Heniochi
| Author: Laxman Burdak, IFS (R). |
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Heniochi (Georgian: ჰენიოხები, Greek: Ἡνίοχοι, Heníochoi "charioteers") were an ancient tribe inhabiting northwest shores of Colchis (present-day Abkhazia, northwestern Georgia) and some say Phasis area. Their country was called Heniocheia (Ancient Greek: Ἡνιοχεία).[1]
Variants
- Heniochi (Georgian: ჰენიოხები, Greek: Ἡνίοχοι, Heníochoi "charioteers")
- Heniocheia (Ancient Greek: Ἡνιοχεία).[2] - The country Heniochi
- Heniochi (Pliny.vi.4, Pliny.vi.5, Pliny.vi.10, Pliny.vi.12, Pliny.vi.18)
Jat Gotras Namesake
History
They are attested by a number of ancient historians and others alike, namely: Aristotle, Artemidorus Ephesius, Ovid, Pliny the Elder, Arrian, Strabo and others. It is pointed out that they lived in a quite wide area from Dioscurias (Διοσκουριάς), to Trabzon.
Sources from the 5th to 4th century BC till the 1st century AD note the Heniokhs lived from modern Sochi till Pitiunt - Dioskourias. It is difficult to identify with certainty the relationship between the tribes mentioned by classical authors and the contemporary ethnic groups.[3] Various scholars relate the tribe to modern day Georgians (specifically Zans and Svans) and Abkhaz.[4]
The tribe of Heniochs according to Artemidorus of Ephesus, occupied in the 5th - 1st cc. B.C, the Black Sea littoral that is part of present-day Abkhazia: - from the environs of Pitiunt or Pityus to the river Achaeuntus (the Shakhe river near present-day Tuapse).[5] Aristotle describes the Heniochi (along with the Acaei) as a group of people "ready enough to kill and eat men."[6]
Mention by Strabo
Strabo wrote:
- And on the sea lies the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, or the Syndic territory. After this latter, one comes to the Achaei and the Zygii and the Heniochi, and also the Cercetae and the Macropogones. And above these are situated the narrow passes of the Phtheirophagi (Phthirophagi); and after the Heniochi the Colchian country, which lies at the foot of the Caucasian, or Moschian, Mountains. (Strabo, Geographica 11.2)
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[7] mentions...At the back of the mountains of this district is Iberia, while on the coast are the Heniochi, the Ampreutæ25, the Lazi, the rivers Acampsis,26 Isis,27 Mogrus, and Bathys,28 the nations of the Colchi, the town of Matium,29 the river Heracleum and the promontory of the same name,30 and the Phasis,31 the most celebrated river of Pontus.
25 It is suggested by Hardouin that these are the same as the Zydretæ mentioned in the Periplus of Arrian, and by him placed between the Heniochi and the Lazi.
26 See note 91.
27 Supposed to be the same as the modem Tshorok.
28 Or "Deep" River. This stream may possibly be identified by observing that Pliny places only one river between it and the Phasis.
29 Probably the Madia of Ptolemy, who places it in the interior.
30 At the present day called Eraklia, according to Parisot.
31 Now called the Faz or Poti'.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[8] mentions...Below this lies the region of Pontus known as Colica1, in which the mountain chain of Caucasus bends away towards the Riphæan mountains, as we have previously2 mentioned; one side running down towards the Euxine and the Lake Mæotis, the other towards the Caspian and the Hyrcanian Sea. The remaining portion of these shores is peopled by savage nations, the Melanchlæni3, and the Coraxi, who formerly dwelt in Dioscurias4, near the river Anthemus, now deserted, but once a famous city; so much so, indeed, that we learn from Timosthenes, that three hundred nations, all of different languages, were in the habit of resorting to it, and in later times we had there one hundred and thirty interpreters for the purpose of transacting business. There are some authors who are of opinion that this place was built by Amphitus and Telchius, the charioteers5 of Castor and Pollux, from whom it is generally understood that the nation of the Heniochi sprang. After passing Dioscurias we come to the town of Heracleium6, seventy miles distant from Sebastopolis, and then the Achæi7, the Mardi8, and the Cercetæ9, and, behind them, the Cerri and the Cephalotomi.10
In the innermost part11 of this district there was Pityus12, a city of very considerable opulence, but destroyed by the Heniochi: behind it are the Epageritæ, a people of Sarmatian origin, dwelling upon the range of the Caucasus, and beyond them, the Sauromatæ. It was with these people that Mithridates13 took refuge in the reign of the Emperor Claudius: and from him we learn that the Thalli14 join up to them, a people who border on the eastern side upon the mouth15 of the Caspian Sea: he tells us also that at the reflux the channel is dry there. Upon the coast of the Euxine, near the country of the Cercetæ, is the river Icarusa16, with the town and river of Hierus , distant from Heracleium one hundred and thirty-six miles. Next to this, is the promontory of Cruni, after passing which, we find the Toretæ upon a lofty ridge of mountains. The city of Sindos17 is distant from Hierus sixty-seven miles and a half; after passing which, we come to the river Setheries. (6.) From thence to the entrance of the Cimmerian Bosporus the distance is eighty-eight miles and a half.
1 16 Inhabited anciently by the Coli, and constituting the northern portion of ancient Colchis.
2 In B. v. c. 27.
3 Or nation "with the black cloaks," from some peculiarity in their dress.
4 This was the great trading-place of the wild tribes in the interior; and so numerous were they, that the Greeks asserted that there were seventy different languages spoken in the market of Dioscurias.
5 Whence the appellation Heniochi, from the Greek ἡνιοχὸς.
6 There were two places called Heracleium on this coast, one north and the other south of the river Achæus: probably the latter is here meant.
7 Probably meaning the "martial people," or the "people of Mars."
8 Said to have been descended from the Achæns or Greeks who accompanied Jason in the Argonautic Expedition, or, according to Ammianus, who resorted thither after the conclusion of the Trojan war.
9 This was the title, not of a single nation, but of a number of peoples distinguished for their predatory habits.
10 This people occupied the N.E. shore of the Euxine, between the Cimmerian Bosporus and the frontier of Colchis. Their name is still in existence, and is applied to the whole western district of the Caucasus, in the forms of Tcherkas, as applied to the people, and Tcherkeskaia or Circassia, to the country.
11 Meaning, nearly in the extreme corner of Pontus.
12 In the time of Strabo this was a considerable sea-port, and after its destruction by the Heniochi, it was restored, and served as an important frontier fortress of the Roman empire against the Scythians.
13 This was Mithridates, king of Bosporus, which sovereignty he obtained by the favour of the emperor Claudius, in A.D. 41. The circumstances are unknown which led to his subsequent expulsion by the Romans, who placed his younger brother Cotys on the throne in his stead.
14 Hardouin thinks that the Thalli inhabited the present country of Astrakan.
15 It was the ancient opinion, to which we shall find frequent reference made in the present Book, that the northern portion of the Caspian communicated with the Scythian or Septentrional ocean.
16 Mentioned only by Pliny. It is supposed to answer to the present Ukrash river; and the town and river of Hierus are probably identical with the Hieros Portus of Arrian, which has been identified with the modern Sunjuk-Kala.
17 Inhabited by the Sindi, a people of Asiatic Sarmatia. They probably dwelt in and about the modern peninsula of Taman, between the Sea of Azof and the Black Sea, to the south of the river Hypanis, the modern Kouban. The site of their capital, Sindos, or Sinda, is supposed to have been the modern Anapa. Parisot conjectures that this place was one of the ancient settlements of the Zigeunes, the modern Bohemians or Gypsies. He seems to found his opinion upon some observations of Malte Brun (Précis de Geographie, vol. vi.) upon the origin of the Gypsy race, which will amply repay the perusal.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[9] mentions 'Nations situated around the Hyrcanian Sea'....the Derbices also,18 through the middle of whose territory the river Oxus19 runs, after rising in Lake Oxus,20 the Syrmatæ, the Oxydracæ, the Heniochi, the Bateni, the Saraparæ, and the Bactri, whose chief city is Zariaspe, which afterwards received the name of Bactra, from the river21 there. This last nation lies at the back of Mount Paropanisus,22 over against the sources of the river Indus, and is bounded by the river Ochus.23
18 This was a tribe, apparently of Scythian origin, settled in Margiana, on the left bank of the Oxus. Strabo says that they worshipped the earth, and forbore to sacrifice or slay any female; but that they put to death their fellow-creatures as soon as they had passed their seventieth year, it being the privilege of the next of kin to eat the flesh of the deceased person. The aged women, however, they used to strangle, and then consign them to the earth.
19 The modern Jihoun or Amou. It now flows into the Sea of Aral, but the ancients universally speak of it as running into the Caspian; and there are still existing distinct traces of a channel extending in a southwesterly direction from the sea of Aral to the Caspian, by which at least a portion, and probably the whole of the waters of the Oxus found their way. into the Caspian; and not improbably the Sea of Aral itself was connected with the Caspian by this channel.
20 Most probably under this name he means the Sea of Aral.
21 The Bactrus. This river is supposed to be represented by the modern Dakash. Hardouin says that Ptolemy, B. vi. c. 11, calls this river the Zariaspis, or Zariaspes. See the Note at the end of c, 17, p. 30.
22 Now known as the Hindoo-Koosh; a part of the great mountain-chain which runs from west to east through the centre of the southern portion of the highlands of Central Asia, and so divides the part of the continent which slopes down to the Indian Ocean from the great central table-land of Tartary and Thibet. The native term, Hindoo-Koosh, is only a form of the ancient name "Indicus Caucasus," which was sometimes given to this chain. The ancient name was derived probably from the Persian word paru,a "mountain."
23 Flowing from the north side of the Paropanisus. According to Pliny and Ptolemy, this river flowed through Bactria into the Oxus; but according to Strabo, through Iyrcania into the Caspian Sea. Some suppose it to have been only another name for the Oxus. Ansart suggests that it may have been the river now known as the Bash.
References
- ↑ Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, § H302.11
- ↑ Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, § H302.11
- ↑ Hewitt, George. The Abkhazians. A handbook. 1998: St Martin Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 9780312219758.
- ↑ http://www.nplg.gov.ge/dlibrary/collect/
- ↑ M. Inadze, Institute of History, Georgian Academy of Sciences, PROBLEMS OF ETHNOPOLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT ABKHAZIA
- ↑ Aristotle (1885). Benjamin Jowett (ed.). The Politics of Aristotle. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 248.
- ↑ Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 4
- ↑ Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 5
- ↑ Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 18