Siraks

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Settlement area of ​​the Siraks in the hinterland of the east coast of the Azov Sea next to the other Sarmatian tribes of the Roxolans and Aorsen in the 4th century BC. BC (In contrast, the tribes of the Maioten , which are not shown, lived directly in the coastal area ).

The Siraks ( Greek Sirakoi , Latin Siraces , Siraci ) were a Sarmatian sub-tribe that was originally located in Kazakhstan . In the late 5th century BC The Siraks immigrated to the areas north of the Black Sea , and in the late 4th century BC. They settled between the Don and the Caucasus . There they finally gained control of the Kuban area. Until the end of the 2nd century AD, they are mentioned and described several times in ancient sources.

The Siraks were the first Sarmatian people with whom the Greek settlers on the Black Sea coast came into contact. After their emergence they attacked under their tribal king Aripharnes in 310/09 BC. BC the Greek dominated Bosporan Empire , but were repulsed. In the period that followed, close ties developed between the Siraks and the Bosporan Empire. With the Bosporan and Pontic king Mithridates , who in the 1st century BC BC opposed the Roman expansion, and his son Pharnakes II they were allies. Many Siraks gave up their semi-nomadic lifestyle and settled down, adopting Greek culture and learning the Greek language.

The Siraks are considered to be the most heavily Graecised of the Sarmatians in the Black Sea region. The Siraks were numerically one of the smaller Sarmatian tribes. According to the Greek historian Strabo , they were able to raise an army of 20,000 riders during the reign of the Bosporan ruler Pharnakes II (63-47 BC) (for comparison: the Aorsi were able to raise 200,000 riders).

When, in the course of the 1st century AD, another Sarmatian tribe, the Alans , advanced westward from the area between the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea into the northern foothills of the Caucasus, the Siraks grew stronger in the direction of the Kuban, the West Caucasus and the coast of the Sea of Azov , where their settling progressed and in turn the tribes of the Mayots were pushed closer to the coast or into the mountains. The Aorsen, previously the most powerful and numerous Sarmatian tribe, either joined the Alan Federation or dodged to the northwest towards the Don, pushing the previous Sarmatian tribes of the region, the Roxolans and Jazygen, to the west.

The Siraks were last mentioned in sources at the end of the 2nd century AD. Apparently they went (their traditional name, as with all Sarmatenstämmen, rather ancient Iranian languages point) gradually into the long-established nordwestkaukasischsprachige population of the region, especially the maeotians (ethnic association disputed) and in the expanding in the aftermath Caucasian tribal associations cercetae and Zichi on . Many regional researchers believe that part of the archaeologically determined everyday culture of the region and the basic elements of the Narten epic (in both areas, but by no means all) could be traced back to Iraqi and Alanic influences.

literature

  • Denis Sinor: The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge 1990, Vol. 1, pp. 110-117 (Ch. The Sarmatians ).
  • Richard Brzezinski, Mariusz Mielczarek: The Sarmatians 600 BC-Ad 450. Oxford 2002 (popular science review), pp. 7–9.

Footnotes

  1. ^ A b Sinor: The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. P. 113.
  2. ↑ Brzezinski, Mielczarek p. 7, originally from Strabon Geographika 11,5,8.
  3. ↑ Brzezinski, Mielczarek p. 7.
  4. ↑ See e.g. B. Kadir I. Natho: Circassian History. New York 2009, v. a. P. 59, but also the following pages.