, becoming violently possessed, wanders alone in the forests, is by the priest arrested, bound with sacred fetters, and sumptuously maintained during that year, and then led forth to the sacrifice that is performed in honor of the goddess, and, being anointed, is sacrificed along with other victims. The sacrifice is performed as follows: Some person holding a sacred lance, with which it is the custom to sacrifice human victims, comes forward out of the crowd and strikes the victim through the side into the heart, he being not without experience in such a task; and when the victim falls, they draw auguries from his fall and declare them before the public; and when the body is carried to a certain place, they all trample upon it, thus using it as a means of purification.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo, ed. H. L. Jones, Cambridge. Harvard University Press
Cited Jul 2002 from Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
