Zygii

The Zygii (also known as polytonic|Ζυγοί, Zygoi, Zygi or Zygians) has been described by the ancient Greek intellectual Strabo as a nation to the north of Colchis.

He 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)

William Smith observes that "they were partly nomad shepherds, partly brigands and pirates, for which latter vocation they had ships specially adapted". [William Smith, LLD. "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography". London. Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1854.] They inhabited the region known as Zyx, which is on the northern slopes of the Caucasus east of Elbrus. To the east were the Avars, and to the west were the Circassians. To the north was Sarmatian territory, and to the south lay the part of Colchis inhabited by the Svans ("Soanes" of Strabo and Pliny the Elder).

The tribe also features in several ancient and medieval works, notably in Pliny ("Zichoi"), Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, medieval Georgian chroniclers ("Jikebi"), Marco Polo, and Johannes de Galonifontibus, who, in his "Libellus de notitia orbis", speaks of "Zikia or Circassia" and their language, perhaps the earliest reference to the Northwest Caucasian languages. [Glanville Price (1998), "Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe", p. 60. Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0631220399.]

References