Rhoxolani

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Rhoxolani were Sarmatian tribes that migrated in the 3rd and 4th century BC from the territories north of Azov Sea toward the Danube, in what is now the Baragan steppes in Romania. Their original homeland lay between the Don and Dnieper rivers. They are believed to be an off-shoot of Alans.

The Greco-Roman historian Strabo (late first century BC-early first century AD) described them as "wagon-dwellers" (i.e. nomads) (Geographika, Book VII).

Around 100 BC they invaded the Crimea under their king Tasius in support of the Scythian warlord Palacus but were defeated in the Crimea by Diophantus, general of Mithradates VI.

In the mid-first century AD, during the Dacian crisis, the Rhoxolani began to settle on the lower reaches of the Danube, but this was impeded by the Legio III Gallica, who attacked and destroyed a force of 9,000 Roxolanian heavy cavalry carrying baggage in 68/69. Tacitus (Hist.Bk1.79) describes the weight of the armor worn by the 'princes and most distinguished persons' made 'it difficult for such as have been overthrown by the charge of the enemy to regain their feet' The long two-handed kontos lance, the primary melee weapon of the Sarmatians, was unusable in these conditions. The Rhoxolani avenged themselves on the Romans in c.92, when they joined the Dacians in destroying the Roman Legio XXI Rapax.

Trajan subdued the Rhoxolani, along with the Iazyges, during his conquest of Dacia. The Rhoxolani regained their independence upon his death. The Emperor Hadrian reinforced a series of pre-existing fortifications (and built numerous new forts) along the Danube to contain the Rhoxolani threat. Marcus Aurelius also campaigned against them along the Danubian frontier. They are known to have attacked the Roman Province of Pannonia in 260; shortly afterwards contingents of Roxolani troops enter service in the Roman military.

Like other Sarmatian peoples, the Rhoxolani were conquered by the Huns in the mid fourth century and disappeared from history. Some anti-Normanist historians of Russia attempted to link their name with that of the Rus, which appeared in Eastern Europe some four centuries later.