COLLOQUIA ANTIQUA

————— 18 —————

ESSAYS ON THE ARCHAEOLOGY AND

ANCIENT HISTORY OF
THE BLACK SEA LITTORAL

Edited by

MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS, GOCHA R. TSETSKHLADZE

and IOANNIS XYDOPOULOS

PEETERS
LEUVEN – PARIS – BRISTOL, CT
2018
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Series Editor’s Introduction – Gocha R. Tsetskhladze . . . . . . . . . . . .  vii

Foreword – Costas Th. Grammenos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Introduction – Manolis Manoledakis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  xi

List of illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  xiii

List of abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  xxi

Chapter 1 ‘Greek Penetration of the Black Sea’: Twenty Years On

Gocha R. Tsetskhladze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2 The Cimmerians and their Perception in Ancient Greek

Sources
Ioannis K. Xydopoulos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Chapter 3 The Terms ‘Thrace’ and ‘Thracians’ in Greek Histori-

ography (6th–4th Centuries BC)
Ioannis K. Xydopoulos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 4 Surveys and Excavations on the Southern Black Sea

Coast
Sümer Atasoy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Chapter 5 The Local Peoples of the Southern Black Sea Coast

Manolis Manoledakis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Chapter 6 The Early Greek Presence in the Southern Black Sea

Manolis Manoledakis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Chapter 7 Archaeological Research on the Western Black Sea Coast

from the Archaic Period until the Roman Conquest: An
Overview
Iulian Bîrzescu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
VI

Chapter 8 An Essay on Recent Archaeological Research on the

Northern Black Sea Coast
Ewdoksia Papuci-Władyka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Chapter 9 The Taurians

Igor Khrapunov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Chapter 10 The Economy of Kerkinitis during the Ancient Greek

Period
Tatiana N. Smekalova and Vadim A. Kutaisov . . . . . . 369

Chapter 11 Religion as Experience: Epigraphic Evidence from the

West and North Shores of the Black Sea
Angelos Chaniotis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Chapter 12 The Colchian Black Sea Coast: Recent Discoveries

and Studies
Gocha R. Tsetskhladze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST

Manolis Manoledakis

Abstract
This paper deals with the south side of the Black Sea in the historical period and the vari-
ous tribes dwelling there. Since the archaeological traces they left behind are at best mini-
mal and in most cases non-existent, the author investigates the references of these peoples
in the literary sources. As a result, he provides all the data regarding the aforemen-
tioned tribes, i.e. the Bithynians, the Mariandynians, the Caucones, the Paphlagonians, the
Enetoi, the Syrians or Leucosyrians or Cappadocians, the Chalybes, the Tibarenians, the
Mossynoecians, the Drilae and the Macrones. Through the sparse evidence (for example,
the information found in Herodotus, Xenophon’s Anabasis, the geographical works by
Greek and Latin authors, and Strabo) the author attempts to trace the most important of
these tribes and stresses out the serious difficulties one meets in tracing the exact loca-
tions of them in relation to their neighbours, difficulties caused not only by the lack of
sources but also by the confusion caused by the very same references in these texts.

Introduction

The south side of the Black Sea presents a strikingly different geographical
relief from the vast open plains and steppes of the northern and western sides,
for here rugged mountain ranges hug the coast, leaving only a narrow strip of
flat, arable land. This difference is probably one of the reasons for the dissimi-
larity in their patterns of ethnic distribution. The large groups of Scythian and
Thracian tribes that populated the northern and western sides have no parallel
in the south. The Phrygians may have dominated most of Anatolia but, like the
Hittites before them, they never achieved a strong presence on the Black Sea
coast.1
The masters of the coastal lands in the age of the Hittites seem to have been
the Kaska.2 In the historical period, and certainly by the time the Greeks reached
the Black Sea, this people seems to have disappeared, supplanted by various
small, and as a rule quite separate, tribes. The archaeological traces they left

1
  See, indicatively, Tsetskhladze 2007, 188.
2
  For more on the Kaska, see my chapter ‘The Early Greek Presence in the Southern Black
Sea’ in the present volume (below), with bibliography.
148 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

behind are at best minimal and in most cases non-existent,3 and these tribes are
thus known only from the accounts of Greek (and a few Latin) historians and
geographers, who provide little information and say nothing especially enlight-
ening about them. As a result, the research on these tribes that has been pub-
lished in recent years is limited, and the conclusions reached are as a rule hypo-
thetical and not always universally accepted. These studies are of two kinds,
some focusing on specific tribes4 and others offering a global account of the
peoples occupying the region (either self-contained studies or, more usually,
associated with some more general aspect of the ancient history of the southern
Black Sea).5 Roughly the same is true of the ancient sources, as will appear in
due course.
Through these sources we will attempt a brief examination of the most impor-
tant of these tribes, always bearing in mind, however, that the only information
we have is what can be gleaned from these (Greek or Greek-influenced) texts,
in which the descriptions of the various peoples are inevitably subjective, con-
ditioned by the viewpoint of their authors who, as the texts themselves make
clear, came from a very different culture and lived very different lives to those
they were writing about.
Among the tribes mentioned as dwelling on the southern shore of the Black
Sea are the Bithynians, the Mariandynians, the Caucones, the Paphlagonians,
the Enetoi, the Syrians or Leucosyrians, the Cappadocians (probably the same
people as the Syrians), the Chalybes, the Tibarenians, the Mossynoecians, the
Drilae and the Macrones. One of the most important and at the same time the
earliest sources we have for these tribes is Xenophon’s Anabasis. Written by the
historian who commanded the Ten Thousand, the troop of Greek mercenaries
who fought for Cyrus at Cunaxa (401 BC), the Anabasis provides considerable
information about the tribes that inhabited the south coast in 400 BC, the year
in which Xenophon led the roughly 8600 survivors (Anabasis 5. 3. 3) through
that country on their way back to Greece.
Herodotus also provides information about some of these tribes, chiefly in
relation to their weapons and equipment. Several of the later writers relied on the
accounts of these two historians. For the rest, a number of geographical works
by Greek and Latin writers, especially the periploi, mention the tribes, but give

3
 Not to mention the principal difficulty that exists anyway, to ‘identify peoples through
archaeology’ (Tsetskhladze 2012, 236, with more bibliography).
4
  For example: Hansen 1876 and Burstein 1976, 6–11, on the Mariandynians; Lipka 1995,
on the Drilae and Mossynoecians; Summerer 2005a, 130–35, 151–52, on the Leucosyrians/
Cappadocians.
5
  For example: Maksimova 1956, 19–31, 118–45; Counillon 2004, 97–134; Kvirkvelia 2005,
33–34; Tsetskhladze 2007, 180–94.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST149

no information other than their geographical location. The great exception here
is, of course, Strabo, who wrote at considerable length about the various peoples,
culling and compiling information from all the earlier sources from Homer on,
and sometimes even offering his own views about the origin or identity of vari-
ous tribes, as for example in the case of the Halizones/Chalybes.
The geographical order in which the tribes of the south coast are mentioned
is not the same in all the texts. Xenophon’s account moves from east to west,
following the march of his army towards Greece, and the same is true of some
of the periploi. Strabo and some others, by contrast, follow an opposite course.
We shall do likewise, as the traditional and most reader-friendly way of reading
a map.

Bithynians (Βιθυνοί)

The westernmost end of the southern Black Sea coast was the land of the
Bithynians; since these were generally agreed to be Thracians (Herodotus 7. 75;
Ps.-Scylax 92; Strabo 12. 3. 3; Arrian 12–13), they will be discussed in the
relevant chapter.6

Mariandynians (Μαριανδύνοι)

To the east of the Bithynians lived the Mariandynians, in the country where
the Megarians built their colony of Heraclea (Xenophon Anabasis. 6. 2. 2; Ps.-
Scylax 91; Ps.-Scymnus 936; Pomponius Mela 1. 103; Ptolemy 5. 1. 11) and
the town of Stephane (Hecataeus FGrH 1a 1 F 198). In general terms this was
the land between the rivers Sangarius and Billaios.7 The soil was fertile (Apol-
lonius of Rhodes Argonautica 2. 723), and one of the places believed to be
an entrance to Hades was located here (Apollonius Argonautica 2. 728–751).
Strabo notes that older writers, like Theopompus, did not record the origin of
the Mariandynians, who resembled the Bithynians and like them were probably
Thracians (Strabo 12. 3. 4); he also observes that the first Greek colonists of
Heraclea8 compelled the Mariandynians who were living there to be their slaves,

6
  For the Thracians, see the chapter ‘The Terms Thrakes and Thrake in Greek Historiography
(6th–4th Centuries BC)’ in this volume.
7
  Cf. Asheri 1972, 17–23.
8
  Who, according to him, were Milesians and not Megarians, which is what the rest of the
sources state. For this issue as well as the Mariandynians, see Polsberw 1833, 35–35; Asheri 1972,
19–23; Saprykin 1997, 23, with more bibliography.
150 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

an arrangement that by pact was limited to the territory of Heraclea. Similar

details are recorded by Poseidonius and Euphorion, according to Athenaeus
(Deipnosophistae 6. 84; cf. also Plato De Legibus 776c–d and Eustathius Com­
mentary on Homer’s Iliad 3. 943–944). The Mariandynians survived this colo-
nisation, and indeed Herodotus mentions (7. 72) that they campaigned with the
Persians against Greece, and that they had earlier been subjugated by Croesus
(Herodotus 1. 28).9
It is, however, worth mentioning a slight difference in the abovementioned
information about the enslavement of the Mariandynians to the Greeks. It seems
that the Mariandynians were subordinated to the Greeks, either by simply being
forced to become their slaves (Strabo 12. 3. 4) or in a more consensual way:
this way has been analysed by Saprykin,10 based on the texts of Apollonius
(Argonautica 2. 752–814) and Poseidonius (according to Athenaeus).
From these texts it follows that:
According to Poseidonius, many men, who are unable to govern themselves, by
reason of the weakness of their intellect, give themselves up to the guidance of
those who are wiser than themselves, in order that receiving from them care and
advice, and assistance in necessary matters, they may in their turn requite them
with such services as they are able to render. And in this manner the Mariandyni-
ans became subject to the people of Heraclea, promising to act as their subjects for
ever, if they would supply them with what they stood in need of; having made an
agreement beforehand, that none of them would be sold outside of the territory of
Heraclea, but that they would stay in that district alone. And perhaps it is on this
account that Euphorion the epic poet called the Mariandynians Bringers of Gifts,
saying And they may well be called Bringers of Gifts, Fearing the stern dominion
of their kings (Athenaeus Deipnosophistae 6. 263c–e, transl. by C.D. Yonge).
This narration coincides with that of Apollonius (Argonautica 2. 752–814),
where Lykos, king of the Mariandynians, warmly welcomes the Argonauts,
bringing gifts to them. According to Saprykin, all these indicate an interest
of the Mariandynians in the arrival of the Greeks, who were not enslaved by
force, like the Helots by the Lacedaemonians, as also Plato implies.11 This
interest is explained by the fact that the Greeks were seen by the Mariandynians
as their defenders against attacking neighbouring tribes. Saprykin even thinks
that the Mariandynians could have made a military and political agreement
with the Greeks, when Heraclea was founded, as can be assumed by Apollonius
(Argonautica 2. 774–814).12

9
  More for the Mariandynians in Saprykin 1997, 30–36.
10
  Saprykin 1997, 24–37.
11
 Plato De Legibus 6. 776c–d; cf. Pollux 3. 83, unlike Strabo 12. 3. 4: ‘the Milesians forced
the Mariandynians to serve as Helots’.
12
  Saprykin 1997, 29.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST151

There is, however, also another interpretation of the vagueness concerning

the enslavement of the Mariandynians: Pollux (Onomasticon 3. 83) mentions
among the peoples who were ‘between free and slaves’ the tributaries of the
Mariandynians (Μαριανδύνων Δωροφόροι). This phrase led Asheri to propose
that not all the Marindyninas were tributaries of the Heracleans, but only some
of them, those who lived on the coast, while those of the hinterland were free.13
It is indeed interesting that Pollux makes this clarification, as it makes it in the
same sentence also about the Sicyonian peasants (Σικυωνίων Κορυνηφόροι).
So, Asheri’s interpretation is not untenable. Finally, we cannot omit noting
that Δωροφόρος also means the one who brings gifts, which reminds us of the
mythical Mariandynian king Lykos.
The Mariandynians and their country, Μαριανδυνία or Μαριανδυνίς, are also
named by Hyginus Fabulae 14. 26; Valerius Flaccus Argonautica 4. 171,
4. 733; Dionysius Periegetes Orbus descriptio 788; Aelius Herodianus De proso­
dia catholica 3. 1. 95, 96, 102, 297 and elsewhere; Stephanus of Byzantium 96. 9,
433, 585; the scholiast on Apollonius Argonautica 19. 11, 101. 1, 123. 19 and
elsewhere; Etymologicum Genuinem alpha 878. 1; Etymologicum Gudianm
alpha 69. 13; Etymologicum Magnum 108. 51; Eustathius Commentary on
Homer’s Iliad 1. 456, 1. 570, 3. 943; Eustathius Commentary on Dionysius
Periegetes 787. 3–16, 791. 30–39; and several other sources. The fact that they
are often mentioned in connection with the story of the Argonauts is cited as
evidence of their presence in the region before the Trojan War,14 although this is
not consonant with the likelihood that they were a Thracian tribe (Strabo 12. 3. 4),
since the Thracians did not arrive in Anatolia until later. Thus, most scholars
think that the Mariandynians were probably a Bithynian (i.e. Thracian) tribe that
followed the Cimmerians into Anatolia in the 7th century BC, which could account
for the tradition that their eponymous hero Mariandynos was a son of Cimmerius
(the scholiast on Apollonius Argonautica 1. 1126, 2. 140, 2. 723, 2. 780).15 This
version being no more susceptible of proof than the first, the way is left open
for a third theory, namely that ‘the Mariandynian population of historical times
was not a unity but the result of the fusion of several originally distinct ethnic
groups some time during the first half of the first millennium’.16 Plainly, no clear
and incontrovertible answer to the question is possible.

  Asheri 1972, 18–19, 23.

13

  For example Burstein 1976, 6; cf. Kacharava 2005, 19. According to mythological sequence,
14

the expedition of the Argonauts preceded the Trojan War by a couple of generations, since among
the crew of the Argo were men whose sons or grandsons fought at Troy. Consequently, given that
the Trojan War is placed in the 12th century BC, the expedition of the Argonauts may be placed
some time after the middle of the 13th century BC.
15
  Cf. Ruge 1930, 1747; Burstein 1976, 7; Saprykin 1997, 27.
16
  Burstein 1976, 8–11.
152 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

Caucones (Καύκωνες)

The country between the Mariandynians and the River Parthenius to the east
was, according to Strabo (12. 3. 5), inhabited by the Caucones, a people of
Scythian, Macedonian or Pelasgian origin (Eustathius calls them a Paphlagon-
ian nation: Commentary on Homer’s Iliad 4. 414; Commentary on Homer’s
Odyssey 1. 133) about whom nothing definite is known – Apollodorus, as Strabo
notes, considered them an unknown people (14. 5. 23). Strabo also records that
Callisthenes inserted two lines about them into the text of Book 2 of the Iliad,
just after line 855:
And the excellent Polykleos led the Caucones,
who had their famed dwellings around the River Parthenius17
Although the Caucones are mentioned in two other places in the Iliad (10. 429 and
20. 329; cf. also the scholiast on Apollonius Argonautica 156), their location is not
specified, and by Strabo’s time they had already disappeared (Strabo 12. 3. 9),
apart from some of them living close to the Parthenius (12. 3. 5). The lines
added by Callisthenes were not accepted as authentic, as is apparent both from
the Argonautica of Apollonius, who ignores them when he describes the south-
ern Black Sea, and from Strabo’s statement itself that they were inserted by
Callisthenes.18
The scholiast on the Argonautica (156), however, says that Caucones was
the name by which the people Homer called the Enetoi (see above) were known
before the Trojan War.
The Caucones of the Peloponnese are a different people (Herodotus 1. 147,
4. 148; Strabo 7. 7. 1, 8. 3. 17, and elsewhere19), from which, however, accord-
ing to the scholiast on the Iliad (10. 429, 20. 329. 1), came those who settled on
the Black Sea, who were part of Paphlagonia (and are the ones mentioned in the
Trojan Catalogue), while he also distinguishes yet another group of Caucones, a
Trojan people from Caria (20. 329. 6). Stephanus of Byzantium (s.v. Καυκώνεια)
lists a Cauconia, land of the Caucones, which he says was named for either a
king or a river, but without specifying which one he means.
The Caucones are also mentioned in Ptolemy 5. 1. 11 (alternatively as Cyclones)
Historia Alexandri Magni Rec. a 1. 2. 2, Hesychius Lexicon s.v. Caucones, the
Suda s.v. Caucones, and elsewhere.

17
  Καύκωνας δ᾽αὖτ᾽ἦγε Πολυκλέος υἱὸς ἀμύμων,
οἵ περί Παρθένιον ποταμὸν κλυτὰ δώματ᾽ ἔναιον
18
 For Callisthenes’ text, see Kirk 1985, 259; Rengakos 1993, 129–30 and n. 5, with additional
bibliography. On the whole issue, see now Manoledakis 2013.
19
  For the unknown Caucones in this region, see Ruge 1921. Cf. Stephanus of Byzantium s.v.
Ἀράβυζα, for their territory.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST153

Paphlagonians (Παφλαγόνες)

It is curious that, while Xenophon (Anabasis 5. 5. 2–6, 6. 1. 1) clearly states that

Cotyora was in the territory of the Tibarenians, it also appears to be in or near
Paphlagonia. It may be that the land of the Tibarenians was a very small territory
adjacent to that of the Paphlagonians, or that the whole region, including the
part where the Tibarenians (who are mentioned by Strabo 12. 1. 3, 12. 3. 1,
12. 3. 18)20 lived, had come to be called Paphlagonia. The latter is perhaps the
likeliest explanation, since while Strabo says that (in his days at least) Paphlago-
nia lay between Bithynia (to the west) and Pontus (to the east), the other tribes,
e.g. the Mariandynians and the Tibarenians, were also known to him.
Paphlagonia covered an extensive territory, comprising both broad plains and
lofty mountains, and had a number of Greek cities (Xenophon Anabasis 5. 6;
Pomponius Mela 1. 104). It was traversed by the rivers Halys and Iris, whose
courses created a fertile valley, the only such strip of land on that coast running
north to south, and further watered by the rivers Parthenius and Thermodon.
According to Xenophon (Anabasis 6. 1. 15), Sinope was in Paphlagonia, although
Ps.-Scylax (Periplus 89–90) says that both the Halys and Sinope were in the
land of the Assyrians and places Paphlagonia farther west (see additionally in
Herodotus 1. 72; Dionysius Periegetes Orbus descriptio 787).
In 400 BC, Korylas is mentioned as a powerful Persian satrap in Paphlagonia,
with expansionist views against the Sinopeans in Cotyora (Xenophon Ana­
basis 5. 5). In general, the Paphlagonians and Xenophon’s Greeks engaged in
mutual depredations, until Korylas stepped in and brokered a peace between
them, after which they banqueted together (6. 1. 1–14). It is interesting to read
of the astonishment of the Paphlagonians at seeing the warlike nature of all the
Greek dances performed, weapons in hand, at these banquets.
From the Iliad and Herodotus we know that the Paphlagonians took part in
two great historical and mythical wars against the Greeks: the Trojan Catalogue
(Iliad 2. 851–855) lists them as allies of the Trojans in the Trojan War, led by
Pylaimenes,21 while Herodotus (7. 72) tells us that they took the field with
Xerxes against Greece. His account includes the information that they wore
woven helmets and sandals that covered the lower leg, and carried lances, dag-
gers, small shields and spears. The Paphlagonians had earlier been conquered by
Croesus (Herodotus 1. 28, 3. 90).

20
  And other tribes. Cf., for example, Aelius Herodianus De prosodia catholica 3. 1. 144 s.v.
Τίριζος.
21
  An analytic examination of the Paphlagonians in the Trojan Catalogue is now available in
Manoledakis 2013.
154 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

The Paphlagonians are mentioned frequently in ancient sources, although

usually merely named along with other peoples of the same region in accounts
of historical events that took place there, with no further information.22
The Paphlagonians are closely associated with the Enetoi, concerning whom,
however, things are far from clear.
From the reference to them in the Trojan Catalogue (Homer Iliad 2. 852)
it appears that they were a tribe – the noblest, according to Strabo (12. 3. 8)
– of the Paphlagonians (cf. Pliny NH 6. 5), whose territory was known as
the breeding place of the wild and unruly half-ass (the scholiast on Homer
Iliad 2. 852). Strabo mentions that in his era there were no Enetoi in Paphlag-
onia any more, as they had been driven out to the Veneto on the Adriatic Sea
(Strabo 12. 3. 8, 25; 5. 1. 4. Cf. Livy 1. 1. 2; Eustathius Commentary on
Dionysius Periegetes 378) and does not agree with the emendation of Zeno-
dotus, who spoke of a city.23

Syrians/Leucosyrians/Assyrians – Cappadocians
(Σύροι/Λευκοσύροι/Ασσύριοι – Καππαδόκαι)

The sources have considerably more to say about the people known as Syrians,
Leucosyrians or Assyrians. In most cases they are said to live in the area where
the Greeks would later build Sinope and Amisos (for example, Apollonius Argo­
nautica 2. 946; Ps.-Scymnus 917, 941–943; Anonymous Periplus 26–27). Pom-
ponius Mela (1. 105) places these cities in the territory of the Chalybes), while
Apollonius seems to give them the fertile country between the rivers Halys and
Iris as well (Apollonius Argonautica 2. 962–964; the scholiast on Apollonius
Argonautica 198), although later in his epic he places the delta of the Halys
on the Paphlagonian coast (Argonautica 4. 245). The anonymous author of the
Periplus (25), following Herodotus (1. 6, 1. 72), cites the Halys as the boundary
between the Paphlagonians and the Syrians. The cities of Chadisia and Teiria

22
  For example: Xenophon Hellenica 4. 1. 2, 21, 26, 28; Xenophon Cyropaedia 1. 1. 4, 1. 5. 3,
2. 1. 5, 6. 2. 10, 8. 6. 8; Apollonius Argonautica 2. 358, 2. 790, 4. 245, 4. 300; Athenaeus
Deipnosophistae 1. 27, 1. 49, 4. 25, 10. 8, 11. 51; Plutarch Alexander 18. 5; Lucian Alexan­
der 9, 11, 15, 39, 45; and many later authors. Many more sources mention, of course, Paphla-
gonia itself.
23
 Zenodotus produced the first critical edition of Homer in the 3rd century BC, where
he emended ἐξ Ἐνετῶν to ἐξ Ἐνετῆς, identifying it as a city and specifically as Amisos, which
Hecataeus describes as belonging to the ‘White Syrians’ (FrGH 1a. 1. F199). Strabo also notes
that some people knew of a town called Enete on the coast, ten schoinoi from Amastris. Eustathius
calls this town Ενετός: Commentary on Homer’s Iliad 1. 567–568. See also the use of the name
by Apollonius Argonautica 2. 358. See more on the Enetoi in Manoledakis 2013.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST155

(Hecataeus FGrH 1a 1 F 200–201), Pteria (Herodotus 1. 76),24 and of course

Themiscyra, near the mouth of the Thermodon, a city closely associated with
the myth of the Amazons (Strabo 12. 3. 9), were all situated in Leucosyrian
territory.
Xenophon, however, writing in 400 BC, does not mention them, and places
Sinope in Paphlagonia. Either the Leucosyrians had disappeared by that time or
they had become part of Paphlagonia, presumably subjugated by the Paphlago-
nians as they pushed their borders eastwards. The Leucosyrians are also men-
tioned by Curtius Rufus (Alexander 6. 4. 17).
A key piece of information comes to us from Strabo (12. 3. 5, 12. 3. 9,
16. 1. 2; cf. Menander Perikeiromene 9; Anonymous Periplus 23; Photius
Lexicon s.v. Λευκόσυροι; Eustathius Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes 772–
775; Constantine Porphyrogenitus De thematibus 2. 33–35): that in his day the
Leucosyrians or Syrians were called Cappadocians, although some continued
to call them Leucosyrians (as he himself does later: 12. 3. 12, 24, 25), in order
to distinguish between them and the darker-skinned Syrians beyond the Tau-
rus. More specifically, Herodotus (1. 72, 5. 49, 7. 72) points out that it was the
Persians who called Cappadocians (Katpatuka) those whom the Greeks called
Syrians, adding that they fought alongside the Persians against Greece; he also
uses the term ‘Cappadocian Syrians’ for greater clarity. In the 4th century BC,
Ps.-Scylax (Periplus 89) uses only the word Assyria, not the ‘Cappadocia’ which
came to prevail in Roman and Byzantine times. Xenophon, however, writing a
few years earlier, mentions the Cappadocians (Xenophon Cyropaedia 1. 1. 4,
6. 2. 10, 7. 4. 16, 7. 5. 14), although not in his description of the coast in the
Anabasis.25
The scholiast on the Argonautica (946–954) of Apollonius tells us (196) that
the Assyria of the epic is Cappadocia, which was once known as Syria, while
some of the ancient writers called it Leucosyria (and its people Leucosyrians), to
distinguish it from the Syria in Phoenicia. Another view is that the name Syrians
or Assyrians, which is used in the sources, suggests that in very ancient times
the Kingdom of Assyria extended north as far as the Black Sea.26 Ps.-Scymnus
(Periplus 956, 980, 984, 988) calls both the Syrians and the Cappadocians Leu-
cosyrians, but in a way that indicates that the latter lived in the interior, and thus
were different from the Leuco(syrians).

24
  For these cities, see recently Summerer 2005a, 130; 2008, 264–65; Tsetskhladze 2007,
189–91; 2012, 238.
25
  The sources on the Cappadocian Syrians are collected in Franck 1966, 84–89.
26
  For these older views, see RE 12.2, 2292–93 s.v. Leukosyroi (W. Ruge).
156 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

It seems, then, that the name Cappadocians was not used by the Greeks before,
perhaps, the end of the 5th century BC, after which they appear to have adopted
the Persian name Cappadocians, although the name Leucosyrians may well have
remained in use for a while longer, particularly to emphasise the distinction from
the Syrians of Phoenicia.
Scholars have attributed to the Leucosyrians an Iranian, Syro-Hittite or Ana-
tolian origin, while Strabo (12. 1. 1–2) refers to the inhabitants of Cappadocia as
men who spoke the same language but were probably of different ethnic origin.27
An interesting opinion with regard to relations between the Greek colonists
and the local people, and in the specific case the Leucosyrians, which however
may or may not be accurate, is that at some point Amisos, which according to
Strabo (12. 3. 14, who cites Theopompus) had been founded by a Cappadocian
leader whose name was Timades, extended its territory, in the process probably
absorbing neighbouring local settlements.28
The Leucosyrians/Syrians/Assyrians are also mentioned by Ps.-Scylax 89;
Ptolemy 5. 6. 2, 9; Appian Mithridates 292; Aelius Herodianus De prosodia
catholica 3. 1. 200; Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Σύροι and elsewhere; the scho-
liast on Lycophron 887. 4; Procopius de Bello 1. 17. 21; Etymologicum Gudi­
anum 99. 17; and others.
As Cappadocians, they are mentioned by Xenophon Cyropaedia 1. 1. 4,
6. 2. 10, 7. 4. 16, 7. 5. 14; Demosthenes Epitaphius 4. 7; Plutarch Alexander 18. 5;
Diodorus Siculus 31. 19. 9; Athenaeus Deipnosophistae 1. 36; Galen simple med­
icines 12. 82. 15, 12. 106. 10; Arrian Periplus 6. 4; Arrian Anabasis 5. 25. 4;
Dionysius Periegetes Orbus descriptio 974; Appian Mithridates 158. 3 and else-
where; Oppian Cynegitca 1. 171, 197; Anonymous Periplus 41; also, in many
other Roman and Byzantine sources.

Chalybes – Halizones (Χάλυβες – Αλιζώνες)

The Chalybes were a people famous from a very early period, for their metal-rich
country and their metalworking skills, as their name denotes.29 This wealth came,

27
  For the Leucosyrians, their identification with the Cappadocians and some opinions on their
origin, see the detailed essay of Summerer 2005a, 130–35, 151–52, with bibliography. Cf. also Hind
1988, 211; Langella 1997, 22; Summerer 2005b, 125–27; 2008, 263–64; Tsetskhladze 2007, 193;
2012, 236, who states also the view (first expressed by Saprykin) that the locals of the whole central
part of the southern Black Sea were probably Paphlagonians. An interesting ethnographic approach
to the Leucosyrians is offered by Dan 2011.
28
  For this opinion of Summerer, see in more detail my chapter ‘The Early Greek Presence in
the Southern Black Sea’ in the present volume.
29
  For the etymology of the name (of Hittite origin?), see Bryer and Winfield 1985, 3. Cf.
Degnate 1978, 245–46.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST157

naturally, at a price: Phineas, describing in Apollonius’ Argonautica (2. 374–376)

the course that the Argonauts were to follow, calls them the most wretched
of men, living in a barren country and working with iron (cf. also Aeschylus
Prometheus Vinctus 715; Dionysius Periegetes Orbus descriptio 768). Later,
when the Argonauts reach the land of the Chalybes, Apollonius adds (Argo­
nautica 2. 1001–1008) that they never know a day of ease, but labour ceaselessly
amid sooty flames and smoke.30
At the time when Stamene or Stamenia or Amenia was built (Ps.-Scylax 88),
the Chalybes had the Armenians as their neighbours to the south (Hecataeus
FGrH 1a 1 F 203), while according to one version (Stephanus of Byzantium
s.v. Χάλυβες) their land was traversed by the River Thermodon, which as we
have seen was also associated with the country of the Leucosyrians.
The Chalybes were conquered by Croesus (Herodotus 1. 28) in the 6th cen-
tury BC. By 400 BC they seem to have diminished in number and to be subject
to the Mossynoecians, but were still earning their living as ironworkers (Xeno-
phon Anabasis 5. 5. 1). Ps.-Scymnus (938) says that they lived in the interior
(cf. Anonymous Periplus 27, but the contrary at 31).
Strabo deals extensively with the Chalybes (12. 3. 19–29) in a parenthesis
of unusual length inserted into his description of northern Anatolia, primarily
because of the need to clarify the identity of the Halizones, who are mentioned
in the Trojan Catalogue (Homer Iliad 2. 856–857). The Trojan Catalogue
includes two tribes from the south coast of the Black Sea: the Paphlagonians and
the Halizones. The Paphlagonians are well known (see above), but the Halizones
are a peculiar and not particularly easy case. Essentially, they are attested only
by Homer: all the other writers who mention them are clearly referring to the
people named by Homer and attempting to place them geographically, albeit
with considerable differences of opinion, since Homer himself is of no help in
the matter.
We thus have various versions of where the Halizones lived: in Bithynia
(Arrian, in Eustathius Commentary on Homer’s Iliad 1. 572), on the coast
between Mysia, Caria and Lydia (Ephorus FGrH 2a 70 F 114) or even above
the Borysthenes (Hellanicus, Herodotus and Eudoxus, in FGrH 1a 4 F 186;
Strabo 12. 3. 21).
But the most likely seems to be the opinion of Strabo, who identified the
Halizones with the Chalybes (12. 3. 19–25, cf. also 14. 5. 24). Feeling the need
to respond to the views of a number of writers such as Apollodorus and Deme-
trius of Scepsis, who argued that the Halizones could not have lived east of the

30
  Worth reading is the vivid description of the mines landscape by Hamilton, who visited
northern Anatolia in 1835 (Hamilton 2010, 156–60). For the Chalybes, see also Maksimova 1956,
26–31.
158 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

Halys and that they could not have had any connection with the Chalybes respec-
tively, Strabo gives an analytical argument for placing the Halizones beyond the
Halys and identifying them with the Chalybes. He does not think that the aural
similarity between the country called ‘Alybe where the Halizones lived’, accord-
ing to the Trojan Catalogue (Homer Iliad 2. 856–857), and the people called
Chalybes is accidental, and argues that either the phrase τηλόθεν ἐξ Ἀλύβης
(Homer Iliad 2. 857) was a misreading of the original τηλόθεν ἐξ Χαλύβης, or
that in Homer’s time the Chalybes were called Alybes, offering several examples
of names that had undergone alteration. For Strabo, the fact that the Chalybes
were known for their mines (iron mines, and in his view probably silver mines
as well) accords perfectly with Homer’s statement that Alybe was the ‘native
place of silver’ (Homer Iliad 2. 857).31
Situating the Halizones in Chalybe, where the Chalybes lived, also fits with
the opinion of Ephorus and Epaphroditus (known from Aelius Herodianus De
prosodia catholica 3. 1. 27–28 and Stephanus of Byzantium 74 s.v. Ἁλιζῶνες)
that the Halizones owed their name to their arrogant pretensions (from Ἀλα-
ζόνες, with a vowel shift from α to ι), because their land was very wealthy: as
we saw, the Chalybes had indeed always been known for the richness of their
region in metals.
The Chalybes are also mentioned by Hyginus (Fabulae 14. 25), Curtius
Rufus (Alexander 6. 4. 17), Aelius Herodianus (De prosodia catholica 3. 1. 139),
Michael Critobulus (History 1. 14. 3), the scholiast of Aeschylus Septem contra
Thebas (728–729), the Orphica Argonautica (741), the scholiast on Apollon-
ius Argonautica (318), Epiphanius (Ancoratus 113. 2–5), Hippolytus (Chroni­
con 80. 5), the Chronicon Paschale (47), Georgius Syncellus (Ecloga chrono­
graphica 54) and many other scholiasts. Ephorus (Strabo 14. 5. 23; Stephanus of
Byzantium s.v. Τιβαρανία) and Eudoxus (Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Χάλυβες)
also named them.

Tibarenians (Τιβαρηνοί)

The Tibarenians lived directly to the west of the Chalybes, judging by the pro-
gress of Xenophon’s troops (Xenophon Anabasis 5. 5), but directly to their east
if we believe Ps.-Scylax (Periplus 87–88) and almost all the other sources;32

31
  For all the views and more argumentation, see now in detail Manoledakis 2013, with the
whole bibliography.
32
  See at the end, in the relevant diagram. For their borders with the Chalybes, see also ­Hamilton
2010, 154.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST159

only Strabo is vague as to their place in the sequence (12. 1. 3, 12. 3. 1,

12. 3. 18, 12. 3. 28–29). According to Hecataeus, their neighbours to the east
were the Mossynoecians (FGrH 1a 1 F 204). Their country, in which stood the
Sinopean colony of Cotyora, was flatter and less rugged than the lands to the
east (Xenophon Anabasis 5. 5. 2–3), providing pasture for many flocks and
herds (Apollonius Argonautica 2. 377–378. Cf. Ps.-Scymnus 914–916; Dionysius
Periegetes Orbus descriptio 767; Anonymous Periplus 33; Eustathius Commen­
tary on Dionysius Periegetes 767). From the description given by Apollonius
(Argonautica 2. 1009–1010) it seems that they were separated from the Cha-
lybes by the headland of Genetaean Zeus. It was their curious custom that ‘when
wives bring forth children to their husbands, the men lie in bed and groan with
their heads close bound; but the women tend them with food, and prepare child-
birth baths for them’ (Apollonius Argonautica 2. 1011–1014; Plutarch Alexan­
der 10. 12; the scholiast on Apollonius Argonautica 202; Zenobius Epitome
collectionum Lucilli Tarrhaei et Didymi 5. 25. 18–19; Nymphodorus, according
to the scholiast on Apollonius Argonautica 15). Ephorus said of the Tibarenians
(or Tibaranians, cf. Aelius Herodianus De orthographia 3. 2. 483; Περί παρω-
νύμων 3. 2. 878) that they attached great importance to games and laughter,
considering these elements of wellbeing (Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Τιβαρα-
νία). It seems that the Tibarenians were not one of the savage and warlike tribes
typical of the region, since it is related of them that, most unusually, they were
extremely just and fair and did not engage in hostilities without first announcing
the date, the place and the hour fixed for the battle (the scholiast on Apollonius
Argonautica 15). Later sources (Eusebius Praeparatio Evangelica 1. 4. 7; Porphyry
De abstinentia 4. 21; Theodoretus Graecarum affectionum curatio 9. 36. 1–3),
however, presumably copying from one another, strike a different note with their
assertion – for which there is no evidence in any ancient text – that the Tibare-
nians threw their very old men over cliffs while they were still alive.
It is worth noting that Strabo (2. 5. 31) speaks of ‘Tibararian tribes’, as does
the Orphica Argonautica (741), a description that suggests an ethnic group rather
than a separate nation, and to the land of ‘Tibarania’ (Strabo 7. 4. 3). Elsewhere,
he calls them Tibaranians (Τιβαρανοί) and specifies that they occupy a coastal
region (12. 1. 3). He further adds that they were governed by various poten-
tates, who at one time were friends of the Armenians (12. 3. 28), while in his
day their ruler was Pythodoris, the wife of Archelaus, the last king of Cappa-
docia (12. 3. 29). The Tibarenians or their country are also mentioned by Hero-
dotus (3. 94, 7. 7833), Diodorus (14. 30. 7), Pomponius Mela (1. 106), the scho-
liast on Apollonius Argonautica (124), Plutarch (Lucullus 14. 3, 14. 8, 19. 1),

  See above.
33
160 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

Valerius Flaccus (Argonautica 5. 147), Epiphanius (Ancoratus 113. 5) and Eus-

tathius (Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes 663, 762).
They are often identified with Tabal/Tubal/Thobeles, a Neo-Hittite kingdom
of south-central Anatolia which appeared during the early Iron Age, although
the association cannot be proven. They may also have been of Scythian or Thra-
cian origin, given that some sources (for example the scholiast on Apollonius
Argonautica 159, 201) thought they were clearly a Scythian people.34

Mossynoecians (Μοσσύνοικοι)

Next to the Tibarenians, according to most sources, lived the Mossynoecians,

on the part of the coast west of the Drilae (see next section), although accord-
ing to Xenophon they were separated from them by the Chalybes. Hecataeus
says that Choirades35 were established in the country of the Mossynoecians
(Aelius Herodianus De prosodia catholica 3. 1. 58, cf. also 3. 1. 151, 177, 298,
397; Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Χοιράδες = FGrH 1a 1 F 204), as does Ps.-
Scylax (Periplus 86). Xenophon (Anabasis 5. 4. 1–34) mentions them, since
they were the next tribe that his army encountered after the Drilae. The Mossy-
noecians were yet another warlike Asian people, and Xenophon not only cleverly
avoided battle with some of them but indeed gained their aid by promising his
assistance against their enemies. These enemies were other groups of Mossyn-
oecians, who were fighting among themselves for control of their most impor-
tant urban centre, the city they called their metropolis, which occupied the high-
est ground in their territory. This suggests that the various tribes in the region
were not only hostile towards the Greeks but were also in conflict with one
another.
The Mossynoecians lived in groups, in villages at no great distance from one
another, on the forested slopes of the mountains. Their name derives from their
characteristic wooden towers (mossynes), which, like their houses, were built of
logs (Apollonius Argonautica 2. 379–381, 1016–1017; Ps.-Scymnus 900–903;
Anonymous Periplus 35; Hesychaeus Lexicon s.v. Μόσσυνες, μοσσυνικά; the
scholiast on Apollonius Argonautica 124, 159).36
Xenophon seems to have been impressed by their arms, for he describes
them in detail: they wore short tunics and leather helmets with horsehair crests,

34
  See also RE 6.A1, 764 s.v. Tibarenoi (A. Herrmann). Barnett (2006, 420) connects the
Tibarenians with the Mushki.
35
  For the latest on Choirades, see Manoledakis 2010.
36
 For the 19th-century parallels of these wooden houses in the same region, see Hamilton 2010,
181.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST161

like the Persian tiara, and carried leather shields made from white oxhide, iron
battle-axes, and lances with spearheads and a wooden ball on the butt end.
Equally impressive were their ferociousness and self-sacrifice on the battle-
field: they decapitated the Greeks (fighting as allies of other Mossynoecians)
they slew in battle and displayed the heads to their enemies in a dance, while
their officers remained within the wooden walls of their citadel after the Greeks
had taken the city, preferring to set it ablaze rather than abandon it.
The Greeks were even more astonished at the customs of the Mossynoecians,
whose morals appeared to them rather lax. They did in public, it was reported
of them, what others do in private and when alone what others do in company
(Xenophon Anabasis 5. 4; Apollonius Argonautica 2. 1019–1022;37 Ps.-
Scymnus 903–904; Anonymous Periplus 35). They brazenly approached the
hetaerae of the Greeks, seeking congress with them, talked alone and laughed
to themselves, and danced wherever they happened to be (Xenophon Anaba­
sis 5. 4). Apollonius goes into greater detail about how the laws and customs
of the Mossynoecians differed from those of other people, reporting that they
had no respect for marriage but, like swine that feed in herds, wholly una-
bashed by the presence of others, lay with women on the ground (Argonau­
tica 2. 1018–1025; Diodorus 14. 30. 7). Elsewhere he calls them ‘arrogant’
(Argonautica 2. 1117).
Xenophon made some anthropological observations about the Mossynoe-
cians: both men and women, he says, had very fair skin, while the children of
the rich were fat and soft and wore many rings in their ears and all over their
faces (cf. Diodorus 14. 30. 7, who speaks of colourful tattoos covering their
bodies). They kept slabs of salted dolphin meat preserved in jars and used dol-
phin blubber as the Greeks used olive oil. Their bread was baked of flour mixed
with nuts (Xenophon Anabasis 5. 4).38 Their king lived in the loftiest tower
and dispensed justice to the multitude, and it was their curious custom that, if
he was deemed to have made an error of judgement, they shut him up in his
tower without food for a full day (Apollonius Argonautica 2. 1026–1029;
Diodorus 14. 30. 7; Ps.-Scymnus 904–910; Anonymous Periplus 35; Pompo-
nius Mela 1. 106).
Strabo, interestingly, notes (12. 3. 18) that in his day the Mossynoecians, so
named as we have seen for their wooden towers, were called Heptacomitae.
They were still as savage as ever, however, for they attacked travellers and

37
  It is curious that both Xenophon (400 BC) and Apollonius (3rd century BC) used exactly
the same words to describe this phenomenon. It seems thus likely that Apollonius derived his
information from Xenophon.
38
  For Xenophon’s narration about the Mossynoecians, see also Lendle 1995, 324–31.
162 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

indeed massacred a whole company of Pompey’s soldiers. They lived by hunting

and also ate wild fruit.
The Mossynoecians are also mentioned by Herodotus (3. 94, 7. 78), Curtius
Rufus (Alexander 6. 4. 17), Valerius Flaccus (Argonautica 5. 151), Stephanus of
Byzantium (s.v. Μοσσύνοικοι), Epiphanius (Ancoratus 113. 2–5), Hippolytus
(Chronicon 80. 5), and in the Chronicon Paschale (47. 20). Eudoxus (Stephanus
of Byzantium s.v. Μοσσύνοικοι), and Ctesias (the scholiast on Apollonius
Argonautica 2. 1015) also named them.39

Drilae (Δρίλαι)

Virtually the only information we have about the Drilae comes to us from
Xenophon (Anabasis 5. 2. 1–27). They lived at the east end of the southern
coast of the Black Sea, next to the Colchians.40 They were ill disposed towards
the Trapezuntines, and are described as the most warlike of all the tribes living
on that coast (Anabasis 5. 2. 2). Their central stronghold in the sheer mountains
of Colchis was apparently well fortified:41 Xenophon mentions wooden towers
and a citadel, with additional lines of defence in the deep, dangerous ravines.
Xenophon’s soldiers did, nonetheless, succeed in capturing it, although not
without difficulty. Arrian (Periplus 11), who spells their name with two lamb-
das, says that Xenophon’s Drilae were actually the Sannoi, a tribe that Strabo
(12. 3. 18) identifies with the Macrones.
Stephanus of Byzantium (s.v. Δρίλαι) calls Drilae a district of Pontica. Arri-
an’s reference to the tribe in the Periplus indicates that they lived on the coast,
although this cannot be deduced from Xenophon’s account. None of the many
theories that have been formulated42 can be proven.

Other Tribes

In the Argonautica (2. 393–396, 1242–1244), Apollonius lists a number of

tribes as living between the Mossynoecians and the Colchians: in order from
west to east the Philyres, the Macrones, who in Strabo’s day (12. 3. 18) were

39
 For the Mossynoecians, see also Maksimova 1956, 130–44; and, more recently, Lipka
1995, 69–70.
40
  Who are not examined here, as they basically belong to the eastern side of the Black Sea.
For the Colchians, see, for example, Maksimova 1956, 122–25.
41
  A proposal about its place is given by Lipka 1995, 68; and Lendle 1995, 298–99, with
bibliography.
42
  For example Maksimova 1956, 125; Lipka 1995, 67–68.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST163

called Sannoi,43 the vast tribes of the Becheiroi, the arrogant Sapeires and the
Byzeres (cf. Strabo 12. 3. 18; Valerius Flaccus Argonautica 1. 152). Strabo (12.
3. 18) adds the Appaites, who were earlier called Cercites,44 while Hecataeus
(FGrH 1a 1 F 205) and Herodotus (3. 94, 7. 79) also cite the Mares (see also
Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Μᾶρες). Ps.-Scylax (Periplus 82–84) mentions
some of these tribes in the same relative order (but from east to west); he calls
the Byzeres Bouseres (Hecataeus calls them Dizeres: FGrH 1a 1 F 207), while
between them and the Becheiroi he places the Ekecheirieis (a tribe that accord-
ing to the anonymous author of the Periplus (42) lived on the east coast of the
Black Sea), and puts the Macrocephaloi in the place of the Macrones. The same
order is followed by Pomponius Mela (1. 107) and Pliny (NH 6. 4–11).

Macrones (Μάκρωνες)

The Macrones also lived at the east end of the south coast. Upon arriving in
their country Xenophon found a dense forest with such thick undergrowth that
he could not pass through it. At the other end of this forest were the Macrones,
who took the Ten Thousand for an invading army and drew up their battle
lines. With the help of a soldier who knew their language, Xenophon explained
that he merely wished to pass through their country. The Macrones accepted
this, and not only helped the Greeks clear a passage for their baggage animals
but also supplied them with food, helped them make their way easily through
the country, and opened their markets to them (Anabasis 4. 7–8, 5. 5; cf. also
7. 8. 25; also Diodorus 14. 29. 4–5). While there is nothing in Xenophon’s
account to indicate that the Macrones were a coastal people, it is clear from the
remaining sources (see next section) that they were.45
The scholiast on Xenophon Anabasis 4. 8. 5 calls the Macrones a maritime
people. Strabo (12. 3. 18) identifies them with the Sannoi46 and the anonymous
author of the Periplus (37) with the Macrocephaloi (cf. Pomponius Mela 1. 107);
this appears to accord with the reference to the Macrocephaloi instead of
the Macrones in Ps.-Scylax (85). Pliny (ΝΗ 6. 11), however, mentions both
Macrocephaloi and Machorones, who are probably the same as the Macrones.
Aelius Herodianus (De prosodia catholica 3. 1. 34) observes with regard to

43
  Those who, as we saw, are confused by Arrian (Periplus 11) with the Drilae. The Sannoi
are mentioned also by Pliny (ΝΗ 6. 12). Cf. Bryer and Winfield 1985, 300.
44
  He is the only one who mentions them. The Indian nation Kerkitae are obviously not the
same (Pausanias Attica nam. s.v. Κερκῖται; Photius Lex s.v. Κερκῖται).
45
  Cf. Lipka 1995, 66. For Xenophon’s narration, see also Lendle 1995, 273–84.
46
  See more in Bryer and Winfield 1985, 300.
164 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

Strabo’s identification that these Sannoi were the Macrones who lived in Euboea,
which was also called Macris (cf. Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Μάκρις and
Μάκρωνες).
The Macrones are also mentioned by Herodotus (2. 104, 7. 7847), Apollonius
(Argonautica 2. 394), Ps.-Scymnus (938), Dionysius Periegetes (Orbus descrip­
tio 766), Valerius Flaccus (Argonautica 5. 151), Aelius Herodianus (De proso­
dia catholica 3. 1. 181), Flavius Josephus (Against Apion 1. 170), Epiphanius
(Ancoratus 113. 3) and Eustathius (Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes 762. 4,
765. 1, 772. 51). Hecataeus (FGrH 1a 1 F 206), Philostephanus and Herodorus
(the scholiast on Apollonius Argonautica 90, 161. 7, 202. 8, 211. 7, 1. 1024)
also named them.
One further point of interest concerning the Macrocephaloi is recorded by
Hippocrates (De aere 14), who says that it was the custom of these people to
bind and compress the heads of their new-born infants, while they were still soft
and pliable, to make them longer, whence their name.

Little is known of the remaining tribes living in this far eastern part of the coast,
near the Colchians. It is, however, significant that the Becheiroi (Βέχειροι/
Βέχειρες) are reported to comprise ‘vast tribes’ (Apollonius Argonautica 2. 394,
1242; Orphica Argonautica 744; Dionysius Periegetes Orbus descriptio. 765;
Pomponius Mela 1. 107; Pliny NH 6. 11) occupying a large country known as
Becheirike (Hecataeus FGrH 1a 1 F 207). These were very likely Caucasian
peoples, as their name indicates,48 among whom were the Baccheirians, who
(Zenobius Epitome collectionum Lucilli Tarrhaei et Didymi 5. 25. 26–27) ‘threw
to the dogs anyone who was gravely ill’.
Herodotus speaks of the absorption of these eastern south coast tribes into
the Persian empire, and specifically the 19th Satrapy, saying (3. 94) that ‘To
the Moschoi (a tribe living in the region of Caucasus, close to the Colchians)
and Tibarenians and Macrones and Mossynoecians and Mares three hundred
talents were ordered: this is the nineteenth division’. He also says (7. 78–79)
that
The Moschoi[49] had wooden caps upon their heads, and shields and small spears,
on which long points were set. The Tibarenians and Macrones and Mossynoecians
served with equipment like that of the Moschoi, and these were arrayed together
under the following commanders: the Moschoi and Tibarenians under Ariomardos,

47
  See also above.
48
  RE 3.1, 181 s.v. Becheires (W. Tomaschek).
49
  Who have been connected by some scholars (for example Allen 1910, 316; Barnett 2006,
420) with the Mushki and thus with the Phrygians, something that can not be easily proved. For
the issues, see Börker-Klähn 1997.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST165

who was the son of Dareios and of Parmys, the daughter of Smerdis son of Cyrus;
the Macrones and Mossynoecians under Artaÿctes the son of Cherasmis, who was
governor of Sestos on the Hellespont. The Mares wore on their heads native hel-
mets of plaited work, and had small shields of hide and javelins.
That some of these tribes later became independent (at least by 400 BC) is clear
from Xenophon’s account (Anabasis 7. 8. 25): ‘Then some independent tribes
– the Carduchians or Kurds, and Chalybes, and Chaldaeans, and Macrones, and
Colchians, and Mossynoecians, and Coetians, and Tibarenians.’

Choi (Χοι)

A people called Choi are mentioned by Hecataeus (Stephanus of Byzantium s.v.

Χοί = FGrH 1a 1 F 207; cf. Aelius Herodianus De prosodia catholica 3. 1. 401)
as living in the same region, near the Becheiroi, with the Dizeres as their neigh-
bours to the east; Stephanus of Byzantium (s.v. Χοί) describes them as a
Becheirian people.
The Choi are otherwise unknown in the ancient sources, at least by that name.
Tomaschek50 identifies them with the Taochoi (Xenophon Anabasis 4. 4. 18,
4. 6. 5, 4. 7. 1, 4. 7. 17, 5. 5. 17; Ps.-Zonaras Lexicon s.v. Τάοχοι), whom
according to Sophaenetus some called Taoi, while Jacoby51 thinks the name
should be corrected to Choitoi and cites the Koitoi mentioned by Xenophon
(Anabasis 7. 8. 25). However, both Aelius Herodianus (De prosodia catho­
lica. 3. 1. 226) and Stephanus of Byzantium (s.v. Τάοχοι) make separate refer-
ence to the Taoi/Taochoi and the Choi, although this may not mean much,
since they could have been using two different sources from different periods,
in any case far removed from their own time. Whoever they were, the Taochoi
are described as living in the Pontic interior, not on the coast.

General Observations

Obviously, the information we have about the tribes living on the south coast of
the Black Sea before, during and in some cases after the Greek colonial period
is far too sparse to enable a clear and authoritative picture of them to be drawn.
And it is, moreover, purely literary: archaeologically, these peoples remain
totally unknown.

  RE 3.1, 181 (s.v. Βέχειρες); 3.2, 2356 (s.v. Χοι); 5.1, 1248 (s.v. Δίζηρες).
50

  Jacoby 1957, 358.

51
166 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

Thus, unlike other peoples of the Black Sea region, for example the Thracians
or the Scythians, even basic questions concerning them remain unanswered; in
some cases we do not even known where they came from. At the time of Hecat-
aeus, according to Stephanus of Byzantium (FGrH 1a 1 F 198, 200–207), the
whole south coast of the Black Sea was part of Asia and thus most of these tribes
were generally described as of Asian origin, whatever that may mean. Nor do we
know when they appeared on this coast or how long they remained there – refer-
ences to them by writers of the Roman period do not necessarily mean that these
tribes still existed.
What tribal connections linked them, and what was their relation to the great
peoples that ruled Anatolia, for example the Phrygians or the Persians? On the
whole, the other shores of the Black Sea were, as we have seen, inhabited by
specific large tribal groups. By contrast, the coastal area alone of the south side
seems to have been fragmented into the countries of at least ten tribes. Could
they have co-existed, and co-existed with the nations of the interior, without
some connection between them, however minimal? If somewhat more can be
deduced as regards the relations of certain of these tribes with the Greeks, it is
mainly thanks to the personal eyewitness accounts left by Xenophon and Strabo,
whose accounts, however, deal with the Greeks of the classical period and not
the first Greeks to have reached the area.
As regards their geographical location, we observe from the references in
the sources that the names of several of these peoples changed with the passing
of time, while others disappeared, all mention of them ceasing after a certain
point. A map showing them all cannot, therefore, refer to a specific period of
Antiquity. And even were such a map to be drawn, we must remember that the
districts inhabited by the different tribes were not always the same. Sometimes
Xenophon, Strabo and the periploi of the Roman period each give different
boundaries for the same tribes:52 for example, in some sources (for example
Menander Perikeiromene 8) Paphlagonia has Bithynia on its western border,
at the crossing of the River Billaios, while others name the Parthenius as the
boundary between them (for example Arrian Periplus 13–14). To the east it is
separated from Cappadocia by the River Euarchus, east of Sinope (for example
Menander Perikeiromene 9), while in other accounts the River Halys forms the
border (for example Strabo 12. 3. 9).53 Particularly striking is the fact that
important cities and rivers, like Sinope and the Halys, are placed by different

52
  For the difficulty in locating the territories of the several southern Black Sea tribes accu-
rately, see also Counillon 2004, 97–134.
53
 For the different borders of Paphlagonia in different periods, see also NP 10, 477 s.v.
Paphlagonia (C. Marek). Cf. Lendle 1995, 335.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST167

writers in the territory of different peoples, for example, in one case in the coun-
try of the Paphlagonians and in another in the land of the Leucosyrians (see the
respective sections).
The general lack of agreement in the matter is reflected in the vagueness as
regards the precise position of various tribes in relation to their neighbours. For
example, while most sources place the Mossynoecians directly to the east of
the Tibarenians (see the diagram at the end), Xenophon appears to place the
Chalybes between them. The one group of sources includes almost all the geo-
graphical texts (whose authors did, of course, copy from one another), many of
which give relative distances, making it difficult for errors of sequence to creep;
on the other hand, Xenophon actually travelled through those lands. It is true that
he wrote the Anabasis many years later, during his exile at Scillus, in Elis, but
he must surely have made use of notes kept at the time of the events in question.
And yet his evidence seems to pale against the multitude of geographical texts,
unless this is a case of tribes relocating over the centuries, or simply of inaccu-
rate information as regards which tribes or countries the cities mentioned in the
periploi belonged to, in an age when those tribes may no longer have been any-
thing more than a distant memory.54
In addition, the regions that are called after peoples, for example Paphlago-
nia, were not inhabited solely by the peoples associated with them, i.e. in this
case the Paphlagonians, but by others as well, which did not have homonymous
territories. It is clear from Strabo’s account (Book 12) that in the Roman age in
particular the regions were few in number (Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Pontus,
etc.), broad in extent, well-defined politically and administratively, and inhab-
ited by more than one tribe. There were also, however, tribes that – as far as we
can tell from the sources and at least at certain periods – corresponded precisely
to a specific region, one such example being the Mariandynians.55 Then again,
the names of peoples and regions are often confused even within the same text
or list (see Hecataeus or Ps.-Scylax on the diagram). Tribal names are com-
monly used, especially in later texts, to define geographical regions for the
purpose of specifying the location of Greek cities or colonies on the south coast
of the Black Sea, as when we read, for example, about ‘Stephane, a city of the
Mariandynians’ (Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Στεφανίς), or ‘Choirades, a city
of the Mossynoecians’ (Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Χοιράδες), or ‘Amisos,
a city of the Leucosyrians’ (Strabo 12. 3. 25), etc. Such references do not, of
course, mean that the cities in question belonged to those local tribes in the

54
  For this issue and the possibility that Xenophon made a mistake here, see also Sinclair
1989, 164.
55
  Cf. Counillon 2004, 131.
168 MANOLIS MANOLEDAKIS

sense that they were inhabited solely by members of a particular tribe (their
population may or may not have included a local tribal element), but simply that
they were built in the geographical region inhabited by those tribes.56

*
*  *

Listed below are all the tribes of the southern coast of the Black Sea, in the geo-
graphical order in which they are found, or seem to be found, in the different
sources from Hecataeus (6th century BC) to the anonymous author of the Periplus
(6th century AD), from the Bithynians in the west to the Colchians in the east:

Diagram:
Hecataeus (FGrH 1a 1 F 198–207): Mariandynians, Leucosyrians, Chalybes,
Tibarenians, Mossynoecians, Mares, Macrones, Becheirike, Choi, Dizeres.
Xenophon (Anabasis 4. 7. 1–6. 2. 17): Mariandynians, Paphlagonians, Tibarenians,
Chalybes, Mossynoecians, Drilae, Colchians, Macrones, Taochoi (both of them
mentioned to the east of the Colchians).
Ps.-Scylax (Periplus 82–92): Mariandynians, nation Paphlagonia, Assyria, Chalybes,
Tibarenians, Mossynoecians, Macrocephaloi, Becheiroi, Ekecheirieis, Bouseres.
Apollonius (Argonautica 2. 347–97, 720–1250): Mariandynians, Paphlagonians,
Assyria, Chalybes, Tibarenians, Mossynoecians, Philyres, Macrones, Becheiroi,
Sapeires, Byzeres.
Ps.-Scymnus (Periplus 938–1016): Mariandynians, Paphlagonians [Chalybes,
Cappadocians in the hinterland], (Leuco)syrians, Tibarenians, Mossynoecians,
Macrones.
Strabo (Geography 12. 3. 2–28): Mariandynians, Caucones, Paphlagonians (Enetoi),
Cappadocians / Leucosyrians / Syrians, Tibaranians, Chaldaeans / Chalybes / Hali-
zones, Sannoi (former Macrones), Appaites (former Cercites), Heptacomitae (former
Mossynoecians).
Pomponius Mela (De chorographia 1. 103–108): Mariandynians, Chalybes,
Tabereni, Mossyni, Macrocephali, Bechiri, Buxeri.
Pliny (NH 6. 4–11): Mariandynians, gens Paphlagonia, gens Cappadocum, Cha-
lybes, Tibareni, Mossyni, Macrocephali, Bechires, Buxeri, Machorones.
Dionysius Periegetes (Orbis terrae descriptio 752–793): Mariandynians, Paphlago­
nians, Assyrians, Chalybes, Tibarenians, Philyres, Macrones, Becheiroi, Byzeres,
Colchians, Taochoi (mentioned to the east of the Colchians).
Anonymous (Periplus 13–38): Paphlagonia, Cappadocia (Leucosyrians), Mossy-
noecians, Macrones/Macrocephaloi.

56
  For the question of this apparent contradiction, where some cities are presented in this way
whereas in other sources they are clearly Greek, see Manoledakis 2010, 137–40.
 THE LOCAL PEOPLES OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST169

Fig. 1.  Map of the southern Black Sea coast and hinterland showing rivers and
local peoples (author’s map).

Although it is difficult, as we have said, to map precisely all the local tribes that
lived on the southern coast of the Black Sea in Antiquity, we may, with the help
of the above list, locate them generally within that region, as shown on the map
in Fig. 1.

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