Zygii
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The Zygi (Ζυγοί; also transliterated Zygoi or Zygii) are described in Strabo (Geography 11.2) as a savage nation to the north of Colchis:
- "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 Zygi and the Heniochi, and also the Cercetae and the Macropogones. And above these are situated the narrow passes of the Phtheirophagi; and after the Heniochi the Colchian country, which lies at the foot of the Caucasian, or Moschian, Mountains."
William Smith observes that "they were partly nomad shepherds, partly brigands and pirates, for which latter vocation they had ships specially adapted".[1] They inhabited the region known as Zyx, being the northern slopes of the Caucasus east of Elbrus. To the east were the Avars and to the west the Circassians. North was Sarmatian territory and south lay that part of Colchis now known as Svanetia.
[edit] References
- ^ 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.
