Maeotae

Map of the Roman empire under Hadrian (ruled 117-38 AD), showing the location of the Maeotae on the eastern shore of the eponymous Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azov)

Maeotae or Mæotæ or Maeotici (Greek: Μαιῶται) were an ancient people dwelling along the Palus Maeotis (to which they lent their name) in antiquity.^[1][2] It is not clear whether they spoke an Iranian language or were related to the modern-day Adyghe. The best attested tribe among them was the Sindi.

The earliest reference may be the logographer Hellanicus.^[3] Strabo describes them as living among the Dandarii, Toreatae, Agri, Arrechi, Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Sittaceni, Dosci, and Aspurgiani, among others.^[4] According to him they lived partly on fish, and partly tilled the land, but were no less warlike than their nomad neighbors. These wild hordes were sometimes tributary to the factory at the Tanais (modern Don River), and at other times to the Bosporani, revolting from one to the other. In later times, especially under Pharnaces II of Pontus, Asander and Polemon I of Pontus, the Bosporan Kingdom extended as far as the Tanais.

There are speculations that the Maeotes and the Sindes may have been Indo-Aryans, connected with the Mitanni rulers of Assyria one millennium before Herodotus.^[5]

One princess of the Maeotes, a wife of a Sindic king, from the tribe of Ixomates, was called Tirgatao by Polyaenus ^[6] comparable to Tirgutawiya, a name from a tablet found in Hurrian Alalakh.^[7] Karl Eichwald^[8] even proclaimed them to have been a Hindu colony, but this view was rejected by the vast majority of scholars.^[9]

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed (1854–57). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray. 
• Strabo's book 11 on-line
• Trubachov, Oleg N., 1999: Indoarica, Nauka, Moscow.

1. ^ (Pseudo-Scylax; Strabo Geographica (Strabo) 11.; Pliny 4.7.26; Pomponius Mela, 1.2.6, 1.19.17.
2. ^ William Smith considers Maeotae a collective name which was given to the peoples about the Palus Maeotis
3. ^ if we read with his editor Sturz (for Μαλιῶται, Μαιῶται)
4. ^ Strabo xi. 2. 11.
5. ^ [1]
6. ^ Stratagems, 8.55.
7. ^ AT 298 II.11.
8. ^ Alt Geogr. d. Kasp. M. p. 356.
9. ^ Comp. Bayer, Acta Petrop. ix. p. 370; St. Croix, Mem. de l'Ac. des Inscr. xlvi. p. 403; Larcher, ad Herod. vii. p. 506; Friedrich August Ukert, vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 494, etc.